It's a nice idea to have a medium sized loaner bike around any pro-bicycling household, for guest use. Especially if that bike is modern enough to be full suspension (adding any sort of a suspension seat post to a hard tail will do). This way your guest not only gets transportation but also a lesson in bicycle evolution and freedom. Most folks think of bikes as that 50 pound steel clunker they had as a child. Educate 'em. For example (not endorsement) Specialized Hard Rock bikes (the basic bike issued to Berkeley, California Police Officers) are cheap, well designed and built well for today’s tough streets and neighborhoods! Adding $30 worth of suspension seat post to this bike makes a great lesson to any guest as to the ease and comfort of modern bikes. Retail price on this model was as low as $319.00 in 2004. Saving a rusting heavy junk bike with bad brakes to injure or turn a friend into a ghost with, is not a good idea. Allow time to inflate tires as stored bikes tend to lose air. Better yet, use bike #2 once in a while so it's not needing air every time it goes out. Medium to small bikes can be bumped up to a better size with extra-long seat posts, but it's also true bicycling is about geometry and should ideally match the biker size. Escorting incredulous friends around town is quite the hobby for me, I love it when they realize how beautiful, comfortable, easy, and quick biking can be. Scooting around jammed traffic and steamed motorists is dangerous, but quieter and probably safer than trying to keep up with fast-moving traffic. Yet with the auto industry managing to build three cars for every person being born, there’s no such thing as smooth moving traffic any more, at least not around our population of car-keyed and car crazed cities! Realization by individuals that a whole new level of Human Powered Vehicles can bring freedom, cash savings, time savings, fresh air and health to a community, - while saving tons of time and parking tickets- is a profound chunk of good news, and people smile as they realize this. Pumping a set of pedals yourself, and offering a friend the opportunity to pedal up with you, brings this good news into a person’s mind, body and soul by the DOING. Now I’ll stop peddling bicycles and start pedaling one myself.
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By James DMake-it-home-safe MANTRA: When dealing with traffic, it's better to be patient than to become a patient; AND - A Sailboat is to a Polluting Cruise Ship what a bicycle is to a smokin' Hummer. I know bikes are beautiful but I’M not backing off until bikes are bountiful and bikers have greater strength in numbers. CategoriesArchives
February 2016
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