Bicycling is pretty damn simple, pretty much as simple as walking or running.  I'm not sure what practical purpose all this social commotion surrounding it of late could possibly serve.

 

It's a fad.  There is sort of this ideological "green' thing going on, but also a lot of hipsterish styling, too.  Taken together its become a trendy thing.  Like "lofts" and urban farming and indy coffeeshops and "craft beer". 

 

Thinking back I'm trying to recall what started that big bike boom back in the 1970s.

 

The bike boom in the 70s might have been a result of the trifecta of anti-establishment hippie culture, the oil crisis, and (i'm not sure on this) the greater availability of cheaper bikes (imports and such). There was also a general youth culture that blossomed with the birth of the teenager.

 

Certainly the bike culture today is part fad but I think there is a semblance of permanence to it - sprawlville and driving isn't as attractive as it used to be. Urban living is more popular with all age groups - from baby boomers to young adults - the ease, affordability and proliferation (of the idea) of bike infrastructure also makes it a real transit choice that it hasn't been for a long time.

 

So - part fad, part reality. I'm not drawn to biking because it's environmentally friendly, hipsterish, or provides a social community --- I just like to ride and dislike driving/parking.

I hope biking as a status symbol dies soon, but I think its functionality, combined with investments in and proliferation of urban lifestyles (including bike infrastructure) will make cycling even more popular. To the extent I am a bike advocate, my goal is to make cycling like driving or breathing, just a natural thing for people of all stripes to do in a utilitarian fashion. Much as it is in many parts of Europe.

For me on the bike, the safest way to ride is by operating in a sort of "grey area" by following some traffic laws, and while violating others.

 

I recently rode through CLE with my buddy Paul, who is an accomplished cyclist both on and off road. I was really uncomfortable because Paul follows EVERY traffic law by the book. In my opinion, this "acting like a car" is of course following the rules, but it places you, as a cyclist, in far more danger than is necessary.

 

I'm not going to excuse cyclists doing stupid things, but to place cars and bikes on an equal, level playing field is just not right. It is NOT a level playing field and you are at far more risk of being killed.

In my opinion, this "acting like a car" is of course following the rules, but it places you, as a cyclist, in far more danger than is necessary.

 

This is absolutely true. For example, if you are biking on a multi-lane one way street and need to take a left. The law states that you need to keep to the right - which means you will have to cross several lanes of traffic before you can take the left. On a bike, one cannot simply "change lanes" like a car.  You might have to weave through a line of cars stopped at a light, or you might have to run a red light in order to safely change lanes with no cars moving behind you.  There is a way to do it safely, especially in downtown grid-type situations.

In my opinion, this "acting like a car" is of course following the rules, but it places you, as a cyclist, in far more danger than is necessary.

 

This is absolutely true. For example, if you are biking on a multi-lane one way street and need to take a left. The law states that you need to keep to the right - which means you will have to cross several lanes of traffic before you can take the left. On a bike, one cannot simply "change lanes" like a car.  You might have to weave through a line of cars stopped at a light, or you might have to run a red light in order to safely change lanes with no cars moving behind you.  There is a way to do it safely, especially in downtown grid-type situations.

 

The safest way might be to walk it across the crosswalks as if you were a pedestrian crossing diagonally. 

 

One thing I've been noticing lately is that in areas where there is a lot of car traffic and almost no pedestrian traffic, bicyclists use the sidewalk (example:  Richmond Road between 271 and Miles.  Technically illegal, but sensible.

The safest way might be to walk it across the crosswalks as if you were a pedestrian crossing diagonally.

 

....yeah, thats what I do.  Wait for the walk/dont walk sign and then ride across vs walking it...using the crosswalk and sidewalk....

 

 

One thing I've been noticing lately is that in areas where there is a lot of car traffic and almost no pedestrian traffic, bicyclists use the sidewalk (example:  Richmond Road between 271 and Miles.  Technically illegal, but sensible.

 

..yeah, this is the common sense approach.  That's how I see it.  Dont know that stretch you ref in Cleveland, but here in Dayton suburbia, this is how people do it, too.  The pedestrians one sees are mostly joggers/fitness walkers.  Riding on the sidewalk in, say, downtown areas or busy neighborhood retail strips like youd see in Chicago is pretty dangeerous, though....

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bike boom in the 70s might have been a result of the trifecta of anti-establishment hippie culture, the oil crisis, and (i'm not sure on this) the greater availability of cheaper bikes (imports and such). There was also a general youth culture that blossomed with the birth of the teenager.

 

I think the oil crisis & the interest in "ecology" might have had something to do with it, but the availability of imports came before that...by just a bit....

