Blacktop drills this week. This is when we find out who does not really know how to ride a bike. Those students were invited to an after-school coaching session. Goals this week: ride straight, use both brakes to stop AT the limit line, always get into power pedal position. We are lucky to have a dedicated classroom where we can teach and store the bikes and equipment. Gina attempted to make the room darker for better viewing of the videos. Everyday, we wheel out 40 bikes and line them up by size. At the end of the day, we wheel them all back in again and lock them up.After-school coaching. Kyle, the boy at the right, learned to ride today! Both he and his father were so proud while I was exhausted after running up and down holding onto the back of the seat or keeping my hand on his back. After a while, Kyle told me he wanted to do it on his own (oh, thank you) and he continued to improve.Breanna, on the other hand, struggled. She had great balance, pushed off with a strong power pedal, turned the cranks once, and then put her feet on the ground. Nothing I said convinced her to keep pedaling. Sigh. We’ll try again at the next coaching session.

This week was three days of riding in the community on pre-planned routes with good teaching opportunities. There were 4 LCIs and each group had one parent volunteer to ride sweep. I got to work with the Blue groups – those with higher skill levels from the blacktop drills. They were eager to go. They ran to their bikes and quickly formed the wheel-in position and began the ABCQuick Check.The young man at the front was the best organizer of his peers ever. He had them lined up at the gate and ready to ride more quickly than I ever could.This is near the end of the planned route and I had to pull over to ask the group a question based on the chattering of one boy in particular for the past 1/4 mile. “Hey you guys! This is where I got my first primate! … Right here! This is the spot!” I was baffled. One girl asked, “What’s a primate?” Once that was answered, I learned that there’s a primate-looking character you can collect (or fight?) on Pokemon Go. Aha! I worked with four different classes through the day. We found a good water stop about halfway into the ride.I worked with the girl in the red jersey last week as she was almost becoming an independent rider. By this week, she had achieved success! Everyone was so proud of her!Oh Kenneth! Everyday he came to visit during his lunch recess. Visit? It was more like a monologue. He was quite happy that he got to ride with Pollyanna and the red group and go off campus. I asked him who taught him to ride. His answer, “Oh, I pretty much taught myself.” Really?

Thursday and Friday at Heron School in North Natomas. The leaders are Elle

and Pollyanna.Today for blacktop drills, almost everyone was ready to practice scanning, looking back over your left shoulder and calling out how many arms were raised.Before leaving the right lane position, bicycle drivers must scan, signal, scan, and merge if there is no car coming. It’s hard at first to turn your head far enough to make that judgment call, so practice is important.Meanwhile, over to the side, I worked with the weakest riders. Oh Kenneth. Here is the condensed version of his indignant Thursday speech: “If there were only two forms of transportation in the world, walking and bicycling, I’d outlaw bicycling. This is just too hard.” On Friday: “Bicycling is fun!” This after actually riding 100 feet independently back and forth about 5 times before insisting on a break. In fact, he had great balance, he just needed to keep pedaling! I would call that a hard-won success story.The following must have been a fifth-grade poem-writing project, poems were on display in every classroom.

Monday. Every morning 40 bikes had to be taken out of the classroom they were stored in. I was thankful for student volunteers who came to help. The girl on the left came EVERY morning!

Monday and Tuesday were street ride days. LCIs Elle (standing) and Pollyanna go over the ride routes with Gina, an LCI-in-training. Also volunteering to ride sweep (last rider) were several parent volunteers, teachers, and local residents.

ABCQuick Check, a must before riding.

The ratio for each group is no more than 8 students:2 adults. If we were short on volunteers, I took the smaller red group and stayed on the park trails and residential streets adjacent to the park. The red group always has more fun and rides farther than the other groups!Mr Young is a great supporter of Project Ride Smart and rode with us.Of course, at the end of the day, all those bicycles have to be tightly packed together in one teacher’s classroom (Thanks you Becky!) and then a long cable threaded through the frames and securely locked! Usually the other LCIs did this task while I took the students back to their classroom to gather colored jerseys and put away helmets.

