Urban noise is a common problem, and the vast majority of it is created by motor vehicles. Noise is far too often dismissed as a minor nuisance, rather than the legitimate health issue that it is.
The book "Curbing Traffic" has a chapter about the health impacts of noise pollution. I explore the research in the book, and visit Delft, the city that is highlighted in the book as being a shining example of what can happen when noise pollution is taken seriously.
This video explores the problem that farting cars, farting motorcycles, and farting mopeds create in our cities.
The last place I lived was originally on a country road and was generally pretty quiet. But growing up population of the nearby city meant more and more traffic, and subdivisions (one was which ended up against my back property line). By the time I moved, the area had become solidly suburbia and the road became a major secondary road and quite noisy
There is no 'free' market, and there never has been. The 'free' market is predicated on the belief that all players will act honestly, and make informed choices based on available information. This is a completely false assumption, and has been proven so time after time.
It completely ignores human nature whereby someone will always lie, cheat, and steal to achieve their own ends -- this is what we see here.
Industry players will always form cartels and collude in anti-consumer behavior -- price fixing being the prime example.
Without someone to keep corporations in line, the market would steadily skew to all of the power being in the hands of a few.
There is no such thing as a 'free' market, and there simply never has been. It's a utopian myth which can never be true.
People who go around spouting about the 'free' market are either naive, self deluded, or actively lying.
well, the same is happening here in the Netherlands. people have been voting the neoliberals into power for decades, despite things going to shit, and other parties being available here.
it's the propaganda that's working; most people still believe that free market capitalism is great, and it will take a lot more downfall before they understand it's shit.
@bazkie same in UK, but I think its also because neoliberalism provided short term gains - a young adult working in the skilled trades or the remaining middle level office jobs which exist and haven't been outsourced/replaced by AI can afford to get a used Audi on finance and just about run it - they get scared of green/left parties as they think "tax will go up and petrol will be £2/2€ a litre again" and that's a powerful paranoia (especially if they are in a long term relationship and have now got kids to feed/fund through school)
@bazkie about 10 years ago when I had learned just enough Dutch to read sites where younger folk hung out (and chat to them) I learned a fair few thought all the bicycles, good public transport (which folk in UK often envy!) and the high cost of learning to drive (which is same as UK) was imposed by "big government/EU" and they wanted to have cars just like young people in UK, enjoyed watching Top Gear and thought folk in UK and USA had more "freedom" (and those youths would be 30-40+ by now, many with families of their own)
At least you are highly unlikely to get Nexit as everyone can see the mess the UK is now in 5 years later..
@vfrmedia UK has been a lovely warning sign for us indeed!
..tho people have been voting far right the past few years despite Trump, so maybe most people don't really understand warning signs 😅
and about that dutch youth; keep in mind we've had neoliberal rule for decades now, so the whole "free market good, nationalization bad" has been really hammered in.
not sure if we'll get rid of it in my lifetime tbh. but most of the lovely social policies we have left stem from the more progressive governing we had before I was born 😅
btw why did you learn dutch? (maybe I asked before)
@bazkie I moved to Suffolk, which is not /that/ far from the Netherlands (especially at the point of Lowestoft which is the furthest Eastern part of England) and has many cultural and trade links with NL, also I am a former radio pirate and was always curious about the pirate radio scene there and started listening to the stations and wanted to learn the language (piratenzenders are quite surreal, with 3 different languages of music and songs which are a mix of synthpop/disco, country and western and seashanties 😁 )
@vfrmedia ohh right I think you mentioned that before! those piratenzenders sure are something else :D it's funny how it combines, eh, "rural culture" with everything else!
I don't know if it's actually a pirate station, here's an FM broadcaster near Quinault Lake here that plays all kinds of odds and ends with weird stuff in between. It might fall under LPFM, but I doubt the FCC would hassle them anyway since it's in the middle of nowhere and low power.
the "free market" is to economics what the frictionless spherical cow is to high school physics.
The very existence of corporations means there is no free market. Corporations are a legal construct of governments that grants a business (and later even a mere collection of assets) status as a district entity separated to some degree from the owners and workers within.