 

I recall my dad buying this Japanese import bike, with hand brakes and a five speed grip shifter, from Korvettes (this was in Chicago) back in 1970 or so....this bike was more a Euro-style utility bike with fenders and a back rack, vs the racing/road bikes that became popular later during the 1970s, 

 

It reminded me a bit of my German aunts bike...i recall she used that as basic transportation but her bike had this little generator that ran the front light.  This type of basic transportation/utility bike bike wasn't what caught on in the US back then, though... but it makes me wonder if this Japanese bike was something the Japanese would use to get around their towns...

 

But it was in the 1970s that you really started to see those road/racing bikes with the 'drop' handlbars, lever shifters, and 10 speeds or more, which used to be pretty exotic in the US before then.  I guess kids would 'trade up" from banana seat chopper bikes to these speedier bikes as they got older....

 

I remember that it wasn't so much bike commuting but more a recreational thing.  But they did start building bike paths back then, too (including an early one in Louisville)... 

My inspiration getting into cycling.

 

^ Er, "Breaking Away"?

Penalty for Rule-Breaking Bicyclists: A Remedial Class

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/nyregion/manhattan-court-sends-erring-cyclists-to-remedial-class.html

 

It comes amid broad agreement among bike advocates and the Transportation Department that compelling riders to obey traffic signals, go with traffic and stay off the sidewalk is critical to improving the image of cycling and ensuring the long-term health of New York City’s expanding bicycle network.

 

...

 

Mr. McKissick was hardly alone in complaining of unfair treatment at a class last week. Several cyclists admitted riding on the sidewalk for a few feet and complained that the sentence — often a day of community service in addition to the class — was excessive.

 

“It was literally three seconds,” Steve Galiczynski said of his short sidewalk ride to his parking spot on the Upper West Side, witnessed by a police officer. He said he had already spent a day cleaning up trash in Times Square. “This whole thing is nuts. It’s like I’m in a Russian novel — a crazy Russian novel.”

 

...

 

If there is one thing that unites New Yorkers who see bikes as a menace with others who view them as a mainstream form of urban transportation, it is a mutual disdain for the lawbreaking cyclist.

 

Obey traffic laws, eh? Too bad police don't lead by example. Just the other day, I was biking down High St. behind 4 cops patrolling, also on bike. I was curious to find out how they ride. What etiquette they adhere to and what signals they use. They were swerving through different lanes, one did a U-turn then hopped onto a sidewalk and none of them used signaling when stopping or turning.

A bike prom:

 

http://www.cyclinginthecity.net/2012/08/bike-prom-2012.html

^ Er, "Breaking Away"?

 

Yep! American Flyers was pretty fun also. It's written by Steve Tesich, who did the screenplay for Breaking Away.

 

If you don't know that's pre-stardom Kevin Costner on the left:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Flyers

 

If you don't know that's pre-stardom Kevin Costner on the left

 

...I recognized the face but couldnt place it.

 

@@@@

 

Here is another take on the bike subculture thing...from Milwaukee (of all places) comes this nice, large format slick quarterly...has a sort of zine-ish feel, like Urban Velo.

 

Cog 

 

...but they cover BMX and cyclocross type of stuff too...

 

 

 

 

 

The other thing about subcultures and trends within these interest groups is that a lot of it is driven by marketing. Growing up with BMX in the '80s, I really dug the brightly colored bikes and gear of the last half of the '80s. BMX racing doesn't really change that much, but freestyle changes at the drop of a hat. The '80s stuff was all about people smiling and having fun impressing the neighbors. The riders did their thing to stuff like Iron Maiden, synthpop and Van Halen. In 1991, all of a sudden the bikes were all either black or chrome, everybody was listening to Faith No More and the Beastie Boys, the videos were all fisheye lenses and people acting like goofballs (putting on animal suits and running into walls, so not quite Jackass level or anything). I didn't get it, so I tuned out freestyle. I had a hard time learning tricks anyway. But there's no way that things can change overnight like that without assistance from the business community.

 

Over on the motorcycle side, the subcultures are just as notorious. Everybody knows about Harley guys, Ruff Ryders sportbikers and the Goldwing crowd. But, there's also plenty of others including the 2-stroke streetbike crowd (known for their smoky exhausts, heroic marijuana consumption and being from California) and the cafe racer crowd (long gas tanks, super stripped-down bikes, small engines, flat paint). Largely, you'd think they have a lot in common because the bikes are somewhat similar. A guy over at the 2-stroke forum converted his '70s Yamaha RD350 over to cafe racer style, which is a somewhat popular and easy thing to do. But of course, he goes to the cafe racer meet and guys get cranky because he's not on a Norton and isn't wearing an ancient pudding bowl helmet and glass goggles as portrayed in the old advertising and on the Cafe Racer TV show that's on now.

