I don't even know what to say about people scared of a pennyfarthing. I guess they never saw a guy push a motorcycle fast as he can in 3rd gear clutch disengaged, and jump on when the engine fires after he dumps the clutch. (They took away kickers before electric start was reliable)
My old VW Beetle had an unreliable starter, so I often found myself push-starting it. You don't see many people push-starting vehicles today, and even fewer doing it by themselves.
I have a Priority Apollo. The maintenance is way less than any of my chain-drive bikes, which I really appreciate. I tend to bike in the winter and in the rain (although not so much this last year), and it has been so much better for that (internal hub as well: no salt/sand in the gears, no risk of rust, etc). The internal hub on it is different shifting than a normal derailleur, but you get used to it. It's definitely heavier than my roughly equivalent spec chain-drive bike, and it feels a lot slower. It is silent (like you don't think of chains as loud, but by comparison you really notice the lack of sound). The major downside is it just doesn't "feel" as responsive as a chain. I don't quite know how to describe it, it's not like there is a bunch of stretch in the belt or anything, but it just feels different in a way I don't entirely love. That could partly be a factor of the internal hub though, and I'll be honest, if I could do it again I would have gotten a belt single speed rather than internal hub, but I would get a belt again -- even if only for avoiding the salt damage in the winter.
The major downside is it just doesn’t “feel” as responsive as a chain. I don’t quite know how to describe it, it’s not like there is a bunch of stretch in the belt or anything, but it just feels different in a way I don’t entirely love.
From what I heard, a belt drive has an efficiency loss that's greater than a chain drive, so that's what you could be feeling. The energy you put in isn't being translated into the same energy output you'd get from a chain.
Good call for the early rest day, and kudos for fessing up to the badass photo (although in truth the whole journey and all the photos are actually badass). Nice report. Please write more while you wait for food - it feels like one of my trips and the story is almost as good as being there. Except the beers.
Early rest day was good yeah, i'm sure i would have needed it otherwise a couple days later in bumfuck nowhere. I'll add some more pics that i had posted to masrodon, but i have now deleted my account there, it is just not for me.
The landscapes were totally crazy all the time. From granada up to that plateau, crazy colors. Really unique and cool.
I will keep posting some updates along the route in the biketouring community, onlz make a new topic when the theme changes. Like 'cycling in the pyrenees' or 'i took a ferry to greece because it was too cold in spain'.
And i may post stuff here that fits, i almost wanted to post about this funny cycle cafe in malaga, where i got 10% discount on my breakfast because i got there by bike:
I thought it was funny because it wasn't like anybody got there by car, the other guests were all pedestrians. They just really like people riding a bike i guess.
Cool cafe
Also you are doing all this without suspension. I started a tour in Italy last year on my hardtail, but it was a bit punishing as the trails looked like yours. I’m going back in June. It taking my fully in touring-bike mode (tent on the front, drybag strapped below the saddle bag. I think it’ll be ok)( I just have to carry less)
Just what i'm used to ride, well it's my bike :) I don't have problems like hurting wrists that many seem to have. I assume with a fully you can go faster and safer, more comfortable on dirt, so yeah sounds good to me.
Less stuff has some cool time saving that goes with it i think, less to fiddle with less to unpack and pack... And italy is a great place to not cook for yourself, haha.
Are you planning to ride some established route? Wish you a lot of fun, hope you share some of ot with us!
Since it's singling out women, I'd have expected some kind of comparison to, say, men, but the article appears to discuss only women's exposition to general situations one might encounter as a bicycler.
While being threatened on your life or having to leave the road until a especially aggressive trafficant gets bored and leaves is very annoying and can leave you shaking, it's not actually rare for either gender to experience such situations (going by own experiences).
While I do imagine women suffer more abuse than men when biking, and while the article does not actually make any attempt to tell whether women experience more abuse on the roads than men, I'd say that the article definitely paints a need for better conditions for all bicyclers.
Sorry for the rant, I just dislike when someone singles out a demographic for cheap points, and then never follows up with relevant data.
I understand where you're coming from. It's true the survey doesn't have any male polling group to compare to, so it's difficult to quantify the difference.
But I still think it's valuable for a couple reasons. For one, I think improving biking conditions for women and improving them for everyone is largely the same thing, so for the most part the solutions are the same no matter how you frame it.