As such, there is no choice between "government vs corporations" because they are *two sides of the same coin*...it is all one big hegemony.
We have all been thoroughly conditioned to think otherwise for a couple of centuries now. It is thoroughly ingrained the minds of everyone in the "free world" that corporations are the capitalist free market and government is the socialist planned economy but that is pure BS.
The biggest economies in the world have arrived in the same place from two different directions...the US being a corporatocratic regime and China practising state capitalism.
I still sometimes think about that middle-aged lady in her minivan yelling at me to "get in the bike lane" at 3 AM on a bridge that only has skinny sidewalks on either side, where one mistake lands you either in traffic or in the frigid water tens of feet below. There was no other traffic out at that hour so she could've easily gone around. :/
Hey @Seattle Bike Blog , do you know what the status is of the W Marginal Pl S bicycle connection between South Park and the Green River Trail? As in, next to that substation and Salmon Cove Park.
I’ve taken to buying batches of the little tubes of rubber cement so I can have an open one, and a sealed one in every patch kit. Use the open one until it dries out, but never be reliant on an old open tube, have a backup. You can get 5 tubes on Amazon for $4
A simpler explanation would be that the behavior of some users of speedpedelc type ebikes (45km/h max) are disrespectful of other users. I am a rider, I do more than 70% of my commute on speedpedelc and I love it, but when I see the behavior of some I hear the annoyance of other road users, including cyclists.
If that were the case, wouldn't there be more attention on the rising traffic deaths caused by cars in the US since 2010 instead? Seems like a double standard. :/
Hello Neil, I don't live in the same context, so I can't really comment on your feelings and observations. I ride in a country where e-bikes are categorised by law into two groups: one limited to 25 km/h, regulated like conventional bicycles, and one limited to 45 km/h, called speedpedelecs and regulated like mopeds (50 cc max engines).
The limitations are the same as for mopeds which have been around much longer than ebikes, so not specific to speedpedelecs/e bikes. And when I hear or read requests for stronger regulations, it comes more from other users than from industry associations, at least that's my impression.
Anyone know if the Nitto B307AA bars can take bar end shifters? It doesn't seem likely, but I can't find anything conclusive. :(
(Yes, I know about the RM016, but I don't want bars that wide. I'm currently on the hunt for swept-back bars narrower than 46cm that can take bar end shifters.)
As mountain bikers, Presta valves are something we just deal with. However, it's strange how many other things we have optimized, such as headsets, seat posts, drivetrains, wheels, and even shoes. Why haven't we fixed the one thing that's actually broken? Today we'll discuss the kinds of valves cyclists have used over the years, why mountain bikers ended up with Presta, and how new options have become available, like premium, tubeless Schrader, and Clik.
You all can keep your constantly changing disc brake caliper mounting standards. I'll stick with the bog-standard canti posts that haven't changed in forever. :3
The pro racers who do need carbon fiber bikes get them for free. Only the people who don’t need them actually pay for them.
Carbon fiber is light. It’s strong. It can be used to build everything from frames to seat posts to handlebars to cranks. And it’s one of the worst things that’s happened to bikes.
Now, to be clear, carbon fiber makes perfect sense for professional racing. Because it’s basically a fabric, builders can mold it into all sorts of aerodynamic shapes. Moreover, they can tune ride quality and maintain strength while simultaneously keeping the weight to a minimum in a way that’s not really possible with metal tubing. It used to be that racers had to choose between a light bike and an aero bike; now they can have both, all thanks to the miraculous properties of carbon fiber. At this point, there’s no reason for elite competitors to use anything else. Gift Yourself More Adventure
But here’s the thing: you’re not them. I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you’re almost certainly incapable of milking the handful of seconds a wind tunnel-sculpted pro-level carbon fiber race machine might theoretically net you in certain situations. Moreover, the pro racers who do need carbon fiber bikes get them for free; only the people who don’t need them actually pay for them. This means that, ipso facto, if you’ve purchased a carbon fiber bicycle, you’ve made a mistake.
