This question is kind of a continuation of a discussion last week. @esnyder@MylesRyden asks about what good cycle infrastructure looks like on rural roads.
Q8. As someone living rurally in OR, I am not sure what exactly I want changed on most of the rural roads. I would love to hear more about / see some links to / etc. really good examples of what it could/should look like.
@ascentale@esnyder on low-volume roads, #AdvisoryBikeLanes make a lot of sense, given low enough speeds (and many more roads could have much lower volumes if not everyone has to drive everywhere) #BikeNite A8 -- it's just a single lane for cars between painted dashes for people walking or biking on the side, in the same width of asphalt where in the US they would stripe a double yellow centerline and post it 55mph. See also advisorybikelanes.com
@Shadowsforbars asks a question that takes us back to the earlier days of #BikeNite
Q7. Does anyone have any AI pictures of bicycles they would like to share?
(Or prompts for that matter? Good/intersesting/bad, it'd be great to see a variety. Jeremy_ai, the previous host, would often introduce BikeNite with an interesting AI generated picture)
@ascentale@Shadowsforbars#BikeNite. A7. Ah, please, no AI generated monstrosities! 😬 If you do post 'em, please CW or tag them so we can avoid the nightmares.
@ascentale@bikescape@bikestuffpdx to clarify that distance, the flat blue building in the background here is across the river from me, but you have to go down the ridge and across a bridge and then another ways still to get to the SE tool library.
@ascentale@kimu#BikeNite A4. Trek Rally Wavecel (which was what the LBS carries). Very comfortable and the air flow is great, great ratings! The only problem is the chin strap won't stay adjusted correctly, I have to tighten it before every ride. #helmet
@ascentale@kimu A4: I have a Giro Montaro. It fits and it's light and has lots of ventilation, and in particular, it has a brim. I want a brim for a bunch of reasons.
(It's also one of the ones Bothell Ski and Bike carries, which narrows the choices a lot for me; they've been around forever and I pretty well trust them.)
Welcome to the May 24th BikeNite! Thanks for joining, and I hope we all enjoy chatting about cycle stuff! Feel free to answer whenever at your convenience. Anyone can join, now or later. Reply to what you like, and boost for visibility.
We'll start out with our introduction (with help from @jfparis)
Q1. Where are you posting from today? Where we are, Spring semester is over or almost over for many students. How does this affect your riding?
@ascentale@jfparis A1: Hiya! North of Seattle as usual, up in northern King County. Graduation incoming means that my rides to one particular remote site will involve fewer people on Burke-Gilman, but not that many because more non-students will be on it too.
@ascentale@jfparis#BikeNite A1. Ventura County, CA. I just realized that today! That means no more avoiding near the high school around new-driver-melee-time (err... lunch)!
@ascentale@trouble#BikeNite A8. Rear cargo rack I found at a garage sale for $2. AWESOMENESS! Now I'm thinking fenders and panniers for full utility bike geekery! WOOOHOO!
I always thought it was having a classic "snakebite" pattern and that other things don't use that term, but the shop I went to this week seems to use it differently (in a more rubbing situation maybe?), so I think my definition is maybe too restrictive.
@ascentale@SRLevine #BikeNite A7:
My best pinch flat story is the time that I first did a road ride in 95+F weather. I did not adjust the tire inflation to account to the heat and then I was inflating a bit too much back then anyway. It started getting really hot and when I hit a bump, "POP!" It was so hot that whenever I looked down to work on the replacement tube, the sweat rolled off my forehead like I turned on a faucet!
@ascentale@SRLevine#BikeNite A7. That would be the giant hole in the side of the tube I put in about the first 4 or 5 tires I changed when I was in high school... and not until recently did I figure out why I was doing tire changes wrong (thanks, YouTube!). I really could have used some help when I was a kid on these kinds of things, but I was basically a loner who had to figure things out myself.
@pete asks about group rides with electric + non-electric cycles:
Q6. We have problems making group MTB rides work when eBikers join us for fastish-paced rides: essentially they’re too fast on the ups and too slow on the flats for group cohesion. Anyone have any tips for making mixed eeb/regular groups work?
