wow, what an ignorant article. they should have done it in Denver.... I work in an office of 30 people and at least 5-6 people bike to work everyday, another 5-6 ride the bus. commute distances range from 2 miles to 15 miles but they still do it. i for one, bike year-round including in snow/ice, we have bike lanes & paths all over, sunshine 300+ days and a bike sharing program called Bcycle. nearly everybody bikes around here even if it's just a cruiser to run around town with. we don't have showers at my work, but our humidity here is like 25% so in the 2.2 miles i hardly ever sweat unless it's above 90'F, which is like 20-30 days tops, then i just bike slower.

it's sad that in a lot of cities drivers are so impatient that they feel the need to honk/side-swipe/throw things at cyclists that are on the road.

this is about the most ignorant thing i've heard all year...

Quote :

"This is the 21st century after all; trying to solve modern problems with solutions over 100 years old is just simply not going to work. "

What a dumbass. He apparently doesn't realize that cycling is one of the most efficient forms of transportation ever invented.

Quote :

"Or, in the words of Jun Zheng Wang: "Bike to work? Are you crazy? Time is money!!!""

Which is why I ride my bike, it's nearly twice as fast not having to drive, park, walk to the office.

How's this for a rebuttal:

Biking to work allows my wife and I to share one car.
I save ~$250/month on car payment/savings for a 2nd car
I save ~$100/month on parking
I save ~$70/month on 2nd car insurance
I save ~$50/month on gas for 2nd car
I save ~$30/month on maintenance for 2nd car
I reduce my impact on the environment by ~850-1000 lbs of CO2 per year
Biking the 2.5 miles downtown is faster than driving
Reduces stress
Gives me 24 minutes of exercise per day
Burn an extra 300 calories per day

That saves me $500/month or $6000 a year. Minus $20 in bike tubes per year maybe. Minus $30 in bus fare over the course of the year when it's inclement weather.

I mean even if you had a 2nd car, the $50-100/month savings on gas or parking is way more than enough to pay for a gym membership if you don't have showers at your office. Unless you live near and work in suburbia office park, then again that just the fault of poor city planning centered around the automobile. There's a reason why more and more people are living and working downtown than ever before.

There are some completely relevant and valid points though about behavior of auto drivers and behavior of cyclists. If everybody obeyed the rules of the road, we'd be fine. But with cyclists blowing through stop signs and stop lights, not using their hand signals, and with drivers driving too close, throwing things, honking, texting while driving, not paying attention, it causes a bunch of unnecessary frustration on both fronts.

[Edited on May 23, 2012 at 11:59 AM. Reason : .]

5/23/2012 11:53:56 AM

i just noticed this article. it's funny the bias that is encountered in other cities. in DC sooooo many people ride to work. just a much better option than driving or taking the metro.

granted, even as a cyclist, i absolutely loathe those dbags who completely disobey any kind of traffic law whatsoever. i will admit to running lights to avoid unclipping, but when it's safe, not cutting off cars.

sigh, oh well.

5/23/2012 12:23:56 PM

^^ that's awesome. I've been working on getting the wife to be a one car family. For the last three years I've only been averaging 1,000 miles on my 10 year old truck. For me though biking to work saves absolutely no money though. I bike ruffly 3,000 miles a year to work so I save $500.00 is gas vs using my truck, but I guarantee I spend more that $500.00 a year on bike stuff, but I would spend it on that even if I didn't commute.

5/23/2012 12:35:25 PM

man, another reason to move to Denver/Boulder... one day I might just do it


speaking of bad drivers, I could've swore this van was trying to brake check me a couple of times yesterday on the ride home from work, but it just turns out it was an asian woman driving

Quote :

"On a not-related note, I'm doing the Doughman here in Durham this Saturday. Anyone else going to be here?"

I just looked that up, and that has got to be the strangest event I've ever heard of. You have to race, eat marshmellow and ice scream, but you get DQ'd if you throw up?

