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.
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.
doesn’t protect from zombies
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’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.
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.
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. e-bikes also really messed stuff up because you have people going 20-30mph whereas before bikes they were going like 10-15mph, and the former is way more dangerous. i fucking hate ebike riders.
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 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.
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
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.
True, I could see it being a thing in parts of London
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.
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.
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.
Mostly true but I find the price is pretty high nowadays.
I bought my last two bikes for $20 and $50 at the goodwill respectively
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.
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.
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.
My bike doesn’t go 90mph and have room for 3 others with their bags.
Edit (because I know you all love edits): is there a fucking train in this picture I’m missing? Nerds jumping through hoops to make people who like cars seem crazy. Nobody will ever take you people seriously.
4 bikes can fit 4 people and their bags though
I know I know. We’re all going to pack up and ride 400 miles 🙄
Fucking nerds and their need to acktchually on forums.
Damn dude, all your trips are 400 miles? I feel bad for you
Don’t know if you’ve heard of the concept, but it is possible to own both a car and several bikes and use the one most suited for the task. I know it can be a daunting challenge for people like you to conceptualize a reality that isn’t based on binary extremes, but stay with me: you take your bicycle for short trips and commutes within the city, but use a car for occasional 400-mile trips. You can even take your bicycle with you in the car if you want to be really woke.
Mind-blowing, am I right? Apologies if this revelation has caused your worldview to collapse.
I think this is what he was getting at though. Bikes would not be best suited for his hypothetical here.
How often do you drive 400 miles? I live on the prairies and do it maybe once month. You know what I do? Rent. It’s cheaper than owning a large vehicle for occasional trips. I have a smaller daily driver but don’t take it on long trips or into the mountains.
Each one can have their bike, with bags on bag holders. If you are going for a long distance trip, you can take a train and get your bikes onboard. What’s the big deal ?
If you are going for a long distance trip, you can take a train and get your bikes onboard
No. You must ride! Ironman triathlon is a valid method of commuting to work.
Bike in the city, for communting limited distances (under 1 hour i’d say), and when you obviously dont have to carry someone else (who could take the bike himself anyways).
Outside the city or for longer distances there are this long cars that go straight more than 90 mph and have room for a bit more than 4 or 5 people.
I would love it if we had commuter trains in rural areas of the US again.
I can appreciate a point-to-point intercity solution with cars can be very convenient. My friends with kids swear by their cars for schlepping kids and their shit around and I must concede even in a country where the trains criss-cross the country and busses, trams, metros cover the rest, it can be a pain in the ass to deal with turnstiles, transfers, and crowds with kids while on a schedule. But their intracity trips are all bike or public transit.
Because people are lazy.
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.
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.
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…
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.
If I were younger, I could almost make this work. There would still be a couple of times a year when I’d need a vehicle. As it is, I can’t ride a bicycle for more than about 30 minutes, and I expect in the next ten years that will dwindle to zero.
Because people were told so in an ad.
Fuel lobbies.
You mean the gub’ment?
