Who is a real cyclist ?

On Sunday, September 2, 2018 at 6:36:49 PM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
On Monday, September 3, 2018 at 2:16:01 AM UTC+1, jbeattie wrote:
I did a ride today with the first 20 miles on a rail-trail MUP conversion, the Springwater Corridor. Apart from the homeless staggering across the trail or parking their shopping carts in it, the trail is a very usable facility and a straight shot to the hinterlands. https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3693/9...4c3c668c_b.jpg

Looks like a tarmac track straight to Mount Fuji. That's the Japanese heartland, not the hinterland.

I thought you live in Portland, Oregon.

The reality is much less picturesque. Put your camera in the right spot, and you can get a beautiful shot of Mt. Hood with homeless and shopping carts in the foreground. It's the new Portland postcard.

-- Jay Beattie.

On 9/3/2018 4:09 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, September 2, 2018 at 6:36:49 PM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
On Monday, September 3, 2018 at 2:16:01 AM UTC+1, jbeattie wrote:
I did a ride today with the first 20 miles on a rail-trail MUP conversion, the Springwater Corridor. Apart from the homeless staggering across the trail or parking their shopping carts in it, the trail is a very usable facility and a straight shot to the hinterlands. https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3693/9...4c3c668c_b.jpg

Looks like a tarmac track straight to Mount Fuji. That's the Japanese heartland, not the hinterland.

I thought you live in Portland, Oregon.

The reality is much less picturesque. Put your camera in the right spot, and you can get a beautiful shot of Mt. Hood with homeless and shopping carts in the foreground. It's the new Portland postcard.

Scenic!
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/cre...-camp/20062084

https://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-...esplanade.html

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/loc.../283-499737855

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On 04/09/18 01:54, Frank Krygowski wrote:
enjoy several well-designed rail-trails, particularly when they're
empty. And I favor useful bike/ped paths that serve as shortcuts and
thus reduce competition from motor vehicle traffic. For example, I love
that several schools near me have back way access for kids on foot or on
bikes.

Both the local schools here have similar, but it is more by oversight
than planning. One is a bush track(route past school in creek reserve)
and the other is a foot path that crosses the back of the school and
runs into a dead-end street or two.

I object to bad designs. Our club certainly has far more crashes per
mile on the local MUPs than on the road. Examples in the last year have
included hitting an unseen bollard and falling after running off a
path's sharp edge.

Cans of cheap paint will fix that; i.e make it visible now rather than
wait for it to get a slot in the five year maintenance plan.

Unfortunately, you often have to first find those by experience and
remember they are there each time you use that route. Hence a big blob
of white/etc paint will remind the brain of of "oh yeah, the concrete
has lifted there"

A worse occurrence here is erosion where a lovely bike path along side a
major freeway has patches where loose soil washes over the path, usually
on curves, and can be life changing if you are at speed. a bicycle
helmet was little use for a neighbour when that caught him out and his
head collided with heavy iron guards


Over here, if you write to your local government body about the liable
problems, you can end up getting free stuff. Not really but some of them
"self-insure' and if the have been advised of the problem and do nothing
about it, they are legally liable for any damage as a result of their
negligence.

Given that the skill of bicycle path design is pitiful over here, It is
often best to work out your own back routes. I can zip down to the main
street faster than any motor vehicle and almost beat them across town to
the TAFE/University area(hill and major traffic intersection impede).

A classic here is given a choice which side of a major bridge to provide
a bicycle path, they put it on the downhill side.

On Sun, 2 Sep 2018 18:15:59 -0700 (PDT), jbeattie
wrote:

And yes, on my morning commute, I do keep up with vehicle traffic. A person in a wheel chair could keep up with vehicle traffic in many spots.

I recall once, on Albany NY's Central Avenue, I got off the bike and
used the sidewalk, and gained on the traffic while wearing slot cleats
that severely hampered walking.

Another time I was right hooked and no damage was done to either party
because we were moving so slowly.

I didn't use Central Avenue much.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

---
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On 9/3/2018 11:22 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:
On Sun, 2 Sep 2018 18:15:59 -0700 (PDT), jbeattie
wrote:

And yes, on my morning commute, I do keep up with vehicle traffic. A person in a wheel chair could keep up with vehicle traffic in many spots.

I recall once, on Albany NY's Central Avenue, I got off the bike and
used the sidewalk, and gained on the traffic while wearing slot cleats
that severely hampered walking.

Another time I was right hooked and no damage was done to either party
because we were moving so slowly.

I didn't use Central Avenue much.


Yep. I remember one time in New York City where I passed, then got well
ahead of a sparkling new Ferrari.

I was walking.

--
- Frank Krygowski

sltom992 wrote:

People have been propagandized NOT by the
helmet industry but of all things by other
riders that "My helmet saved my life".
And they finally grow to believe it.

Maybe it is a natural thing to say if you hit
your head and the helmet has a dent to show it.
Like people say in the hook-up ads, "I'm always
happy and positive". No one is always happy and
positive. It is just a matter of speaking.
It is more natural to say "my helmet saved my
life" than to say "my helmet saved my head from
an injury of unknown ramifications". Maybe one
should just stick with, "I'm sure glad I had my
helmet!" if that's the way one feels.
But actually I think that is what the original
statement amounts to.

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Tim McNamara wrote:

A friend of mine has a standard response- if
someone asks him "where's your helmet?" his
reply is "where are your manners?"

