Etiquette for Riding in Groups

So, you haven’t done much group cycling yet, or maybe you’re new to cycling altogether. Or maybe you’ve ridden with some groups but aren’t 100% sure about how you should behave in a group. Here are some basic etiquette rules that will help you help out your group, make for a pleasant group ride, and hopefully ensure that you keep getting invited on future rides.

Bear in mind, this isn’t for “peloton” or formation cycling. That has its own set of rules and has a lot to do with taking turns at being the “windbreaker”. This is just basic stuff for a group of humans riding bicycles together on open (to traffic) roads.

Verbal signals. It’s important to signal to the group when you see/are aware of a hazard. The most common signal is “Car Back!” when a motor vehicle is approaching from behind. (Since “car” is the quickest/easiest word to use, it is used to warn of trucks, motorcycles, RVs…anything with a motor, not just cars.) But there are others that can come in just as useful. Be sure to shout loudly enough that others can hear you over the ambient noise (but if you’re right next to someone, please avoid blowing out their eardrums). Also, use the rule of reason…if you’re on a busy highway you probably don’t need to scream “Car Back! Car Back! Car Back!” ceaselessly…do what would be helpful for others.

  • Car Back: alerts the cyclists in front of you that a car is approaching from behind.
  • Clear: for use when an intersection or other risky spot is safe to proceed…make sure it is clear for the group as well as yourself, before saying Clear.
  • Car Left/Right: this is especially useful at intersections where you’re the first cyclist to reach, and you have the best view of approaching vehicles.
  • Car Up: while you’d think your fellow cyclists can see cars approaching the other direction just as well as you can, that’s not always the case. On curvy roads, in inclement weather, or sometimes just in a big group where the front cyclists have better views, this signal is useful and appreciated.
  • Stopping: when you come to a traffic signal or any kind of stop, it’s common courtesy to let those behind you know, since they can’t always see the stop sign and most bikes don’t have brake lights.
  • Glass: use to alert the group of a patch of broken glass on the road, so they can avoid a flat tire.
  • (Coming Up) On Your Left. Used when you’re about to pass someone, so they know not to swerve into your path. Do them a favor and refrain from shouting this into their ear while you’re passing…it’s too late to be any help by then, and more importantly it’s annoying as hell.
  • Tracks: alerts the group that railroad tracks or similar hazard is ahead.

Hand Signals. These are often used in combination with verbal signals. Because of the difficulty in shouting over distances with traffic noise, hand signals are often more effective and useful than verbal cues.

A lot of cyclists, even seasoned veterans, have angst over hand signals because they aren’t sure what the “correct” left vs. right turn signals are. The rule of thumb in recent years is to simply point in the direction you intend to go. Point to the right with your right hand, or point to the left with your left hand. (You can even point straight ahead if you feel like it would help.) This way, everyone including motorists are sure to understand.

  • Stopping. One arm (usually the left) out the side, elbow bent so the hand is downward, signals a stop. A useful signal for fellow cyclists and motorists to see.
  • Left Turn/Right Turn. See paragraph above…just point with that hand, in the direction you wish to turn.
  • Hazard on the Road Surface. To help the cyclists behind you avoid glass and other sharp stuff on the road, as well as potholes, cracks, etc….point to the hazard as you approach it. This alerts the cyclists to things they most likely can’t yet see, and is greatly appreciated.
  • Go Around Me. The ubiquitous circular “come on around” wave is helpful, especially for motorists or cyclists coming up behind you on a hill or curve. If riding in the traffic lane (no bike lane), make sure the road is clear of oncoming traffic before waving cars around you.
  • Railroad Tracks. One hand waved side to side overhead warns cyclists behind you of a railroad crossing.
  • Thumbs Up/Down (when dismounted). When encountering a cyclist who’s dismounted off the side of the road, it’s common courtesy to ask “Are you OK?” or “All good?” and most approaching cyclists will. To answer them, the best thing is either a thumbs up (yes, I’m fine, no need to stop) or a thumbs down (no, I need help). Don’t launch into a long explanation or story about what happened to you…they need to make a quick decision on whether or not to stop for you, and chances are they can’t hear you anyway. Story time can happen later.

