Let’s kick off the May Day bike ride!
The cycling season is fast approaching, and May Day is just around the corner. Some of us are lucky enough to own our own bikes, but many people also use city bikes or rental bikes. Do we realize how many microorganisms live on the handlebars of a bicycle or scooter that are touched by dozens or even hundreds of people?
Research findings on public bicycles conducted in the United States, published in the latest European Cleaning Journal (Feb./Mar. 2023 issue), show that the handlebars of publicly available bicycles can harbor over 800 times more bacteria than those on a personal bicycle.
One electric bike manufacturer conducted a study and found that public bike handlebars and seats can harbor up to 6.5 million bacteria. This means that the bike was home to 12,000 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat in our homes… And all the identified bacteria were Gram-negative rods, which are potentially pathogenic. In contrast, only 8,000 bacteria were detected on private bicycles in the same study.
Inspired by this article, we decided to conduct our own research on city bikes and test samples taken from them at our Research and Development Center. Here is what we managed to culture in our laboratory from samples taken from the handlebar grip of a city bike.
Photo: MEDISEPT’s own material
Do these results, visible to the naked eye, mean we should stop using bicycles? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
The aforementioned American study indicates that, in the case of a private bicycle, the low bacterial count can be kept in check by wiping the handlebar with a disinfectant wipe or spraying it with a surface disinfectant—the same approach should be taken with city bikes. On the other hand, the conclusion is clear—people who ride bikes likely don’t care about hand hygiene and disinfection.
And the solution is very simple. If you’re on the go and don’t have access to soap and running water, simply use hand sanitizers such as the convenient, individually packaged MEDISEPT Hand and Surface Disinfectant Wipes (20-count pouches) — Dezynfekcja.pl or MEDISEPT Hand Sanitizing Spray 100ml — Dezynfekcja.pl. Wipe down the bicycle handlebars with MEDISEPT Hand and Surface Sanitizing Wipes Cashmere (15-count flowpack) — Dezynfekcja.pl or spray with MEDISEPT Surface Disinfectant Spray 100ml Neutral — Dezynfekcja.pl. All products come in small, handy packages that will always fit in the back pocket of your sweatshirt, one of your bike panniers, or your backpack during a bike ride.
So let’s not be afraid of city bikes—simple precautions will help minimize contact with harmful microbes and allow you to enjoy the fun of a bike ride! And to all lovers of this form of leisure, we wish you a wonderful and sunny May Day holiday.
