Follow these general safety tips to ensure the safest ride possible. Remember, a bicycle is a vehicle and cyclists have rights and responsibilities like other vehicle operators.
- Obey all traffic laws, signs, and signals.
- Ride on the right side of the road with traffic.
- Always wear a helmet.
- Use hand signals to communicate your intended actions to motorists. Establish eye contact with motorists at intersections whenever possible.
- Ride no more than two abreast on the road and stay in the same lane of traffic. Large groups should spread out to allow motorists to pass.
- Ride defensively. Always be alert.
- If you have to make a stop get completely off the road.
- Wear bright clothing.
- Be considerate of all road users. Share the road!
- Some of our rest stops are at churches. Please do not lean you bikes against church buildings or gravestones.
- Routes may use intimate, narrow rural roads. Please stay to the right when cresting hills and going around blind curves when you cannot see vehicles coming in opposite directions.
- Kentucky does not have a state-wide leash law so you may encounter dogs, especially in rural areas.
The horse industry is very important to central Kentucky and some additional etiquette is necessary for the protection of both the farming community and cyclists. The horse farms of central Kentucky are unique, and they must be protected so that we may enjoy them for years to come. Contact with horses and other livestock can spread serious diseases that can sicken or kill them, so please just look and take pictures.
- Please don’t litter - horses and other livestock can eat the trash and become sick.
- Do not trespass on private property.
- Don’t climb or lean over fences to get a better view.
- Do not try to touch or pet the horses. Horses bite and it is dangerous to both you and them.
- Don’t lean your bike against farm fences (horses have been known to eat saddles).
- Don’t spook the horses or livestock by making sudden movements or noise.
- Do not feed the horses or other animals.
- February through May is the breeding and foaling season and there is horse van traffic on the rural roads. In busy areas ride in single file.