Neat Bicycle Video

Pretty cool!

My father was stationed in (West)Germany from 1978-81. (I graduated from Bitburg American High School in 1980 before coming to Utah for college.) Anyway, our youth group's "super activity" for the summer of 1979 was an 8-day cycling/camping trip around Holland. Lotta neat memories.... (The next summer we did a 10-day trip in SE England!)

We had car washes and bake sales to earn money, and placed a group order for Peugeot touring 10-speeds. With the amount of labor I put in, I only had to pay $36 cash for my bike. I still have it; I need to break it out of storage and start losing weight myself.... :(
 
Heh. A similar thing happened here. (You have to know that the title of the video segment is "Cycling in the Netherlands in the 1950s".)

My wife, from over my shoulder, said, "Why are you watching that?"

"Because I've been 'cycling in the Netherlands.'"

"In the 1950s?"

:dunno:
 
Amazing. Watching it, I couldn't help thinking: just about every one of those people riding survived the great depression, the occupation, and the war.

Kinda gives one hope! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Pretty cool. I like that they had to use the bike paths instead of riding in the middle of the street blocking traffic like they do around here.

... or from a cyclists perspective......

Pretty cool. I like that they had to use the bike paths instead of riding in road and getting just about run over and killed because drivers can't wait 10 seconds to go by you when the road has a bit more space :rolleyes:

I drive too, but I tell you, drivers can be some kind of....... I'm trying to think of a word to use that does not conflict with the CoC....... some kind of unkind in forcing their way by you in their 3000 pound death wagon. If they screw up or misjudge, they might get a scratch on their paint or even a..... dent.... :eek: but us guys on the bicycles, well we, if we are very lucky, get to spend months in the hospital, most of us die.....

Share the Road!:wave:
 
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Thanks for the link.

I do wonder... I've seen a few videos that show dedicated bike paths over there and I wonder how that got started. It's quite an infrastructure commitment!

And yeah... those are some BIG cargo haulers in spots!

...art (1st gen canuck born of dutch immigrants. We had wooden shoes by the back door growing up, used them all the time...)
 
... or from a cyclists perspective......

Pretty cool. I like that they had to use the bike paths instead of riding in road and getting just about run over and killed because drivers can't wait 10 seconds to go by you when the road has a bit more space :rolleyes:

I drive too, but I tell you, drivers can be some kind of....... I'm trying to think of a word to use that does not conflict with the CoC....... some kind of unkind in forcing their way by you in their 3000 pound death wagon. If they screw up or misjudge, they might get a scratch on their paint or even a..... dent.... :eek: but us guys on the bicycles, well we, if we are very lucky, get to spend months in the hospital, most of us die.....

Share the Road!:wave:



I agree Stu. There are quite a few car drivers that don't give proper respect to the bikes. But there are times that I wish I had a plow or a bazooka on the front of my truck. A bunch of idiot bicyclists around here that will ride down the road 2 or 3 side by side blocking traffic. They stop at red lights and cross against traffic. Then get angry at the cars.:dunno::dunno:
Seems to me there needs to be proper respect on both sides.
 
... or from a cyclists perspective......

Pretty cool. I like that they had to use the bike paths instead of riding in road and getting just about run over and killed because drivers can't wait 10 seconds to go by you when the road has a bit more space :rolleyes:

I drive too, but I tell you, drivers can be some kind of....... I'm trying to think of a word to use that does not conflict with the CoC....... some kind of unkind in forcing their way by you in their 3000 pound death wagon. If they screw up or misjudge, they might get a scratch on their paint or even a..... dent.... :eek: but us guys on the bicycles, well we, if we are very lucky, get to spend months in the hospital, most of us die.....

Share the Road!:wave:

My daughter lives in Aptos, near Santa Cruz, Calif.... she's an avid bicyclist.. races and used to do the iron man marathons.... but since some guy clipped her bike on one of her races about 6 or 8 years ago, cracking 3 vertebrae in her lower back and wound up with a titanium cage around them... she still rides, but can't do the swimming or running any more. She thinks nothing of jumping on her bike, riding out to Highway 1 and run down to Monterey.. about 40-50 miles away....
 
