We are still suffering from the problem of bike trends and crazes that all started with 10-speeds, followed by MTB and then BMX, etc. Yehuda should have sold him a fixie with a front brake and then told him that he’s going to be back in a few weeks wanting to trade it in for a VS.
Maybe…I ride around 600 miles a month in LA, carrying groceries, roaming over hills (last Friday I rode up to a meeting on Mulholland Dr), touching the farthest reaches of the county…all on a fixie.
That said, it does have rack and fenders…and one brake in front.
I also pull a trailer sometimes with my other, heavier-framed fixie–usually the 14-mile round trip to my factory downtown to grab inventory.
And I’m far from the only one doing this sort of thing on fixed gears…nor even, at 59, the oldest.
Don’t knock it just ‘cuz it doesn’t blow your skirts up. Fixies can be quite capable.
That comment made me start thinking of other ways that ‘I need to go’ can be interpreted, so I quickly stopped thinking that way and started this comment
So he doesn’t want to be seen on the thing – fixed! Anybody who sees a VS on the road automatically looks away as if embarresed. Maybe that’s why motors hit us so often?
Welcome to why I don’t like bike paths, bike lanes, MUP’s,etc. Car drivers are always looking for a ghetto to put you in. Anything to keep you from riding where they’re driving.
Since the motorists want to push cyclists onto paths and trails “made expressly for cyclists” instead of the streets, maybe we should start a movement to force drivers onto those faciities made only for mtor vehicles. In other words, if you can’t get where you want to go only using the Interstate Highway System (the one place in the US where bicycles and pedestrians are almost universally prohibited), you don’t go at all.
Unhappily, cars (+vans etc) don’t just restrict themselves to the road network. In the UK on average about 1 or 2 pedestrians are killed in collisions with pedal cycles in all circumstances each year; in the same time on average many more pedestrians are killed while on pavements (= sidewalks) by motor vehicles which are, of course, prohibited from being on the pavement at all. Not to mention the thousands – perhaps milions – of instances where motor vehicles impede pedestrian and cycle progress by parking on pavements and in cycle lanes.
The area where I live was built around 80 years ago, the same time as my house was built. In those days: cars were few, seldom seen, and much smaller than today’s cars. As a result, the roads etc where made narrower and only of reasonable width when they were designed for bus routes. The North end of my road has a section where there is a nice grassy area for the (baby-boomer) kids to play in front of their houses. Like where I grew up, in a house completed in 1951, a similar area was full of kids playing ‘Rounders’ (a sort of English baseball game with similar rules etc) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rounders with a tennis ball or similar and any table or chair leg as a bat. The narrow streets meant difficult parking as the only way to park on the road is with 2 wheels on the Sidewalk/footpath if you wanted to avoid obstructing the road. Many a time the Fire brigade have had to ‘bounce’ a car out of the way to get access to the burning property! As a result of this narrow section near the low numbers of Nunts Lane, (I live at 161) the council are talking about putting yellow lines down and banning parking on the road at all! Most houses had a nice front garden and some still do, with lovely flowers etc. I am no good at gardening and have converted my garden into a hard-standing/driveway so I can use it for parking. Many others have done the same with different designs.
What I am talking about is the huge dimensions of modern vehicles as compared to 1950s-era ones. The result is that motors need more space than was designed for them in the days of smaller cars. The natural result of this is that cyclists etc are pushed out of the way to travel in relative safety only where facilities for us have been made. Few and far between and not at all inter-city most of the time.
Somebody had a good idea which was: to put a cycle lane alongside railway tracks – at a safe distance – which would have a flatter line because trains can’t climb steep hills!
This would get us away from the mad motorists and as trains tend not to swerve around, it should be safer. As long as we are far enough away to avoid being sucked under the train. Maybe a suitable barrier to block the pressure wave?
I’d certainly wouldn’t want to ride anywhere near TGV In USA old railroads are often converted to bicycle paths, by the way. There is this whole Rails To Trails movement. Although there isn’t always money for that, but the results are great. I just wish it happened more and faster!
Sadly, the hipster wants a bike so he can look kewl, not to actually ride – though he answers YM’s questions as though he actually would. Maybe he pictures himself riding, but after a couple of rides his new fixie would sit in some corner gathering dust (but still looking kewl). He may think “I tried being green, but it doesn’t work for me.” or make some other rationalization, but he won’t be back to buy a more reasonable bike. He is in search of an image, not transportation. (Good job on the pork pie hat.)
