Badge Kids › Road Badge › Section 2 › Lesson 2.5
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The check before you ride
Run the ABC Quick Check in its fixed order on your own machine, out loud and without help, plus the three an e-bike adds.
1Watch
The lever nobody looked at
The lever nobody looked at
A rider swings a leg over and reaches for the bars; the camera has already shown the front quick-release lever standing open, and the frame freezes with the rider's foot on the pedal.
18 secondsEverything in that shot is ordinary except one thing, and catching it takes about four seconds if you are looking in a fixed order.
2The idea
It has a name and the order never changes
It is the ABC Quick Check, it comes from the national cycling organisation that trains adults, and they say plainly that it applies to electric-assist bikes as well as ordinary ones.
A is air.
B is brakes.
C is chain and cranks.
Quick is quick releases.
Check is a slow test roll before you go anywhere real.
The name and the fixed order are the point. Every riding programme in the world has one of these, because a list you do in the same order every time is a list you notice a gap in. A list done from memory in any order is a list you skip the end of.
3The idea
What each letter actually passes on
A — pinch both tyres. Firm, and pumped to what the sidewall says.
B — squeeze both levers. Neither may touch the grip, and the pads must have something left.
C — lift the back wheel, turn the pedals forward, chain running smoothly, cranks tight.
Quick — every lever closed: front wheel, back wheel, seat post.
Check is the one people leave out, and it is a ride. Roll a few metres at walking pace and use both brakes before you go anywhere with anybody else on it. The classroom version of this check marks you on doing the whole sequence yourself, before riding.
4Build it
Build the check
The check, in order
Eight shuffled cards: air, brakes, chain and cranks, quick releases, roll and brake, battery, lights, lock. Drag them into the order you would actually do them. The finished order is shown when you are done, with the reason each one sits where it does.
There is no trick in this one. Do it once and the order stops being a list you have to remember.
5Decide
You squeeze the rear lever in the drive and it comes almost to the grip.
Pick one to carry on.
6The idea
The three an e-bike adds, after Check
Battery — charged for the ride you are actually doing, latched into its cradle, and looked at. The fire service says to inspect it routinely for cracking, bulging or leaking, and this is when.
Lights — on the machine and working, not at home on a desk.
Lock — with you, before you leave.
The battery one gets skipped most and matters twice. Running out halfway is how a rider ends up pushing the whole machine home in the dark. The other reason is the next lesson.
7Say it
Five words, in order
Say it out loud while your hands are on the machine
“Air, brakes, chain, quick, check.”
Saying it while you do it stops you losing your place halfway through. In a month you will not need the words, and you will still be doing it in the same order.
8Find them
Which of these belong in the check?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
9Look
Open, and closed
Only one of those is holding the wheel in, and it is the flat one. This is the check that takes a quarter of a second and gets skipped anyway.
10Do it
Before you leave this page
Run the whole thing on your own machine now, out loud and in order, with somebody watching: air, brakes, chain, quick, check, then battery, lights, lock. The standard is the whole sequence, on your own, before you ride. Time it once so you know what it actually costs you.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Air, brakes, chain, quick, check. Then battery, lights, lock.
Next lesson: The battery and the charger