Throttles and California

[Chargeride]

I have cycled in paris, the tiny backstreets are fine, everywhere else was death race 3000

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I have cycled in paris, the tiny backstreets are fine, everywhere else was death race 3000

No bike paths in 2020s?

 

[Chargeride]

Actually France is fantastic for cyclists, theres obviously immense respect for cycling.
Paris isnt France

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I have cycled in paris, the tiny backstreets are fine, everywhere else was death race 3000

That's certainly what I observed in the city center in 2019. Why they bothered painting lanes on the streets is beyond me. Traffic moved in swarms, horns blaring, and some drivers considered the sidewalks fair game.

 

[BlackHand]

I have cycled in paris, the tiny backstreets are fine, everywhere else was death race 3000

Pedal swiftly and carry a large baguette?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Paris isnt France

London is not the UK, either

What I saw in London, were:

• Skinny tyre pedal bikes
• Shared public e-bikes (Lime, Human Forest...)
• Illegal throttle fat tyre delivery courier e-bikes.

During my last stay there, I could only see a single proper e-bike (Haibike) being collected by the owner from a bike workshop.

No surprise that the British media perceive e-bikes negatively.

Regarding London cycling, I admit riding there is doable. However, there are so many places where riding is extremely dangerous. Try riding Tower Bridge... (I did it twice and survived).

 

[Chargeride]

I have no idea why every delivery rider chooses a fat bike, they are everywhere on them in Liverpool.
Im going to sound raysist of course, but it almost entirely black guys.
Theres an Indian guy local to us who rides a contraption even I would be embarassed to ride, its something that looks like he rescued from a tip and fitted with a huge direct drive hub a massive frame battery that covered in bin bags and home made hand protectors built from foam and silver duct tape.
He rides past on throttle, easily doing 40 mph.
I give him the thumbs up everytime I see him, but hes quite a serious fellow and just gives me a blank stare, so Ive stopped bothering .
Its probably a good idea to ride something like that, it aint gonna get nicked.

 

[Chargeride]

That's certainly what I observed in the city center in 2019. Why they bothered painting lanes on the streets is beyond me. Traffic moved in swarms, horns blaring, and some drivers considered the sidewalks fair game.

Sidewalk driving was common in London, so common that the pedestrians politely move aside or step into shops to let them past.
Of course that was pre trst attacks and now there are barriers everywhere disguised as street furniture.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I have no idea why every delivery rider chooses a fat bike, they are everywhere on them in Liverpool.

Because the cheap Chinese junk is all fat tyre/throttle.

Im going to sound raysist of course, but it almost entirely black guys.

Funny to mention the only good e-bike I saw in London/Wandsworth last time (the Haibike) was owned by a big Black man (FYI, Wandsworth is one of the better neighbourhoods of London).

I could also see an XO Bike store. XO Bike employs former convicts who work on refurbishing old bikes. The store also offers conversion of traditional bicycles to e-bikes (another example how fuzzy the concept of e-bike is in England...)

Before I could understand the nature of XO Bikes, I spotted this Polish MTB on the display. When I showed that photo on my FB, a friend told me it was a 2017 bike. Only later I could read the information what XO Bike was about; that was one of the refurbished bikes.

Another observation from London: On my transfer from Wandsworth to Heathrow, I had to walk through Baron's Court, one of the "better" neighbourhoods. There were nicely organized bike stands, with bikes safely parked there. No one would steal a bike! And... park your bike not at the stand, and you'll get a ticket! (Saw such a bike fined for wrong parking there!)

 

[Rás Cnoic]

I have cycled in paris, the tiny backstreets are fine, everywhere else was death race 3000

Where have you been?! Not anymore. Paris is amazing for bikes. Cycled there in the 90s and absolutely you are right - it was suicide. But since the brilliant mayor Anne Hidalgo implemented all the bike lanes and pedestrian 'claim back the streets' initiatives before the Olympics It's become cycling heaven with the result being thousands more cycling commuters.

London is getting much better too, love cycling in London, but it's not at Paris/Amsterdam levels yet.

