Show us your bicycles!

[pseudoid]

Same reason I gave up motorcycling (minus the accident). One commonality with cycling is I just enjoy the sensations of two wheeled vehicles leaning in and out of turns etc. plus the open air aspect of it. Maybe before I die, self driving cars will become common enough I'll take the risk of riding powered cycles again.

Hope the following is of merit to some Californians here at ASR:
Top Ten California Bicycle Laws Every Cyclist Should Know
The 2014 CA law requires a driver passing a bike to give at least 3 feet [as opposed to old law stating "safe distance"] of clearance between any part of the vehicle and any part of the bike or the person riding it. The violation is around $235 and similar to speeding violation which incurs a 1-point penalty, per DMV. This is the "California Three Feet for Safety Act" and violation is CVC 21670

 

[LTig]

Hope the following is of merit to some Californians here at ASR:
Top Ten California Bicycle Laws Every Cyclist Should Know
The 2014 CA law requires a driver passing a bike to give at least 3 feet [as opposed to old law stating "safe distance"] of clearance between any part of the vehicle and any part of the bike or the person riding it. The violation is around $235 and similar to speeding violation which incurs a 1-point penalty, per DMV. This is the "California Three Feet for Safety Act" and violation is CVC 21670

In Germany law has changed as well not long ago; it's now 1.5 m distance within city limits and 2 m outside the city. With normal roads it means that cars must leave the right lane to pass in a legal way.

 

[Willem]

I guess much depends on how much everybody is used to cycling and bicycles. Here in the Netherlands drivers know about bicycles, and usually ride them themselves at times, or have done when they were younger. Driving a car here you are constantly surrounded by perhaps a dozen bicycles, so you pay attention, and you know what to expect. I have also cycled in the US, and even in a place like Princeton with wide roads and many considerate people I found it pretty scary. You realize that you are perfectly visible but somehow car drivers look right through you. Driving a car exposes you to many stimuli, and you have learned what to ignore and what to look for. If you have rarely seen a bicycle in traffic, your brain is not programmed to take notice I think.
There is no Dutch law on how much distance there should be between a car and a bicyle, but in town often a foot is all there is. Fortunately, we have many separate bicycle lanes.
As for stationary bikes, I have a cheap Decathlon bike trainer for that (to be used with a road bike), and I dislike it. It is useful for training in the cold winter months, but you sweat and since the bike does not lean it is not quite the same sensation, and quite a strain on your lower back. My sporting bike preference is for touring bikes with drop handle bars but wide allroad tyres.

 

[digitalfrost]

Before covid I drove around 30k km a year by car and I also ride bikes. So I think I can speak for both "sides". I ride mostly in the forest and not on roads, because it really doesn't feel good. There are a lot of bike lanes that simply vanish, sometimes onto main roads where cars are going 50-70km/h. I understand if bikers complain about this. However, I do not have a good solution for this, there is not enough space anyway. Blocking valuable street space for bikes in a country where the weather is bad for half of the year really doesn't make any sense IMHO. I think the netherlands gets a lot of things right with its dedicated bike lanes, but is not always so easy in existing, historically grown cities (I wonder how the dutch did it, any good documentaries?).

Also, the netherlands is mostly flat. Where I live, it's very mountaineous and no matter where you want to go, it's a minimum of 2 hills in between. Especially for older people it's simply not possible to use bikes here for daily tasks. Maybe with ebikes, but they are still comparatively expensive and you are still exposed to the elements.

In bigger cities, I absolutely hate bikers. They do not follow any rules and they do what they want. I had multiple near accidents where the bikers were the people in the wrong and then they get angry at me even though they broke the rules. Besides being used to just doing what they want, I think a lot of them might not have a drivers license and so they lack the perspective of the car driver entirely. In a big german city you really don't need a car due to public transport and so a lot of people simply don't have one (also space/cost considerations).

Also, a lot of these bikes are not road worthy. They have badly working brakes and lights that are setup to blind oncoming traffic (not to speak of all those who ride at dusk without lights...). With all the regulations, rules and costs that are associated with owning a car here, I would really welcome if bikers had to have number plates and mandatory technical inspection every 2 years. At least in areas with a lot of traffic. Ask anyone from munich about bikers in the city and even the bikers will tell you the situation is off the rails.

I absolutely agree with keeping distance to bikers when following and overtaking. I hate it when people don't leave me space and I keep my distance when I'm in the car, but the lack of accountability from bikers compared to car people really brings out bad behaviour.

 

[Ssebranek]

Stay off roads and avoid angry drivers

 

[Willem]

I suppose it is horses for courses. I see off road bikes, the odd road bike with narrow tyres, and quite a few mountainbikes. For me a town bike is the basis of it all, as a cheap, healthy and ecological form of short distance transport. Sport bikes are a different story, and what you choose depends a lot on local terrain, and preference. I see very few touring bikes here. In the Netherlands that is a quite common form of vacation travel, with many, particularly older, people taking a light tent and riding to Italy, the south of France etc. This is usually done with special guide books that take you along roads with litle traffic. These days they also come with GPS tracks.