I’m sure there are folks who start on a fixie and continue to ride. However in my experience, fixie riders (not just owners) ride other bikes as well and probably started on stingrays, bmx, or 10-speeds.
Along the same lines — If a bicycle gets purchased but never ridden, does it make a sound? Answer — yes. It is a soft sad sound, and an occasional quiet tear, as the bicycle comes to realize that it will never accomplish the purpose for which it was created. And there are those among us who can actually hear this sound.
We are the Bike Whisperers. We are the ones who hear their plaintive cries from curbside discard piles and rescue battered frames and components and cause them to be resurrected to new life; we are the ones who feel their gratitude when we replace worn parts on an existing bicycle rather than just discarding the entire bike in favor of a new one; we are the ones who are not worried about how ‘kewl’ we look, because we do not need the opinion of someone else to validate our own existence.
Yehuda is getting there, but he is not quite yet one of us.
another retort to people who tell me to get on the MUP(which I will if it goes where I want to and the nearby streets are too busy or high speed and the MUP isn’t overrun with people walking with strollers and dogs and such: why don’t you get on the interstate? no bikes are even allowed on there? driver response: that’s stupid it doesn’t go where i need to go. my response: neither does that trail.
Hmmmm… Let’s see. Motorists don’t want bikes in the streets with them because they’re too slow, clog traffic, and are in the way. Bicyclists don’t want to use the MUPs because the pedestrians are too slow, clog traffic, and are in the way.
I never saw traffic jams caused by bikes with the only exception of large bike events where streets are closed for some time. Traffic jams are caused by cars, for cars
you obviously haven’t been to the Netherlands then …
bikes are quite capable of causing traffic jams, provided there’s sufficiently large numbers of them (like the in the early morning on school days … )
Classic, classic classic. Why do so many bikes collect dust? Because what you need isn’t what you want so you buy a bike you don’t need and can’t use but get to talk about for six months. Humans do love stories. it, in fact, is why my husband hasn’t replaced the stolen moutain bike. He wants a bike he can brag about to his brother but he only rides three times a year and when he does he needs to be able to carry a picnic or a dog along for the ride and it’ll all be on paving. He needs a van sveringen, wants a lance armstrong, has a folder and a winter bike (that he also never uses). Oh, another consideration if you’re buying a bike. Will you be able to lock it outside the theatre and see a movie, or will you be too afraid your expensive fancy brag-worthy bike will be stolen? again, it’ll collect dust and may as well be stolen for all the use you’ll get if you’re afraid to use it!
I only found out the Kickstand was back when my copy of Bicycle Times dropped on the doormat earlier this week (I’m in the UK!). Subscribed and looking forward to the rest. Good to see you back Rick and Brian!
Just my two cents: maybe I’ve become jaded, but I have serious doubts about the likelihood of anyone being “converted” during this kind of interaction. Instead of a logical consideration (“hmm, he has a point”), I’d suspect that more often you’d have a base emotional reaction (“I’M not getting what I want RIGHT NOW, and it’s HIS FAULT!”).
For me, a driver who rolls down a window and yells at a bicyclist (especially if that bicyclist is being a “good road user”) has already demonstrated problems with anger management and impulse control. More power to cyclists who want to verbally tango with drivers who yell at them, but I prefer to avoid conflicts with sociopaths.
Agreed. I no longer bother trying to explain to such drivers that they’re in the wrong. But you know what? It’s people in general. I had two confrontations with pedestrians in January, both were trying to teach me traffic laws, that “pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way”, and that they can cross the street anywhere and anytime they want. It almost sounded like red lights and crosswalks were just suggestions for peds. I was unable to convince them thet they’re wrong and that it’s illegal for peds to cross the street outside of marked crosswalk. Such people are “always wrong, but never in doubt” and nothing you can do about that.
Extra comic… That bike was sounding more and more fredly as they talked…
We are still suffering from the problem of bike trends and crazes that all started with 10-speeds, followed by MTB and then BMX, etc. Yehuda should have sold him a fixie with a front brake and then told him that he’s going to be back in a few weeks wanting to trade it in for a VS.
We miss you over on Sydney Cyclist, Martin.