5/23/2012 12:44:39 PM

Did a 41 mile ride in about 2:21 averaging about 17.4 (that included 5 miles of stop signs to get to the trail, so I averaged about 18mph for 2 hours straight, is that good? I have no idea how well I'm doing because I ride by myself most of the time. I was wondering what averages you guys bust out on your solo long rides??

Doing the 62-mile metric century at Elephant Rock Ride in 2 weeks with a friend, no idea how compatible we'll be as we're training separate. Did the 100-mile centruy 2 years ago.

[Edited on May 23, 2012 at 1:20 PM. Reason : .]

5/23/2012 1:20:06 PM

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/05/students-punished-riding-bikes-school-michigan/2084/

5/23/2012 1:32:26 PM

^^that's pretty solid riding solo. My best 41 mile time recently was just under 2 hours, but we had a group of 3 to draft and share the workload with.

Any of you guys use http://www.strava.com? It's pretty cool if you are at all competitive. Upload your GPS data and it will automatically compare your times and speeds against others who have ridden the same routes. You can also create segments of your own and compare your own times against each other. I have been having fun with it for a couple months now. Gives me something to shoot for on some of the little hills we do around here.

[Edited on May 23, 2012 at 1:45 PM. Reason : d]

5/23/2012 1:43:16 PM

Yes Prospero, that's pretty good, especially if you have hills to work with and wind to deal with.
The worst solo rides I have ever been on were on the flat, with absolutely no ability to coast.

We're a 1-car household as well; we only use our pickup truck for hauling dirt or mulch, Costco runs,
traveling, and to get to races. The bf is the better bike mechanic, and he also commutes year round.

I'm sure we save some money by not having to pay work parking fees, gas, maintenance, or higher insurance, but we promptly spend that money on music gear (him) and bike crap (me).

And I'm the only cyclist on our team and am used to biking and eating (from charity rides and training), but everyone else has to run after eating. Egh

5/23/2012 2:56:02 PM

^^I got a buddy that uses Strava, but he's a semi-pro and trainer and he loves it.

I signed up for Strava a couple days ago and just recently uploaded some routes from my GPS. Pretty cool app/website. Took me forever to figure out how to follow/lookup people.

5/24/2012 12:34:11 PM

In less serious pursuits, I'm attempting to re-build the bike polo scene here in Durham, for a friendly game of weekend afternoon knock-about. First time last Sunday we met, and Mr. Serious Hipster with his special polo fixie and clipless shoes showed up and asked why our mallets were wood, why we didn't have cones, why we didn't have our fixies, why we weren't on hard-court, and why we didn't have orange hockey balls (I couldn't find anything but tennis balls in my house).

I asked him back "Well, how come you don't have it then?" Dude didn't have a good answer.

5/24/2012 2:05:36 PM

I'm trying to plan a route to campus, and Google Maps is suggesting going from Harrison into Umstead park via Reedy Creek Trail. Has anyone ridden on that road? IF so, what's it like? Specifically, I'll be on a road bike, so I want to know if it's paved, packed dirt, or rocky dirt.

Thanks

5/29/2012 5:05:24 PM

I just came back on that route today. From Reedy Creek to campus, it's fantabulous The Umstead part is dirt, but well packed and smooth. Reedy creek is smooth, and today was partly closed to cars. After Umstead you have protected bike lane, a short stretch of regular bike lane, then greenway trail from the art museum, through Meredith, ending at Gorman and Hillsborough. The only downside is the trail meanders a bit and has other users, but dodging baby carriages compares favorably with dodging college student drivers. Harrison, on the other hand, is a mess. The green dotted line Google puts there is a freakin' joke. Heavy multi-lane traffic moving faster than 40, no significant shoulder. There's a sidewalk, but the northern part is commercial, so you'll have to deal with vehicles entering and exiting the roadway. I bailed out onto Reedy Creek road, which is narrow with no shoulder, but light traffic and slower speeds.

I'm working on a route from near Academy and Chatham to Centennial, the best I've found so far involves Trinity-Baker-Electra-Medfield to Reedy Creek and Maynard. I will try the Umstead route again, but I'll probably check out alternative routes to avoid Harrison, like SAS-Research-Appletree or something.