“Okay, fine, I may not be Jonas Vingegaard,” you may be thinking. “Maybe I didn’t need a carbon bike. But how does that mean I’ve made a mistake?”
Simple: while you’re not able to extract carbon fiber’s small performance benefits, you are in an ideal position to experience its many drawbacks—and for normal people, carbon fiber bicycles have only drawbacks.
This is Bike Snob NYC writing for Outside Online, by the way.
Simple: while you’re not able to extract carbon fiber’s small performance benefits, you are in an ideal position to experience its many drawbacks—and for normal people, carbon fiber bicycles have only drawbacks.
Probably the biggest drawback to carbon fiber bikes is that they’re like eggs. You know how eggs are almost impossible to break if you squeeze them from the pointy ends, but if you squeeze them any other way you’ll quickly wind up with a handful of yolk? Similarly, while carbon bikes are quite strong when used as designed, what they’re designed for is racing. They’re not designed for crashing, falling off a hitch rack, getting knocked over in the garage by your young children, or any of the other little mishaps that befall normal people’s bicycles as part of the messy business of day-to-day living.
And no, I’m not one of those retrogrouches who’s afraid of carbon bikes and thinks they’re all about to explode at any moment. In fact, I rode a 35 year-old carbon bike through the Swiss Alps. (It was a finely aged hunk of cheese.) Yes, I know they make airplanes out of it. Yes, I know it can often be repaired. Yes, I know the majority of people who own carbon fiber bikes won’t have a problem with them. But airplanes have a whole federal agency looking after them, and who the hell wants to have to send their bicycle frame out for repair because of some dumb little crash in the first place?
race bikes are like eggshells but could CF cargo and utility bikes be lighter than metal and tough enough for hard use, or would they just be the same weight by the time you got all those redundant bias-ply layers in?
@enobacon You could make significantly lighter bakfiets/rickshaws if the box were load-bearing CF, and in general, cargo bikes are made with low to mid range tubing. You could make significantly lighter tubing or composite structures. But race bikes have a very defined loading, and it's harder to do that for a cargo bike, whose load size and location might vary significantly.
Essentially, carbon-fiber is usually heavily optimized for certain directions of load, but not others, and the others are its Achilles Heel as a result, right?
I had a Kestrel 200EMS, the fancy ultra high tensile strength fabric version. It was a great bike, rigid, light, aerodynamic. I hit a pothole in a race and the rear wheel deflected just enough to pick up the derailleur, which ripped off the derailleur mount. It didn't have a separate/replaceable derailleur hangar, so a minor oops trashed the frame. Too bad. It was rock solid until then.
So, why recommend steel and not mention aluminium at all? Aluminium is much lighter (and more expensive) than steel but still ductile (i.e. it bends rather than crack) if you pick the right alloy, and more rust resistant ...and it's still used in airplanes a lot :)
To me, that's the embodyment of the 80/20 rule: You get 80% of the benefit for 20% of the price. Mind you: my main bike is a 28 year old steel bike but if I had to get a new one it'd be aluminium.
I bought a Bianchi carbon bike five and a half years ago. I didn’t think it would matter much compared to my old racing bike, but I smashed all my Strava records with it.
I didn’t get it for free, but it was my best buy ever. I grew to be somewhat of a cycling fanatic. I rode about 70,000 kms on it now I think. Rode it through the Alpes about 7 times, including #tourforlife going from Italy to the Netherlands in 8 days. Also lost a couple of kgs of weight.
My shop said that not only did one of the caliper's pistons crack, TRP doesn't even make the brake in post mount form anymore, so I guess it's back to cable disc brakes again. 🙃
Today in tk's #seabikes adventures: descending from Phinney Ridge without a functioning front brake. 😱
(The bike has TRP Hylex hydraulic disc brakes. I took it to my LBS after and they said that it looks like the caliper might've sprung a leak and has been contaminating the rotor. I've had the brakes for several years now, so I'm not too bothered.)