Other Basic Etiquette When Riding Closely. Be considerate of people behind you…before spitting or performing other bodily functions, ensure others won’t be in the line of fire. (I’ve more than once witnessed the stomach-turning event of a cyclist riding into the still-airborne loogie spat by their neglectful “friend”.) If riding side by side on a lonely road, alert others of approaching traffic so they can switch to single file quickly and safely. When riding into a headwind, don’t just use another cyclist as a windblock for miles on end…offer to ride in front and swap places every mile or so. The main thing is just to act how you would want other people to act, were they in your place. Have fun and enjoy your riding buddies!!

BOREO #15–A&W Draft Root Beer (only available at A&W restaurants)

Welcome to Brews Of Root Extraction Online. This post reviews A&W draft root beer…the kind that comes in a cold glass mug at the restaurant, not the kind you buy in the store. This is considered by some to be one of the original “blueprint” root beers (along with Hires and IBC). Whether that’s true or not, there’s something very satisfying about going to a burger joint and having a tasty, substantial beverage along with your meal. I didn’t take note of how much a single mug of draft root beer costs at A&W, but when I substituted it for the “normal” soda on my combo meal I think it added $1.

I use five criteria I score from 1-5 to evaluate brews.

A. Sweetness: 5. Just right. I don’t know for sure, but I would swear it uses cane sugar by the weight and the caramel-y tone of it.

B. Lightbody spices: 4. Lots of added wintergreen is a perfect counterbalance to the vanilla.

C. Heavybody spices: 4. Lots and lots of rich vanilla.

D. Uniqueness: 3. It’s just standard root beer, but since it’s been copied more than it copied others, I gave it a point or two.

E. Mouthfeel: 5. It’s balanced and has a fine, zippy carbonation. Since it’s served in a frozen glass mug, there’s no ice added…which means it won’t get watered down. It’s not too syrupy either.

Total score 21/25. I don’t make it to an A&W more than once per year, but when I do I make sure to order their draft root beer in the mug.

BOREO #14–Dad’s Root Beer

Welcome to Brews Of Root Extraction Online. This post reviews the root beer from the old-time brand “Dad’s”. Dad’s Root Beer and other sodas are bottled and distributed by Orca Beverage Co. in Mukilteo, WA. I purchased a 12 oz bottle at a local chain grocery store for $1.99.

I evaluate brews using five criteria I score from 1-5.

A. Sweetness: 3. It’s just a hair too sweet, and although it uses cane sugar, it’s the light-bodied type of sweetness I associate with corn syrup.

B. Lightbody spices: 4. With the strong anise/black licorice flavors that dominate Dad’s Root Beer, you need strong front-end flavors to balance it all out. Fortunately, Dad’s has plenty of wintergreen to do just that, plus a hint of something that might possibly be peppermint (?).

C. Heavybody spices: 5. I love the taste of black licorice, and if you do too you’ll love Dad’s Root Beer. Anise and licorice dominate the flavor profile, which is (to me) excellent in its choices.

D. Uniqueness: 4. It’s classic root beer, but of the root beers I’ve tasted so far, only Dad’s goes all in on the black licorice flavor.

E. Mouthfeel: 2. It’s not highly carbonated, and the fizz is fairly coarse, much like most modern sodas. I feel like a finer foam would add to the “old-timey” feel of this brew. It’s also a tad on the watery side, which really isn’t terrible considering the strong flavors.

Total score 18/23. Drink Dad’s if you like black licorice flavor, black jellybeans, etc. Otherwise you might want to steer clear of it.

BOREO #13–Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer

Welcome to Brews Of Root Extraction Online. This post reviews the root beer from Henry Weinhard’s, a brand chiefly known for its beers. The story goes that during Prohibition, the Blitz-Weinhard brewery in Portland, OR, switched its operation to bottling root beer to keep its doors open. Today, the same company (now located in Fort Worth, TX) makes that same root beer available. A 6-pack of 12 oz bottles was purchased as a gift for me at a local chain grocery store (I was not told the price).

I use five criteria I score from 1-5 to evaluate brews.

A. Sweetness: 5. It’s pretty sweet, but there are some heavy flavors to balance out, so the sweetness is appropriate. Henry Weinhard’s uses cane sugar, which maintains a natural, earthy flavor.

B. Lightbody spices: 5. There are some really complex spices, and I can’t figure out what their elements are exactly. Something that could be clove, something that could be allspice, something that could be cardamom, and probably some small amount of wintergreen. It provides a robust and interesting bite.

C. Heavybody spices: 3. I can taste some vanilla, but there’s something else I can’t put my finger on, that doesn’t quite belong in root beer if you ask me (barley malt? Blitz-Weinhard is a beer brewery after all)…something that isn’t super flavorful but adds tons of body. I don’t know, but I can’t help but think this brew could benefit greatly from a caramel or anise flavor.