I agree Stu. There are quite a few car drivers that don't give proper respect to the bikes. But there are times that I wish I had a plow or a bazooka on the front of my truck. A bunch of idiot bicyclists around here that will ride down the road 2 or 3 side by side blocking traffic. They stop at red lights and cross against traffic. Then get angry at the cars.:dunno::dunno:
Seems to me there needs to be proper respect on both sides.

And I agree with you Bob, there are stupid people all around us, on bicycles, motorcycles and in cars, trucks etc.

Here on the tight streets of Tokyo, I do my best to NOT filter through the stopped traffic at a light and overtake a large truck, like a dump truck or transport, these guys are barely between the lines, their trucks are that large and the streets are that narrow, so over taking them at the lights and then they over take me again as we move, well that is just adding to their frustration at cyclists.

Share the road!
 
And I agree with you Bob, there are stupid people all around us, on bicycles, motorcycles and in cars, trucks etc.

This.

There are times when riding two abreast in a group is far safer than single file. You're more visible, and it is a shorter group to pass.

I commute to work on my bike, and more than 95% of all cyclists are pretty good. As well, more than 95% of drivers are courteous, share the road, and friendly.** But the others are the one we remember.

...art


(** sometimes to a fault. At least once every week or two I have some driver wave me through an intersection when they have the right of way.)
 
This.

There are times when riding two abreast in a group is far safer than single file. You're more visible, and it is a shorter group to pass.

I commute to work on my bike, and more than 95% of all cyclists are pretty good. As well, more than 95% of drivers are courteous, share the road, and friendly.** But the others are the one we remember.

...art


(** sometimes to a fault. At least once every week or two I have some driver wave me through an intersection when they have the right of way.)

You are correct about riding two abreast, there are times when it is the way to go.

On Sunday I did a beginners club ride, I've never done anything like that here in Tokyo, we went down to a seaside park across the way from Haneda airport, had lunch on the boardwalk. Ten riders including myself it was fun. This area is very commercial, lots of transport companies and factories etc, so on Sundays it is just about empty. Now imagine 10 cyclist riding on a nice straight flat road, there is an ample parking lane, and three driving lanes, there are no parked cars, like I said, on Sunday it is really empty, we are riding two or three side by side, we are mostly in the parking lane, but maybe one or two riders are in the 1st driving lane, so there are two more driving lanes open. These driving lanes are huge for Tokyo, a semi and trailer fits with room to spare. A guy in a regular working type of van drives up, and instead of going by us via the two open driving lanes, slows down and starts leaning on the horn, then he opens his window and starts shaking his fist and yelling at us :eek: :huh: :dunno:

Must have had a fight with his wife or something, that is assuming the cretin could be married. :rolleyes:

The leader of our group tells everyone to move over, well only about two riders were at all in that lane, and then he says everyone smile and wave nicely as the jerk drives past, so we did..... :wave:

The scary thing for a cyclist or even a motorcyclist is that this angry man is in control of a large moving vehicle, which can kill us...... easily......:(

Please share the road!:thumb:
 
Stu,
Here in my area we have more motorcyclists than bicyclists... also it's very hilly... the motorcyclists all come here to ride the Cherohala and the Dragons Tail.... or up 68 to Coker Creek. Most are nearing my age, on big Harley's and out for a nice weekend ride. They are a great bunch of folks.... and actually even the Crotch Rocket Riders are basically a nice group of people out for a fun weekend of riding in the mountains.... my only complaint and it's more for their safety than mine since I'm in my car or truck and in a confrontation between the two vehicles, I'll win every time.... but it seems that the guys on the Crotch Rockets that want to go fast all seem to have a need to hug the center line and when they lean the bikes over into their turns, they inevitably are leaning over into my lane. Most of us will move over and give them room, but they do have the rest of the lane to ride in and it would be much safer if you have to lay your bike low to make a turn that your head isn't over the line into the on coming traffic lane..... We have one or two accidents about EVERY weekend up on the Dragons Tail from either the rider getting hit or suddenly realizing he's about to get hit and making some quick maneuver that cause him to dump the bike or to go over the side.... there are no guard rails on the Dragon and some of the shoulders drop down 50-100 feet down the side of the mountain.

Don't get me wrong, I like the riders.... they bring lots of business to my area... but I do worry about some of their numbers that aren't giving a lot of thought to the dangers they present to both themselves and some of the motorists.
 
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