For two, there is good data showing that women bike less than men when there's less infrastructure, but that gap closes as the infrastructure improves. There might be a lot of reasons for that. I tend to believe, from comparing my experiences with the women I know, that it's a mix of women receiving more (and scarier) abuse while biking, and young men just being more risk-tolerant in general. So why I agree this article doesn't really prove that thesis, I'm personally inclined to think there's truth to it.
Not disagreeing with the need for improved conditions but I also agree that it is annoying when there's articles trying to make things a gender issue, without actually providing the data that would say that it is a gender issue. From what I can tell bike riders are generally the victims of abuse, especially from car drivers, to the point where they're even seen as undesirables or other dehumanizing things that would warrant the abuse (from the perspective of the abuser).
The gap itself between genders on bikes is simply due to the lack of safe infrastructure. We see this in countless examples around the world. There's just more men who are willing to take the risk to drive in unsafe traffic conditions, but the numbers of women (and also kids) go up significantly every time there's good infrastructure change.
Bontrager isn't a real brand or anything. It was on attempt at trying to convince people that contract manufactured junk with stickers was as good as the specialty brands that made far better products. Now everyone is a sticker brand except Giant. Funny because they were the first major contract manufacturer when Schwinn sold out their neighbors for profit.
$200 is steep for OEM contract manufacturing from who knows where IMO.
Here's the thing, the BOM for a model may come from different contract manufacturers so you need to really do your homework or bring the bike. Stuff is intentionally proprietary to exploit you in exactly this kind of situation. Proprietary is always theft of ownership.
College campuses are like buffets for bike thieves. Outside of that, most bike theft is a crime of opportunity, and just being locked better than the bikes next to it is enough. But on campus (and other places with heavy use, like outside museums), lock both wheels to the frame and the frame to a rack, and lock the seat, too.
Never lock your bike to street signs if you can help it. They're easy to disassemble. Use a proper rack.
Swap out any "quick release" mechanisms for the kind that use tools.
Get a strong chain or a beefy cable. Fuhgeddaboutit locks are very reliable (they also make a fine weapon in a pinch). Make sure to wrap the chain/cable so that there is as little free space to get a set of chompers around it as possible. Make sure to include at least front wheel, if not both wheels, in the wrap. Lock should ideally wrap around the post, front tire, and frame. Try to make sure yours is either better secured or less valuable, or both, than your neighbor's. Install a discreet gps locator. Don't leave valuables attached to the frame while it is not directly in your custody.
Be careful not to include another's lock/frame/chain in your wrap. Not only is it extremely inconsiderate and inconvenient, it is a common tactic for thieves to lock someone's bike and come back to it later on the expectation that someone who doesn't know better will assume good faith and come back tomorrow, by which point the thief has had all night to work.
Back wheel is costlier to replace (due to gearing, assuming it's not a fixie/single speed), so I prioritize locking the back wheel if I can only do one.
If you have quick-release axles and don't want to worry about having your wheels stolen, most bike shops have security axles, which have a special key to loosen the axle. I've used them in the past for some extra peace of mind. Just dont lose the key(s)!
EDIT: if you get a LONG, beefy chain lock, you can carry it around your torso like one of those ammo belts. Convenient to not need a backpack or pannier for short trips. Be prepared to spend some $$ on a good lock. It's a great investment.
Can we get the hyperbole out of here? If OP had actually read (and understood) the article they would have seen it was one of those confluence of events that no one could see coming. As soon as the car detected the cyclist it hit the brakes and the cyclist had minor injuries.
Basically, this car didn't mow anyone down and did exactly what it was designed to do and attempted not to hit anyone.
As soon as the car detected the cyclist it hit the brakes and the cyclist had minor injuries.
Had you read (and understood) the article, you would have seen that police have no details about what caused the crash, so you're basing your assessment entirely on what the company said happened.
They have a certain level of damage-control to contend with, so no doubt they won't be admitting negligence.
I think the cyclist only walked away with minor injuries because of the low speed of the accident (the car was allegedly coming off a stop sign) and vehicle type. But I also think it should have it seen or anticipated the cyclist and stopped sooner, especially at such low speeds.
Unless, of course, the claim is that the cyclist hit the car, and not the other way around.
To be fair, the article is trash. There's details in other publications, like Reuters:
"Waymo said its vehicle was at a complete stop at a four-way intersection when a large truck crossed the intersection in its direction. At its turn to proceed, the Waymo car moved forward.