I had to walk through Baron's Court, one of the "better" neighbourhoods.

Stefan, London is much, much better than the 80s/90s. Most areas are now pretty good. It's been booming for years. I've lived (and cycled) in many areas and seen the change. Now when I visit and at Paddington station hop on a Boris bike* (Never bother with the Limes too expensive and London is so flat) I always enjoy cycling around old haunts and seeing the changes. When I lived in East London in the 90s there would be burnt out cars and closed shops and police sirens all night. Revisited the same area last summer and now it has shiny new shops and major supermarkets all built up since the arrival/extension of the Overland lines with a station right across the road from where I once lived. It's a great city.

* Be careful picking a Boris bike on a rainy day - check the saddle that the foam innards are not exposed anywhere. I once unlocked one and was happily pedaling away, kicking down through the 3 gears(!) then I sat down with a thump and my entire backside was immediately soaked from all the icy water in the foam padding! I was heading to a meeting and had to try and keep facing forward not to display the massive wet patch on my bum!!

Side note. Just realised something - one of my grammar pet peeves on here is peddling instead of pedaling. Is this an americanism? Just got auto corrected above from pedaling (it keeps doing it!) to peddling. Is that EBR autocorrect or my computer? And in the US do you peddle or pedal? The former meaning to sell goods on the street in UK/IRL not cycling a bike.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Side note. Just realised something - one of my grammar pet peeves on here is peddling instead of pedaling. Is this an americanism? Just got auto corrected above from pedaling (it keeps doing it!) to peddling. Is that EBR autocorrect or my computer? And in the US do you peddle or pedal? The former meaning to sell goods on the street in UK/IRL not cycling a bike.

No, it isn't auto-correct. It is the result of decades of incompetent education in the Untied States. I've lost count of the number of people I've worked with who got through University and Grad School and still can't spell "maybe".

 

[m@Robertson]

Side note. Just realised something - one of my grammar pet peeves on here is peddling instead of pedaling. Is this an americanism?

No. Its a stupidism. There is no intelligence test given to those who intend to buy something with a keyboard attached.

Should there be? Definitely mebbe.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

So it's not American spelling, thanks for explaining but as 'pedaling' keeps getting autocorrected to 'peddling' on here, is it EBR autocorrect, or my Safari (Mac OS) doing it? As if EBR it would explain just why peddling pops up so much. Writing pedaling in the sentence above just now I had to correct it twice. Let me try spell check and see if I can make it remember it correctly...

Ha, so my spell check does not recognise pedaling:

BUT maybe it likes pedalling with two L's

From Google AI:

I changed my spell check to British-English but int still queried 'pedaling' so I reckon it wants 'pedalling'

So my spell check kept changing pedaling to peddling for it's own sinister HAL like reasons. Maybe feckin' Musk hates the word pedal. Probably hates e bikes anyway.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Where have you been?! Not anymore. Paris is amazing for bikes. Cycled there in the 90s and absolutely you are right - it was suicide. But since the brilliant mayor Anne Hidalgo implemented all the bike lanes and pedestrian 'claim back the streets' initiatives before the Olympics It's become cycling heaven with the result being thousands more cycling commuters.

I thought so. There has been a tremendous development of bike infrastructure throughout the European Union for many years. (You guys would be surprised how good cycling is in my borough outside Warsaw, for one).

Stefan, London is much, much better than the 80s/90s. Most areas are now pretty good. It's been booming for years. I've lived (and cycled) in many areas and seen the change. Now when I visit and at Paddington station hop on a Boris bike* (Never bother with the Limes too expensive and London is so flat) I always enjoy cycling around old haunts and seeing the changes. When I lived in East London in the 90s there would be burnt out cars and closed shops and police sirens all night. Revisited the same area last summer and now it has shiny new shops and major supermarkets all built up since the arrival/extension of the Overland lines with a station right across the road from where I once lived. It's a great city.

I agree London is a great city. Still, I make a difference between "worse" and "better" neighbourhoods by a simple indicator: a bike theft survival rate I lived in both better and worse areas of London.

