Several CyclingSavvy course opportunities will be available this spring in Central Illinois.  The courses will be given by Gary Cziko  (CSI, PhD) and Carl Stewart  (CSI).

Discover the joy of human-powered travel.

Experience cycling empowerment to act as a confident, equal road user. You will learn strategies for safe, stress-free integrated cycling and come away with the tools to read and problem-solve any new traffic situation or road configuration.

Part 1: Truth & Techniques of Traffic Cycling

There will be three separate offerings of this part of the course on April 16 in Champaign (free), April 21 in Mahomet ($10), and May 4 in Urbana ($10). See here for details and registration information.

Learn the truth and techniques of traffic cycling. Through guided discussion with videos and animations, this classroom-based session familiarizes students with bicycle-specific laws, traffic dynamics and problem-solving strategies. Students discover that bicycle drivers are equal road users, with the right, ability and responsibility to control their space on public roadways.

Part 2: Train Your Bike

Saturday, May 5, 8:30-11:30am, location TBD, Champaign-Urbana, IL

This session is conducted in a parking lot. It consists of a set of progressive drills designed to increase students’ control and comfort handling their bikes in various situations. Drills include:

1. Starting, stopping  & balance
2. Understanding gearing
3. Slow balance drill (Snail Race)
4. Acceleration drill (drag race)
5. Straight-line riding
6. Turning: Cone weave
7. Turning: Follow the leader
8. Turning: Rock dodge
9. Turning: High-speed cornering
10. Turning: Snap turn
11. Quick stop

In three short fun hours, you will learn to command your bike with precision and confidence.

This session is available as a stand-alone class for $30.

Part 3: Tour of Urbana*

Saturday, May 5, 1-4:30pm, location TBD, Urbana, IL

*Registrants must have completed the sessions “Truth & Techniques of Traffic Cycling” and “Train Your Bike” to participate in the Tour of Urbana. They also must be able to cycle up to 8 miles at an average speed of 12 mph (with frequent stops).

This session is an experiential tour of Urbana roads. The course includes some of the most intimidating road features (including intersections, interchanges, merges and railroad crossings) a cyclist might find in his or her travels. Students travel as a group, stopping to survey and discuss each exercise location. After observing the feature, discussing the traffic dynamics and the best strategy for safe and easy passage, the students ride through individually and regroup at a nearby location. This session is designed to give you the confidence and skills to handle any situation you might encounter driving your bicycle in Champaign-Urbana and similar communities.

This session is available as a stand-alone class for $30.

To register for this course, visit here.

The first CyclingSavvy course in northern Illinois will be offered May 11 and 12, 2012 in Crystal Lake, McHenry County.

Discover the joy of human-powered travel.

Experience cycling empowerment to act as a confident, equal road user. You will learn strategies for safe, stress-free integrated cycling and come away with the tools to read and problem-solve any new traffic situation or road configuration.

Through the sponsorship of the McHenry County Bicycle Advocates (www.McBicycleAdvocates.org), Part 1 of the course will be offered free to up to 100 participants. Parts 2 and 3 will be limited to 10 participants and cost $30 each.

Part 1: Truth & Techniques of Traffic Cycling

Truth & Techniques of Traffic Cycling (classroom course)
Friday, May 11, 6-9pm, Algonquin Township Offices, 3702 U.S. Highway 14, Crystal Lake, IL 60014 (use rear basement level entrance); FREE!

Learn the truth and techniques of traffic cycling. Through guided discussion with videos and animations, this classroom-based session familiarizes students with bicycle-specific laws, traffic dynamics and problem-solving strategies. Students discover that bicycle drivers are equal road users, with the right, ability and responsibility to control their space on public roadways.

This session is free to all individuals 14 years and older.

Part 2: Train Your Bike

Train Your Bike
Saturday, May 12, 8:30-11:30am, 149 S. Virginia Road, Crystal Lake, IL

This session is conducted in a parking lot. It consists of a set of progressive drills designed to increase students’ control and comfort handling their bikes in various situations. Drills include:

1. Starting, stopping  & balance
2. Understanding gearing
3. Slow balance drill (Snail Race)
4. Acceleration drill (drag race)
5. Straight-line riding
6. Turning: Cone weave
7. Turning: Follow the leader
8. Turning: Rock dodge
9. Turning: High-speed cornering
10. Turning: Snap turn
11. Quick stop

In three short fun hours, you will learn to command your bike with precision and confidence.

This session is available as a stand-alone class for $30.