Maybe…I ride around 600 miles a month in LA, carrying groceries, roaming over hills (last Friday I rode up to a meeting on Mulholland Dr), touching the farthest reaches of the county…all on a fixie.
That said, it does have rack and fenders…and one brake in front.
I also pull a trailer sometimes with my other, heavier-framed fixie–usually the 14-mile round trip to my factory downtown to grab inventory.
And I’m far from the only one doing this sort of thing on fixed gears…nor even, at 59, the oldest.
Don’t knock it just ‘cuz it doesn’t blow your skirts up. Fixies can be quite capable.
Here’s a snapshot of my fave “practical” fixie: http://flic.kr/p/5Wg6yv
And a short article on the history of fixed-wheel riding: Alpha and Omega: a Fixed-Gear Primer
Alternative answer to the Multi-Use trails comic… They don’t always go the way I need to go.
That comment made me start thinking of other ways that ‘I need to go’ can be interpreted, so I quickly stopped thinking that way and started this comment
So he doesn’t want to be seen on the thing – fixed! Anybody who sees a VS on the road automatically looks away as if embarresed. Maybe that’s why motors hit us so often?
Welcome to why I don’t like bike paths, bike lanes, MUP’s,etc. Car drivers are always looking for a ghetto to put you in. Anything to keep you from riding where they’re driving.
Since the motorists want to push cyclists onto paths and trails “made expressly for cyclists” instead of the streets, maybe we should start a movement to force drivers onto those faciities made only for mtor vehicles. In other words, if you can’t get where you want to go only using the Interstate Highway System (the one place in the US where bicycles and pedestrians are almost universally prohibited), you don’t go at all.
Unhappily, cars (+vans etc) don’t just restrict themselves to the road network. In the UK on average about 1 or 2 pedestrians are killed in collisions with pedal cycles in all circumstances each year; in the same time on average many more pedestrians are killed while on pavements (= sidewalks) by motor vehicles which are, of course, prohibited from being on the pavement at all. Not to mention the thousands – perhaps milions – of instances where motor vehicles impede pedestrian and cycle progress by parking on pavements and in cycle lanes.
The area where I live was built around 80 years ago, the same time as my house was built.
In those days: cars were few, seldom seen, and much smaller than today’s cars.
As a result, the roads etc where made narrower and only of reasonable width when they were designed for bus routes. The North end of my road has a section where there is a nice grassy area for the (baby-boomer) kids to play in front of their houses. Like where I grew up, in a house completed in 1951, a similar area was full of kids playing ‘Rounders’ (a sort of English baseball game with similar rules etc) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rounders with a tennis ball or similar and any table or chair leg as a bat. The narrow streets meant difficult parking as the only way to park on the road is with 2 wheels on the Sidewalk/footpath if you wanted to avoid obstructing the road. Many a time the Fire brigade have had to ‘bounce’ a car out of the way to get access to the burning property!
As a result of this narrow section near the low numbers of Nunts Lane, (I live at 161) the council are talking about putting yellow lines down and banning parking on the road at all! Most houses had a nice front garden and some still do, with lovely flowers etc. I am no good at gardening and have converted my garden into a hard-standing/driveway so I can use it for parking. Many others have done the same with different designs.
What I am talking about is the huge dimensions of modern vehicles as compared to 1950s-era ones. The result is that motors need more space than was designed for them in the days of smaller cars. The natural result of this is that cyclists etc are pushed out of the way to travel in relative safety only where facilities for us have been made. Few and far between and not at all inter-city most of the time.
Somebody had a good idea which was: to put a cycle lane alongside railway tracks – at a safe distance – which would have a flatter line because trains can’t climb steep hills!
This would get us away from the mad motorists and as trains tend not to swerve around, it should be safer. As long as we are far enough away to avoid being sucked under the train. Maybe a suitable barrier to block the pressure wave?
I’d certainly wouldn’t want to ride anywhere near TGV
In USA old railroads are often converted to bicycle paths, by the way. There is this whole Rails To Trails movement. Although there isn’t always money for that, but the results are great. I just wish it happened more and faster!
Sadly, the hipster wants a bike so he can look kewl, not to actually ride – though he answers YM’s questions as though he actually would. Maybe he pictures himself riding, but after a couple of rides his new fixie would sit in some corner gathering dust (but still looking kewl). He may think “I tried being green, but it doesn’t work for me.” or make some other rationalization, but he won’t be back to buy a more reasonable bike. He is in search of an image, not transportation. (Good job on the pork pie hat.)
