I love bikes, and don’t own a car. But, this is misleading.
Bikes are terrible off road where there are no paths. They’re decent if there’s a well worn path, as long as there are no exposed roots or big rocks, but if the path isn’t well maintained walking is probably better.
Where bikes excel is very flat surfaces. The modern world is filled with those. The problem is that in most places the assumption is that those flat surfaces belong to either cars or pedestrians. Theoretically, in many places, bikes are allowed in the same places as cars most of the time. But, if a biker shares the space with cars, it’s just a matter of time before that biker collides with a car. When that happens, the person in the car won’t be injured. The biker may be dead.
When a driver hits a car, normally the driver gets off easy. Even if there’s evidence of malicious intent, it’s almost never treated as manslaughter or even murder. If there’s no evidence of malice, it’s treated as an “oopsie daisy” and there’s virtually no chance that the driver will spend any time in jail or prison.
Finally, bikes aren’t treated as important property that the law should protect the way that cars are. Even in places like Amsterdam where biking is one of the most common ways to get around, the canals are filled with bikes that have been stolen and thrown in. If you steal a car and get caught, you’re in serious trouble. If you steal a bike, the odds of getting caught are tiny, and if it happens it’s not treated as a very serious issue.
Sure, laws can be changed. But, drivers tend to be older and richer. The older they are, the more dependent they are on their cars. So, they almost always manage to defeat any potential changes to the law.
Bikes do give you a lot of freedom, but in a world designed around cars first, it’s not as much freedom as you get with a car. Maybe in 50 years it will be different. I hope so.
I use a bike to commute 6.5 km to work and it’s not just a good time. I do have a dedicated bike/pedestrian paved path (with few pedestrians, just a lot of other bikes) which is nice.
But in rain it sucks. And in winter it sucks even harder with the cold, and snow and ice. I have studded tires but that adds to the suck as they make you slower. I always have to shower when I get to work. I deliver and pick up in kindergarten, and there is no place to lock the kid trailer, so it adds an extra km to pick up and dump of the trailer at home.
I still use a manual as it gives me some excercise, but an electric bike would solve many of the issues.
And I save money on parking and toll. And bc of traffic I use about the same time.
Nothings perfect
It is cool and all, but I don’t wanna haul a crap load of tools on a bike
How many tools are we talking about here? Have you tried?
Cargo bikes are a thing!
Can only be safely used in good weather.
Collisions will, in fact, fuck you up bad.
Limited cargo space.
Single occupancy.Can only be safely used in good weather.
Just like cars?
Collisions will, in fact, fuck you up bad.
As bad as cars?
Limited cargo space.
Not as limited as you think.
Single occupancy.
Not necessarily.
Scandinavia and the Netherlands disagree on all but one of those points
- Try a rain poncho
- Two bikes colliding may fuck one up, but death is VERY unlikely
- Electric cargo bike
- Electric cargo bike
Most arguments against bikes are from people who never even tried to address the issues. It’s like “I’ve seen a BMX and that’s ALL there is!”
Riding a bike in the rain sucks floppy donkey dong. Poncho or not. I’ve done both. A lot. Car any day over it.
While I get there are plenty of reasons to ride a bike and many arguments against it are overblown, pretending that a bike always has a solution or that that solution is always preferred is as bad as the inverse argument.
I’m not entirely sure that’s what you are actually suggesting(rather I think you’re just positing potential solutions), it just leans that way.
Riding bike in the rain turned out to be one of my favorite things when I figured out how to not suck at it. Ponchos are no good. Waterproof coats and pants make all the difference.
If anything is a challenge, it’s high winds and places with harsh winters. What we really need is more economical enclosed vehicles that bridge the gap between bikes and cars.
There’s weeks where rain a couple of days, but them months were there’s no rain at all. O would take my bike everytime because I prefer to use the rain clothes 4 hours of a year that spend an entire week of the year stuck in traffic.
Not disability friendly.
Limited Range.
Makes you all sweaty before arriving at your destination.
Hills.
Infrastructure not set up to store them anywhere.
Easily and frequently stolen.
Not in fact super cheap, for a decent one.
Requires new infrastructure because everything is built around cars and is literally not safe to use around cars.
Roads would be great infrastructure for bikes if we just banned cars from them. :)
They’re exceptionally disability friendly and many age specifically adapted for people with disabilities. E-tricycles are used a lot for this purpose. You see them a lot in some countries.
E-bikes address the sweatiness and hills issue. But even without electric assistance, people in Germany and Austria have managed.
It doesn’t always require new infrastructure to be built. Ideally infrastructure for cars is repurposed for walking and cycling. This is something that needs to be done anyway because lots of people don’t drive, causing transport poverty.
My bike was $270 second hand and is awesome.
