COVID-19 Update 23/03/2020

Cycling South Australia’s position regarding COVID-19 has been updated today to reflect the new landscape we find ourselves in.  As per the government advice recommending avoiding all non-essential gatherings, CSA no longer recommends recreational group riding. Riding your bike should be done in the same manner as all things right now: namely, physically isolated from all others as much as possible.

If you do decide to continue riding your bike outside, some points of consideration:

• Don’t do anything dangerous. Now is not the time to post your fastest descent of Greenhill Screamer, or try to learn how to jump a 10-foot gap. If you crash and end up in a hospital, you may very well take away a bed from someone who might be fighting for their life.
• Sanitise your hands before you leave home, to protect others. If this virus is in your house, by washing your hands properly before you leave, you reduce the risk of you leaving it on anything you might touch during your ride.
• Sanitise your hands when you get home, to protect yourself and your family. If you picked up the virus on your ride by touching something, you’ll destroy it with soap.
• Don’t touch anything! At this point, it’s too late to assume the virus is contained. Any action we take now will only show up in 5-14 days. Go about your business as if you are carrying it, and that everyone else is carrying it too. Don’t rest your hand on a pole at an intersection to prop yourself up. Don’t use the tap at the top of Norton Summit. Refrain from using public bathrooms if you can.
• Consider whether riding with others is appropriate. Every person you meet on a ride has come into contact with people you haven’t come into contact with yet – their family, housemates, people at their local supermarket or their workplace. Do you want to multiply your chance of getting it and passing it on, just to ride with a friend?

It is more likely every day that with schools, many workplaces and retail stores continuing to trade, that community transmission will become much more prevalent, as we’ve seen in other countries. In this case, we may be mandated by law to “shelter in place” and not be able to ride recreationally anyway. If you can, you should take a moment to prepare for this. Thinking of using the time to service your bikes? Head down to your local bike shop and buy some tools, or order them in. Want to learn to ride rollers? Find some in a friend’s shed they don’t use, or purchase some from your local bike shop. Want to learn to track stand? Clear some space in your yard and go ahead. Going to be spending a million hours on the trainer? Head down to your local bike shop and grab some lube for the weeks ahead so you’re not reduced to using olive oil or shampoo or something ridiculous. Many of our beloved shops have had to close their doors in the last few years, and we’ll only lose more of them if we don’t support them now. Call ahead, pay with contactless and ask them to meet you at the door, or see if they can deliver.

A final point - there are video chat options on Messenger, most phones, Zoom, Google Hangouts, and others. Now is the time to learn to use them, to teach your family to use them. Almost all of us are constantly in front of screens connected to the internet, and there’s such a difference between texting someone and being able to see their face, use your voice to speak to them out loud, to laugh and smile with them. It might just make your (and their) day!