Choosing The Right Lawyer For Your Bicycle Accident

If you have been hurt on the road while riding, you are likely in pretty rough shape. In truth, bicycle accidents aren’t often simply walked away from. As you don’t have a shell of metal to protect you as you would in a car, the results of an accident can leave you laid up for months. However, you are entitled to compensation but need the help of a good lawyer, you need someone who looks out for a cyclist’s rights.

Specific to Bicycle Accidents

There are personal injury lawyers that handle bicycle cases, and there are those that handle bicycle accidents. If your lawyer doesn’t specifically mention that they handle bicycle accidents, then they aren’t the right choice for you.

Smaller Firms

For a bicycling accident, you may want to consider choosing a smaller law firm. Bigger is rarely better in this respect. Smaller law firms will generally give you better attention to your case instead of just passing it off to a dozen paralegals with the lawyer only ever looking it over when it goes to court. By choosing a smaller firm, they will likely have a specialization, such as accident or injury cases, that they are very good at handling.

Respected

It is never a good sign if no one knows who your lawyer is. If they are just starting out, that is one thing. It may even mean they will work harder on your case. However, if they are fine lingering in shadow without happy clients or respect from their peers, they might not be the right choice.

Need Help?

If you are looking for a lawyer that can help you with your bicycling accident case, then we may be the right choice for you. As a cyclist himself, Gary Brustin has become an advocate for injured cyclists. If you need a lawyer, contact us today.

Adjusting Your Bike For Optimum Bicycle Safety

Bicycle Safety

There are a lot of ways to stay safe on a bike. Wearing a helmet is a good start, but for all the things we know to do to stay safe, adjusting your bicycle sits firmly at the bottom of that list. Many will adjust their bicycles so that it sits them comfortable, and that is an important part, but are you so sure that adjustment is safe?

How to Adjust Your Road Bike

There is no right answer as to how to adjust your road bike. Every person’s set up is different because every person is a different size. However, there are some general rules that will help you make adjustments so that you ride as safe as possible.

  • Adjusting Braking Levels – When you have your hands on the brakes on your handlebars, your wrists should be straight, not dipped or overextended, perfectly straight. This will allow you to brake quickly and the act will not be painful to your wrists over an extended period.
  • Seat Height – For the optimum comfort of your body on a bicycle, your seat height should be adjusted. However, what is the right height? In truth, if you sit, placing your heel on the pedal in the fully down position, your leg should be straight. If your leg is straight in this position while sitting, then your seat is adjusted correctly.
  • Mirrors – Not everyone uses mirrors on their bicycles, but for those who do, they should be aware that they will need to be readjusted for every change you make on a bike.

While the above can help keep you safe on the road, often it is the other people we need to worry about. If you have been in a bicycling accident, contact us today to see what we can do to help you.

3 Bike Maintenance Practices That Aren’t Really Helping Your Bike

Every cyclist knows that action needs to be taken to keep a bicycle working as it should. This seems important, especially if you bought into one of those very high-end bicycles that cost the same as a used car. However, some maintenance tasks are merely there to make the cyclist feel better and not so much helping the bicycle itself.

Cleaning Your Bike Frame

The only thing that cleaning your bike frame does is make the cyclist happy. Even carbon frames have a number of metal parts to them. These parts need lubricant and not water. Water on metal will cause rust to form eventually. This doesn’t mean you should never clean your bicycle, but cleaning it weekly is probably hurting it. Wiping your bike down is sufficient, with thorough cleanings and new lubricant every couple months.

Over Inflating Your Tires

Every bike tire has an appropriate amount of pressure written on the side wall. However, every cyclist has a different opinion on what pressure you should be using. In truth, the only important number is that side wall number because that is what is right for those specific tires. Doing anything over or under for specific performance is asking for an issue.

WD-40 on Your Bike

WD-40 is excellent for a lot of things. Squeaky bedroom door? WD-40 it. Stuck lock? WD-40. But using it on your bicycle? No, definitely not. If it was safe for your bicycle, WD-40 wouldn’t have released a line specifically made for bicycles. Always use the lubricant that is made for bicycles because not all lubricant is good for bicycles.

Proper maintenance goes a long way to helping make your bike safe to use on the road. However, if you have been in an accident, contact us today to see what the Law Office of Gary Brustin can do for you.

Should You Wear Headphones While Cycling?

Headphones While Cycling

There is no question as to the legality of wearing headphones while driving a car – you can’t. However, the legality of wearing headphones while cycling is a little more grey. There may be a few local ordinances that prevent it, but for the most part, it is perfectly legal to do so. The question remains, however. Is it safe to do so?

Bicycle Safety

The issue of cycling while wearing headphones is one that has always divided the cycling community. There are two camps of thought. One may feel that wearing headphones and listening to music makes a cyclist less responsive or even aware of dangers. Some others feel that wearing headphones helps dampen the cacophony of sounds that can create a sensory overload. In this respect, it is believed that by drowning it out everything else, the cyclist has a clearer head to address potential issues.

In reality, headphones are probably not the issue. If a car comes from behind and clips a cyclist, being able to hear their approach probably would not have prevented the accident. In fact, in challenging environments, being able to hear is not actually necessary. A car driver requires the unimpeded use of their ears primarily so they can hear emergency response vehicles and clear a lane. Cyclists, often not using actual car lanes, are of no particular responsibly to do anything. Often the use of your ears doesn’t do much, certainly, they do less than educating drivers on how to share the road.

Bicycle Law

So, if your city lacks specific laws against headphones and cycling, it is well within your legal right to use them. Even if you aren’t listening to music, sometimes dampening the noise around you can be a major help, making them worthwhile to use.

If you have gotten in a cycling accident and someone is trying to put the blame on you for wearing headphones, contact us today to see how we can help.