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kimbo305 posted:Calling all posters who got their start in this thread: please consider writing a blurb on how you managed to get bike commuting to work for you in the new thread: Hello new bike commuting thread! Took me a while to find it since what with lockdown and everything I've been working from home since...mid-March and doing zero regular bike commuting since my new commute is now a 20m walk from the bedroom to the dining area. I'm seriously missing my commute on many fronts - not only from the convenience, the feeling of freedom and getting in regular physical exercise to boot, but from a mental health perspective as well. The bike commute was a really good part of the ritual kicking off and ending the work day and helped me 1) get energized for work and 2) relax and disconnect. I started looking into bike commuting back in April 2018. Here's where I started from: Leng posted:Hello bike thread - I'm looking for some advice on how to get into commuting to/from work, hope this is still the right place to ask! Here's some info on my situation - hopefully I've provided enough details: I knew so little about bikes that I did not know my uncle had left me a legitimately cool classic bike until the bike thread told me:  Getting into a regular habit of riding was pretty intimidating - and it was hard to get going but ultimately very rewarding. Here are some pictures from my old commute, when I was getting started:   My new commute is longer and has two long climbs that I hate, but also takes me past a view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge:   Being on a bike is just way more fun than driving or taking public transport. You get a totally different experience and a better sense of your surroundings. Also, you get a lot of freedom as a result. Here's a pretty apt comparison of what bike commuting vs not bike commuting is for me: Leng posted:Thanks. You can even take your pet(s) with you! Leng posted:We used the bikes to ferry stuff to the local park (a 5 min walk away) to celebrate our daughter's 1st birthday. Since the whole family was gonna be there, we thought it'd be cruel to leave the cat at home. So, here's a cat on the Mountain Cat: CantDecideOnAName posted:I know some people asked for updates, so here goes. Oliver and I went on a little bike ride yesterday, just a short one around the block to get him used to the basket. It's an Axiom dual function pet basket that can go on the front or back, and my only gripe about it is that I can't have both the basket and my panniers on the rack at the same time. I'm gonna have to get a small bag of some kind to keep the essentials in. I had a LOT of questions about how to actually start and people gave me a lot of good advice in the previous bike threads. Here's a summary of what I learned from them and my own experiences. Should I consider investing in a new bike, or should I make do with my current bike for a little while? If you have a bike in reasonable condition and it fits you reasonably well, then :justride: (with all the other variations of  please someone make this). You will only get to know your bike (and what you like/don't like) by riding it. Technically my bike is slightly too big for me (I can't stand over the top tube flat footed) but I was able to ride it well enough and I am now fairly attached to it because it's pretty fun.Is walking the route without a bike first a good idea? Should I skip the walk and just try and ride the route early on a Sunday morning? This is really about wayfinding and building confidence in your knowledge of the route. Unless your commute is a super uncommon one, as a starting point for convenience, I'd check the suggested bike route on Google maps and skip "walking it" in favour of just zooming along using Google Street View (which will pretty much let you look around to see bike paths, etc). Generally the default Google Maps bike routes are fine (at least in Sydney anyway) but I would also double check it against what people are logging in Strava or similar apps as there might be a nicer/safer way to go. Facebook also generally has local bike groups (some will be general, others may be specific to commuting) and it's a good idea to join one because 1) you can find a commute buddy 2) people will post there about random changes to local bike routes (e.g. road/civil works, etc) and how to deal with it. If you are not a confident cyclist like me, doing a dry run of your commute at a quiet time is the best thing you can do to build that confidence. Better yet, talk a more experienced/confident cyclist to go with you. It's more fun and there's a bit of safety in numbers. Also don't feel discouraged if your dry run takes significantly longer than you thought it should take. My first successful dry run took me an hour (Google said 30 mins and I was allowing 40 to be safe), but after about 3 weeks of commuting, I got it down to an average of 20 minutes door to door (depending on how many traffic lights I hit along the way). You will get better and more confident the more you ride - just give it time! Do I need to go on some defensive cycling/bike maintenances courses before I do anything else? The OP has really good info on the key things to remember but if you are new to commuting riding/not a confident rider, then a cycling skills course is a good idea. The City of Sydney subsidises a "Cycling in the City" course run by a group called Bike Wise. I did the course with my husband because we thought a) it'd be fun and b) we were thinking of ditching the car completely, which meant it would make sense to invest more in bikes. These were the key messages from the course I did:  I've found the advice to be pretty solid and the course was really practical. Your local area may have something similar, either run by local non-profits or maybe your local bike shop. On bike maintenance courses, I think it comes down to how isolated your commute is. If there's a good chance of getting stranded if you're unable to ride due to mechanical issues, then you should do one (or watch a lot of YouTube videos and practice). To this day I am bad at