Part 3: Tour of Crystal Lake*

Tour of Crystal Lake*
Saturday, May 12, 1-4:30pm, 149 S. Virginia Road, Crystal Lake, IL
*Truth & Techniques and Train Your Bike must be completed before taking the Tour of Crystal Lake)

This session is an experiential tour of area roads. The course includes some of the most intimidating road features (including intersections, interchanges, merges and railroad crossings) a cyclist might find in his or her travels. Students travel as a group, stopping to survey and discuss each exercise location. After observing the feature, discussing the traffic dynamics and the best strategy for safe and easy passage, the students ride through individually and regroup at a nearby location. This session is designed to give you the confidence and skills to handle any situation you might encounter driving your bicycle in and around Crystal Lake and similar communities.

This session is available as a stand-alone class for $30.

To register for this course, visit here.

Illinois’ second CyclingSavvy course will be offered November 2 and 12, 2011 in Champaign-Urbana. The course will be given by Gary Cziko  (CSI, LCI, PhD) and Carl Stewart  (CSI, LCI).

Discover the joy of human-powered travel.

Experience cycling empowerment to act as a confident, equal road user. You will learn strategies for safe, stress-free integrated cycling and come away with the tools to read and problem-solve any new traffic situation or road configuration.

As part of Sustainability Week at the University of Illinois, Part 1 of the course will be offered free to up to 150 people. Parts 2 and 3 will be limited to 10 participants. The cost for Part 2 and 3 is $30 each.

Part 1: Truth & Techniques of Traffic Cycling

Wednesday, November 2, 6:30-9:30 pm
University of Illinois
ARC Auditorium (concourse level)
201 E. Peabody Drive
Champaign, IL 61820 (map)

Learn the truth and techniques of traffic cycling. Through guided discussion with videos and animations, this classroom-based session familiarizes students with bicycle-specific laws, traffic dynamics and problem-solving strategies. Students discover that bicycle drivers are equal road users, with the right, ability and responsibility to control their space on public roadways.

Sponsored by the University of Illinois and Champaign County Bikes, This session is free to all adults.

Part 2: Train Your Bike

Saturday, November 12, 8:30 to 11:30 am
Location: Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Green parking level; Entrance is on north side of Oregon between Goodwin and Gregory on the campus of the University of Illinois in Urbana. (map) It is the west entrance of the two parking entrances which goes to the lower level.

This session is conducted in a parking lot. It consists of a set of progressive drills designed to increase students’ control and comfort handling their bikes in various situations. Drills include:

1. Starting, stopping  & balance
2. Understanding gearing
3. Slow balance drill (Snail Race)
4. Acceleration drill (drag race)
5. Straight-line riding
6. Turning: Cone weave
7. Turning: Follow the leader
8. Turning: Rock dodge
9. Turning: High-speed cornering
10. Turning: Snap turn
11. Quick stop

In three short fun hours, you will learn to command your bike with precision and confidence.

This session is available as a stand-alone class for $30.

Part 3: Tour of Urbana*

Saturday, November 12, 1:00 to 4:00 pm
Location: SE corner of Oregon & Goodwin (outside Expresso Royale), Urbana, IL
*Registrants must have completed the sessions “Truth & Techniques of Traffic Cycling” and “Train Your Bike” to participate in the Tour of Urbana. They also must be able to cycle up to 8 miles at an average speed of 12 mph (with frequent stops).

This session is an experiential tour of Urbana roads. The course includes some of the most intimidating road features (including intersections, interchanges, merges and railroad crossings) a cyclist might find in his or her travels. Students travel as a group, stopping to survey and discuss each exercise location. After observing the feature, discussing the traffic dynamics and the best strategy for safe and easy passage, the students ride through individually and regroup at a nearby location. This session is designed to give you the confidence and skills to handle any situation you might encounter driving your bicycle in Champaign-Urbana and similar communities.

This session is available as a stand-alone class for $30.

To register for this course, visit here.

Discover the joy of human-powered travel.

Experience empowerment to act as a confident, equal road user. You will learn strategies for safe, stress-free integrated cycling and come away with the tools to read and problem-solve any new traffic situation or road configuration.

Part 1 of the course will accomodate 20 people. Parts 2 and 3 will be limited to 10 participants. Parts 2 and 3 will be offered again later in the fall in Champaign-Urbana if there is sufficient demand. The cost for all three parts of the course is $75, whether you take all three parts in September or later.

Part 1: Truth & Techniques of Traffic Cycling

Friday, September 23, 6-9 pm
Champaign Public Library, Room 215
200 W. Green St.
Champaign, IL 61820 (map)

Learn the truth and techniques of traffic cycling. Through guided discussion with videos and animations, this classroom-based session familiarizes students with bicycle-specific laws, traffic dynamics and problem-solving strategies. Students discover that bicycle drivers are equal road users, with the right, ability and responsibility to control their space on public roadways.

This session is available as a stand-alone class for $30.