Yeah, all those fads in the 80's were hard to deal with.  It was one stupid thing after another.  It showed the extent to which most people value not originality but being early identifier of style trends.  So when people complain about school uniforms not allowing kids to "express themselves", what they actually mean is not being able to attract social capital by being an early adopter of frivolous fads. 

 

Meanwhile, the counter-culture cliques can be as bad if not worse than the rest.  People can dedicate many years of their youth to these things and walk away with absolutely nothing.  The worst is what you describe above where one must commit their entire lives to being a "real" member of such a clique.  It's a big problem in music when people wall themselves off from everything other than a handful of musicians. 

Bikes Could Be More Common Than Cars in London by 2019

http://www.planetizen.com/node/85234/bikes-could-be-more-common-cars-london-2019?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Despite more than 35 million trips taken, not a single person has died using bike share systems in the US: https://t.co/BEnzjsV2Wy

America's cycling infrastructure was a world leader -- before the auto industry took over American politics.....

 

Check out how good going was in US cities in 1st bicycle revolution.

Mapping urban bike utopias—from the 1890s

http://bit.ly/2mw6Bml

 

 

 

 

Elevated California Cycleway, btwn LA and Pasadena, ca 1900 ttp://bit.ly/2mw1K4m

 

Since buying my bike and moving to Ohio City, I have began to bike everywhere except for when I visit my parents in the suburbs. I have done my best to learn the rules, written and unwritten for biking around the city. When driving, I have become much more conscientious of bikers and respecting their space. However, let me share with you and experience from this morning which illustrates why bikers get a bad reputation:

 

Since I have a meeting today outside of the city center, I drove into work. I took the D-S Bridge and made a left onto W. 9th. As I was approaching St. Claire, I was the only one in the right-turn lane, and the light was red when my car slowed to a halt. I turned my blinker on and looked to my left, down the hill by Bridgeview and Crittenden Apartments, to ensure no motorists were coming before making my right turn on red. As I began my turn, I heard bike tires screeching and a man screaming at me. 

 

Unsure as to if I had caused him to fall, I threw my car in park and pulled one leg out to stand up and look to see if he was okay. He then shouts:

 

Him: "WATCH IT, RESPECT THE ROAD."

 

Me: "What happened?" 

 

Him: "YOU CUT ME OFF AND I ALMOST RAN INTO YOU."

 

Me: "The light is red man? You shouldn't have been going through the intersection, and I'm allowed to turn right here."

 

Him: "F*** YOU, YOU'RE GOING TO KILL SOMEONE."

 

At this point, the police officer who'd been parked in his cruiser approaches and literally asks the guy to apologize to me, which I said was unnecessary. But the guy stayed flippant. 

 

When I asked him why he thought it was okay to run a red light and move before me, he said "NO ONE WAS COMING THE OTHER WAY, D***A**!"

On 8/7/2019 at 9:39 AM, YABO713 said:

Since buying my bike and moving to Ohio City, I have began to bike everywhere except for when I visit my parents in the suburbs. I have done my best to learn the rules, written and unwritten for biking around the city. When driving, I have become much more conscientious of bikers and respecting their space. However, let me share with you and experience from this morning which illustrates why bikers get a bad reputation:

 

Since I have a meeting today outside of the city center, I drove into work. I took the D-S Bridge and made a left onto W. 9th. As I was approaching St. Claire, I was the only one in the right-turn lane, and the light was red when my car slowed to a halt. I turned my blinker on and looked to my left, down the hill by Bridgeview and Crittenden Apartments, to ensure no motorists were coming before making my right turn on red. As I began my turn, I heard bike tires screeching and a man screaming at me. 

 

Unsure as to if I had caused him to fall, I threw my car in park and pulled one leg out to stand up and look to see if he was okay. He then shouts:

 

Him: "WATCH IT, RESPECT THE ROAD."

 

Me: "What happened?" 

 

Him: "YOU CUT ME OFF AND I ALMOST RAN INTO YOU."

 

Me: "The light is red man? You shouldn't have been going through the intersection, and I'm allowed to turn right here."

 

Him: "F*** YOU, YOU'RE GOING TO KILL SOMEONE."

 

At this point, the police officer who'd been parked in his cruiser approaches and literally asks the guy to apologize to me, which I said was unnecessary. But the guy stayed flippant. 

 

When I asked him why he thought it was okay to run a red light and move before me, he said "NO ONE WAS COMING THE OTHER WAY, D***A**!"

Yikes. 

 

I like to consider myself a bike commuter and there are times that merit that level of yelling/screaming/outrage, but this specific case isn't one of them, self-righteous folks are annoying no matter their mode of transportation. 