The range issue is fair. Consequence of designing exclusively for cars. Then again, no need to cycle every journey. Just the short journeys already helps a lot. Where I live most car journeys are under 5 miles.
For range, there is public transit, and it’s a good option overall for when bike rides are not feasible!
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Bikes are awesome. Bike infrastructure helps wheelchair users and pullcart users as well.
Anon missed the biggest sin of all:
Monetizable, but only at two or three orders of magnitude less than automobiles.
TL;DR: “He’s cheating because he’s not spending as much as I am.”
They’re cheaper in every conceivable way than cars, and that’s why the worst people out there hate them. Once you see the systems in place to equate personal validity and social values with what wealth may be extracted, it’s impossible to look back. Bikes are effectively a form of protest by way of scaling back one’s economic interaction, because of this.
yeah, but once you hang out with other bike people they will just you on the cost of your bike and your ‘gear’ instead of the cost of your car.
and if your bike is fancier than theirs, you’re a rich douche, and if your bike is less money than theirs, you’re a poor piece of shit. and if your bike is just like theirs, you are a practical and sensible person just like them.
I have never seen people do this. All I’ve ever seen is that those who spend extravagantly on bikes and gear do so because they are literally professional athletes. For everyone else, the closest to what you’re talking about is just basic advise to spend only a little bit more on an entry-level bike because the so-called “department store” bikes tend to be notorious for being cheaply made and poorly assembled, requiring repairs in a very short amount of time. But even those bikes are perfectly fine if you’re okay with having to spend additional money in the near future to replace problematic components, and either hire someone to fix it or learn how to do your own repairs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZK8Z8hulFg
it’s the same for any interest
Have definitely seen bike traffic jams in London before, you get a lot more people through though!
I don’t have a photo of a big one though ☹️
yeah this is what biking in my city looks like now on many streets. but at least here people are all on normal bikes.
where I live it would be scooters, e bikes, mopeds, and regular bikes. with half the people on motorized ones, and jamming the accelerator off the line then slamming the brakes at the stop light, because it’s a ‘race’. also you have the one-wheelers and e-skateboards and all sorts of other random electronic transport device things.
and the worst peopel would be the moms/dads on the e-bikefiets things that flip out you are ‘endangering my children’ if you are within 5 ft of them. who also jam the accelerator/brakes every light, rather than having any skill.
i miss the glory days of 5 years ago when bike lanes were for bikes and everyone was kind of going the same speed. god forbid.
Cars can easily long distances in a short period of time in most weather conditions comfortably, allowing the freedom of movement even if it isn’t done daily. It is a symbol of long distance freedom on weekends and holidays, not daily commuting.
Bikes have that “start riding wherever, feel the wind in your air, hop off wherever and lock wherever” freedom.
goes as far and as fast as you can
And cars go much further and faster than I can
I prefer to call it “freedom”. Nowadays your vehicle spies on you and you’re tracked everywhere you go and anaylized.
Not mine, lol, the benefits of driving an 18-year-old car I guess.
These are great points and suddenly I feel like the all weather point is showing a nonexistant / totally under served market.
A quick google search shows even quadricycles tend to be un covered. Man, this feels like a real business opportunity.
Ofc, cause #Murica, I’ll bet I’m the one in a million people who’d want a covered bicycle / quadicycle (vs trying to get a golf cart) for local mobility.
Probably because the cover is extra weight and cumbersome rigging for all of the time you don’t need it. Rain gear works well enough in a pinch.
Yeah, I’m sure for my interests, I could strap a lock box to the bike with all weather gear (so that I don’t have to think about bringing it with me all the time).
Still, a neat idea. I’d love the vibes of being a biking Fred Flintstone.
Do they not have coats where you live?
Yeah, but I grew up in a part of the world too hot year round to wear them, so as an adult, most jackets are just really uncomfortable for me. Doubly so for water proof materials that don’t breathe.
The material doesn’t need to breathe. Use a poncho type of thing instead.
I bike everyday to work and back. Ponchos suuuuuck to ride in. Theyre constantly getting into your chain or wheel. It’s hard to do a shoulder check because you’ll get poncho in the eyes. And the wind getting in will make it come off your arms and head. Plus they’re uncomfortable with helmets and biking gloves.
Personally, I just use a rain jacket plus accept the fact that I’ll get wet sometimes. I already carry a towel in my rear rack for sweat so it’s not that big a deal as long as I get to my destination.
Mine hasn’t caused any issues. It has velcro straps that clip it to my legs and it’s designed for cycling. I do think I probably could have got the larger size though.
Not sure, bit more airflow around my arms and upper chest could be nice.