A very informative map. (Santander aka Boris Bike docking stations).

London is getting much better too, love cycling in London, but it's not at Paris/Amsterdam levels yet.

Not bad at all! However, there are too many areas where you need to ride with traffic on bike lanes (not dedicated secure bike paths).

* Be careful picking a Boris bike on a rainy day - check the saddle that the foam innards are not exposed anywhere. I once unlocked one and was happily pedaling away, kicking down through the 3 gears(!) then I sat down with a thump and my entire backside was immediately soaked from all the icy water in the foam padding! I was heading to a meeting and had to try and keep facing forward not to display the massive wet patch on my bum!!

Rode a Boris Bike once, and that was manageable. However, my legs are too bad for a heavy trad bicycle. I agree public share e-bikes are expensive (which can be made cheaper by buying a daily pass) but Lime/Uber allowed me riding from the Tower Bridge through all 12 cycling bridges of London all the way to Wandsworth and back on a single nice trip! There's literally nothing faster than a bike in London!

The longest of my trips, around 20 miles.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Side note. Just realised something - one of my grammar pet peeves on here is peddling instead of pedaling. Is this an americanism?

No, just lousy spelling. Don't know how the US stacks up globally in spelling proficiency, but it's gotten pretty dismal here. At a time when folks rely more than ever on written communucation. Go figure.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

An interesting British view on e-bikes. Whenever these guys mention the speed, it is km/h unless explicitly stated "mph".

 

[Rás Cnoic]

No, just lousy spelling. Don't know how the US stacks up globally in spelling proficiency, but it's gotten pretty dismal here. At a time when folks rely more than ever on written communucation. Go figure.it started way back with texts. Combination of shorthand, bad spelling, bad auto correct and lead to an acceptance of bad grammar. It's everywhere now, suppose I'm guilty too, but it doesn't stop it being annoying. Even misspelling on official product websites because obviously there are no proofreaders anymore as it costs $$$.

An interesting British view on e-bikes. Whenever these guys mention the speed, it is km/h unless explicitly stated "mph".

They're roadies! They always talk kms.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Weird. Two posts combined just when I was wondering what happened to my reply to Jeremy. Jeremy I was saying that spelling is probably universal. Bad spelling that is - a combination - since texting started - of shorthand, bad spelling, terrible auto correct and habits forming/acceptance of bad grammar. Even news articles or product websites suffer, due Id say to penny pinching and the dying breed of subeditors and proofreaders. And hell I'm guilty myself - sometimes just don't bother if in a rush.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Now, all e-bikers have been painted with the same brush by British media because of the riders of illegal Chinese junk.

'If nothing is done, Britain will be left 10 years behind Europe'.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Now, all e-bikers have been painted with the same brush by British media because of the riders of illegal Chinese junk.

It runs much deeper than that Stefan. The BBC Adrian Childs Panorama doc was a travesty. I officially complained to the beeb. Lot of good it will do of course... The program was full of hysteria and disinformation and every cycling group in UK is up in arms about it. Unfortunately the BBC has a real anti bike bias. Has for years but like everything it's become worse - a casualty with these soul destroying bonkers culture wars of our times. The Daily Mail has led the attack on bikes (all bikes) in their really vicious way, with years of anti bikes opinion pieces that for example scream about cyclists not paying road tax (abolished in 1936 but hey why tell the truth?) This gets me shouted at by angry drivers "Pay your fucking road tax". This Panorama program is so infuriating because they never asked anybody official from the ebike world to show a balanced side. And they never explained the difference between legal and illegal bikes so painted a picture that all e bikes were motorbikes in disguise, very dangerous and could catch fire etc etc. They didn't even explain the law as it stands. If it had been a youtube daily mail/daily telegraph or The Sun home made show I'd have expected such a hatchet job but the BBC, (Auntie!) and Panorama itself a long running established and prestigious documentary program should have been neutral or made clear the show was just about illegal ebikes/motorbikes. I'd love to know who commissioned it and what the pre prod meetings were like. Such blatant anti bike propaganda.