Oh no! I have Hylex post-mounts on my road-ish bike. They are by far the best brakes I've ever owned. Zero maintenance, save for replacing pads, in over 13000km.
I originally thought I'd just use the stock pads until they were worn down, but they stopped just badly enough to convince me to put in Kool-Stop salmon pads. (It wasn't scary, but I wanted more confidence in my stopping.)
Always remember to sand your brake pads a little prior to installation. 👍
Today in tk's #seabikes adventures: descending from Phinney Ridge without a functioning front brake. 😱 (The bike has TRP Hylex hydraulic disc brakes. I took it to my LBS after and they said that it looks like the caliper might've sprung a leak and has been contaminating the rotor. I've had the brakes for several years now, so I'm not too bothered.)
Today in tk's #seabikes adventures: descending from Phinney Ridge without a functioning front brake. 😱
(The bike has TRP Hylex hydraulic disc brakes. I took it to my LBS after and they said that it looks like the caliper might've sprung a leak and has been contaminating the rotor. I've had the brakes for several years now, so I'm not too bothered.)
Yes, cantis. I like them. 🤷 They work well when set up correctly: straddle as low as you can get them to start, then raise little by little if you prefer. Having a lower cable hanger will additionally reduce system flex and improve stopping.
Even those dreaded Tektro "Oryx" 992A calipers. You need the straddle super low, but they work great that way. (That does also mean that they have limited tire clearance!)
(Oh, and this isn't a "rim versus disc" debate starter. If anything, it would be a "cantis suck" debate. :P )
@enobacon U Brakes are once again resurrected as “braze on centerpulls”. I have some on my old Centurion ProTour. Love the Tektro CR720 cantis, sadly discontinued it appears. Luckily I have a backstock.
Today in tk's #seabikes adventures: descending from Phinney Ridge without a functioning front brake. 😱
(The bike has TRP Hylex hydraulic disc brakes. I took it to my LBS after and they said that it looks like the caliper might've sprung a leak and has been contaminating the rotor. I've had the brakes for several years now, so I'm not too bothered.)
To be fair, bikes are utterly useless for going more than a few miles. Unless you're a fitness supergod.
Also ebikes are a lot more expensive than regular ones and not everyone has the energy for a regular pedal bike (*raises paw*).
But ebikes and escooters are great for getting around town!
So it makes sense to have little personal transportation things like (e)bikes/escooters for in-town and then cars for intercity. Maybe there could be big parking garages on the edge of town, either free (paid for by taxes) or monthly-rate, and just that's where your car lives when you're not using it.
Man, we've got NOTHING within 3 miles and we live in a city... we'd be going like 10 miles to our preferred grocery store. It's outside of our escooter's round trip battery range. (On an ebike we could get more range with pedal assist I bet, but ebikes are like $2000.) The train really helps.
Though a car also lets you go outside your local bubble.
Of course, intercity rail and stuff would help fill that gap, but I bet it would be EXPENSIVE and also good luck getting rail built to every small town in the US (that seems to be a thing in Europe though, so it might be feasible physically, just not politically).
@Thomas Bensler Infrastructure sharing works wonderfully in Taiwan. Many streets here have neither bicycle lanes nor sidewalks. Drivers are more or less considerate of other road users. So do the many scooter riders. Usually, when cars or scooters overtake other road users from behind, the safety distance to the overtaken road user is often more than 20 cm. It hardly ever happens that a rearview mirror causes injuries.
And more and more newly planned and built roads even have footpaths and cycle paths. Which are actually not allowed to be parked on.
Well and then, should the cars are getting less, there will be no more need for dedicated food paths and bicycle lanes.
Here in #Ottawa we have many separate bike paths all over the city, but we also have a lot on on-road dedicated bike lanes. Of course you can also bike directly on the roads as well.
Mixed feelings on this. A good external bb setup is stiff, light, and doesn't require pressing off the arms for every bb service. Some even just use a single bolt to hold the whole thing together. On the other hand, a cheap and defined toolset covers all types of square taper bb, while modern bb's seem to have 20 different tools needed and they all cost $30 or more.