 

[Willem]

Before covid I drove around 30k km a year by car and I also ride bikes. So I think I can speak for both "sides". I ride mostly in the forest and not on roads, because it really doesn't feel good. There are a lot of bike lanes that simply vanish, sometimes onto main roads where cars are going 50-70km/h. I understand if bikers complain about this. However, I do not have a good solution for this, there is not enough space anyway. Blocking valuable street space for bikes in a country where the weather is bad for half of the year really doesn't make any sense IMHO. I think the netherlands gets a lot of things right with its dedicated bike lanes, but is not always so easy in existing, historically grown cities (I wonder how the dutch did it, any good documentaries?).

Also, the netherlands is mostly flat. Where I live, it's very mountaineous and no matter where you want to go, it's a minimum of 2 hills in between. Especially for older people it's simply not possible to use bikes here for daily tasks. Maybe with ebikes, but they are still comparatively expensive and you are still exposed to the elements.

In bigger cities, I absolutely hate bikers. They do not follow any rules and they do what they want. I had multiple near accidents where the bikers were the people in the wrong and then they get angry at me even though they broke the rules. Besides being used to just doing what they want, I think a lot of them might not have a drivers license and so they lack the perspective of the car driver entirely. In a big german city you really don't need a car due to public transport and so a lot of people simply don't have one (also space/cost considerations).

Also, a lot of these bikes are not road worthy. They have badly working brakes and lights that are setup to blind oncoming traffic (not to speak of all those who ride at dusk without lights...). With all the regulations, rules and costs that are associated with owning a car here, I would really welcome if bikers had to have number plates and mandatory technical inspection every 2 years. At least in areas with a lot of traffic. Ask anyone from munich about bikers in the city and even the bikers will tell you the situation is off the rails.

I absolutely agree with keeping distance to bikers when following and overtaking. I hate it when people don't leave me space and I keep my distance when I'm in the car, but the lack of accountability from bikers compared to car people really brings out bad behaviour.

As I said, we have many bike lanes. Out of town all larger roads have separate bike paths, and only the very quiet roads do not. In town it obviously gets a bit more challenging, but there too we have many well lit bike paths or at least bike lanes. And these do not stop just before an intersection. There has been a lot of observational scientific research on the optimum designs for bike lanes, intersections and roundabouts, and that has reduced accidents enormously. So there are now design templates for all this. In addition, many intersections have separate traffic lights for bicycles, with now mostly sensors in the road surface to observe if there is a bicycle. If space is tight, cars may be banned to make space for the bicycles. And sure, some cyclists ride badly, although my impression is that this happens more in countries where bike riding is less common, and not part of education (here, riding your bike on the pavement/sidewalk is strictly illegal, for example). Our primary school kids have to learn the traffic rules, and have to pass a practical cycling exam supervised by the police. Of course, this does not stop adolescents from doing stupid things, just like 16 years old American kids kill themselves and others in car accidents.
I honestly do not think the weather is often a problem. In winter I have winter tyres on my town bike, and snow will not stop me unless it gets really bad. It did not stop my children riding to school in the snow.
Hills never bother me much. I quite like riding in hilly or mountainous country (I am 68). All you need is good gears, and the skill and experience to pace yourself. Only when I was working in Jerusalem in the summer heat did I decide that riding a bike to work on top of a hill was not such a good idea.
When I was living and working in Paris I decided not to ride my bike because I thought it was too scary, but when I was working in Bonn I did, although there too it was not quite as safe as at home, with improvised road layout and sometimes quite inconsiderate drivers. So yes, it requires a concerted effort on behalf of municipal authorities, and knowledge of the scienctific basics for good road design.

 

[dguillor]

I built this frame 25 years ago, a hobby project. I rode it for a couple of years then moved on to another frame I built. It hung on a wall in my garage until I decided to renovate it.

 

[bt3]

The more growth, the more congestion, the bigger the risks of bicycle/vehicle accidents. As it always was and continues to be, too many cyclists ride on sidewalks, ride against traffic, disobey making complete stops at stop signs/traffic lights.
Have traveled extensively within many countries outside US, most countries are more conducive to safe cycling than in any of the US states I've lived in. That said, enjoyed cycling in the Mid-Hudson Valley of NY. Even in the ungodly dense and congested LA, my apartment in Los Feliz, CA had Griffith Park just blocks away. That made live their bearable. Wherever we might call home is made so much better if we have easy access to great parks to walk and cycle in. When cycling was a much bigger part of many peoples lives, the Raleigh Nottingham factory produced a huge volume of bikes. There is a coming-of-age film with a young Albert Finney called Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. There are scenes of Raleigh factory under operation. Check the movie out if you have any interest in look at the old Raleigh plant and/or coming of age films. Note picture of my '56 Rudge bicycle from prior post which came from the old Nottingham factory.