D. Uniqueness: 4. It’s obviously root beer, but the complexity of the front-end flavors makes it different from most.

E. Mouthfeel: 5. They counteract the heavy body and malty sweetness with a lively, foamy carbonation that adds to the zing of the spices, and keeps the brew from being too syrupy.

Total score 22/25. Despite the kind of strange malty, heavy flavor I highly recommend this one for “root beer snobs”.

BOREO #12–Boneyard Brewing “Ultrapop” Root Beer

Welcome to Brews Of Root Extraction Online. This post reviews the root beer offered in the “Ultrapop” line of boutique sodas offered by Boneyard Brewing Co., Bend, OR. I purchased the brew from a national chain grocery store, $1.99 for a 12 oz can.

I use five criteria I score from 1-5 to evaluate brews.

A. Sweetness: 4. I hate to say it, but this root beer could be sweeter. It’s sweetened with cane sugar which is great, but apparently not very much of it. The upside is it’s refreshing and not syrupy at all.

B. Lightbody spices: 4. Boneyard eschews the usual wintergreen, and uses something that tastes like a ginger-lemon blend here. Whatever it is, it’s a very pleasant bite.

C. Heavybody spices: 4. As with the wintergreen, Boneyard throws the vanilla out the window. Instead, it’s an earthy black tea sort of flavor, with a little bit of anise (which is smelled in the glass more than tasted upon drinking).

D. Uniqueness: 5. This is one of the more unique root beers I’ve tasted. You can tell it’s meant to be root beer, but it very much drifts towards a carbonated Arnold Palmer, with touches of lemon and an undercurrent of black tea tannins. If you’re tired of syrupy sweet root beers and don’t like artificial sweeteners, this might be one to try.

E. Mouthfeel: 4. It’s just a touch watery, but the bright carbonation puts an exclamation point on the ginger-lemon spices.

Total score 21/25. Try this one if you’re looking for a new spin on the classic root beer flavor in a crisper, lighter but tea-like soda drink.

BOREO #11–A&W Root Beer (regular, store-bought)

Welcome to Brews Of Root Extraction Online. This post reviews A&W root beer, which some consider to be the grandaddy of them all. I don’t know too much about that, but I do know that the A&W you buy in stores (I purchased the brew for this review from a national chain grocery store, $6.99 for 8-12 oz bottles) is a completely different drink from the A&W you can get on draft at an A&W burger joint. In bottles and cans, it is produced by Dr. Pepper/7-up based in Plano, TX.

I use five criteria I score from 1-5 to evaluate brews.

A. Sweetness: 3. It’s fine, but before I ever looked at the label I could taste the light, absent-body sweetness of high-fructose corn syrup (which I confirmed upon looking at the label afterward). I’m admittedly biased, but I grew up with cane sugar, so I’m not a great fan of corn sugar.

B. Lightbody spices: 4. This is probably the highlight of bottled A&W. There’s a healthy amount of wintergreen at the front end…not much else, but it’s good that it has a little bit of bite to it. The other flavors in this brew tasted fairly “chemical”, and the wintergreen helps hide that.

C. Heavybody spices: 2. Vanilla extract (not very natural tasting), with maybe just the tiniest hint of anise added.

D. Uniqueness: 1. The only thing unique about this brew is the uniquely strong (and bad) aftertaste that lingers for quite a long time after drinking it. I’ve had plenty of sodas with bad aftertastes, but they were almost all “diet” or “zero sugar” sodas. This is a sugared drink that leaves an aftertaste, something between citric acid and tonic water.

E. Mouthfeel: 2. There’s enough carbonation, but the brew is too watery and light. You’d think they would have come up with some kind of additive to help with the body.

Total score 12/25. If you want to sample real A&W root beer, go to an A&W restaurant. Get the draft root beer in the glass mug.

BOREO #10: Barq’s Zero Sugar Root Beer

Welcome to Brews Of Root Extraction Online. This post reviews the “zero sugar root beer” of Barq’s, owned and run by the Coca-Cola Company. I purchased a 12-pack of 12 oz cans at a national chain grocery store for $9.99.

I use five criteria I score from 1-5 to evaluate brews.

A. Sweetness: 4. It’s sweet enough and doesn’t have an aftertaste, which is surprising given that it’s sweetened with aspartame. But it does taste artificial.