@enobacon@pete@meganL@AngelaAntunovic@ascentale my mental model has always been that mid drives just output more power through the chain than it’s rated for. The average human with no training can output a burst of ~500 watts, but will sustain much closer to 100-200 watts. A motor will sustain 750 watts or higher. That extra power dramatically shortens the useful life of most bicycle chains. #BikeNite
@younata@pete@meganL@AngelaAntunovic@ascentale power = torque * rpm, so it's a question of how the motor delivers that power, high torque vs high rpm. I've had a bbs02 on an xtracycle edgerunner for a decade, and gone through chains no faster than one should expect for rainy miles vs lube schedule, but I'm geared lower, ~100rpm climbing. Bosch torque-activated drive ads about one extra person standing on the pedal, if you're mashing hard enough to activate, it's 2x tension on the chain.
Q4. Most cyclists drive motor vehicles at least sometimes, and some more frequently.
How has your cycling affected the way you drive? Are you slower and more careful? Do you do anything differently when encountering cyclists on the streets?
I have many people very close to me that are convinced of such things as "bicycles have to be able to keep up with traffic to be on the roads." I have no idea where such things come from and even when I explain things from a cyclist's (and the actual law) point of view, they still think I am wrong.
@ascentale
As a cyclist my tolerance for traffic jams is super low. Whenever I'm driving I'll always be thinking about how if I had ridden my bike I'd be there—or at least having fun getting there—by now. @MartyCormack
@meganL@ascentale@RossA A3. That’s one of the superpowers of biking: you can actually observe and interact with your surroundings. This is a plus in some places and a minus in others, but, yeah, I do a lot of botanizing while biking. #BikeNite
@ascentale@RossA #BikeNite A3a:
During the height of the pandemic when we could not do group rides, but needed each other's support to be motivated to ride, we discovered a game called Bike Tag. You ride to a landmark in your city, well known or obscure, post a picture of your bike near it, and the first person who gets there on their bike to post their photo, gets to pick the next place. It got me on my bike every day trying to find the next tag.
Q2. I'm thinking of getting a folding bike on the cycle to work scheme, to help with each end of a mainly train-based commute once or twice a month. Any recommendations/avoids for a hefty 6ft3 chunky monkey? (Me)
@ascentale A2 I think Bromptons are pretty solidly built but I also have a tall neighbour who afaik is still in the process of riding back to Europe from Malaysia on a Birdy.
Welcome to the May 17th BikeNite! Thanks for joining, and I hope we all enjoy chatting about cycle stuff! Feel free to answer whenever at your convenience. Anyone can join, now or later. Reply to what you like, and boost for visibility.
We'll start out with our introduction (with help from @jfparis)
Q1. Where are you posting from today? How long was your last ride? And how long is your usual ride to work/uni/school/whatever?
@ascentale@jfparis#BikeNite A1. Ventura County, California. My last ride was... long. I am sore. 8 miles... with lots of hills and dodging semis. Oops! I usually ride a fraction of that--3 miles, at most. I am tempted to take a hot shower and go to sleep, and it's only 5:22 pm today (ride was yesterday). Do not recommend, LOL.
Call for questions: it is #BikeNite this Friday at 4pm Pacific time!
Reply with questions you'd like me to add to the discussion on Friday! You can add the BikeNitePQ hashtag so it's easier to find a Proposed Question. There are only a couple in the queue right now.
(BikeNite is a Q&A type discussion on the Fediverse.)
Relatedly, what is the easiest bicycle to maintain in the long term, like if you wanted it to be a family heirloom? Bikes that are no longer in production are valid. What factors do you consider for ease of maintenance?
If you were building a bike from scratch with the goal of making it as easy to maintain as possible, how would you do it?
@alexisdyslexic@cycling So my point is not to act as if Davis is the worst - it's not. But I want to show that you don't have to scratch deeply to hit the car-centrism and ableism. Therefore holding it up uncritically as "Platinum Bike-Friendly" does us a great disservice. #UCAccessNow#CarCenrism#Cycling
@meganL@cycling the best in North America is probably Montreal. But Not Just Bike just made a clap back video about how poorly Montreal stand up to European cities. I don't think we have a good infrastructure anywhere in North America.
But I think we're at an inflexion point and a lot is going to be built out soon.