Jaysus cycling! (6 Viewers)

[seanc]

Hoods and hooks for me. Both allow you access to the brakes. So while the "hooks", if that's what we're calling it now, is a "more aggressive" position, I can still feather the brakes when things feel a little scary.


"True drops" is madness. Maybe on a fixie it might make sense, but I wouldn't know. I remember seeing bike couriers in Dublin ride like that. And then occasionally see hipster types attempt it, because they saw it and it looks cool.

"Tops" is good for stretching the back and shoulder out, which as I mentioned earlier today was a real problem I had.

But if I ever get back into cycling, I don't think I could do flatbars.

 

[the_jen]

anything specific you need done?

No, but it's always nice to know where there's a good 'un.

 

[magicbastarder]

i've seen a comment that this may lead from the NCBI suggesting this due to concerns over blind people being hit.

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[Deadmanposting]

i've seen a comment that this may lead from the NCBI suggesting this due to concerns over blind people being hit.

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People really hate these things, huh?

It's the politics of spite and begrudgery

 

[magicbastarder]

the socdems have since confirmed that she was passing on a question from a constituent. which is not really much of an excuse. but it's not the first time she's asked a similar question; to be fair, the SDs are quite good on cycling policy usually.

 

[Deadmanposting]

I like the SocDems, Gary is my TD.
But this general and quite strong resentment against cycling and cyclists always takes me back a little.
People get as angry about this topic as almost anything else.
I've seen the same in GB, and in the US. People are mad as hell about bikes. I don't even quite get it.

 

[pete]

what is this "road tax" you speak of?

 

[seanc]

People really hate these things, huh?

It's the politics of spite and begrudgery

Well, dunno what it's like where you are, but here, while the things are damn popular, they seem to be taken on by people determined to terrorise everyone. Pedestrians, motorists, cyclists. It's like all the people who were shit cyclists 15 years ago have decided that they now couldn't be arsed with even cycling and just want to be highly mobile pricks.

Also I don't buy the eco-friendly angle. Buying cheap plastic crap from China cannot be good for the environment.

Also, and again I don't know if this is a thing where you are, but people who don't really know what they're doing try to soup up their escooters so they're faster or whatever. One once caught fire on a tube train. Since everyone assumed the worst, and battery fires in confined spaces are particularly nasty, it shut the whole network down. Now no electric vehicles are allowed on the tube at all.

 

[magicbastarder]

i was in dartford at a funeral a few years back, and was quite taken aback at how militant some cyclists were. but it's the usual bollocks, if a motorist does that there's no societal urge to assume all motorists are like that in the way it works with cyclists.

 

[ann post]

Well, dunno what it's like where you are, but here, while the things are damn popular, they seem to be taken on by people determined to terrorise everyone. Pedestrians, motorists, cyclists. It's like all the people who were shit cyclists 15 years ago have decided that they now couldn't be arsed with even cycling and just want to be highly mobile pricks.

Also I don't buy the eco-friendly angle. Buying cheap plastic crap from China cannot be good for the environment.

Also, and again I don't know if this is a thing where you are, but people who don't really know what they're doing try to soup up their escooters so they're faster or whatever. One once caught fire on a tube train. Since everyone assumed the worst, and battery fires in confined spaces are particularly nasty, it shut the whole network down. Now no electric vehicles are allowed on the tube at all.

The eco friendly angle comes more from using one as a car substitute than a bike replacement. I saw a graphic recently which was showing something like the new audi electric thing being the same amount of battery as something like 100 scooters.

People have to learn to use the road somewhere. Boy racers are never not doing it, novice cyclists will be held as a global example of cyclists pretty much daily - it probably is somewhere in the confirmation bias matrix in that you see the scooter that is annoying, the other 30 were invisible.

Anywhoooo I'm thinking of getting one to avoid bringing a 1.8 ton vehicle into the city every day.

 

[magicbastarder]

the question is do e-scooters replace public transport use, or car use? i suspect that most people i see on e-scooters have not ditched the car for one; would be a bit different in the case of cargo bikes (which are obviously still much rarer)

 

[ann post]

the question is do e-scooters replace public transport use, or car use? i suspect that most people i see on e-scooters have not ditched the car for one; would be a bit different in the case of cargo bikes (which are obviously still much rarer)

The ones i see mostly are in the young people working in tech jobs district with sorta hints of vespa style chic floating around them - I think they are somewhere between delaying or avoiding a first car buy. I drive to a satellite town and get the bus a bit and theres always a few scooters on the bus.

I wouldn't be ditching the car, i'd just be driving it about 50km less a week.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

I looked into an electric cargo bike a year or so ago. I keep thinking about it.

 

[ann post]

I've gotten pretty bored of cargo bike twitter but unfortuntately i kinda know some of them in person and am too chicken to mute them all.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

It is not an area of Twitter I’ve come across. I’m not able to drive and have kids, that was my main interest.

 

[ann post]

It is not an area of Twitter I’ve come across. I’m not able to drive and have kids, that was my main interest.

They aren't doing anything wrong, i'm kinda the problem here by being bored of them. Anywhoo a lady with two kids did a big thread this week about having one for the past six months and getting on great with it - one thing notable was that they were being really selective about their routes to avoid the more aggressive side of traffic, but all in the seem to do great with it,

 

[magicbastarder]

i think she said they've clocked up 4k on it in six months, which is quite impressive.

 

[pete]

Electric bikes and e-scooters with top speeds of 25km/h to be exempt from regulation

E-bikes that allow for pedal assistance over such speed will require registration, insurance and tax under new Bill

www.irishtimes.com

 

[magicbastarder]

that's basically making explicit what has been implicit, but interesting that they're banning non-type regulated vehicles from cycle lanes.

 

[pete]

I’m sure it’ll be vigorously enforced.