Protect yourself

To protect yourself from serious injury in a crash make sure that you:

• Wear a cycle helmet whenever you are on your bike.
• Wear a high visibility vest over your clothing. You can buy lightweight ones that don’t make you feel hot and can fold up to fit in a pocket.
• If cycling in the dark wear reflective ankle and arm straps and get some reflective stickers for your rucksack if you have one.
• Tuck flapping trouser legs in and tie any loose strings to prevent them from getting caught in the spokes of your bike.

• Are aware of the traffic around you – assume you are invisible to other road users and ride defensively.
• Check your brakes – always check your brakes so that you know you can stop if you need to.
• Ride with traffic – ride on the left side with the flow of the traffic.