Tuesday. The girl on the left learned to ride a bike at one of the after-school coaching sessions. While she was still a bit wobbly, her bike-riding skills improved daily.

Friday. While the 4th graders celebrated Gold Rush days by panning for iron pyrite and got lathered up for a shave (with a popsicle stick),the 5th graders had a small bike rodeo on the playground. Calf Roping:Paperboy. I made 3 additional vests on Wed/Th to have 4 altogether, but really needed 8 of them and LOTS more rolled newspapers. There were shredded bits of newspaper all over the playground by the time we were done – oops!We called this one the Triple 8.This is the BEST bicycle education program in the Sacramento region – I’m so glad I get to be a part of it!

Monday/Tuesday: Blacktop drills. Oh my, it’s hot standing on the blacktop for hours in 90-degree heat! Mellissa Meng, School Programs Manager for NNTMA, gives instructions for the next skill drill which I was about to demonstrate on my bike:
Hurray for LCIs-in-training! Gina worked with the red and blue group doing their ABCQuick Check:

Neal worked with the yellow/green group:
Good friends who wanted me to take their picture:
Friday: the first neighbor hood ride. Today’s weather was so different from Monday/Tuesday. Cold, windy and … rain for the last riding group of the day!While I shivered under a picnic table covering, the students ran off to the playground equipment. When the big downpour ended, we hurried back to campus. Fun at all times!

What a week this has been! Last Monday, I started teaching Project Ride Smart to five fifth-grade classes. Usually, I co-teach with another LCI (League Cycling Instructor), but this week I was mostly on my own. This year there were five classes instead of the usual four so I worked the entire school day. I only worked four days, but they were 8-9 hour days and I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the day. This retired person is definitely not used to working this hard. And I only took 2 pictures! Leah from the NNTMA office came on day 2 to help fit helmets. While I dragged one box of helmets on the sidewalk to the classroom, Leah stacked up two of them and carried them! Sheesh.

I got a few days work at Witter Ranch Elementary. Pollyanna and Elle were the co-leads of the 3 weeks of classes. Another LCI and I came in to help with blacktop drills and street rides.

ABCQuick Check:

Bikes are lined up while students observe a demonstration of the left-turn drill:

Scan, signal, scan, merge to left lane position, stop signal, stop, scan L-R-L, signal, go according the right-of-way rules.
Students were grouped by ability for the street rides. The red group stayed close to or on campus, while yellow, blue and green took to the neighborhood streets for additional instruction and practice for 3 days.

Lesson 7: all riding, on the street or on trails. To maximize our time, every morning Doug and I moved all 40 bicycles from the classroom where they were stored to the front of the cafeteria. It took 45 minutes and we each walked 2 miles (I checked), but it was worth it. Monday:



Tuesday. Guntej: “Miss Artlete, I want to be in your group.” You’re a very good rider and should go with Mr. Doug in the blue group. “I’d rather be in the red group.” I had room, so it was ok. Then Shamira made the same request, also ok to join. Aha! a group of friends managed to be together, only Elijah and I did not speak Punjabi, and my name was changed permanently to Miss Artlete. They were all delightful.

Wednesday. There was a shortage of volunteers to ride sweep for the groups. For the first time in 3 years, I led a street ride with the blue group. All competent and confident riders and a great way to end.

Just one time down the slide then it’s back to the bikes!


Project Ride Smart is the best bicycle-driving education program in the Sacramento region. I’m lucky to be a part of it.

LCI Pollyanna joined us this week. She gave instructions at the starting point while Doug and I watched and evaluated students at the other end.
The most complicated maneuver is the multi-step left turn: scan, signal, scan, merge to left position, stop signal, brake evenly at the limit line, scan left/right and give left turn signal, go according to right-of-way rules. Students are scored 0-3, then grouped for street rides by ability.

I always take the red group and we stay on the bike trail and park paths. This north Natomas neighborhood has a series of connected parks with many bike paths. I tell my group how lucky they are because we have more fun and ride more.