Learning how to ride motorcycles (and riding them frequently for a few years) has significantly improved my #bicycle handling skills. :3 #motorcycle #cycling
On that note, I only tend to avoid rainy days when #motorcycle riding because I can't ride as fast, especially through turns. (The cold and wet don't bother me because I have the right gear.)
Getting into bicycling and motorcycling gave me a whole new perspective on road travel. They made me acutely aware of how small vehicles use the roads and position themselves, and that significantly improved my car driving.
I like 1×, I like 2×, and I like 3×. I also like single-speed, fixed-gear, internally geared hubs, and bottom bracket gearboxes. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. :3
I'm mostly over 3x (and my diy 4x) but nothing I've ridden in 1x gives me enough range for either road or mountain bikes. I would sure like a Pinion gearbox matched to a 10 speed cassette, though. Then I'd be satisfied.
My totally amateur take of anecdata on that would be that 90% of the people only change their 7/8/9 speed because it's rusty from standing outside for years and at least 50% of people with 10+ speed actually replace them because of wear and tear. Prices don't seem to be so different anymore, but I just did a very quick search for Shimano at one online shop. So maybe yes?
Hopefully none of you ever get hit by a car while riding your bicycle. Unfortunately, this happens to thousands of cyclists every year. While some people do recover physically from their accident, they often get slapped with thousands or even hundreds of thousands in medical bills that insurance won't cover. Today, we'll talk about the ways you can prevent that from happening, should you collide with a motor vehicle while riding your bike.
The video is full of good information. The basic point is treat it like any other car crash. Take pictures. Get a police report. Talk to witnesses. Exchange information with the other person. All the stuff you would normally do. Gather as much information at the time of the incident as you can. Maybe you won't need it but you can't go back in time when you realize you forgot something.
While I was riding my main #bicycle on gravel a couple days ago, I was able to easily rescue a front wheel slide.
And when I was riding it yesterday up a fairly steep bit of sandy gravel (for the city), I was able to get past wheelslip and just pedal slowly and softly in a low gear to get up the hill.
I went on a bicycle ride yesterday when it was in the 40 range and felt like I had a cold by the time I went to bed. Today with the windows open (no real choice), it feels like I’m having a bad allergy day. x.x #cycling #bicycle #seabikes #Seattle
Our world is built up of roads and cars to get us to our destination! But what about cycling and even walking? Have we been brainwashed to think that the car is always king?
Si goes on a deep dive into just how we are convinced to think that modern car culture is acceptable in our lives!
For our anniversary run of Rene Herse bikes—and for the bikes we ride in long-distance events—we wanted a better solution: a reliable needle-bearing headset that is Rinko-compatible. This is another project that had a long gestation period: We made the first prototypes three years ago. We ran them in Unbound XL (twice), in Paris-Brest-Paris, Arkansas High Country Race, Dark Divide 300 and many other rides and adventures. Along the way, we fine-tuned many details, both aesthetic and functional. We decreased stack height, lowered weight, and increased clearances to make sure the headset works smoothly and quietly under the harshest conditions. We tested and re-tested, and now the headsets are ready.
Had to use a pair of vice grips to remove the cover of my #Garmin power meter pedals because they were stuck enough that trying to use the hex socket to remove the cover just resulted in it stripping. (Yes, I'm using hex keys that are known to be good.)
The principle of the SCHWALBE CLIK VALVE, winner of the Eurobike Award 2024, is very simple: it works intuitively with a click. What does it need? The valve and the corresponding pump head or pump head adapter. With the Clik Valve, this can be clicked onto the bike valve with minimal force and removed again very easily after successful inflation.
It doesn't matter which valve and pump you currently have - thanks to conversion kits for all existing bicycle valves and most pumps. To change the bicycle valve, simply replace the valve insert (Sclaverand, Presta, Dunlop, tubeless valve), for the car valve there is an adapter that is screwed over the valve (and can be easily unscrewed again to be able to use petrol station pumps).
