secstate
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secstate
ParticipantI did a three-day mini bike tour out of Berlin into Brandenburg state last week. It is probably worth a forum post — I was blown away by the quality and extent of cycling infrastructure in this mostly rural area. One hardly has to plan at all. There’s pretty much a designated cycle route, and often a separate path, from any given village to any other. Anyway, a few pictures:
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[ATTACH=CONFIG]18144[/ATTACH]July 13, 2018 at 6:26 am in reply to: 26 Years of Biking without Any Major Incidents Until This Week #1088401ParticipantOuch! Avoiding a major incident for so long says a lot about your cautious and courteous cycling habits. Hope you heal quickly!
I’ve basically accepted that, at some point in my cycling career, I’m going to hit or get hit by something pretty hard. Apart from being left with life-altering injuries, my main worry is that I’ll be afraid to get back on the bike after a serious collision.
ParticipantReady for Freezing Saddles 2019 thanks to the REI Fourth of July sale and my annual dividend!
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Participant@hozn 179158 wrote:
I am headed over for work in a couple weeks — bringing my travel bike!
Which bike do you travel with?
Participant@jrenaut 176974 wrote:
That’s probably because Strava displays activity time as your local time. Convert that to time in Moscow and I’ll bet it’s more reasonable. Although running 25 sub-two-minute miles is still not a thing.
This changed at some point (maybe when Strava moved from showing the most recent rides first to showing the most recent uploads, regardless of time). At least for me, Strava displays the rider’s local time.
ParticipantI’ve yet to attract my first fembot. Mostly I get real-seeming dudes from Latin America and Europe who join dozens and dozens of Strava clubs and then randomly give kudos to club members. We have a few in the BikeArlington club.
ParticipantCould it be?
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ParticipantThey each have one run to their credit. They love to run at night, naturally. The entirety of their athletic accomplishments:
Roxy Hodge
Today at 12:39 AM
0h 45m 25.11mi 1:48/mi (Run)Marilyn Hope
Today at 12:39 AM (Run)
0h 41m 5.44mi 7:33/miDayana Galloway
Today at 12:39 AM (Run)
0h 26m 1.53mi 17:18/miAudrina Mcknight
Today at 12:38 AM (Run)
0h 41m 5.44mi 7:33/miShaniya Martinez
Today at 12:39 AM (Run)
0h 24m 11.60mi 2:08/miMarch 20, 2018 at 10:00 am in reply to: Freezing Saddles Last Night Hains Point Party 2018 (FSLNHPP) #1085772ParticipantCongrats to all on finishing the competition. Looks like you had some actual winter this year! I enjoyed following from afar.
Last year’s Freezing Saddles was formative in turning the bike into my default mode of transportation…. it now feels silly to get around any other way. I hope at least a few of you had that experience this year, too!
ParticipantToday I learned that a number of European countries provide subsidies or incentives for e-bike purchases. Last year, France offered a 200 Euro subsidy for pedal-assist bikes. Norway has a large subsidy for electric cargo bikes, and Sweden has now announced a 25% e-bike subsidy of up to 1000 Euros (!). The hope is to reduce car travel and overall greenhouse emissions.
It’s interesting to think about why regular (non-e) bicycles are not chosen for subsidies. Perhaps one assumption is if you can’t buy a bicycle, surely you can’t afford a car, but that seems dubious — people who assess they must have a vehicle may not have much spare cash to purchase a bicycle as well. More likely, the belief is that e-bikes reduce more vehicle miles than regular bikes. (Perhaps even current bicycle owners would drive or take taxis less if they had pedal assist bikes).
ParticipantI’m in India this year for my PhD research. It’s an exciting trip, but I don’t want to feel as if I’m putting my “normal” life entirely on hold. Skipping Freezing Saddles is sad enough! So, I bought a bicycle. I’m experimenting with riding in the city, but even if I decide I’d rather be in a steel cage than on a bike in Indian traffic (the shopkeeper suggested that I buy a horn rather than a bell!), I hope to get out onto dirt roads in the countryside on weekend mornings.
Most people here use extremely sturdy, single-gear steel bikes that cost anywhere from $50 to $100. I considered one of these, but I like gears, and my budget can support something a bit more.
There’s one store in Lucknow (Shunty Cycle Store) that sells imported as well as Indian bikes. I visited last week to test ride a few models: I tried a Cannondale Trail 6, a GT Avalanche (both of which run about $800), as well as two bikes by Indian cycle maker Montra: the Downtown hybrid (which costs a bit over $200) and the Rock 1.0 mountain bike (around $300), which features 27.5 tires. There are fancier models available for both the Indian and imported brands.
Having had some experience of South Asian roads while cycling in Kathmandu last year, I knew I wanted a mountain bike, and I settled on the Rock. My first MTB! I have already been grateful for the ability to take long stretches of massive potholes at speed and to descend and climb sandy slopes — just a normal day’s commute through the Indian cityscape! (Actually the sandy slopes come into play when entering and exiting a wonderful new riverside park that is under construction and that can take me much of the way from my house to my normal afternoon hangout).
There’s not much information about Montra available online — they seem to be focusing on combining quality frames (which are guaranteed for life) with imported, albeit lower-end, components. For example, the derailleurs on my bike are Shimano Tourney. Clunky but functional. We’ll see how the bike holds up. My hope is that it will provide reliable transportation for the year, be fun to take for rides in the countryside, and that I’ll be able to flip it at the end of my visit. The imported bikes and the higher-end Indian bikes have somewhat nicer components and 100mm rather than 50mm of front suspension travel, but I like the idea of having a bike that I haven’t sunk too much $$ into (something I’m willing to stick in the luggage compartment of a train). I’m also not confident in my ability to find anyone to service hydraulic disc brakes.
Kinda wish I had the excuse to buy something like this in DC.
Without further ado, the bike:
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ParticipantCareful, though. I lost points last year for riding to a brewery, buying cans, and then proceeding to a friend’s place to drink them. I’m still bitter about that.
ParticipantThe Economist has the best write-up of the history of dockless that I’ve come across:
“The first bicycles were freed on July 28th, 1965. On the previous night Provo, a Dutch anarchist group, had put up flyers proclaiming that “the asphalt terror of the motorised bourgeoisie has lasted long enough”. A few dozen people had gathered at the bottom of the Spui, in central Amsterdam, along with some reporters. There were also some police; they thought the Provos were troublemakers.
“Roel van Duijn and Luud Schimmelpennink started painting three black bicycles white. ‘The white bicycle is the first free communal transport,’ as their flyer put it. Once so transfigured, the bikes would simply be left on the streets; to make them free for all to use, the flyer said, ‘the white bicycle is never locked.’ And that, it turned out, was a problem…”
Participant@cvcalhoun 168630 wrote:
I took my first ride on a Jump recently, and loved it.
I took my first Jump ride last week. I had a 12:30am arrival at Union Station after attending a concert in Baltimore. That’s way past my usual bedtime. Jump was perfect for getting my tired body and mind back to Silver Spring in short order, and at a far lower cost than a cab/Uber (I locked the bike to a post just across the DC line, a block from my apartment).
I’m ambivalent about the other dockless services, but Jump fills a clear niche, and as you mention the locking requirement means that these are far less likely to be dumped somewhere inconsiderately.
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