Jim’s Tech Talk
By Jim Langley
Today I’d like to introduce you to Leo Jed, who served on the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission’s Bike Committee with me for years and years. Leo is a longtime cycling instructor completely versed in safe cycling and biking advocacy. He is also an accomplished touring cyclist having ridden in many far flung locations around the world.
It was great learning from Leo at the committee meetings but we’ve lost touch since when I left the committee a few years back. So it was nice to hear from him again via email. It turns out that he read last week’s article about John Forester’s instant turn.
An instant turn, also called a quick turn or emergency turn, is a cycling maneuver worth learning because it can be used to help avoid two of the most common crashes caused by inattentive or aggressive drivers, the right and left cross. For more information on these and the instant turn, please backpedal to last week’s Tech Talk here: John Forester’s Instant Turn Maneuver.
Leo wrote:
“Hi Jim,
Thank you for advising your readers about the quick or instant turn.
As some noted in the comments this skill continues to be taught in the League of American Bicyclists Smart Cycling and other bicycling safety curricula.
I’ve been teaching this exercise for twenty years and continue to practice it regularly (when I think about it).
As stated, it does have to become second nature to effectively avoid a right hook or even left cross. However, proper lane positioning can most of the times mitigate even needing this maneuver.
Still, it has saved me several times, even when being in a lane control position in the rightmost lane and some yahoo turns right from the adjacent lane on my left.
Anyway, it’s easy to teach, even on pavement, requiring less than fifteen minutes of instruction and practice for a student to be able to successfully execute. And, the quick turn must become automatic through lots of practice, when not needed. There are YouTube videos on both doing and teaching the quick turn.”
Proper lane positioning
When Leo mentions proper lane positioning he is referring to moving left out of the bike lane or shoulder and taking the road lane before you get to the intersection. This has to be done carefully!
First, make sure there are no cars coming up behind you, then signal with your left arm and then move into the center of the road lane. This should alert drivers to the fact that you are not turning right but continuing straight. It should also greatly reduce the chance that they will try to pass you. And it also allows right turning drivers to move right beside you to make the right turn (if the road is wide enough).
Thanks Leo!
I hadn’t thought to look for a video demonstrating the teaching of instant turns. It took a while to find one. It’s from the San Diego Bicycle Coalition. It’s nothing fancy but it’s enough to understand the maneuver better and learn how to practice it. If you’ve found a more helpful video, please share a link in a comment.
Jim Langley is RBR’s Technical Editor. A pro mechanic & cycling writer for more than 40 years, he’s the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop in the RBR eBookstore. Tune in to Jim’s popular YouTube channel for wheel building & bike repair how-to’s. Jim’s also known for his cycling streak that ended in February 2022 with a total of 10,269 consecutive daily rides (28 years, 1 month and 11 days of never missing a ride). Click to read Jim’s full bio.
I remember watching a YouTube video a few years ago that showed that all turns on a bicycle are initiated by a small movement in the opposite direction to the turn. It showed that you could not actually turn on a bicycle unless you did this. While I think it is beneficial to talk about it, in reality you are just practicing making hard turns. You probably should be practicing making turns faster and faster and this technique becomes more and more apparent the sharper/faster you turn. I think that maybe it is somewhat misleading to address this as something different than a typical turn technique taken to an extreme, or maybe just done more aggressively.
Another tip is to look where you want your turn to end up from beginning to end. your handlebar will turn where your eyes are. so, don’t stared & lock up your eyeballs at a stationary object.
Agree that it’s an aggressive normal turn. I had to use it once when a driver ran a red light coming from my right. I executed the turn hard to the right laying my bike down. She ran over my front wheel (destroying it), but the result could have been much worse.
Obstacle and Cash Avoidance is one of many skills we teach in Tulsa’s youth cycling program know as BIKE CLUB. A number of videos are available including one on the quick turn. Check it out here: https://vimeo.com/459213176. Hey, if we can do this with 5th graders, you can master it too.
For more videos and BIKE CLUB’s full curriculum, go to https://bikeclubtulsa.com/volunteer-hub/.
That technique is called counter steering and is prevalently taught in motorcycle circles. It act so fast, that the idea of practice is very important. Bicycles do this as normal, it’s just so slight it is not noticed.