 

I'd like to see our city and state be more progressive with allowing Idaho Stops, actually enforcing passing rules, building meaningful bike infrastructure (not just sharrows, and building actual protected bike lanes [not whispy cycletracks] - see Montreal for wonderful examples) and [not so progressive] in enforcing speed limits, but alas this is the world we currently live in.

 

Sorry you had to deal with a jagoff this morning (as always see the bike portlandia skit lol)!

 

  

I’m in Manhattan right now and yesterday a guy on a bike gave me a mouthful as he nearly hit me while I was crossing the road. I had the walk sign and he was going the wrong way on a one-way cross street. 

NSFW....but it's hilarious 

 

 

This thread is now 11 years old.  A lot has changed. 

 

Here is the thread's original post, with captions:

 

or about three years now, starting, really, since my visit to the US Social Forum back in June of 2010, the lightbulb has been going on re bicycles and the subcultures that are forming around this technology. 


It's fascinating.    There's the Cycle Chic thing from Europe, which bleeds over into the Tweed Ride scene, which also overlaps with the urban biking thing, which mixes hipsters and a more politically committed indy subculture, and bleeds into the "commute by bike movement'...which crosses into road biking.

 

 

Tweed rides/bike hipsters don't exist anymore.  All of those 1970s Schwinn road bikes and antique bikes are back in basements collecting dust.   All of those Chinese-made Wal-Mart fixies are in landfills. 

 

 

 

...which crosses into road biking.

 

Road biking is still going very strong.  The main technical improvements have been:

-ubiquitous carbon frames and increasingly common carbon wheels

-wider tires run at lower PSI's...Continental 5000s blow away whatever was available in 2012

-electronic shifting on higher-end bikes

-nearly ubiquitous hydraulic disk brakes

-aero frames (the "aero" road bike like the Trek Madone)

 

 

Quote

Then there are the Moujntain Bike, BMX and  cylcocross types. 

 

Mountain biking is far bigger in 2023 than in 2012.  There has been explosion of mountain bike trail construction all over the United States.  Gigantic professionally-built mountain bike parks have put places like Bentonville, Arkansas and Knoxville, TN on the map. 

 

The bikes themselves are light years ahead of where they were in 2012 to the extent that pretty much anything from 2012 is a piece of junk. 

 

Here is what has changed:

-carbon frames and carbon wheels for much lighter setups

-incredible suspension setups as compared to 2012

-dropper posts

-ubiquitous hydraulic disk brakes

-1X drive trains

-tubeless tires have almost completely eliminated the flat tire

 

 

Then the more mainstream sports riders and road bikers.


And the generic recreation riders.

 

 

Manufacturers seized on the gravel bike trend because the bikes themselves are very cheap to manufacture (no hi-tech wind tunnel R&D or suspension innovation) but can be sold at a huge mark-up to yuppies who are afraid of skinny-tired road bikes or real mountain bike riding.

 

 

Quote

But wait there's more....

 

GPS tracking apps are now ubiquitous, plus indoor training with Zwift is now extremely popular.  Battery-powered motorcycles with vestigial pedals and chains called "e-bikes" now exist. 

 

This past weekend I got to ride the $9,000 version of this brand-new bike at a Pivot Cycles demo event:

 

Like, is this $9,000 bike $8,500 better than yours?  Absolutely.  It's just...unbelievable. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a wild one. Happened in my old Chicago neighborhood just a few blocks from where I used to live.

 

Cyclists Attacked By Driver And Passenger Who Opened Fire During Group Ride In Uptown, Video Shows

 

Now I don't condone the actions of the driver by any means...but I understand. I'm all for biking and the associated infrastructure for it, but there are toxic cyclists for sure. So many Chicago riders in particular who act like they're immune from any traffic rules or consideration of other transportation modes. 

 

Never was a fan of these critical mass rides. They just piss people off and probably should be a permitted event.

Edited July 3, 2024Jul 3 by Rustbelter

Nice piece of satire I saw on LinkedIn today. 
 

The CEO of Euro-Exim Bank Ltd. got economists thinking when he said:

"A cyclist is a disaster for the country's economy: he doesn't buy cars and doesn't borrow money to buy it. He does not pay insurance policies. Does not buy fuel, no costs related to maintenance and repair. He does not use paid parking. The cyclist does not cause serious accidents. No multi-lane highways required. They don't get fat.

Healthy people are neither necessary nor useful to the economy. They do not buy medicines. They do not go to hospitals or doctors. They add nothing to the country's GDP.

On the contrary, each new McDonald outlet creates at least 30 jobs, since they work 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 dietitians and nutritionists, and of course the people who work in the store".

Choose carefully: cycling or Mc Donald? It's worth thinking about.
PS: Walking is even worse. Pedestrians don't even buy a bike