I’m sure there are folks who start on a fixie and continue to ride. However in my experience, fixie riders (not just owners) ride other bikes as well and probably started on stingrays, bmx, or 10-speeds.
If a bike falls down in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Along the same lines — If a bicycle gets purchased but never ridden, does it make a sound?
Answer — yes. It is a soft sad sound, and an occasional quiet tear, as the bicycle comes to realize that it will never accomplish the purpose for which it was created. And there are those among us who can actually hear this sound.
We are the Bike Whisperers. We are the ones who hear their plaintive cries from curbside discard piles and rescue battered frames and components and cause them to be resurrected to new life; we are the ones who feel their gratitude when we replace worn parts on an existing bicycle rather than just discarding the entire bike in favor of a new one; we are the ones who are not worried about how ‘kewl’ we look, because we do not need the opinion of someone else to validate our own existence.
Yehuda is getting there, but he is not quite yet one of us.
I’m a bike whisperer? How kewl!
It just gets eaten by a tree.
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/05/25/a-bicycle-eaten-by-a-tree/
another retort to people who tell me to get on the MUP(which I will if it goes where I want to and the nearby streets are too busy or high speed and the MUP isn’t overrun with people walking with strollers and dogs and such: why don’t you get on the interstate? no bikes are even allowed on there? driver response: that’s stupid it doesn’t go where i need to go. my response: neither does that trail.
Hmmmm… Let’s see. Motorists don’t want bikes in the streets with them because they’re too slow, clog traffic, and are in the way. Bicyclists don’t want to use the MUPs because the pedestrians are too slow, clog traffic, and are in the way.
Anyone else see the irony of this?
I never saw traffic jams caused by bikes with the only exception of large bike events where streets are closed for some time. Traffic jams are caused by cars, for cars
you obviously haven’t been to the Netherlands then …
bikes are quite capable of causing traffic jams, provided there’s sufficiently large numbers of them (like the in the early morning on school days … )
posting the inevitable youtube link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M&feature=related
Classic, classic classic. Why do so many bikes collect dust? Because what you need isn’t what you want so you buy a bike you don’t need and can’t use but get to talk about for six months. Humans do love stories. it, in fact, is why my husband hasn’t replaced the stolen moutain bike. He wants a bike he can brag about to his brother but he only rides three times a year and when he does he needs to be able to carry a picnic or a dog along for the ride and it’ll all be on paving. He needs a van sveringen, wants a lance armstrong, has a folder and a winter bike (that he also never uses). Oh, another consideration if you’re buying a bike. Will you be able to lock it outside the theatre and see a movie, or will you be too afraid your expensive fancy brag-worthy bike will be stolen? again, it’ll collect dust and may as well be stolen for all the use you’ll get if you’re afraid to use it!
I only found out the Kickstand was back when my copy of Bicycle Times dropped on the doormat earlier this week (I’m in the UK!). Subscribed and looking forward to the rest. Good to see you back Rick and Brian!
Isn’t that a nice suprise? I was pretty bummed when it closed down.
Just my two cents: maybe I’ve become jaded, but I have serious doubts about the likelihood of anyone being “converted” during this kind of interaction. Instead of a logical consideration (“hmm, he has a point”), I’d suspect that more often you’d have a base emotional reaction (“I’M not getting what I want RIGHT NOW, and it’s HIS FAULT!”).
For me, a driver who rolls down a window and yells at a bicyclist (especially if that bicyclist is being a “good road user”) has already demonstrated problems with anger management and impulse control. More power to cyclists who want to verbally tango with drivers who yell at them, but I prefer to avoid conflicts with sociopaths.
Agreed. I no longer bother trying to explain to such drivers that they’re in the wrong. But you know what? It’s people in general. I had two confrontations with pedestrians in January, both were trying to teach me traffic laws, that “pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way”, and that they can cross the street anywhere and anytime they want. It almost sounded like red lights and crosswalks were just suggestions for peds. I was unable to convince them thet they’re wrong and that it’s illegal for peds to cross the street outside of marked crosswalk. Such people are “always wrong, but never in doubt” and nothing you can do about that.