Live data from Hacker News

In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

twitter.com

121–130 of 240 posts

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#121
post #59

Sadly, no amount of locking points provides sufficient protection against an experienced thief. In London, I've seen some of these Sheffield stands cut with an angle grinder.

It doesn't have to be perfect; just good enough. You don't have to lock up perfectly, just better than the bikes around you. And carry insurance and be prepared to replace your bicycle. Or just ride beaters.

Yup, I ride an old clunker, use a padlock and chain, and try to park next to a nicer bike with a cable lock. You need to have a really good eye for bikes to notice that my ugly bike is actually a finely tuned machine.

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#123
I feel like there should be a term for over-designing something that doesn't need to be redesigned. I guess "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"?

A classic example for me is microwaves. The amount of variations I've seen to enter in a time and turn it on is absolutely ridiculous.

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#125

While the overall point of simple racks being better definitely stands, the premise that a bike needs two locks is just silly and impractical. Get wheel locks for your bikes - pinhead, hexlox (my favorite), etc. If your wheels are secured to the frame you just need to lock the frame with one lock/chain. Takes way less time to park and you dont need to lug multiple 5lb locks (unfortunately thats how heavy secure locks…

Pinhead & Hexlox barely say how they work or offer any instructions and they're also quite expensive compared to cheap bikes.

They're simply skewers that can't be removed by a standard wrench, but instead require a weird wrench with a semi-unique combination.

Could you still hack one? Sure, given time and forethought, but every other bike near you will have quick-release or regular hex nuts.

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#126

For most bike "racks" here in NL it seems like the primary purpose is not security, but just having somewhere to lean bikes against and give people a sensible place to park their bikes (as opposed to "in a huge pile") Most people don't bother physically locking their regular city bikes to anything (only using a ring lock on the bike itself), primarily cheap beater bikes but also there's a guy in my street with a €200…

No one locks their bikes in Japan, either. According to Wikipedia this is thanks to "strong policing and general public disregard for stolen items." I can certainly say I've never heard of a US police department doing anything proactive in response to a reported bike theft.

People lock their bikes... just using the ring lock in general. If only because you need to put the key in to unlock the ring lock (and ride the bike) and then when you're somewhere if you don't lock it your key is just on the bike.

Of course it's a tiny ring lock. It's to stop unmotivated people and also people just taking the wrong bike. But works well enough.

Probably not 100% but "no one locks their bike" is incorrect.

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#127

In general, the author is right, and the simple design is by far the best. But the classic Sheffield stand with a circular cross section can be easily cut with a pipe cutter. Contrary to an angle grinder, a pipe cutter doesn't make any noise. Thus, the design has been improved by making it solid instead of hollow and giving it a rectangular cross section, like [1]. I used to hate the improved design because it's obvi…

Is the risk of someone using a pipe cutter really that high? Seems like if someone is that dedicated they are getting your bike anyway.

I doubt it, bike thieves will just use a battery angle grinder with a cutting wheel on your bike lock, and everyone will absolutely ignore them doing it in the middle of the day.

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#128

In my car-centric city (southeast USA, population ~125k) when I visit private property with no bicycle parking, I try to find the owner and offer to install one of these just for the cost of materials. The idea being, they can put in another one when they see more than one customer on a bicycle at the same time. It's very cheap, less than 100 bucks typically as I have the requisite tools in my garage to make them fro…

all you need is a pipe bender, right?

Not even.

90 degree pipe bends are a stock item most places you can buy pipe.

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#129
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a city where bike theft happens, but you're reasonably sure to come back to an intact bike if the frame is locked to something attached to the ground. The security aspect of the Sheffield stand may not be necessary, but I still prefer them. There are a couple of reasons for that. Spacing is one reason. While you may share a stand with someone else, the next stand is going to be two to three feet away. I don…

Those Sheffield things barely exist here and where they do, they're always taken with other bikes parked all over the place around them so you can't really get your bike back out anyway without lifting other bikes aside. Theres tons of bikes and very little room here since cars need all that's available, so if your bike passes as ordinary, you'll come back to an intact bike regardless of how you lock it, as long as y…

A lot of places need to learn how to accommodate cyclists since we already deal with a lot of nonsense that would be considered inconceivable in the case of motorists. Consider parking. Not only do most cities stipulate how much parking must be available for vehicles, no one is going to put up with parking spaces that are so narrow that vehicles are physically touching one another. In contrast, cyclists frequently have to fit their bikes together like a jigsaw puzzle. That is assuming that space is made available in the first place. Hunting down a sign or small tree are often the only options.

Then there are the other indignities, the most common being improperly installed stands. My current favourite though is how my city installed some post and ring stands, then used them to secure signs for a construction project. (The irony is that cyclists now have to secure their bikes to sign posts that are secured by bike stands!) Whenever parking is reduced due to construction, city hall hears about it. Whenever a bike stand is rendered useless, cyclists are supposed to be grateful for what we have.

As for the space requirements for the Sheffields, the least efficient arrangement that I can think of would still handle six bikes in one parking spot. When you factor in the amount of space used by aisles, which don't need to be as wide for bikes, the average will be closer to 17 bikes per parking space. That is not much of a sacrifice. Indeed, it would free up a fair amount of space. Space that could be used for homes, businesses, or even parkland assuming that you could convince people to bike instead.

(I did some quick arithmetic: two parking spots separated by an aisle is 450 square feet, or the size of a small apartment. Managing to eliminate 25 parking spots is the equivalent of freeing up a quarter acre lot, which is sufficient for detached home and yard.)

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#130
> On a similar theme, what about one unit you install and it holds lots of bikes?

> Not bad, but still not good enough imo

If that's your idea of "lots of bikes" (see the picture), something is very wrong.

Go to a grocery store in Shanghai, where people regularly use bikes, and there will be a fenced-off bike parking area with no stands of any kind. That's how you hold lots of bikes. The stand is a way to say "we don't expect people to use bicycles, but doesn't our stand look cool?".

Post reply on HN