bike maintenance because my husband enjoys this sort of thing so he does all of our bike maintenance. The only things I know how to do are to pump up my tires and wrangle my chain back on if it's somehow detached itself from the gears. I still have no idea how to patch a hole in an inner tube or temporarily fix my chain if it snaps, even if my husband has equipped my bike with all the necessary things. However, I'm never more than a 10 minute walk from a bus/train or at worst a 2 hour walk from my destination at any point along my route. If worst came to worst (which has happened), I leave my bike locked up and come back for it later. If your commute is not isolated and you can cope with the worst case scenario of walking your bike to get home/to a local bike shop (i.e. my situation) then you can probably get away without as long as you're proactive about maintenance and prepared to take the time penalty in the event you do get a flat/snapped chain. Is there gear that I should pick up at minimum before I go on the road? The OP covered this pretty well, though here is what I would add: - All bikes are required by law to come equipped with reflectors and a bell. If you have a hand me down or are buying one second hand, double check the bike still has these. - If you're in Australia like me (or New Zealand and a few other countries I can't remember), then helmets are also required by law and this is enforced by police. - Regardless of whether you know how to do emergency bike repairs, you should carry a repair kit with the minimum things in the OP, which will deal with flats. The only other thing that I would suggest in addition to the OP is a chain tool and a super/master link, which will help if your chain snaps. This then gives you the option to summon help either by calling someone or flagging down another fellow cyclist who's able and willing to help you. - Unless you live in Japan (cycling in Japan is so awesome), you should get a U-lock at minimum and I would second the cable recommended in the OP. Sometimes U-locks are really finicky and sometimes the objects you have to lock up to are too large for the U-lock so the cable gives you more flexibility on locking up. From here on, what you need depends on your commute: - If you will be commuting when it's dark, get a set of lights (front and rear) to help with visibility (both so you can see better and so other people can see you). There are some fancy lights that go on helmets or are integrated into helmets. - If your commute is long and/or there's no water along the way, you should carry water - If you need to carry a LOT of stuff (i.e. more than will fit in a backpack), then you should consider front rack vs rear rack, and whether you need basket(s) and/or panniers. There are trade-offs between all of these and unless you have a marked preference for one over the others, my suggestion would just be to try different things until you find the one you like best. - If you intend to ride rain or shine, then invest in a good rain jacket and make sure your helmet has a visor to help with keeping some rain out of your eyes. Do not wear eye gear for this, in my experience it makes visibility worse. - If you have sensitive eyes, protective eyewear (sunglasses or just clear glasses) is a good idea, especially if you're in a windy area. Everything else is something that you will develop your own preference for as you get into riding: - cameras (front and rear); I don't have these and don't feel it necessary for me (because I ride at off peak times in daylight hours), but I am getting to the point where I feel like it would be worth it to invest in a camera for my husband since he rides more, has a longer commute (part of which is late night) and his route is via bigger roads with more traffic. Sometimes when we're out riding as a family, I feel like it might also be a good investment, because we've had some close calls on the weekend with jerks passing way too close even when we're taking the lane - dedicated cycling shoes and clothing; I don't have high vis gear or dedicated cycling gear, I just wear yoga pants/leggings and t-shirts. I do recommend gloves for cold weather and reducing soreness - options for carrying smaller things, like frame bags, bottle cages, phone holders, saddle bags, U-lock mounts, etc. These will depend on what you're using to carry large things. On my commuter I have a front rack (no basket) which is normally where I stow clothing (including if I need to take off layers as I warm up along the way) and my backpack (and occasionally, breakfast).  I also have a frame bag that fits my U-lock (when not in use), keys/phone (when riding) and gloves (when I'm not riding), as well as a small saddle bag (contains repair kit). I don't have a bottle cage or carry water because my commute is short enough that I don't need to stop for water (and if I did, I pass a bunch of water fountains along the way). You can see the frame bag and the saddle bag in this older pic from before I traded the rear rack for the front rack:  Clothing logistics - Best way to maintain a required standard of dress at the office? (a.k.a. "I don't want to ruin my nice clothes") Your choices are: 1) ride in your nice clothes and adjust commuting style accordingly to protect your clothes, or 2) carry and change into nice clothes at the office. On 1), you basically need to: a) ride slowly or b) get an e-bike - in which case you should check out the e-bike thread in addition to this thread; and/or c) consider additional equipment If you wear skirts/dresses, know that if you intend to wear pencil skirts/sheath/tunic dresses, you should probably get a bike with a step-through frame of some sort, because your movement will be pretty restricted otherwise, particularly with starting and stopping. Short skirts (depending on the material) may ride up as you ride and may or may not get caught on your seat when you are starting/stopping! Long skirts can get caught in the chain or rear wheel. There are skirt guards for the rear wheel but you probably want to protect it from road dirt/dust so I'd suggest securing the skirt (either sit on it if you're on a cruiser style