Because cars make a shit load of money for the
economythe rich people.the only bikes that make any money to sell are the ones that are for rich people.
the profit on a $500 bike is like 200 bucks, the profit on a $15,000 bike, is like $10,000
I bet it’s closer to like 13k profit, depends on how you do the math on the supply chain
Yeah but how many more people are buying the £500 bikes?
Going by the stock of bikes in Halfords, almost no one is buying the 15k bikes. Very few bikes are not a 3 figure price tag.
not as many as you’d think. it also depends on the demographics of your city. in my city people buy 10K bikes like they are $100 bikes, because they have the money.
Cycle2work scheme has, I think, massively inflated the prices. Not in a way where same shit costs more, but truly cheap bikes are just not really a thing anymore.
Idk I typically buy mine from anarchist bike co-ops and they’re pretty cheap
truly cheap bikes were never a thing, unless you are talking wal-mart bikes. and those aren’t really bikes, they are disposable toys.
Decathlon is offering real cheap contenders :D Their line of city bikes is SUPER affordable and already comes with every needed accessories
If I rode a bike near my home I would be injured or killed within a few weeks if not day one.
then your issue is with your city’s shit infrastructure, not with bikes as a mode of transportation.
Totally. I’ve lived lots of other places including the Netherlands. But bikes are not an option for me.
Mostly true but I find the price is pretty high nowadays.
You don’t need a carbon road bike to cycle to the supermarket, you’re not racing in the tour de france.
Yeah well even basic bitch bikes go from 300-1000 euros. Even second hand is 175 cheapest. And then you have a shitty one.
You can absolutely find 2nd hand bikes for less 175. One search of marktplaats for an omafiets and there are plenty for less than 90 euros. Sure it’ll be a real nugget but with 30 euros of parts, youtube and some elbow grease it will last for years. They probably even will without fixing it up first
Almost as if cost of living has increased, but wages have not…
Yeah that’s my point. We don’t exactly live in a “oh it’s stolen, oh well” time.
Paint it with extra rust and stick some exposed wires on it for +15 to theft resistance.
but wages have not…
This makes me appreciate the UK minimum wage rising faster than inflation over the past several years.
A weeks work at minimum wage will get you a pretty decent bike. Not a carbon race bike, but a good bike for general riding.
I think we have different definitions of shitty bike. I could go to Kmart and buy a $120 AUD (€73) brand new bike. It has 2 wheels, pedals, a handlebar. Sometimes they have bells. You can even make it go forwards if you try hard enough.
If I go to Gumtree (our classifieds app), there’s literally free bikes or ones for* as low as $20:
Mountain Bike. In working condition, has back brakes and rides straight. The gear shifter doesn’t work, but just leave it the desired gear.
If I go to an actual “bike shop”, their cheapest bike is $400 AUD (€243), which is close to your listing.
Yeah well I live in the Netherlands
Man, no wonder they’re expensive, Dutch bicycles are world famous for quality commuting. I really wanted one and tried to buy one q few years ago but got scammed haha.
What the hell? That’s crazy. My current bike was 20€, needed a bit of fixing. Bought it when my 30€ one was stolen. Both have served fine for my 2km daily commute, and occasional ~10km trip to the city centre.
Could probably buy a stolen one for that money yeah, or someone that really needs to get rid of their bike to make space. But at an actual refurbished second hand bike goes for those prices after a quick google search.
I bought my last two bikes for $20 and $50 at the goodwill respectively
I live in a city where this a lot of bike commuting.
All the same shitty stuff that you deal with while driving, you now deal with while riding your bike. People going way too slow, people riding up your ass, people going way too fast, people who speed up when you pass them, folks that violate every law/signal/sign and don’t give a fuck. idiots blasting shitty music, idiots with sound isolating headphones, idiots who come straight at you head on going the wrong way in the bike lane, etc, etc.
So I basically stopped riding my bike to work. I don’t want to deal with bike traffic, bike aggression, and bike accidents.
It was awesome when nobody else did it, but now you have to wait for specially little bike traffic lights, and there are like 30 people in front of you, who are either slow as shit, or blazing around on e-bikes, and it’s generally just a total shitshow. The ‘freedom’ of cycling isn’t really free when you are forced to deal with all the same stupid bullshit you would in a car. On top of the hostility you get from drivers, pedestrians, and other cyclists. there is also a ton of richdouchebag mom/dad’s on giant e-cargo bikes riding around like they would in their giant BMW SUVs, and acting like entitled selfish pricks and flipping out at you for ‘endangering’ their children if you get to close or something. It sucks.
I take the subway now because at least on the subway people leave me the fuck alone and play weird passive aggressive racing games with me and aren’t trying to head-on collision me everyday.
I cycle to work and have none of these problems because the bike route is pretty wide. Old railway converted into a bus route, no cars allowed but bikes can use it. The bus is every 15 mins so at most I have 1 bus overtake me along it.