Part 2: Train Your Bike

Saturday, September 24, 8:30 to 11:30 am
Parking lot on SW corner of Walnut St. and Washington St.
Champaign, IL 61820 (map)

This session is conducted in a parking lot. It consists of a set of progressive drills designed to increase students’ control and comfort handling their bikes in various situations. Drills include:

1. Starting, stopping  & balance
2. Understanding gearing
3. Slow balance drill (Snail Race)
4. Acceleration drill (drag race)
5. Straight-line riding
6. Turning: Cone weave
7. Turning: Follow the leader
8. Turning: Rock dodge
9. Turning: High-speed cornering
10. Turning: Snap turn
11. Quick stop

In three short hours, you will learn to command your bike with precision and confidence.

Note that there are no restroom facilities at or adjacent to the site. The closest public restrooms are 1/3 mile away at the Illinois Terminal. We will have a mid-morning break that can be used for a restroom visit.

This session is available as a stand-alone class for $30.

Part 3: Tour of Urbana*

Saturday, September 24, 1 pm to 4:30 pm.
Meet at house at 506 W. Vermont, Urbana (map)
*Registrants must have completed the sessions “Truth & Techniques of Traffic Cycling” and “Train Your Bike” to participate in the Tour of Champaign. They also must be able to cycle up to 8 miles at an average speed of 12 mph (with frequent stops).

This session is an experiential tour of Urbana roads. The course includes some of the most intimidating road features (including intersections, interchanges, merges and railroad crossings) a cyclist might find in his or her travels. Students travel as a group, stopping to survey and discuss each exercise location. After observing the feature, discussing the traffic dynamics and the best strategy for safe and easy passage, the students ride through individually and regroup at a nearby location. This session is designed to give you the confidence and skills to handle any situation you might encounter driving your bicycle in Champaign-Urbana and similar communities.

This session is available as a stand-alone class for $30.

To register for this course, visit here.

At the age of 18 I set off to see the U.S. on my 1969 Peugeot PX-10 (which I still have and use!), starting in New York City and finishing eight weeks later on the Oregon Coast. The following year I cycled from London to Budapest to Amsterdam with more European adventures the following two summers and a Paris-to-Salzburg bicycling honeymoon with my wife in 1976 followed by a tour of the Canadian Maritime Provinces in 1978 on our new Jack Taylor tandem.

Settling in Champaign-Urbana (IL) in 1979 and soon with two young children, I started riding with local riders on the flat but often windy roads of central Illinois. When the kids grew up, I devoted more time to riding and spent several years doing road, mountain bike and even a bit of cyclecross racing in my 40s. A fair amount of international travel provided me with the opportunity to cycle on five continents (including South America and Asia), with Beijing being easily the most fascinating city I have ever explored by bicycle.

Retiring from the University of Illinois at the end of 2007, I wanted to use my new free time to improve conditions for cyclists in Champaign-Urbana and Champaign County. This included serving on the Urbana Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission and working with Champaign County Bikes of which I became chair in 2010. Looking for the best cycling education materials I could find, I discovered CyclingSavvy on the web and was immediately impressed.

When CyclingSavvy came to the midwest in April and June 2011, I took both the Three-Part Course and the Instructors’ Course in St. Louis. I believe that I learned more in these few months about cycling safely and comfortably in traffic than I had learned from my previous 50 or so years of cycling. And now as a CyclingSavvy Instructor, I am very keen to share what I have learned with other cyclists. I am convinced that no matter how much (or little) experience you have cycling, whether novice or veteran, CyclingSavvy will have a profoundly positive impact on your life if you intend to spend any of it pedaling on public roadways.

CyclingSavvy is still a young program with its roots in Florida and just beginning its infancy in Illinois. I am currently the only Cycling Savvy Instructor (CSI) in Illinois and plans to offer courses have still to be made. Because two instructors are needed for the Train Your Bike and Street Tour parts of the course, the 3-hour classroom Truth and Techniques of Traffic Cycling will be the first CyclingSavvy instruction to be offered in Illinois. Stay tuned to the Illinois CyclingSavvy blog and our Facebook page for information on upcoming courses.

From left: Kris Schell, Keri Caffrey (CS founder), Andy Cline, Mighk Wilson (CS founder), Matthew Brown, Mary Ruth Casey, Gary Cziko, Gerry Noll and (a very pregnant) Melissa Brown

A last gathering at the end of an extraordinary weekend

CyclingSavvy grew stronger with this weekend’s training in St. Louis of a new group of instructors. The newest CyclingSavvy instructors are:

• Matthew Brown of St. Louis
• Melissa Brown of St. Louis
• Mary Ruth Casey of Herculaneum, MO
• Andy Cline of Springfield, MO
• Gary Cziko of Urbana, IL
• Gerry Noll of Ferguson, MO
• Kris Schell of Festus, MO

Congratulations!