5/29/2012 8:13:00 PM

^^ Harrison Ave in Cary? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Reedy Creek Trail is different than Reedy Creek Rd, and it looks like google would tell you to take Reedy Creek Rd according to this http://goo.gl/maps/briO

Chapel Hill Rd has a bike lane, but you could also take Chatham/Hillsborough instead which has less traffic until it hits Western

5/29/2012 9:06:24 PM

^Google Maps has a bike routes option. It takes Harrison Avenue into Umstead park, then Reedy Creek Lake Trail through Umstead to Reedy Creek Road.

5/29/2012 10:02:15 PM

If you click on my link you'll see that it is bicycle directions. Unless you're afraid to ride on Chapel HIll Rd (which has a bike lane) I don't see the point of adding a dirt path, the art museum hills, and extra miles to your commute, but that's just me.

5/30/2012 8:19:35 AM

Chapel Hill/Hillsborough's bike lane only goes part way. Then it turns into 2 and 1 lane, fast traffic (but no one speeds in NC), with little-to-no shoulder. True, there are some shortcuts/alternative routes shortly after the bike lane goes away. But until you reach the Jones Franklin/Western/Hillsborough/Chapel Hill entanglement, none of them improve the biking (Nowell-Hillsborough? Full of pissed off commuters shortcutting and speeding around low-visibility corners. Edwards Mill-trinity-Blue-ridge? I thought you didn't want to do extra miles?)

Reedy Creek via Umstead is definitely the long way, but there are days when an extra 3 or 4 miles of trees, walkers and dirt sounds better than Chapel Hill or Chatham. And, there are days when spending an extra 20 minutes isn't worth it.

And there are days, like today, when it is just wet, and I put the bike on the bus and dealt with the 30 minutes of meandering the 301 does from Cary to campus. The 1.5 miles I was left with were plenty for me to feel smug and superior for riding with Beryl. If it stops raining soon enough, maybe I'll go through Umstead on the way back, then I can combine the smugness with some guilt for riding in the mud.

5/30/2012 9:11:43 AM

^Yeah.

I'd much rather bike on a nice quiet trail without the traffic (and possible death) and trade adding an extra 20 minutes to my commute.

5/30/2012 11:55:29 AM

Finished my first century on Saturday with 107 miles at a not too shabby 18.8 mph avg. Only did 85 miles on Sunday, but at 19.4 mph avg and very little stopping it was a relatively quick ride. We spent wayyyyy too much time at the rest stops on Saturday, and basically spent about 9 hours total from start to finish. So 192 miles total for the Tour de Cure this year

6/5/2012 2:50:45 PM

Since I said so many horrible things about Chapel Hill road, I decided to ride it this week. It's not great. The end near the state fair grounds is horrid. (I come up Powell to the stop sign at Hillsborough, so I have a very short part of it). So far, I've found solid traffic that I mostly passed on one day, and fast traffic on another. The interchange with 40 has created more potential conflict than the really narrow chunk of road shortly after the Hillsborough split.

Overall: Traffic-intense road with several sections requiring good vigilance. Traffic has been well behaved. Straight, mostly good surface, moderate inclines (but not flat). At the east end, I'd use Beryl to continue towards campus, or bail at Edwards Mill or Powell, depending on direction of travel. At the west end the bike lane terminates shortly after Maynard, and the road gets pretty skinny, I'd look for alternate route there, too. Better than Chatham.

6/6/2012 9:12:49 AM

finished my first metric century today, i about died with 5 miles left.

I really don't see how I could do a full century anytime soon

6/16/2012 2:12:18 PM

It's actually not that bad. I did 150 miles a couple of years ago after just really starting to ride regularly. Obviously it's much easier with a partner or a group (I did mine with a friend), but even solo it's doable after a few months of steady riding.

Good shorts are a must.

6/16/2012 2:54:22 PM

Quote :

"Good shorts are a must. "

QFT

Riding in a group makes it a lot easier IMO. You can take turns pulling, giving everyone else a break from the headwind. On top of that I find riding alone to be boring as shit.

