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In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

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Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#51
post #41

Generally reasonable except: > Sexy? > No. > Doesn’t pass the simplicity test and completely unnecessary. If the only complaints about an "art" style installation are that it isn't simple or the absolute minimum, that sounds like a major win.

I think the simplicity in question refers to the installation's practicality for locking bikes.

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#52

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…

That said, there are also a lot of similar and different designs as recommended by the largest German bicycle lobby organization [1].

I'd be curious to know what designs engineers from the Netherlands or Denmark have come up with.

[1] https://www.adfc.de/artikel/adfc-empfohlene-abstellanlagen-g...

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#53
post #25

> known as the "Sheffield rack" or "Sheffield stand" after the city of Sheffield in England where these were pioneered [wikipedia] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_parking_rack Just in case anyone was interested in the etymolology. Also they used to make bike racks out of wood? Sick (?!) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_parking_rack#/media/... PS I loved this post and I agree completely. Bike rack opini…

I'm a bit of a cycling enthusiast and have lived in wonderful Sheffield. Yet I've never heard about this being called "Sheffield stand". Very excited to learn :)

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#54

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…

Pitlock are nice. The day I lost my Pinhead key and opened one with a flathead and a hammer in less than a minute was a little sobering. They’re still better than a quick release.

For sure, nothing is 100% secure (and even with multiple U-locks an angle grinder will win out after a while). I've had a good experience with hexlox so far - they are super hard to remove without a key. Haven't had any theft issues in multiple years of parking around San Francisco.

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#55
City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, effectively requires Sheffield stands as suitable bike parking: https://www.cambridgema.gov/-/media/Files/CDD/Transportation...

A handful of the other types, e.g. the lampposts, get called out as acceptable as well.

I should bring up a few dozen of those and distribute them to various retailers around the city...

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#56

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?

I didn't know pipe benders capable of bending 3" dia steel tubing were accessible to a garage shop. you also need to weld mounting flanges.

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#57
I really like this style of bike racks: https://www.wuft.org/news/files/2019/10/ElectricScooter-1024...

(Don't know the name)

It lets two fit in next to each other by raising the wheel of one, and the wheel locks means it just slots in so nicely. Plus a raised part for the lock

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#58
post #35

Url changed from https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1493299809574342659 , which points to this. It's fine to posts links to alternative views in the thread, but please submit the original source (per https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ).

But... Twitter is unreadable! I get all these weird popups and it requires enormous amounts of effort just to follow the thread.

We probably can't fix Twitter. Would it be possible to reconsider the guidelines to allow for alternative views of websites that have absolutely atrocious usability?

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#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.

Re: In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

#60

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…

Yeah, most bikes in NL are not that expensive and/or old, have only integrated ring locks and are still not be attractive to opportunistic thieves.

Still, I'm glad that most places have proper Sheffield stands at most one block away here.

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