bicycles??

no no! HOG THE THREAD! i was sad when i thought it would die.


meet two guys riding their bikes from LA to washington while at earthdance.

i'd like to ride my bike somewhere far like that:H

 

Yes! biking rocks my world! i try to bike whenever and wherever i can and my physical health has been great since i started. i always try to convert my friends who live close to school to bike with me in the mornings but they all take their nasty cars. i recently took quite a spill last week due to my chain just up and falling off and making me flip over my handle bars and doing a forehead plant which gave me a nasty 3rd degree concusion (blacking out, not knowing who i was, throwing up) but luckily a co-worker of mine happend to be driving by and noticed me bleeding all over and just sitting on the lawn i had fell in front of. hah, i still tend to forget things very easily and i've been excused from my harder classes for a while .

kind of a scary experience, time to wear a helmet i guess

 

So do my parents, well, they are all the same :H I love riding my bike, the best present I have ever got. But the hills and riding against the wind...ooh, so tiring!

 

I still refuse to wear a helmet, even hearing stories like that. I heard that in europe it is a sign of a novice. I'm just not into it.

 

Seems I only wear a helmet if I'm doing downhill and jumping stuff etc... Just wandering about I don't. It is scary to think about how easily you can knock your noggin' though. I feel like a big dork with one of those goofy bike helmets on though. I had a good friend who just did a cross country a couple months ago and we both agreed that his bike clothes were some of the dorkiest things known to man. (makes me think about that scene in 'Super Troopers', dress as a biker lol)

 

i don't wear one either, even though i wish i had bought one that looked like a brain, years ago. oh well.

it's a law in california anyone under the age of 18 must wear a helmet while riding a bike or you can be ticketed. which might not be a bad idea. i see kids riding in the street and parking lots not looking at all where they are going.:H


been thinking of covering my bike in fake fur...

 

I hate the fact that most people substitute a helmet for bike safety. They slap a helmet on their kid and think they're safe, whereas in reality it'd be far safer to skip the helmet and teach the rider bike safety: stuff like how to share the road with cars, specific info on certain dangerous situations and how to handle/avoid them. If one had to choose, they should choose bike safety over helmets every time.

http://bicyclesafe.com/

 

ahaha oh my.. i should print that out and hand out copies to drivers that STILL almost hit me when i'm doing everything i can NOT to be hit.


i love the names they've given each collision "the wrong way wallop"

RIDE WITH THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC! duh

 

We have all sorts of bike paths and bike lanes around here, Minneapolis-St. Paul and the buses all have racks on the front so if your going really along way you can put your bike on the bus to save time and energy. I ride my bike, walk or bus almost everywhere I go and only ride in a car maybe 2-3 times a month if that. Don't wear a helmut much, mostly just my old bandana to keep my hair from flying around and my sunglasses to keep the glare down.

 

can't i just ride my bike down the street without some ASSHOLE in his SUV screaming at me?

what a pussy move. scream some stupid shit at me.. and keep driving while him and all his little fuckface friends laugh.
i really hate people right now

 

Does anyone else think a good bike is too expensive?

I've been leaning towards the second, third, etc.-hand bikes that just need a little care to work right. I'd really like one of those sweet dual-suspension mountain bikes, but they're all over $400!

 

Definitely agree with this. When you get into the way higher price ranges (900^), you're looking at pro bikes meant for hardcore riders and racers. Some of the minute details on those bikes could mean a fraction of a second or just enough reaction to pull something spectacular but absolutely useless to the average rider.

If you ride all the time though and like to tear it up on a bike, I think it's worth it to look into the better bikes in the lower of the higher prices, 3-500. They're designed to take more abuse.

.... and yeah, def invest in some bike tools and know-how.

On the other hand, if you're not the type to go jumping down the side of a mountain, just like to kick it cruisin' around, garage sale special is the way to go. Then you can transform it as you see fit (ie fur), paint it up, even cannibalize other bikes for parts etc... it's alot of fun.

It always cracks me up though when I meet someone who's like "look at my million dollar bike" and it's just kept in the garage, comes out maybe twice a month for a ride through the park. lol.

 

I live in the country so I don't cycle into town that much. But I usually go cycling around my area just to chill out. Down to the beach or up to the woods. I was lucky to get a great Giant mountain bike at a reduced price.

 

i bruised my left butt cheek at the waterslide yesterday..

should be interesting pain i feel tomorrow while riding my bike

 

Last spring sombody stole my ole used mountain bike and so I went down to our local bike coop, which has just used bikes and bought one for 150.00 which is alot more than I was planning on but I was in a hurry to get a bike. The next day I noticed that the brake and shift cables where pretty rusted so I took it in to have them put on new ones for me, so I would'nt be worring about snapping a brake cable going down one of these steep hills around here. They told me it would be awhile before they could get to it and says could I come pick it up in a couple hours, so I says ok and walked off to a coffee shop 6 blocks away. About a block before I got to the coffee shop I found a bike seat cover one of those foam ones that fits perfect on my bike, it had just a little rip on the front of it a $15.00 ground score, made my day and its been on the bike ever since. The bike shop gets all kinds of bikes donated and repairs alot of them and then they go to some organisation that ships them over to Africa and other third world countries and gives them out to people there. They have classes to teach kids bike repair and they just started a bike taxi service on the weekends that takes people to and from the farmers market downtown here. Its real hard to park around the farmers market because its so busy on weekends and not much parking around it, so they built these bikecabs that have a bike in front with rider and a two seat cart in back for passengers. Pretty slick and the two guys that pedal the bikecabs are homeless guys that volunter at the shop and they make some money in the deal from tips and have a good time too. They have another four wheel bike there thats like a car with four plastic bucket seats with pedals in front of them and the drivers spot has a steering wheel so its like a pedal power car. I never seen it go but with four people pedaling with the twenty inch bike tires I suppose it would go pretty good. Do any of you folks have Critical Mass bike protests in your towns where a bunch of riders ride in mass like downtown, to promote bike awareness and SUV stupidity? Across the Mississippi in Minneapolis theres a couple of cartoonists that do cartoons about bike society and car crazieness I'll post when I find the sites. happy pedaling

 

http://www.ritualride.com/

chatted with these guys for a few on their way pass the earthdance fest.

 

bikes are pretty much the best things made out of metal, ever!

 

when i see an SUV.. i always think "i wonder how many bikes could be made of that car?"


critical mass... i know theres one down in fremont.. and i'm sure one in SF.. but i'm way to far to ride my bike there just to ride bikes with weekenders.

 

http://www.critical-mass.org/