Tips Archive:

Hot Tip of the Month- February 2008: “Liabilities with sensitive flooring”

When you do one of the simplest procedures on your bikes; are creating a major hazard and opening up your self to serious liability? It is possible if your bikes are sitting on flooring that may become slippery when oil or lubricant drips off your bikes. This can be especially true if your members use road shoes with a LOOK type road cleat. Usually after a drive train has been sprayed or lubricated; excess oil will drip out of the bottom of the chain guard onto the flooring. If no one is paying attention when this happens; you now have a hard surface with oil on it. Now imagine someone with a flat hard plastic cleat hitting that oil. The room is filled with bikes that have steel corners, rough edges and hard surfaces. The same can be said; in terms of hazards for your clients and members when the sweat from a rider; or worse, RIDERS; hits the flooring. I’ve seen this time and time again. A good alternative; if the flooring is cement is to glaze the floor with some type of grit that adds texture to the surface of the floor. If your flooring is hardwood; consider putting thick rubber mats under each bike; this will break up the continuity of a continuously slippery surface and may actually help someone catch their footing. These alternatives make cost you; but consider the time money and trouble of a lawsuit from an injured patron.