As some two dozen fifth-graders stood at attention with mountain bikes, Jay Thatcher barked instructions on the Holley School playground Friday morning, June 2.
The students were participating in a bike safety training class put on by the Santiam Spokes cycling club and the Boys & Girls Club of the Greater Santiam.
Santiam Spokes member Ken Bronson said the program is funded by proceeds from the Strawberry Century bike ride put on by the club each June. The ride, which will be held June 24, will include multiple routes, ranging from 25 to 100 miles, some of which wind through Sweet Home.
He noted that Holley School is a “sag” stop on some of those routes.
Thatcher, a retired school teacher, is a Corvallis-area bicycle safety educator who began teaching bicycle safety 18 years ago in adaptive physical education classes.
He leads all of the 10-day sessions for fifth-graders held in Sweet Home. Two have already been held at Oak Heights and the Holley sessions will be the last for this school year, with others planned for the fall at the remaining grade schools.
“It’s 10 sessions focused on bicycle education, bicycle safety, bicycle fitting and for those who don’t know how to ride a bike, how to do that,” he said.
Santiam Spokes members oversaw sessions at local grade schools in 2019 before the pandemic derailed the progress of the program, Bronson said.
The roughly three dozen bicycles for the Sweet Home program were donated, along with a trailer to haul them, by the Albany Bike Safety Education Program. Santiam Spokes purchased 120 helmets for the Sweet Home program.
As Thatcher led students through bike-fitting instructions Friday morning, he was assisted by Bronson and his wife Fran, and fellow Santiam Spokes members Doug Robin and Donna Short, local cyclists who have organized Walking School Bus events to encourage children to walk to school as part of the district’s Safe Routes to School effort.
The bicycle safety program is an extension of Safe Routes to School.
No school district funding is used for the program, Bronson said.
Thatcher clearly knew what he was doing, and he kept students’ attention as they moved efficiently through an hour-long session.
“When the whistle blows, close your mouth, put your hands on the handlebars, and pay attention,” he instructed students firmly. They moved their bikes into a perfect line, facing him.
“Put your hand down. You’ll learn more,” Thatcher told one student.
School personnel standing nearby smiled appreciatively.
Thatcher led them through the ABC’s of bicycle safety, which, he told them, he conducts himself every time he rides a bike.
“A” was checking the air in tires. “B” was a brakes check – visual scrutiny of the brake mechanism followed by the “thumb” test: “If you put your thumb between the brake lever and the handlebar, pull the brake lever and your thumb hurts, then your brakes are too loose,” he told students.
“C” was a chain check: Were chains rusted or were they “metal colored?”
“If it sounds like a bird is singing, your chain is dry,” Thatcher told students before moving on to what to do if the chain wasn’t riding cleanly on the sprockets.
The 10 classes include video sessions on bicycle safety, the bike fitting sessions, and riding practice, culminating with a “community ride” through Sweet Home neighborhoods on the final day.
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