6/16/2012 3:45:35 PM

I went to Rochester, NY last week to visit some cycling friends. We biked around the city, Menden Ponds and such. I specifically brought my fixie so I wouldn't do any overly long rides > 40 miles, but got talked into pacing my girl friend on her Tour de Cure metric century. Flipped my wheel over to my 17-t freewheel cog and off we went, I pulled her up most of the hills.

I forgot how people in the Northeast can't handle heat. Dropping like flies in the last 10 miles .

6/16/2012 3:46:14 PM

Nice, though I enjoy mechanical advantage too much to try SS/fixie

Speaking of heat, it's time to start getting up early to ride. I didn't make it out to the trail until noon today, but luckily it's not unbearable hot today.

6/16/2012 4:09:04 PM

A single speed was surprisingly ideal for the terrain I was on- some moderate rollers, and lots of long slow uphill
grades. I just lost the mechanical advantage going downhill, because I couldn't power down it in a big gear.

At mile 50, my friend started to bitch about how I pulled her up hills, and about my bike, from a combination of heat fog and too many farmfields. I told her she had the fancy, carbon fiber geared bike, and if she didn't like how I led, she could be in front for awhile and I could take a break from the headwind.

[Edited on June 16, 2012 at 8:18 PM. Reason : yay!]

6/16/2012 8:17:18 PM

so i bought a bianchi campione yesterday... i'm super excited about it. i only wanted a bike to get around town, but i'm considering trying to actually ride it since it's so much fun to ride.

that's it i guess.

6/16/2012 8:32:21 PM

I'm old and a fattie. I just bought a Raleigh. Show me encouragement and you'll have my gratitude.

6/16/2012 10:35:29 PM

^ Bike. When you're sore, bike some some, build up your saddle seat.

More encouragement: boys on bikes always catch my attention .

6/16/2012 10:51:11 PM

Riding to work would be nice but I live in Charlotte so it's hot and I wear a suit every day. My drive is only 2 miles and 1 turn and my company pays for parking. Riding my bike would tack on an extra 20-30 minutes to my day and involve strategic planning to shower, find storage for clothes, and I only go into the office 3 days a week. I'd have to drive at least one of those days to pick up / drop off clothes.

A monthly bus pass costs $20 more than my parking space. I walk/bike everywhere else in Charlotte on the weekends / after work. While commuting to work seems like a good idea almost no one does it in uptown Charlotte. I'm not saying I don't agree with it just the current infrastructure does not support it.

6/16/2012 11:31:47 PM

^^ That'll do it!

[Edited on June 16, 2012 at 11:36 PM. Reason : over doing the sublime...]

6/16/2012 11:35:32 PM

I finally found a small cyclocross frame on Craigslist. It is a 46 cm, which is a little on the small end for me, and is from Fetish Cycles. It has both disc and canti braze-ons. Does anyone have any info on this brand?

6/20/2012 12:04:10 AM

I got a Raleigh Roper cyclocross bike on eBay, 2012 model, slightly used for $500 less than it normally goes for. Exciting.

6/20/2012 10:14:44 AM

Not all that familiar with Fetish, but disc brakes are awesome. I rode my dad's cross bike with disc brakes and now I want one bad. Cantis are pretty bad as soon as they get wet and muddy.

6/20/2012 10:33:18 AM

^yeah I love disc brakes as well. That's part of the reason I wanted this Raleigh one. Considering selling off my Trek 8.5... even though it's a few months old. I'll see how the new one goes first.

6/20/2012 10:43:55 AM

Tour de Fat in Durham tomorrow! Come drink beers, celebrate bikes, and donate to the following non-profits:

Triangle Spokes (they buy bicycles for underprivileged children at Christmas)
NC Alternative Transportation Alliance (statewide bike infrastructure and lobbying)
Durham Bike Co-op (we fix up donated bikes, and re-distribute to people who learn bike skills in our earn-a-bike program)

I can't wait to ride some of the goofy art bikes the New Belgium people built, yay!

6/22/2012 11:48:24 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=5z1fSpZNXhU&feature=endscreen

back flip on a road bike at the end of the video

6/23/2012 5:25:24 PM

my friend who bikes just took me on a short ride for the first time, woah that was fun.