 

[Willem]

Dutch diplomats cycling abroad:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1473564970797387782

 

[Arstein]

Commuter's

 

[napilopez]

Brompton electric here.

Like speakers, I also review ebikes, and I've tested dozens of models. The Brompton electric is the only ebike I've felt like I could really happily live with in a city environment and I ultimately enjoyed it much more than all the bigger, more powerful ebikes I've tested. So I ended up buying my review unit. Absolutely love the thing, and I take it everywhere from the city to light trails. Bought an extra (very overpriced) battery for my 30+ mile rides too.

I'm a bulky 6'0 guy, but I actually appreciate the small wheels and the nimble ride for weaving through city congestion.

Here's the bike in a more recent form with the rack and a larger bag for groceries. You can see a Genelec cameo from when I was testing the 8341s =]

When I need even more cargo capacity, I have a trusty burley travoy trailer:

Of course, the main selling point is the tiny folded size and in NYC in particular it really makes a difference; it's the difference between places not batting an eye if I bring my bike indoors with me and me having to lock up other folding bikes outside. Its been particularly appreciated this year where I had to visit family in the in the hospital very often, as I've always been able to bring the bike indoors with me.

As for the cycling vs car things, I'll just put in my two cents and say that city infrastructure in the US should do a lot more prioritize cyclists, and there are many reasons cyclists shouldn't be following all the existing rules of the road (spoiler: they were made for cars). I'm personally a big believer in the Idaho stop, though at least here in NYC it was legalized that cyclists could advance with leading pedestrian signals a few years ago, which is a passable compromise.

NYC and most cities would be a million times better with more cyclists and fewer cars, and I say this as someone who used to regularly drive a big old Chevy truck. Of course, not everyone can ride a bike or even an ebike, but certainly there are many people driving cars who don't need to.

Among people my age in new York though, the reason I hear most often for people not riding bikes is bike theft. People seem to assume their bike (or a wheel, or saddle, or anything the thief can get their hands on) will be stolen at some point, which is a shame. Another benefit of the Brompton.

 

[bt3]

Brompton electric here.

View attachment 174450
Like speakers, I also review ebikes, and I've tested dozens of models. The Brompton electric is the only ebike I've felt like I could really happily live with in a city environment and I ultimately enjoyed it much more than all the bigger, more powerful ebikes I've tested. So I ended up buying my review unit. Absolutely love the thing, and I take it everywhere from the city to light trails. Bought an extra (very overpriced) battery for my 30+ mile rides too.

I'm a bulky 6'0 guy, but I actually appreciate the small wheels and the nimble ride for weaving through city congestion.

Here's the bike in a more recent form with the rack and a larger bag for groceries. You can see a Genelec cameo from when I was testing the 8341s =]

View attachment 174451

When I need even more cargo capacity, I have a trusty burley travoy trailer:

View attachment 174452

Of course, the main selling point is the tiny folded size and in NYC in particular it really makes a difference; it's the difference between places not batting an eye if I bring my bike indoors with me and me having to lock up other folding bikes outside. Its been particularly appreciated this year where I had to visit family in the in the hospital very often, as I've always been able to bring the bike indoors with me.

View attachment 174455

As for the cycling vs car things, I'll just put in my two cents and say that city infrastructure in the US should do a lot more prioritize cyclists, and there are many reasons cyclists shouldn't be following all the existing rules of the road (spoiler: they were made for cars). I'm personally a big believer in the Idaho stop, though at least here in NYC it was legalized that cyclists could advance with leading pedestrian signals a few years ago, which is a passable compromise.

NYC and most cities would be a million times better with more cyclists and fewer cars, and I say this as someone who used to regularly drive a big old Chevy truck. Of course, not everyone can ride a bike or even an ebike, but certainly there are many people driving cars who don't need to.

Among people my age in new York though, the reason I hear most often for people not riding bikes is bike theft. People seem to assume their bike (or a wheel, or saddle, or anything the thief can get their hands on) will be stolen at some point, which is a shame. Anot

Brompton electric here.

View attachment 174450
Like speakers, I also review ebikes, and I've tested dozens of models. The Brompton electric is the only ebike I've felt like I could really happily live with in a city environment and I ultimately enjoyed it much more than all the bigger, more powerful ebikes I've tested. So I ended up buying my review unit. Absolutely love the thing, and I take it everywhere from the city to light trails. Bought an extra (very overpriced) battery for my 30+ mile rides too.