bike where you can stay seated when stopping, or tie it up). For pants/trousers, there are like these pant strap/clip things that you basically put on top of the pant legs at/slightly above your ankle to hold the fabric tight. On 2), I think the consensus in the last thread was to use either a dedicated garment bag transported on your bike (nm recommended Two Wheels garment panniers - https://www.twowheelgear.com/products/classic-3-0-garment-pannier or https://www.twowheelgear.com/products/garment-pannier-classic-2-1-kompakt-rail) or do a non-riding commute to transport all your nice clean clothes once a week. There are also hard shell garment cases that you can use that will prevent your clothing from being crushed - I recently saw one that I liked but having trouble tracking it down. - What are you doing re: the trade off between sunscreen while riding and makeup at the office? Do you keep a makeup bag at the office? Thread consensus was to keep a touch up makeup kit in the office. Is there consensus on a good baby seat? The two I can recommend is the Thule Yepp mini/maxi seat (both front and rear mounted are great) and the Hamax seats. The Topeak ones are really popular but I don't like it because there's less suspension for the kid which is not great when going over bumpy roads and also it's kind of really huge and my kid is on the small side, so we end up having to use lots of blankets and things as padding to get the seat belt tight enough. Recommendations for good baby helmets? I like the Lazer helmets - the P'Nut line is an auto-adjusting one which is great for really young kids because you just stretch it over their head and you don't have to fiddle with the dial. There's other brands around as well, the Little Nutty range is also really popular and has fun designs. I wanted to post more about bike commuting as a family but this post is getting pretty long so I should wrap it up here. But yes, to anyone thinking about bike commuting, go for it - it is loads of fun and opens the door for other fun adventures too! Leng fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Aug 7, 2020 |
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Aug 7, 2020 16:11
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leftist heap posted:I think most people say around 10-12 months, and I guess some places have laws surrounding it. Some people take younger babies but it usually requires some sort of additional baby seat. If you don't feel comfortable putting a small baby in a trailer where you don't have visibility, look into front mounted seats. My daughter LOVED it, because she got to see everything, pretend she's driving and play with the bell. They can start going into the baby seats once they have good head control and their necks are strong enough to support them. You need to keep the rides short and time it around nap time if they're in a baby seat though, because it's not safe for them to sleep in a baby seat.
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Aug 21, 2020 08:39
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I would not bike around Tokyo, no way. Kyoto, however, is a totally different story! Had a great time biking around Kyoto on a mamachari when we were holidaying with our two year old daughter.
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Aug 28, 2020 08:39
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Hi thread! I haven't been commuting much by bike because of an annoying stair situation in our apartment which made it near impossible for me to safely get my heavy bike up and down to the street (plus COVID). Even with the solution: which made it easier, it was still hard to get bikes in and out of the apartment. Fortunately, our fixed term lease ran out at the end of January so we got to apartment hunting. EvilJoven posted:Not much of a cyclist if your first rental criteria isn't bike storage. Leng posted:It was a criteria, but unfortunately lower down the list to "budget" and "sufficient space for tiny human and cat". Well, I'm not one to make the same mistake twice! And thanks to the pandemic, the insane Sydney rental market is depressed right now with landlords trying to avoid vacancies and unpaid rent as much as possible. We just moved into our new apartment–it has ground floor access, tiled floors and an entire room for bikes right by the front door which pleases my husband no end:  (I'll be honest, I'm stoked about it too because now all the bikes are out of the way of the main living area which removes the risk of our toddler running into them/knocking them over/pulling them down on top of herself and getting squished by accident) The rent is only $10/week more compared to our old place. It's so much easier to get the bikes in and out that I'm pretty reluctant to commute any other way: - grocery run to pick up a few things for lunch: 4 min ride to shopping center, 15 mins to buy everything, 4 min ride back home for a round trip <25 mins which is officially the fastest I've ever done any grocery run - taking the cat to the vet:   (this being his first bike ride in a while–and on the front rack instead of the rear rack so being subject to a lot more motion as a result–he was pretty unhappy about it, lots of growling and plaintive mewing at all the traffic around us and the bumps in the road/footpath) - dropping our toddler off at daycare - riding over to a friend's house for our regular playdate: we get to ride along a nice wide shared path beside the canal and then through a leafy greenway with lots of birdsong Being able to cycle regularly again has made me so much happier. The only complaint I have is that it's really freaking difficult to try and wrangle the heavy baby hauler through the building's front door which is an old manual door–a pretty minor complaint in the scheme of things. Moral of the story: EvilJoven might have been posting in jest but having lived in an apartment where ingress/egress was bike un-friendly vs an apartment where getting the bikes in and out is a breeze makes a MASSIVE difference in cycling frequency and happiness! Bike storage and access should absolutely be a non-negotiable in apartment hunting.
