Great. More cyclists.
I hate it when the seasonal cyclists steal the lock-points that I've been using all winter.
I have squatters' rights dammit!
Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City
81–90 of 160 posts
Re: Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone that used to be an avid cyclist. Disc brakes are almost completely pointless for commuter bicycles. Don't get me wrong they are great when mountain biking (I have cable discs on my mountain bike). On a commuter bike they are mostly just overkill IMHO. But I wouldn't buy a carbon road bike either (All my bikes are steel framed).
As someone who rides 2k miles a year in seattle for multiple years your attitude is why I had to pay through the nose and do all sorts of custom crap to have a decent braking solution that didn't eat my rims and worked well on steep hills and the oily wet on the rims. I'm glad that discs are finally taking over, even if it's 10 years after they should have because "they're not tour legal".
I cycled approximately 5000 kilometers per year (cycling to work + over the weekends), also through hilly terrain. I have never had my brakes eat my rims.
Also, even if they did. Replacing a 800 Euro bike once per two years is peanuts compared to owning a car or taking public transport.
Re: Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the bike industry is currently switching over from rim brakes to disc brakes, you can get some pretty good deals on older (but still brand new) road bikes if you look around. A few months ago I bought a carbon road bike for less than $1,500 including tax. Granted expect to spend at least as much on accessories, but if you live somewhere where you can use it for both commuting and exercise then it still pays f…
As someone that used to be an avid cyclist. Disc brakes are almost completely pointless for commuter bicycles. Don't get me wrong they are great when mountain biking (I have cable discs on my mountain bike). On a commuter bike they are mostly just overkill IMHO. But I wouldn't buy a carbon road bike either (All my bikes are steel framed).
I would get rim brakes over another set of cable disc brakes. I recently got a gravel bike as my "go anywhere" bike, and the cable disc brakes are absolute garbage, constantly going out of adjustment and rubbing, making noise, or just being ineffective. As a contrast, my hydraulics on my mountain bike are absolutely fine with minimal work, just a flush every year and changing the pads when they wear down.
Re: Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City
#84But they're bicycling to some place with other people, so it's not like they're out of close contact with others. Although I suppose it's still better than having that same contact and the additional contact of public transport.
Re: Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone that used to be an avid cyclist. Disc brakes are almost completely pointless for commuter bicycles. Don't get me wrong they are great when mountain biking (I have cable discs on my mountain bike). On a commuter bike they are mostly just overkill IMHO. But I wouldn't buy a carbon road bike either (All my bikes are steel framed).
As someone who rides 2k miles a year in seattle for multiple years your attitude is why I had to pay through the nose and do all sorts of custom crap to have a decent braking solution that didn't eat my rims and worked well on steep hills and the oily wet on the rims. I'm glad that discs are finally taking over, even if it's 10 years after they should have because "they're not tour legal".
Yeah if you're commuting in the rain or with lots of hills then disc brakes are definitely worth it. But if neither of those apply to you, they're probably not a good use of money, especially considering it still costs quite a lot to get good quality hydraulic disc brakes.
Re: Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City
#86What I really want to know is if there's been a stairwell boom. Stairwells usually have the freshest air because they have to be at a positive pressure. And people with respiratory diseases will be taking the elevator. Possibly before they even feel other symptoms. Not sure how often stairwells are cleaned though.
> Not sure how often stairwells are cleaned though.
'Never' would be my wild guess.
Re: Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who rides 2k miles a year in seattle for multiple years your attitude is why I had to pay through the nose and do all sorts of custom crap to have a decent braking solution that didn't eat my rims and worked well on steep hills and the oily wet on the rims. I'm glad that discs are finally taking over, even if it's 10 years after they should have because "they're not tour legal".
I cycled approximately 5000 kilometers per year (cycling to work + over the weekends), also through hilly terrain. I have never had my brakes eat my rims. Also, even if they did. Replacing a 800 Euro bike once per two years is peanuts compared to owning a car or taking public transport.
Good for you, does that somehow make my experience invalid? No it's a YMMV which is why discs are important to me.
Replacing a 2k usd bike every 2 years in addition to paying for car while I try to work into cycling is a big cost. I'm a big person, I've had pretty much every rim but velocity touring rims fail due to weight and stress, and rim brakes made this worse and fail faster, it's also real shady to have a rim crack while you're riding it. Discs completely remove that from the equation.
Re: Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone that used to be an avid cyclist. Disc brakes are almost completely pointless for commuter bicycles. Don't get me wrong they are great when mountain biking (I have cable discs on my mountain bike). On a commuter bike they are mostly just overkill IMHO. But I wouldn't buy a carbon road bike either (All my bikes are steel framed).
I'm a year-round bike commuter, and I really appreciate those disc brakes when I'm biking in heavier rain. Don't underestimate how much better they work than rim brakes in adverse weather conditions. I'd say it's just the other way around; disc brakes are most useful for commuters, and least useful for dedicated race bikes, because you just don't go out racing when it's raining a lot (and you're typically on a closed…
I live in the UK and rim brakes are fine in even heavy rain. What they are not fine with is mud and grit on the rim.
I do use a touring bike (basically a racing bike that isn't quite as aggressive) and I've ridden that all year round.
Re: Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City
#89Is it true people are looting Trader Joe's there?
No amount of google-fu turned up anything other than a single article that mentioned long lines in a store on the Upper West side. Maybe it's making the rounds on facebook/social media as a scare-story but there's no apparent truth to it.
Re: Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Someone recently made an app here in Germany where you can take a photo of offending cars and the app automatically forwards the information to the authorities. Perhaps someone can do something like that for NY? Source in German: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/app-wegeheld-falschpark... Here's an English article: https://road.cc/content/news/258976-german-app-lets-cyclists...
In New York, the "authorities" park in the bike lanes: https://twitter.com/copsinbikelanes
Yes, you can document this kind of thing all you like with the 311 app but cops will "investigate" and find no problems and take no action. Another good twitter account documenting this kind of stuff is https://twitter.com/placardabuse