71–80 of 113 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is plainly not true. In 99% of America (read: not cali, nyc, etc) if you lock your bike up it won't get stolen.
I'm in a suburb and had the seat stolen off a department store bike.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One issue is that now a lot of riders are using blinking lights all the time when riding for visibility reasons (during the day), so the arrow would need to be big enough to differentiate and visible front and back so now we could be talking about something much more obtrusive. If they're on the back, there's a limit to how big one can go (on easy to mount positions) because the rider's legs/feet/butt will strike pro…
Could they turn that blinking light into a an arrow at the appropriate time? I ride a motorcycle and have upgraded all my signal lights to the maximum legal output. I would probably test to see if changing the colors was also effective. I don't think it would have to all that large, maybe half the size of an automobile license plate. When it is just going down the road, flash white. When it is turning, flash orange o…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Copenhagen people raise their hand to indicate a stop. I wish we'd adopt this in the U.S.
Do people have three hands in Copenhagen, because last time I checked my bike had two handbrakes, and I have to use both of them to stop safely?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could they turn that blinking light into a an arrow at the appropriate time? I ride a motorcycle and have upgraded all my signal lights to the maximum legal output. I would probably test to see if changing the colors was also effective. I don't think it would have to all that large, maybe half the size of an automobile license plate. When it is just going down the road, flash white. When it is turning, flash orange o…
Those sound like good ideas, though something that big would still have an issue fitting on something other than a recumbent or cargo bikes (often see lights that size already on those now).
It'd look dorky, but it might save lives. I doubt it would add much weight or reduce aerodynamics very much, at least not as regular rider speeds. It's not like they would use it while racing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Copenhagen people raise their hand to indicate a stop. I wish we'd adopt this in the U.S.
Do people have three hands in Copenhagen, because last time I checked my bike had two handbrakes, and I have to use both of them to stop safely?
"It's reminiscent of a modern car, where you can control all the critical vehicle functions from a few buttons on the steering wheel." So, one then? The horn? "Critical" clearly means something different to someone tricking-out a push bike with thousands of dollars of marginally useful kit.
Do you not have a modern car, with their many buttons on the steering wheel?
The grumpy old man in me likes my bike to be as mechanical as possible, I don't want to remember to charge my shifters, power meter, gps, etc. Maybe that's why I still ride a 1989 Trek 1200 with down tube shifters and biopace chain rings.
That said I can't vouch for the biopace rings...
I would like to see American magazines taking a more critical look at these lights. Like virtually all bike front lights sold in the USA, the Garmin UT800 has a circular beam, making it pretty much useless for anything. Proper bike lights have asymmetric projection beams that put the light on the road, not up into the sky. Unfortunately an American bicyclists who wants one of those lights is pretty much obligated to…
what brands would you recommend? I've been looking for exactly what you're talking about.
I'm old-fashioned, but I generally want able-bodied folks to get on the saddle if they can, whether it's an old clunker or a new e-bike. Shimano makes amazing electronic components, but what about the cheap competitors that start flooding the market with integrated parts that break? Will bikes be salvageable and maintainable beyond that point? Are we going to get into a planned obsolescence situation here?
Automatic lights would be amazing in ridesharing bike systems, like Nike's Biketown that we have here in PDX: https://www.biketownpdx.com/ I see these fancy "smart" features very useful for making biking convenient and simple for very casual biking. Hard core bikers already are happy for the most part, and probably only care about shaving off marginal amounts of weight.