It’s dead straight and nothing crosses it all the way along. It’s great. Overtaking is easy because there is loads of space.
Old railway converted into a bus route, no cars allowed but bikes can use it.
This can’t be anywhere in the US, can it?
It is not
That’s nice. We don’t have that here. We are in the street with peds and cars and buses and when they add ‘bike specificic’ stuff it get worse and worse. now you have interesections with three sets of signals, bike, walk, and car, and it’s a clusterfuck as they are all on different timings.
Yikes, I never knew any of these problems existed. I live in the opposite kind of area. Hardly any bikers and I wish it was more bike focused.
Other than dealing with weather I still think I’d rather commute by bike because it has a lot of positives. The ebike thing though is a bit crazy, I feel like those should be more considered like mopeds or motorcycles and not use bike lanes. They can be quite dangerous.
I used to bike to work in Louisiana. No bike lanes anywhere but my route was relatively free of car traffic. The problem was the unchained dogs that would come after me from time to time.
So you need to buy gas to ride your bike, hah
This frustrates me so much. Fence your yard or keep control of your damn dog.
yeah well it’s been very successful in expanding bike commuting, but success just brings more problems.
like i don’t commute by car because it was slow and miserable. how they have made commuting by bike slow and miserable because they added so much bullshit too it and too many people do it now.
but hey at least the subway got upgraded so it’s now faster than taking a bike.
My least favorite part about riding on bike trails is le peloton – the mass of riders all gabbing with each other and not paying the slightest bit of attention to what’s right in front of them and crowding up to take over the entire lane. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been literally run off the trail by this shit.
I make anpoint of slamming on the brakes and skidding and stopping right in front of them. Wake up, assholes!
I’ve been to Copenhagen and experienced a bike traffic jam. I’m against making bikes popular and creating in-city bike lanes in my city since then.
Because people are lazy.
Hey i had a bunch of energy before i had to use it all on a bunch of shit i didn’t even wanna do.
It’s not just that. Yes, people are lazy. But a lot of cities (especially in the US) are built for cars and commuting. The streets are not built for bicycle traffic.
I have some coworkers, that have E-Bikes, live 5km from the office and ride their bikes maybe 10x per year because there is a 5% chance of rain today, or it’s too cold (15°C) or it’s too hot (25°C) or whatever other excuse. Very sad…
Yeah, or 40 degrees C. It gets crazy hot here.
10x per year is still better than never.
As someone who hasn’t missed a single day due to riding my e-bike 9kms to work and once rode it to work through a snowstorm I can sympathize with this.
It’s almost comical how even just a little bit of rain can deter people from taking their bike. On sunny days I sometimes barely have room on the bike paths, but if the weather forecast is even a little bit ominous I almost always have the roads all to myself.
people don’t want to be inconvenienced.
inconvenience scares the shit out of them.
doesn’t protect from zombies
IMO there should be a lot more bikes in Zombie movies / books, or anything else post-apocalyptic.
If civilization collapses, you’re not going to be able to get gas for your internal combustion engine. Gas has a pretty short shelf life, so even if you stocked up you’d be running out soon. If you have something electric you’re better off, but charging those to full without a working grid will take multiple days on home solar panels.
Chances are the streets will also be filled with vehicles. A big vehicle like a car is going to have trouble getting through. A bike will squeeze through much smaller gaps. And, if necessary you can lift it up and over something.
Zombies can magically disintegrate cars at any range, as long as they have line of sight. This means that fleeing from a Zombie in a car is foolish. However, this ability can be used against Zombies. By building your base in such a way that one needs to climb over a car, such as by using a car as a bridge over a moat, you have build a base which will trick 80% of Zombies into making it inaccessible. Any respectable horde is virtually guaranteed to have at least one Zombie who will fall for it.
Obviously, since 5% of Zombies are capable siege engineers, you can’t fully rely on any sort of static defense to keep a Zombie horde away.
When killing a Zombie, keep in mind that the plant animating them can jury rig most injuries. Hence, zombies should ideally be incinerated, but if that is unavailable covering them will prevent sunlight from hitting the plants, and thus the plant won’t be able to fix the Zombie to a point where it can move again. The Zombie plant is immune to all commercially available herbicides. Military herbicide HC73 is the most efficient. Care must be taken before deployment of HC73, as the herbicide will render land infertile for 2 to 5 decades.
Zombies are significantly impaired at night, as key parts of their metabolism rely on photosynthesis. Keep in mind that sunlight deprivation is insufficient to kill a Zombie, no matter how long it is deprived of sunlight.
You can’t fully rely on any sort of static defense to keep a Zombie horde away
Hold my beer
Because people were told so in an ad.
