SirMike1983
Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
It can be hard to separate tips for "riding" from tips for "maintenance". The two go hand-in-hand; if you're going to ride, you need to do basic maintenance. But let's set aside maintenance for a moment, and focus on just the art of riding.
The first item - always leave enough room to properly stop. Traditional braking systems on old bikes range from decent to bad. Know what your braking system is, and understand its limitations. Leave enough room to stop, understanding that your brakes may require a bit more room to fully stop. Also, understand what it takes to "emergency stop" the bike. Riding does not generally kill - it's the sudden and unintended stop of falling or hitting something that does. Don't tailgate a car at 15-20 mph if you're just going to slam into it because you have old brakes.
Always bring proper lights with you. Understand that vintage lights are poor compared to modern LED and halogen lights. If you're riding at night, make sure you have a modern "helper" light with you to see properly. Also make sure that cars can easily see your lights and reflectors.
If possible, ride with a bell or horn mounted on the bike. Yelling works fine too, but the yelling and the bell together will tell people immediately that a bicycle is nearby. The bell is sort of the universal sound of "bicycle" to many people driving cars.
Do a "weight shift" when hitting bumps. Practice very smoothly and quickly shifting your weight to each wheel of the bike. When you get good at this, you can shift your weight when hitting a bump such that at each moment each wheel hits the bump, the majority of your weight is on the wheel that is on smooth ground. This saves wheel truing effort and time later on.
The basic rules of riding a modern bike on the road also apply, and you should know all of those.
The first item - always leave enough room to properly stop. Traditional braking systems on old bikes range from decent to bad. Know what your braking system is, and understand its limitations. Leave enough room to stop, understanding that your brakes may require a bit more room to fully stop. Also, understand what it takes to "emergency stop" the bike. Riding does not generally kill - it's the sudden and unintended stop of falling or hitting something that does. Don't tailgate a car at 15-20 mph if you're just going to slam into it because you have old brakes.
Always bring proper lights with you. Understand that vintage lights are poor compared to modern LED and halogen lights. If you're riding at night, make sure you have a modern "helper" light with you to see properly. Also make sure that cars can easily see your lights and reflectors.
If possible, ride with a bell or horn mounted on the bike. Yelling works fine too, but the yelling and the bell together will tell people immediately that a bicycle is nearby. The bell is sort of the universal sound of "bicycle" to many people driving cars.
Do a "weight shift" when hitting bumps. Practice very smoothly and quickly shifting your weight to each wheel of the bike. When you get good at this, you can shift your weight when hitting a bump such that at each moment each wheel hits the bump, the majority of your weight is on the wheel that is on smooth ground. This saves wheel truing effort and time later on.
The basic rules of riding a modern bike on the road also apply, and you should know all of those.