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Feb 25, 2021 02:49
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kimbo305 posted:Not 100%. Just that it seems better handling, given how high rear seats are. evil_bunnY posted:So depending on the frame front seats can be even worse. If you already have noodly behaviour from a typical step through frame, a front seat makes the whole affair worse. 12 months was around the time that we gave up on the front mounted Yepp seat (on a step through cruiser) and switched to a rear mounted seat (we have a Topeak on a Bike Friday tandem and a Hamax on the Orbea Katu, both bikes with smaller wheels). Mainly because they get heavier and heavier and so both handling and visibility get worse and worse (and they just keep growing faster). And yeah, get a solid kickstand. A VERY solid one.
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Mar 21, 2021 15:26
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kimbo305 posted:We have a kickstand plate, so which two leg stands would work? kimbo305 posted:Switched to looking at rear seats, even though I think it would be really fun to see what the babb is looking at / doing as I ride. On the first, yeah, unfortunately this is both really fun for both bub and for you; my daughter used to love being on the front and she would ring the bell for us whenever we passed people and it was just a lot of  all around. But on a good rear seat, if the kid's not smushed up against your back, they still get to see a lot. Now I do a lot of leaning side to side if I'm pointing out things that are ahead so she can see...it adds to the variety of the bike ride for her. Basically I keep up a running commentary on everything that I see, and now that she's older, I often get a running commentary back which is double and we can still play games like "spot/count the blue cars/dogs/birds/etc".We have an Ursus Big Foot kickstand on the Orbea and a Pletscher clone kickstand on the tandem, which is by far the heavier bike. On the Orbea, the kickstand can be deployed and taken back up by using one foot to push down and then roll the bike back (I can do this easily by myself while bub's in the childseat), or by putting one foot down in front of the active stand, then just rolling the bike forward against the foot so the kickstand retracts. On the tandem, two people are required–one to lift up the front of the bike while bub's seated and the other to push the kickstand down/up. I can't imagine having it on a normal bike instead of a tandem would make it better, so I don't think someone small like me could manage it. On your earlier questions, my husband says: "Our Ursus Big Foot has less forward sweep than our Pletscher clone, so more likely to end up with nose down balance. But that makes it less stable when deployed as the kid grows/gets heavier. They all tend to sweep forward by design. Are you worried about wheel flop?" All I can say is on both bikes, when the kickstands are down and our four year old is in the child seat, both front wheels are off the ground. This does mean the handlebars can kind of swing around which doesn't matter so much for the Orbea because the basket is attached to the front stem and not the handlebars, or our tandem because it's a long bike with nothing on the captain's handlebars anyway (though we are thinking of putting a front rack on it which would change things). evil_bunnY posted:Ursus stands are horrible pieces of poo poo so not that. Yeah, getting it down and taking it back up are both kind of janky ordeals because it tends to bump around the bike (and the kid by extension) and I have run my own foot over a couple of times during the process. Would have been nice to be able to try a couple of other kickstands though at this point I'm just meh about it–it gets the job done, I'm used to it now and I never let go of the bike with bub in it. Leng fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Mar 22, 2021 |
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Mar 22, 2021 22:22
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Was planning to come in and tell this thread all about how much fun we had riding as a family on our tandem to a local bakery to get some Portugese tarts, except on our way back home we saw a guy riding a tall bike as part of his normal, everyday, going around town doing errands business. I wish I had photos to post because it was the tallest thing on the road at that moment. Unfortunately we were riding north on the footpath and he jay-rode his bike off the curb on the west side of the road to cut into the southbound lane during a lull in the traffic so we had about 2 seconds of reaction time where my husband shouted "look, a tall bike!" and I whooped in excitement before we were well past and he was gone. It looked like this, but bright blue: 
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Mar 27, 2021 11:41