6/24/2012 6:19:35 PM

I picked up that Fetish frame today- 20 in from seat joint to bottom bracket, 21 in from seat tube to head tube (my sewing tape doesn't do cm). It seems pretty beefy in the welds, no obvious fatigue, dropouts are straight. The guy told me a tangential story about how he bought the frame originally for his wife, she never rode the resulting bike, and then got into how cyclocross was really dangerous and everyone he knew broke something doing it (Gee awkward?)

In other news, dudes, please continue buying your wives/girlfriends bike stuff they'll never actually use, so you will sadly sell it much later at a steep discount. This is like the 10th cycling-related item I have acquired via this route.

6/25/2012 12:20:45 AM

I bought my ex-gf a GT Traffic 2.0 bike while we were dating. She rode it once with me and hasn't ridden it since. She's at least storing it inside unlike her beach cruiser that rusted all the way through in the backyard.


In other news, I've spent the week in Boston, and even I want to run over every single hipster asshole on a bike here. The way they drive up here there's no way I would risk riding on the street. Of course, there's no way I would drive a car up here either.

6/29/2012 2:39:52 PM

Our last roommate moved out Sunday, and we finally built a hanging bike rack for our (read: my) bike storage in the extra bedroom. Filled up all 8 slots already (not including tall bike, my new frame, or our 2 commuting bikes).

(Staring in silence)

Me: Maybe I've got too many bikes.
Him: Only took you years to figure that one out.



[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 2:15 AM. Reason : weqwe]

7/3/2012 2:13:52 AM

Two Questions:

1) Anyone doing or have done the Cup N' Cone Tour in Cary? What's it like?

2) I was thinking about doing it but I only have one jersey and it's from a beer company, do they want you to run non branded jerseys like crits?

7/3/2012 7:37:04 AM

Last time I did Cup N Cone, it was a typical cary ride. Fairly flat, except for one long climb at the end if I remember correctly.

And they didnt care in the least what people wore.

7/3/2012 9:27:45 AM

No, and I've never been yelled at/DQ'd for wearing branded jerseys in any event (XC, tri, or just plain old touring rides). If they did want you to wear non-branded jerseys in any event, that would put out 99% of all cyclists.

Is anyone keeping up on the Tour de France? Didn't it start Saturday? Without Andy Schleck this tour will be a little less hot .

7/3/2012 12:23:48 PM

I think they only care about jerseys and sponsors if you are in the elite categories. I haven't ever seen any problems and have seen tons of people with branded jerseys in races.

Tour de France discussion going on here:

message_topic.aspx?topic=628808

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 3:24 PM. Reason : d]

7/3/2012 3:21:06 PM

I've been doing some shorter mileage days (20-30 miles), mainly to get out to the quarry and go swimming in the nice cold water. I biked to brunch and the hardware store today and thought I was going to melt.

How's everyone holding up in the heat? Even my running dog, as lean and short coated as he is, hasn't practically moved for the past 5 days.

7/7/2012 4:19:45 PM

i biked 35+ this morning with my buddy and there were a lot of other cyclists out at Lake Jordan

it was hot as balls

i bought a couple of polar bottles after lunch

7/7/2012 4:34:10 PM

when I was really big into crit 6ish years ago they would not under any circumstance allow you to wear anything branded unless you could prove you were on the team. Granted this was 6 years ago and not in NC, but I just wanted to check. Also I was a young shitty cat 5 racer so they could have just been picking on me.

7/7/2012 8:23:58 PM

By branded you mean like team kit? Because there isn't a lot of stuff out there that doesn't at least have the clothing companies name on it.

7/8/2012 5:57:54 PM

Yea, no team kits unless you were on the team, no bear jerseys, no sports teams, nothing. It was a lot of of plane colored jerseys and under armor. This was the host rules in Georgia, don't know if things are still the same thing now though?

7/9/2012 5:09:40 PM

http://www.coolhunting.com/tech/hovding-invisible-bicycle-helmet.php

7/13/2012 11:01:36 PM