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  1. -Dynamos are great
    -Riding in the winter is great
    -riding with skis is great
    -steel frames look cool
    -hydraulic anything in the winter is a big no

  2. Padded shorts will not keep a new rider from getting ass pain.

    Stop recommending expensive clothes to people who are at most riding a couple miles around the neighborhood. They just need to ride and let their body adapt to the bike.

  3. If anyone here recognizes me, they’ll know my main ones:

    1. In most riding situations, listening to music through headphones is not a safety risk.
    2. Electrolytes are not needed for most riders for most situations. And no, they don’t help prevent or mitigate exercise-associated cramping.
    3. “If you wait until you’re thirsty to drink, it’s too late,” is utter, abject nonsense.
    4. No, you don’t know that you would have died had you not been wearing your helmet in that crash. But I am glad that you’re OK.

  4. Tomato_on_the_table on

    Bicycle helmets are almost useless at protecting you from impacts with cars traveling above 35 kph. They’re great for low speed spills, but people delude themselves into thinking 200 grams of expanded foam will save their noggin from a collision with a 2 ton vehicle

  5. Preaching to the choir here, but to non-cyclists in my area:

    Bikes can be transportation, not just toys.

  6. People are overly obsessed with preparing for rides. You don’t need enough water to last a week or be dressed like you’re in the tour de France to go on a half hour joyride

  7. Fair_Suspect8866 on

    The vast, vast majority of people could do without an ebike for the journey’s they do.

  8. It’s okay to cosplay pros but it’s also fine to not give a shit and find it dull.

    People talk too much about their gear and too little about their actual riding. Health benefits, utilitarian efficiency especially, are what matter most IMO. Plus I care much less if your bike is “race-ready” when you aren’t.

    Marginal gains for a non-racing amateur is almost useless. Don’t get me wrong: having nice things is okay. Just stop deluding yourself that it isn’t competitive spending or it’s the “smartest” decision. Find it pretty? Just like it, period? That’s fine. Especially applies to the anecdotal hipster shit too.

    Feel free to disagree.

  9. The individual behavior of cyclists don’t make motorists hate all cyclists. People that think like that already think that way about the world. Furthermore, trying to please all motorists is less important than safely asserting your space on the road.

  10. equality4everyonenow on

    Stretched out super aero positions on upright bikes is not something the human body was meant to do. The pain in your neck, shoulders, hands and butt is not natural.

  11. For the majority of bike commuters – using clip-less pedals is both pointless and more dangerous.

  12. CEEngineerThrowAway on

    General purpose outdoor outwear is better for commuting than most cycling clothes. I’d prefer a shell with a helmet compatible hood. Arc Terxy felt like a luxury purchase 10 years ago, but has turned out to be the frugal choice to share outerwear for every sport I do.

  13. Infrastructure saves lives not helmets. Legislature should focus on the former not the latter

  14. 25kmh is good top speed for ebike, and if you have to go faster than that then you should not use an ebike.

    Have had this discussion many times and mainly US ebikers say they have to go faster since they are driving with cars… which means they should not use bikes at all since there is no infrastructure that supports it. 25kmh is already fairly generous, when we look at severity of accidents at different speeds. 40kmh is insane, you need a full motorcycle helmet at those speeds.

  15. * Disc brakes work well but are unnecessary outside of e-bikes, cargo bikes and riding for sport.
    Any suspension is unnecessary outside outside of e-bikes, cargo bikes and riding for sport. They’re unnecessary heavy and make bikes harder to service, and don’t have a benefit for commuting. No the roads are not that bad, your rigid fork can handle a few potholes, and your rim brakes are enough.
    * Hydraulic disc brakes feel great and are a bad idea for most consumers. Harder to service for the average user and their failure, unlike mechanical brakes, is often a sudden all-or-nothing affair that is impossible to deal with on the side of the road.
    * E-bikes are great for cycling, but bad for consumers. Harder to service for the average user, full of custom, proprietary parts that will be hard to come by after 3 or 4 years of use. After the battery is shot, all you have is a heavy bike. Ironically, e-bike conversions avoid some of these problems;

  16. Almost nobody needs any form of bicycle suspension.

    I say almost, but this is based on an estimate that serious MTBers are ~5% of the cyclist population, so please correct me if there are more of you out there.

  17. Removing a car lane to add pedestrian walkways and a bike lane will reduce traffic congestion.

  18. TrustWorthyGoodGuy on

    Riding bicycle can make a person orgasm on every single commute each way, and that’s OK!

  19. A reasonable amount of plain water is fine and you don’t need to eat gels or “refuel” for most rides. Your body has a reserve of electrolytes and glucose. Most of us have both in excess.

    Not so much from this sub but all the other bike subs.

  20. If you’re buying a bike to use every day for the rest of your life, (commuting) carbon is not practical.

  21. terrysaurus-rex on

    Adding onto a separate comment I left here but the ebike industry’s priorities are completely out of whack.

    The emphasis right now seems to be higher wattage and speed specs, fancy and unnecessarily complicated builds, resulting in heavier and more unwieldy products.

    The ebike industry should instead be focusing on modest speed (15-20mph max), pedal assisted, light hybrid bikes with solid builds that ride basically like a standard hybrid or road bike but with some assist for hills. There should still be options for juiced up mountain/gravel bikes for rural/hilly areas, but these should be treated as car replacements not urban commuter replacements.

  22. IllTakeACupOfTea on

    bikes should have kickstands and fenders

    (mostly, this is just me talking to my husband who owns 6 bikes, not a single one has a kickstand or a fender, when we are riding together)

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