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alnilam posted:I've been riding my toddler to daycare in a trailer every day and it's been working great, I've been thinking about switching to a rear-mount seat but I have misgivings. First obvously there's the cargo space is nice in the trailer. The other thing is I can leave her strapped into the trailer for a bit while I, idk, put on a jacket, or replace a fallen chain. Can't safely do that with the mounted seat. Like when I'm holding the bike between my legs and putting some gloves on, even a really heavily loaded pannier is enough to let the bike get away from me sometimes and fall halfway over, so I worry about that happening with a seat. Clearly it works well for people though so I'm probably overly worried! Riding with young kids on bikes where they're in a bike seat and not a trailer: Rule #1 - you need a bike with a solid kick stand. No exceptions Rule #2 - always load the kid/s onto the bike last. Never ever trust a kid to remain seated safely on a bike while you finish loading other stuff Rule #3 - after you dismount, the kid/s must also immediately dismount. No exceptions Everything else after that is personal preference. kimbo305 posted:Test ride: Mauser posted:only time i've seen these in the wild have been with the babby uncomfortably close to the rider's butt. Is there a specific bike that the seats work best with? Kids on rear seats take up more room than you think. Wait until your kid figures out how to take her feet out of the footrests and stick them up inside your shirt/use your butt/backpack as a footrest. Then of course there's our current problem where she's grown enough that we've had to put the footrests down and now the back of my heels are running into the front of her feet when I pedal on the tandem. 
Leng fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Apr 23, 2021 |
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Apr 23, 2021 08:38
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Hey thread, so this is a kind of random bike commuting question: I self-publish children's picture books (for ages 2-6) and I asked my daughter (she's 4) last night what the next book should be about. She said "riding my bike" because we do a lot of family cycling. It surprised me, but her idea is great, because the default representation of daily transportation modes in kids books is getting into a car and driving places, or train or bus. I've got some ideas already but I would be curious to see what you guys would want to see in a kids' book about bike commuting!
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Jun 8, 2021 13:46
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Wow, thanks everyone! Looking through all of the posts, I think there's enough ideas here for at least 2, probably 3 books about bike commuting. Welp, that means I'm doing this as a separate bikes are cool series!learnincurve posted:The child immediately zooming off into the distance while the parents try to catch up, which is 100% a thing. Safety Dance posted:I was thinking something along the lines of different bikes and the people you see using them day-to-day LoudPipesSaveLives posted:Way behind in this discussion but we have a cargo bike and the kids love it. CopperHound posted:Maybe some reference to a bike bus/train instead of carpooling. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bike_bus   This is where my head was at. I was tossing up between doing the transition from bike seat to balance bike to pedal bike (probably your more standard growing up narrative), or looking for the perfect bike (whereupon the kid would go and try all of these different bikes and find the right one for them), which would then showcase all of the different kinds of bike and bike commuting experiences.Fitzy Fitz posted:I think a kid would be interested in all the things you see and experience during a bike ride that you don't during a car ride. Like nodding at another cyclist, stopping for some geese in the path, meeting people at an intersection, hurrying to beat the rain, etc. LoudPipesSaveLives posted:One thing we do is take the path along the river bank and wave to all the animals we see. Dogs, cats, horses, cows, birds, occasionally seals in the river. Our daughter always tries to spot the moon if it happens to be up during the day. kimbo305 posted:Some reassurance or guidance about cycling in traffic / feeling more exposed to cars? learnincurve posted:You could add Drama! and realty by having to ride really fast past the hissy geese before they chase you but phew! We were too fast for them. BonHair posted:If you do this, be sure to include the old lady on the e-bike going 45kmph. BonHair posted:Knowing your co rider idiot types isn't all that bad an idea honestly. Like "guy who drives super slow but still must be in front of the line at a red light". I hate that guy, partly because he goes much slower and gets there as fast as I do. Just be sure to make it about idiot behaviour instead of stereotypes. But don't be afraid to make "guy who must use the left lane at all times" either British or a middle aged man either. 100YrsofAttitude posted:What about one about the all the bugs that hitch a ride with me when I go from point A to point B? At least those that don't get eaten anyway. sat on my keys! posted:Stopping on the way home to get flowers for someone special then riding carefully the rest of the way and running into another bike commuting friend and racing each other over a bridge. I really wanted to do a book where it was about showing how cool and fun bike commuting is, but I didn't want to be all moralistic and preachy about it. These are all fantastic ways to go about it! Fitzy Fitz posted:You gotta include at least one sick jump to make it realistic This sounds like the ending page to a story where the kid starts off being scared of riding their bike! learnincurve posted:The illustrator in children’s books takes most of the load. In all likelihood, this is also going to be me.  My illustration skills are going to dictate which of these ideas I start with first, and the bike shopping one is probably the easiest to illustrate! Though I am tempted to start with the transition from bike seat to balance bike, because my daughter starts school next year so I'd really like her to start commuting to daycare on her balance bike in hopes that next year, we can keep the same routine with going to school, and THEN when she's ready for it, she can graduate to a pedal bike and we can ride to school together.