Err... how about "I left it in my other pants?"

I don't know if that happens in other
countries, but in the US [...]

Here, people use bikes to do almost anything,
often several times a day. Kids go to school,
young adults go to the university and to
parties thru the night, everyone else go to
work or to get food or to do sport or just
about anything. So no one riding a bike feels
he or she is part of a shunned minority, and
there is no reason to acknoledge or even notice
if someone else is "doing it" as well.

The other day I went for a longer ride on my
steel 630 road bike. I didn't have Lycra pants
or a helmet tho, which might account for the
fact that no other cyclist waived at me,
despite themselves riding puny 622/700C
aluminium/aluminum road bikes and MTBs!

Seriously, the reason no one waived, and the
reason I didn't either, is that even cyclists
have the non-cyclist bike experience.
Riding a bike doesn't attract anyone's
attention, never has.

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

On Wednesday, September 5, 2018 at 2:15:06 PM UTC+1, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Maybe one
should just stick with, "I'm sure glad I had my
helmet!" if that's the way one feels.

The problem with that reduction is that the usual anti-helmet zealots are then free to read whatever they want into your statement and put words into your mouth.

But actually I think that is what the original
statement amounts to.

See, you're doing it too.

There's a greater danger than the nastiness of Krygowski et al. It is that the constant nastiness when anyone even mentions helmets will tend over time to interfere with the freedom of the rest of us to say whatever we please about helmets. You'd swear from the reaction to just the word "Helmets!" that someone proposed taking the popguns on which their masculinity depends away from the American AHZ.

The irony is that it is easier than anywhere else on earth to make a case for mandatory helmets in the States than anywhere else, simply because a really good set of statistics on the subject exists. Which is why the usual cowardly AHZ absolutely refuse to discuss the comprehensive study I used to do exactly that. I reprise the relevant article in a new thread. See https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...ch/qOFCNhQ1428

Andre Jute
The power of knowledge

On 9/5/2018 9:31 AM, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Tim McNamara wrote:

A friend of mine has a standard response- if
someone asks him "where's your helmet?" his
reply is "where are your manners?"

Err... how about "I left it in my other pants?"

I don't know if that happens in other
countries, but in the US [...]

Here, people use bikes to do almost anything,
often several times a day. Kids go to school,
young adults go to the university and to
parties thru the night, everyone else go to
work or to get food or to do sport or just
about anything. So no one riding a bike feels
he or she is part of a shunned minority, and
there is no reason to acknoledge or even notice
if someone else is "doing it" as well.

To illustrate the U.S., at least, some years ago:

Sometime in the 1980s, I rode my bike as usual to the bank where we did
business. That was back in the days when I wore a bike helmet.

I was always pleased that the bank had a bike rack at its door. That was
_extremely_ unusual. (And the rack has since been removed.) Anyway, I
finished my business at the bank and was retrieving my bike when an
older-middle-aged lady emerged from the bank.

She looked at me with obvious disgust, shook her head and said "Well, at
_least_ you're wearing a helmet." Clearly, she thought riding a bike a
couple blocks was absolutely foolhardy.

I think things have improved a bit, partly because I'm seen riding the
bike everywhere. But it's still considered very unusual. I was
interviewed in 1993 and in 2011 about my biking to work. Those were
almost full-page articles each time. I was also interviewed in the 1990s
about my summer project, to ride to each of the county's 18 library
branches and check out a book at every one.

If simply riding a bike is newsworthy, I'd say something is wrong with
society. :-(

--
- Frank Krygowski

On Wednesday, September 5, 2018 at 8:03:31 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 9/5/2018 9:31 AM, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Tim McNamara wrote:

A friend of mine has a standard response- if
someone asks him "where's your helmet?" his
reply is "where are your manners?"

Err... how about "I left it in my other pants?"

I don't know if that happens in other
countries, but in the US [...]

Here, people use bikes to do almost anything,
often several times a day. Kids go to school,
young adults go to the university and to
parties thru the night, everyone else go to
work or to get food or to do sport or just
about anything. So no one riding a bike feels
he or she is part of a shunned minority, and
there is no reason to acknoledge or even notice
if someone else is "doing it" as well.

To illustrate the U.S., at least, some years ago:

Sometime in the 1980s, I rode my bike as usual to the bank where we did
business. That was back in the days when I wore a bike helmet.

I was always pleased that the bank had a bike rack at its door. That was
_extremely_ unusual. (And the rack has since been removed.) Anyway, I
finished my business at the bank and was retrieving my bike when an
older-middle-aged lady emerged from the bank.

She looked at me with obvious disgust, shook her head and said "Well, at
_least_ you're wearing a helmet." Clearly, she thought riding a bike a
couple blocks was absolutely foolhardy.

I think things have improved a bit, partly because I'm seen riding the
bike everywhere. But it's still considered very unusual. I was
interviewed in 1993 and in 2011 about my biking to work. Those were
almost full-page articles each time. I was also interviewed in the 1990s
about my summer project, to ride to each of the county's 18 library
branches and check out a book at every one.

If simply riding a bike is newsworthy, I'd say something is wrong with
society. :-(

I hardly ever see someone riding a bike! We cyclists are so unique and oppressed. I feel the need to hug every other cyclist -- my brothers and sisters of the road. https://bikeportland.org/2011/06/22/...r-photos-55300 Come here, you guys, you deserve a big hug! Stay strong my brothers. Fight the power!

-- Jay Beattie.