However, the cyclist, who was obscured by the truck which the cyclist was following, took a left turn into the Waymo vehicle's path. When the cyclist was fully visible, the Waymo's vehicle braked heavily, but wasn't able to avoid the collision, the company said."
Drafting through an intersection is not very safe (I really should stop doing it myself) because of this exact visibility problem. Heck, it seems our cyclist friend cut left because they couldn't see the waymo car either.
Watch out when crossing busy intersections, folk! Cars are bulky and opaque. Yield when encountering busy intersections.
You need to be better. The article says there was a passenger in the car, I'm sure they can and will testify as to exactly what happened.
Again. This wasn't a mowing down of anyone and it was a situation that even human drivers wouldn't have been able to avoid.
I'm accepting that statement from waymo at face value until given reason not to. There are likely witnesses including the aforementioned passenger. Waymo is the one who called the cops. You need to take a breath and stop letting your hatred of vehicles larger than a bicycle color your take on things. It's not healthy and it will lead to stress based health issues down the road.
Can't wait until a guy that loses the ability to use their legs because they got demolished by a self driving cat has to defend themselves against corporate lawyers for daring to exist next to their infallible automated driving car.
It also sounds like it's a situation that even a human driver wouldn't have been able to avoid. Until the tech can see around corners and through solid objects, this kind of thing is still likely to happen regardless of who or what is driving.
The closest production bike available in the US similar to omafiets would be the beach cruiser. They're available as a single-speed with/without coaster brakes, or internally geared, have wide handle bars, step-through or stylish but still easy mounting frame, and often have color-matched basket and rack options.
Careful with what you wish for. Omafiets and cruisers work where there aren't significant hills. Heavy single speeds really suck when you're faces with even a moderate 4% grade. Practical urban bikes in the US really need some gearing.
Literally the only criticism I have about my longtail cargo ebike is that the bike shop culture is still dreadful about them. Many flat scoff and tell you they refuse to do ANY kind of work on any ebike that they didn't themselves sell. It's so ridiculous. I went to my local shop after accidentally popping a piston out and did a surprise full bleed during a brake pad change and asked if they could just top of me off or loan me a funnel, and they went on a whole rant about "insurance" because of the battery (which is removable you dumbasses) and how "specialty mechanics" tools were needed for that kind of thing. Nope, it was just a $20 kit from Amazon and some mineral oil.
Other than that it is a dream. Fits four fullly-loaded grocery bags in the panniers and could easily be expanded with a front/tail basket, cargo net, passenger/child seats, etc.. Easily takes me around town, typically with shorter trips than driving thanks to it being uncongestable and my full comfort with the Idaho stop. I also don't need to find and pay for parking, aside from the occasional place that makes it remarkably hard to lock up your bike through unintentional hostile design choices.
Anecdote aside, I can basically do all necessary service work on it myself, in the climate controlled living room. And the good eBike brands have very responsive customer support, in my experience.
For $2 grand all in, I have a vehicle that serves me better than the car rotting in my driveway. I often go months between cranking the ignition on it. I'd even be able to get lumber on the ebike if I got a cargo trailer if not for the fact that you have to take sidewalks for much of that route because it's on an insane stroad.
I have been into bikes for nearly 30 years now and in all that time I have only ever found 1 bike shop that isn't up its own arse. Even if I go in an speak in a knowledgeable way about exactly what I want I will nearly always get condescending answers in return. They all act like this clique that you are not a part of and so look down upon you as an inferior.
So your experience doesn't surprise me in the slightest. On forums and the internet in general people bang on about your LBS and supporting your "local bike shop" and all that trash but why would I want to support a bunch of cunts who think they are better than me and actively go out of their way to try and prove that in every interaction.
Yeah, I got a racing bike from a local brand that was mainly known for cheap supermarket bikes. However, they did sell small series of high quality bikes directly out of the factory as well. My racing bike is one of those. It was a lucky, heavily discounted grab at their outlet shop sitting there for ages due to the horrendous colour combination of Telekom magenta and sperm white (great theft deterrent 😋).
In the almost 30 years I own this bike now, every bike shop I went to scoffed at the brand and refused to work on it. The only exception was a bike shop at my university town specialising in buying scrap bikes and building new Frankenbikes out of them for the students.
He took one look at my bike when I brought it in, smiled, immediately identified it as a factory bike. He complimented the quality and ease of maintenance, congratulated my purchase (on a 15 year old bike lol) and said he's looking forward to working on it. Save to say he had a loyal customer for the whole time I was living there.
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