Club Member Spotlight

Wynn Kageyama

Wynn Kageyama is the club’s cycling education chair, level IV cycling instructor, and is hard to find on a club ride.  He has Sunday school teaching adults (or whoever else would sign-up) effective cycling techniques in Castro Valley and sometimes in Fremont, or maybe even Dublin; or on some Saturdays with his colleagues at East Bay Bicycle Coalition working with adults in Oakland, Berkeley, or Alameda; or with Mark Dieter, science teacher at Newark Jr. High School.  The two have introduced the 12-week Cycling! program to 7th and 8th graders.  

Recently he co-wrote a technical report with Michael Graff to Caltrans regarding the proposed Niles Canyon project(s) that failed to gain community support and sponsorship.  His initial introduction to the project was to comment on bicycle transportation aspects.  It became clear that Caltrans had not collaborated with the community early in the project and it came to as a surprise and upset the community.  That project helped him to create contacts and become known within the county.

Right now Wynn is working to launch pilot cycling projects that fits in school’s PE unit for grades 3-11.  There are a number of hurdles to work through including acquiring permanent funding, and addressing everything that comes after that.  The effort could be rewarding by training a full-time staff of cycling instructors to teach the material.  It could be the beginning of a substantial cycling community starting from the ground up with kids knowing how to ride the roads properly.


NJHS Cycling! Road examination showing good technique!
Road examination crossing into shopping center traffic zones

The current program at Newark Junior High School shows policy makers what a program looks like.  It lays out the justification of the community benefit to teach complete behaviors for traffic cycling in school.  The results are encouraging by reducing accident rates by 70% for this age group by trading risky technique with correct behavior.  His adult volunteers include Miguel Renteria, and Nick Marshall, and Irvington high school Quest volunteer Natalie MacDonald.


Junior High school students travel length of city to the south.
Student completing a bike built from parts in the club
Earn-a-Bike program. That is awesome!

The Newark program concluded the fall program and will resume again when additional grant funding is provided.

So what sort of tips could Wynn possibly provide you that you might find as a teachable moment? Maybe just a few tips and tricks that the most experienced members already know.

  1. 1. It is rare for you to get rear ended by a passing car if you are going straight.  The chance of a collision is much greater by staying too close to the curb where collisions from the side are more likely to occur. These other things include the right turning passing car, hitting garbage cans, hitting rocks, temporary hazard warning signs, or even getting hit by a child leaving a driveway.  To reduce your chance of collision from the sides and in front of you, try positioning yourself farther to the left.  About three cyclists widths should be sufficient space between you and the curb, or parked vehicle.
  2. 2. When it’s damp or wet out, the tires make a big difference to how your bike handles.  Your bike handles best if your tires are made of rubber.  Much less if your tires are made with a silicone synthetic compound.  One set of tires will be more stable, while the other will slip and slide on anything less than dry.  Tires with fashionable colors like blue, red, grey, white are almost all silicone.  Black tires are almost all rubber or neoprene.  Those in the know prefer to use all black tires.
  3. 3. Cycling when it’s wet out does not need to stop play.  It’s a good to dry your brakes before you need them by keeping light pressure on the levers.  Then your stopping ability is preserved although much longer.  The other is to ride slower and take turns in a more vertical position so the wheels won’t slide out from under you.  What you wear in the rain is up to you.  It doesn’t matter what you wear if you don’t have full-length mudguards on your bike where you’ll get dirty from the front and below.

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