The pump head adapter can be integrated into the pump head of current pumps (by clamping or screwing in), even with hand pumps. The Schwalbe Clik Valve can also be inflated with normal SV (Presta) pumps - thanks to this reverse compatibility, you are never at a loss in any situation. And SKS will already be offering its own CLIK VALVE pump at Eurobike.
Schwalbe will soon be producing the first tubes with the Clik Valve.
I didn't realize the issues they mention were issues.
So I guess I just don't care: eventually we'll just have another type of bicycle valve on the bikes in garage. As long as there's a little converter thingy available it'll be fine.
The Clik Valve sounds like a good idea and I love the innovation. I'm not about to replace my existing Presta and Schrader stuff, so it's good to see that there are conversion kits.
It'd be nice if it means breaking a valve stem isn't as easy, I guess? Or if it became the new defacto pump so I don't have to worry about breaking cheap plastic Presta converters on cheap emergency mini-pumps for Schrader valves?
I don't necessarily doubt it might be better, but I doubt that it isn't just marginally kinda sorta better.
I am reasonnably curious. It looks cool, however I am not sure I am ready to retrofit all my pumps (1 for each bike + track/home pump) for click adapter + all my bikes valves. I'd have to do the math. I guess it is an easier choice for people who have only one bike.
I've lived with presta valves for decades after all.
After reading the article, I'm still having trouble understanding what it does differently.
If the promises are true, then good, Presta is fragile, and a not-fragile option would be nice. I won't buy it unless my pump already fits, and that was not entirely clear (adapter? do I have to carry it?).
I immediately thought of the Idaho Stop. WA implemented part of it, but we're still not allowed to treat red lights as stop signs. That should change, IMO.
Pretty sure they only made the beads so tight so that they'd form a more effective "seal" with the rim's well to make inflating with a compressor or similar easier. That results in two side-effects:
The tires are a bear to get on the rim!
As soon as pressure is lost, the beads want to migrate to the center of the rim's well.
The Schwalbe G-One Allround tires don’t roll noticeably slower than the GravelKings, but they do feel less “wobbly” at the same pressure and definitely bite well into gravel. #bicycle #cycling #biketooter #mastobikes
I've been running 38mm Panaracer GravelKing tires tubeless on my Soma Stanyan for years, but the front tire I just put on has enough wobble to rub in one spot on every rotation. (The wheel itself is true.)
Two shops told me that the tire wasn't seated right, but I checked and remounted multiple times and it's seating fine. Even used some rubbing alcohol to lubricate the tire where it seated, but it always mounts up perfectly fine. The tire is the problem.
The second shop gave the real answer after chatting with the folks there for a bit: I should go down a size. It's a real bummer, but even the Soma website says it can do up to 35mm. :(
The only other realistic alternative is a new frameset, or at least a new fork, but that will have to wait for a while. :(
Only problem is that I now have to find a completely different tire since both the GravelKing and Rene Herse tires don't go any smaller than 650B×38mm.
THE SPECIAL ONE. G-One Speed is above all a promise of maximum speed! This tire extends the range of use for every road cyclist. It rolls fast on the road, but at the same time safely on unkept cycle paths and gravel roads.
your can buy replacement clamps. I had such a failure the other day. A few bucks for the clamp, new bar tape (needed it anyway) and about 30mins of effort and I was back on the road. https://mastodon.social/@lildude/112547022754772368
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Whoops. That would explain why my right brake lever suddenly became loose on my ride last week when I hit a particularly brutal bump I only slightly avoided. #BikeTooter
. @clover and I were riding down a hill and slowed to let a pedestrian cross at a marked crosswalk, and were "rewarded" with an angry honk and close pass from a Tesla that was behind us.
I guess some drivers either are in their own little world or don't care about people crossing the street. :/
bazkie 👩🏼💻 bitplanes 🎵
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Neil E. Hodges
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Daniel
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •every time I contemplate "upgrading" the stock exhaust on my bike, I remember it's already louder than a car exhaust.
Most car exhausts, anyway. Not the M3 that my neighbour across the road drives.
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Mira
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