B. Lightbody spices: 5. I really like the blend they use. Lots of wintergreen, and something that tastes like cardamom (maybe it is cardamom) give it plenty of bite.

C. Heavybody spices: 2. I could taste some vanilla but not much else on the back end.

D. Uniqueness: 3. It’s quite pleasant, but not out of the ordinary, as far as root beers go.

E. Mouthfeel: 3. The carbonation is lively, but something (probably the lack of natural sugars) makes it a little more watery than I like.

Total score 17/25. Not too bad for what’s essentially a Diet Coke flavored like root beer.

BOREO #9: Jones Soda Co. Root Beer

Welcome to Brews Of Root Extraction Online. This post reviews the root beer from “Jones Soda Company”, the company who sells some interestingly flavored sodas, always uses real cane sugar, and employs customer-supplied photos for their bottle labels. Jones is based out of Seattle and their sodas are widely available in all kinds of stores; I purchased mine (a 12 oz glass bottle) for $1.99 at a local chain grocery store.

I use five criteria I score from 1-5 to evaluate brews.

A. Sweetness: 4. I love this brew, but it’s just a tiny bit too sweet.

B. Lightbody spices: 5. I could taste lots of wintergreen, plus a hint of something a tad bit spicier.

C. Heavybody spices: 5. This is where Jones Root Beer really shines. There is vanilla, but it’s not just vanilla. Somehow they have replicated the flavor of creme brulee (whether it’s by actually roasting the cane sugar I have no idea) and the result is a delightful caramelized sweetness at the back end.

D. Uniqueness: 4. Between the spiciness and the creme brulee flavor, this is an uncommonly good brew.

E. Mouthfeel: 5. With a heavy caramelized cane sugar drink, you want the carbonation to be fine, lively and frothy, to balance out the “syrupy-ness”. Jones Root Beer is just that: fine, lively and frothy.

Total score 23/25. This is the best root beer I’ve had yet.

BOREO #8: Steelhead Root Beer

Welcome to Brews Of Root Extraction Online. This post reviews Steelhead Root Beer, which I purchased in a 12 oz glass bottle at my local chain grocery store for $1.99. Steelhead is produced and bottled by Orca Beverage Co. in Mukilteo, WA (which also makes the “Bulldog” root beer I’ve reviewed before…as you’ll see below Steelhead is identical to Bulldog in almost every way).

I score five criteria from 1-5 to evaluate brews.

A. Sweetness: 5. Perfect. I almost gave it a 4 because it’s just a tiny bit too sweet straight from the bottle, but I always pour it in a glass with ice, so when the ice melts a little the sweetness is perfect. They use cane sugar and honey.

B. Lightbody Spices: 1. No bite. If you try hard, you can taste a little wintergreen in there. This is the one Achilles heel of Steelhead.

C. Heavybody Spices: 5. Plenty of vanilla and a hint of anise mingle well with the honey flavor. This gives the root beer a candylike quality, kind of like an old “root beer barrel” hard candy in liquid form.

D. Uniqueness: 4. The strong honey vanilla flavor coupled with the cane sugar gives Steelhead (and Bulldog) a unique flavor that makes me nostalgic for the old candies that only used cane sugar.

E. Mouthfeel: 5. This is where Steelhead differs from Bulldog. Steelhead (at least the bottle I tried) is highly carbonated, which helps to counter the syrupy sweetness of the brew. The result is a nicely balanced sip that’s both smooth and fizzy.

Total score 20/25. Solid root beer I’d buy again.

BOREO #7: Zevia Creamy Root Beer

Welcome to Brews Of Root Extraction Online. This post reviews the “Creamy Root Beer” from Zevia, a zero-sugar line of sodas sweetened with stevia.

I use five criteria, each scored 1-5, to evaluate brews.

A. Sweetness: 4. Almost perfect. Could be a tiny bit sweeter.

B. Lightbody Spices: 4. Plenty of wintergreen, and a hint of something akin to spearmint (but not spearmint).

C. Heavybody Spices: 4. Anise and vanilla balance out the minty bite very nicely.

D. Uniqueness: 2. Stevia sweetened soft drinks aren’t very common, but otherwise it tastes like most root beer. Plus I’m not sure why they think it’s particularly creamy.

E. Mouthfeel: 5. Bright carbonation and balance make the mouthfeel as good as it gets.

Total score 19/25. Solid.