On 2017-12-04 20:55, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, December 4, 2017 at 4:14:05 PM UTC-8, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-12-04 15:49, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, December 4, 2017 at 1:00:54 PM UTC-8, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-12-04 12:39, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/4/2017 2:26 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-12-03 14:34, jbeattie wrote:
What is causing this bike market downturn?
It MUST be fake news! You, Joerg, have assured us that by
building bike trails we'd get millions of Americans to give
up their cars forever. And every year, more segregated kiddy
paths have been built. Some cities have doubled their bike
mode share, all the way from 0.2% to 0.4%! That's like a 100%
increase!
Sure it is, and for America that is quite big. Weren't you the
guy always touting the health benefits? Calculate the health
Dollars saved here.
So I'm not going to believe any biased communist industry
data. I _know_ bike sales have skyrocketed! Those bike
dealers are not reporting sales so they can cheat on their
taxes.
We were talking about the Silicon Valley. I can imagine that
cycling down there isn't exactly fun. Up here in the Sierra
foothills bike sales are brisk. Else successes such as these
would not happen:
You're f****** nuts.
Man, you have a fuse almost as short as that of El Presidente :-)
... SCV has some of the best riding in the state. Ever climbed
Mt. Hamilton?
http://www.bikecal.com/MustDoClimbs/...tHamilton1.jpg The
Santa Cruz mountains?
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5d/51/71/5...u-are-here.jpg
That's not what we consider best riding out here. This is what we
consider best riding:
https://cdn-files.apstatic.com/mtb/7...1437192781.jpg
I'm talking road. Silly me, I forgot don't ride on the road because
it is too dangerous -- but you will ride on an unprotected precipice
where a fall means death. O.K. And by the way, that picture is what
-- 50-75 miles from your house up HWY 50? How do you propose to get
there? I post pictures of Mt. Hood which is also about 50 or so miles
away, but at least I can ride there.
You go there by car with the bike in back. We also have nice and
pristine trails within riding distance which I use regularly. Some even
for utility rides which is rare in other areas.
This is real life in the Bay Area:
http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/34/07/22.../1024x1024.jpg
And no thanks, I'll never want to live there.
Nobody is saying you have to. And BTW, that's SF and not the Santa
Clara Valley.
Same thing by now, it all one gigantic clog.
Out to the coast? Old LaHonda to the coast was awesome.
https://www.southbayriders.com/forum...hments/172370/ I
still miss that. I miss Hamilton except for the crack seal. I
finished first in the Mt. Hamilton Challenge (200K/10K climbing)
-- that was a great day.
Congratulations. I never participated in a race and never will. Not
my cuppa tea. I am also not the top notch sports guy like you are.
It is now referred to as a "gran fondo." I never did do the Mt.
Hamilton Road Race. I knew I would get dropped by the 120lb guys.
Yeah, but you'd get'em on the way down :-)
Have to take your victories where you can get them.
I've never felt the urge to achieve a victory in cycling.
All these places beat the **** out of Cameron Park.
They sure do not.
All I hear from you is how incredibly dangerous it is to ride in
Cameron Park and the environs. It sounds like a living hell.
I never said that. I said it is risky on some roads here. Because it is.
... Why
would anyone want to live there who likes to ride on the road?
Road bikers usually prefer Folsom and sometimes El Dorado Hills. There
you have much better connections to the bike path system. Some time next
year we will, too, at least such that the stretches on busy roads shrink
to 2-3mi which I find ok. There are two new large developments going in
and Folsom requires builders to provide cycling infrastructure, else no
permits. This will effectively connect the end of a long a long
singletrack (goes all the way to Placerville and then paved on to
Camino) with the American River bike path system and also provide an
easy road with bike lanes from El Dorado Hills into Folsom with same
bike path system access.
Meanwhile, when I lived in the SCV, I commuted thousands of miles,
raced, raced track (no velodrome in Cameron Park the last I checked),
A velodrome is the worst kind of cycling I can imagine. Like running in
a squirrel cage.
rode through dramatic redwood forest to the ocean one day and then
the next day road up the brown hills of the Hamilton range to a late
Victorian observatory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lick_Observatory
Riding through the strawberry fields near Watsonville was amazing --
like riding through a jar of jam. I frequently rode over to Aptos and
stayed at a friends house up in the hills, looking down at Monterey
Bay. Not going to get that in Cameron Park.
Try that again nowadays.
... The SCV also has a strong cycling community -- at least it
did when I was there. Remember Tom Ritchey, Keith Bontrager? --
Jim Blackburn (Blackburn), Jim Gentes (Giro), Mike Sinyard
(Specialized), Rock Shockm( in '90s), etc., etc. Wake up and
smell the coffee. The SCV was the belly-button of the bike
industry and has some spectacular cycling.
I am not into famous people, they don't matter much to me. What I
want is pristine nature, preferably no motor-vehicle traffic and
the occasional river access. A brewpub here and there can't hurt.
The point I was making is that the SCV has a very active cycling
community, a deep history in the bicycle industry and many riding
opportunities. Riding in the SCV was a lot of "fun" for me. It would
not be fun for you because you find road riding scary, bad, etc.,
etc. If you're not getting run over by a car, you're dying of
exhaust inhalation.
People don't die from that but they can die earlier than necessary, due
to diseases such as lung cancer. Why on earth would I put up with
inhaling Diesel soot and other particles when we have nice singletrack
all over the place? This week I have to get brewing supplies in Folsom.
I might just take the MTB and use some singletrack on the way. It's got
a rack so it won't matter which bike I take, it's just slower and tire
wear is much higher.
--
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com/