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Jun 9, 2021 00:36
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Phosphine posted:My wife got her road to work improved. Before, you had to turn off the main road into a residential area, with narrow streets, tired people leaving their driveways, hedges, and children. I am extremely jealous of this. In today's commuting story: - this morning, we were running late so I was in a rush - a courier pulls into the driveway as we ride down - I'm expecting a package and of course it turns out that he's here to deliver it - since we're late, I put it in the (already loaded) front basket and we keep going - we get to a large busy intersection with lots of pedestrians and stop at the red light, behind a car, with a line of cars behind us - the second car actually pulls up beside us, not behind us, so now I'm feeling the pressure - when the light turns green, the car in front starts inching forward and I am just super conscious of the car next to us so I start inching forward too - now as you all know, I am a petite Asian woman so I can't reach the ground with my feet while mounted, and the bike was heavier than usual this morning - the car in front is moving so slowly that I'm wobble, wobble, wobble, wobbling, and then inevitable happens where the bike, bub and I all just slowly keel over onto the road, half on the kerb and half not. It was such a slow fall that the only damage was a couple of scratches and scraps on the bike and bub's bike seat. Bub said that she bumped her head on one of the concrete planters (  and also  how did she inherit her father's ability to hit her head on things when wearing a freaking helmet) but she was super cheerful about it so it must have been a really light bump. As to the driver of the car that made me so nervous in the first place, she jumped right out immediately to check we were okay and to pick up the bike and get going again.Turns out she's a cyclist too So moral of the story: - rushing while riding makes you do stupid things - don't pull up in a car next to a cyclist, no matter how far away you think you are, because this is super nerve wracking - some drivers can actually be nice - separated cycling infrastructure should be built everywhere Also last night I finish writing the first draft of the Chinese text for the cycling book, and there is literally two lines about the mom character (me) going out on the e-bike and one of those lines is something to the effect of "be careful, watch out in front!" I think I jinxed myself.
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Jun 15, 2021 03:30
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ExecuDork posted:This morning an adult, probably male, Eastern Grey Kangaroo paced me on the other side of the sheep-paddock fence as I rolled down a gentle hill at 25 kmh. He looked like he was exerting himself at a level equivalent to a brisk walk, and he could have easily jumped over the fence at any time. He stopped close to where the path I was on turned away from the fence. I don't know the top speed he's capable of, but it's clearly much, much faster than we were going. Watching a kangaroo at full speed is an under-appreciated perk of living in Australia, I've only seen it a few times, usually from the car, and they're impressive animals. It's now past 5 pm on the east coast of Australia, report back! Did you see Skippy and also did he beat you up? I also discovered that a QUADRITANDEM is a thing: https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackbirdbikes/5917153587/in/album-72157626998866065/ The bike shop is apparently based in Minneapolis near the Mall of America. Someone who lives nearby please go and do a trial ride and report back, because I am DYING to know what one of these rides like. I feel like I would be way less scared of cars in one because there is NO WAY they're squeezing past a quadritandem...they would have to treat it like another car.
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Jul 6, 2021 08:12
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ExecuDork posted:They're not like magpies. There's a confirmed record of magpies killing a man on a bicycle. I have been seriously swooped at by a magpie riding the Georges River cycleway, they are aggressive birds and not to be messed with. But  at that article!
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Jul 7, 2021 05:04
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I'm in severe lockdown in Sydney so haven't biked anywhere for months. Finally got to yesterday when I went to get my vaccine (at last!! Australia's roll out is so bad). This is the bike parking situation in front of one of Sydney's major public hospitals:  Yeah some plants got pretty squished by the time I wrangled my cruiser in and locked up.
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Aug 31, 2021 10:29
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