I'm a bulky 6'0 guy, but I actually appreciate the small wheels and the nimble ride for weaving through city congestion.

Here's the bike in a more recent form with the rack and a larger bag for groceries. You can see a Genelec cameo from when I was testing the 8341s =]

View attachment 174451

When I need even more cargo capacity, I have a trusty burley travoy trailer:

View attachment 174452

Of course, the main selling point is the tiny folded size and in NYC in particular it really makes a difference; it's the difference between places not batting an eye if I bring my bike indoors with me and me having to lock up other folding bikes outside. Its been particularly appreciated this year where I had to visit family in the in the hospital very often, as I've always been able to bring the bike indoors with me.

View attachment 174455

As for the cycling vs car things, I'll just put in my two cents and say that city infrastructure in the US should do a lot more prioritize cyclists, and there are many reasons cyclists shouldn't be following all the existing rules of the road (spoiler: they were made for cars). I'm personally a big believer in the Idaho stop, though at least here in NYC it was legalized that cyclists could advance with leading pedestrian signals a few years ago, which is a passable compromise.

NYC and most cities would be a million times better with more cyclists and fewer cars, and I say this as someone who used to regularly drive a big old Chevy truck. Of course, not everyone can ride a bike or even an ebike, but certainly there are many people driving cars who don't need to.

Among people my age in new York though, the reason I hear most often for people not riding bikes is bike theft. People seem to assume their bike (or a wheel, or saddle, or anything the thief can get their hands on) will be stolen at some point, which is a shame. Another benefit of the Brompton.

I once owned a Brompton. Upgraded the stock brake pads immediately. The stock Brompton brakes were mediocre as far as bike brakes go. As my arthritis grew worse, I decided to sell the Brompton, as carrying the Brompton up and down the stairs of our third floor Upper East Side NY apartment was just too painful. The Bike Friday Sat R Day, while not having the wonderful Brompton fold, did have a enormously more comfortable perch. Bike storage lockers as I used overseas were great, but here In America our bike thieves would bust into those storage lockers even in guarded facilities with CCTV’s all around. Good to see Joni’s Blue below the Genelec in your picture, one of my enduring favorites. My late wife and I were browsing shops in Santa Monica (back in years we rented in LA) when my wife ducked into a women‘s clothing shop (Fred Segel’s) as I waited outside. Twenty minutes later she emerged and as we walked away down the street she said, “I just had the best talk with Joni Mitchell.” Died to have missed that, but probably woman’s talk, and I would have been most unwelcome.

Sad for two days over Joan Didion’s passing. Getting old. Ugh. Many of those you liked the best keep disappearing.

 

[pseudoid]

I am still at @acbarn riding a Civia with open toe-shoes but don't know how to advise against such a bad terrible habit.
I can look the other way about wearing loose-clothing (near chains) and not wearing gloves but wise helmet-use WITHOUT foot protection don't go well together... IMHO
Sorry....

 

[napilopez]

I once owned a Brompton. Upgraded the stock brake pads immediately. The stock Brompton brakes were mediocre as far as bike brakes go. As my arthritis grew worse, I decided to sell the Brompton, as carrying the Brompton up and down the stairs of our third floor Upper East Side NY apartment was just too painful. The Bike Friday Sat R Day, while not having the wonderful Brompton fold, did have a enormously more comfortable perch. Bike storage lockers as I used overseas were great, but here In America our bike thieves would bust into those storage lockers even in guarded facilities with CCTV’s all around. Good to see Joni’s Blue below the Genelec in your picture, one of my enduring favorites. My late wife and I were browsing shops in Santa Monica (back in years we rented in LA) when my wife ducked into a women‘s clothing shop (Fred Segel’s) as I waited outside. Twenty minutes later she emerged and as we walked away down the street she said, “I just had the best talk with Joni Mitchell.” Died to have missed that, but probably woman’s talk, and I would have been most unwelcome.

Sad for two days over Joan Didion’s passing. Getting old. Ugh. Many of those you liked the best keep disappearing.

Don't know what the pads were like on the old Bromptons but the dim brakes on the new ones are quite good! Better than some cheap disk brakes I've tried. And I'm a heavyweight person so I need me some good brakes.

 

[Septentrio]

 

[LTig]

Don't know what the pads were like on the old Bromptons but the dim brakes on the new ones are quite good! Better than some cheap disk brakes I've tried. And I'm a heavyweight person so I need me some good brakes.

Time then to visit my dealer. Do you have a link to those dim brakes?

 

[napilopez]

Time then to visit my dealer. Do you have a link to those dim brakes?

Haha rim brakes *

 

[Chrispy]

Haha rim brakes *

So the design of the caliper was poor or just the brake pad compound? What brakes were they particularly?

 

[LTig]

Haha rim brakes *

And I wondered ...