muff said.

i mean, nuff said...

you get the point.

 

are they riding around like this? http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_D_gA1kMwT6...0/bikeporn.png

 

/facepalms

One can get a TON of exercise and fresh air without the need of a bike, kind of a poorly thought out post don't you think.

I mean look, would you use a 286 computer...no, its outdated. Would you use a 8" floppy drive, again no its outdated. What about a laserdisk player, once more, archaic technology that has past its day.

There is some tech that is "timeless" but I don't see the bike as being one of them. It is, in my view, relegated to "curio" status. A item from a bygone era when there was no better choice to use. The fact that thousands of people use them in a modern infrastructure country like ours, as day to day transportation, is kind of sad really. Its the technological equilivlant of using a dot matrix printer in todays world of laser printers.

 

The bike was probably a fixed gear, meaning it cannot coast. Resisting the pedal is almost as good as a brake. Almost... which is why I recommend anyone riding a fixie run a front brake.

I'm not a hipster, just a guy that bikes from time to time.

 

The bicycle is the most efficient form of human transportation ever devised. In large cities they help cut down on traffic by having less people in cars. Look at Japan (a "modern" society, in many ways more "modern" than our own). Bikes are everywhere. They need them there because the population density is so high.

I'm not going to get into an argument over it, it's obvious you will not change your viewpoint, and I will not change mine, but bikes DO fit into modern society. I dislike the entitlement that people on both sides of the divide exhibit on a regular basis. Truly share the road and look out for your fellow human, whether they drive a car, ride a bike or walk... and everything will improve.

 

word!

 

What exactly is a 'hipster' I don't understand...

 

Omg... dude, you're something else.

Some people's knees are too banged up to go running. The bike helps with that. You mention some outdated tech. Yes, nobody uses a 286 as a desktop PC, but there are millions of chips in use every day that are in that approximate speed class. What do you think runs your microwave? 8" floppies... the biggest I've ever personally seen is 5.25" which is besides the point, floppies aren't gone either. The 3.5" ones still have their uses in the IT world, including loading special extra drivers during the early stages of a Windows install.

With a bicycle, minimal human effort translates into miles travelled in a way that makes any car bus truck or whatever else look silly and wasteful. Plus, a well conditioned cyclist can easily keep up with city traffic, and if he/she desires, can travel hundreds of miles in a day, just like you can in your car. The difference, their travel is mostly free, yours is not.

I too dislike when a cyclist rides irresponsibly. I almost killed one a week ago. I was turning right after stopping at a stop sign, he just blew through the intersection. I feel your frustration on that end, but you've obviously taken about the most negative view a person can ever have on a really great mode of transportation. I recommend you go on Craigslist, find a good used bike in your size, and go learn for yourself how great riding a bike can be.

You'll be much happier for it.

 

I've worked with companies that still use dot matrix printers. Why spend money to upgrade when your current situation works just fine.

How much does a car cost?
How much does a motorcycle cost?
What are the accident rates for those two compared to bikes? (if you're actually going to answer that one, look it up from the NTSB, not your own nonexpert opinion)
How much does it cost per mile to run cars/motorcycles compared to bikes?
How much do bicycles contribute to pollution?
How do west coast public transportation systems compare to NY and Boston?

Just because you don't have a use for something in your life, doesn't mean it's outdated.

 

I would rather gargle with ground glass, than lower myself to riding a bike. I am sorry but I 100% disagree with you on it being a valid mode of transportation. They are slow, they are small and in the way, MOST of the people who ride them have no regard for others. Ban them from major cities and you would see traffic fatalities go down (car vs bike), and would see flow increase as fewer drivers would have to slow down to get past a bike sticking out in the middle of the lane. (at least here in SF)

 

Thankfully most modern IT people know to push the company away from such legacy hardware. The ones that still use dot Matrix, will die out as they can not compete with companies that run more cutting edge tech.

 

That's the overinflated sense of entitlement that I've come to know all too well. You are not better than the cyclists just because you are in a car. They are not "beneath you." Your attitude sickens me. You're the type of a**hole that tries to run me off the road every time I'm out for exercise.

Dot matrix printers are rock solid dependable, there is almost nothing in them that can break, and when they do, they're cheap to fix. Laser printers are far more complex and break down often. I have at least three printer repair requests every day, and my company only has 150 employees. Oddly enough, our older printers break down far less frequently than our newer ones. Sometimes you just need tech that is dependable. Legacy tech is often just that, dependable. Just like the bicycle. Most things that can go wrong with one can be fixed with a multi tool you can store in your pocket. How many times will your bicycle be out of gas, need a new battery, or have a solenoid fail?

 

Yea because I think running people off the road is cool /facepalm. No, I go out of my way to AVOID you bike *******s, because most of you disregard the law and I don't want to end up hit or hitting one of you because you think your entitled to ride as you want where you want and **** everyone else.

I suspect your the type that ignores stop signs, rides on sidewalks and out in the middle of the lane, rides 2-3 abreast and ignores the cars piling up behind you.

As to the dot matrix thing. I can't think of a single company we work with, that has one. I know for a fact we don't accept papers printed on them, as scanners have a problem converting dot matrix print to text (OCR limitation). We too are a 150 user company, running a cutting edge VM server system, top of the line laser printers and copiers, and less than 3yo computers. No excuse to use legacy crap with all the leaps in tech.

 

I agree with Overbear on the fact that a lot of bicyclists are ****heads that don't share the road, but on the other hand bicycling is a great method for exercising. I can see how they get mad at people who drive cars for getting close to them, and often not seeing the small bicycle which could lead to an accident or near miss, but the bicyclists here in Berkeley have no regard for the law, they run red lights, fly into traffic and generally don't obey a lot of the road laws. I saw that the police crack down on enforcing the traffic laws for people riding bikes, if they started getting tickets, they'd stop riding like idiots.

I don't think that bikes should be outlawed, they're a great tool, and you'll be happy that you have one when the zombie invasion happens. Cars run out of gas, and gas only has so long of a shelf life.....

 

For the record, I stay to the right, on the shoulder if there is one, and under most circumstances stop everywhere required by law. I try to stay out of the way, because I value my own life.

Next, my company also does not have any dot matrix printers. Sorry if I gave you that impression. However, I have seen them at auto parts stores, especially junkyards, and the Lowe's I worked at in college had several for printing to special forms (and that wasn't long ago). Basically any situation where there will never be an IT guy ready to fix stuff is perfect for a dot matrix. Those jobs will always be there, whether you respect or like it or not.

Sometimes the simple answer, the dependable answer, is the right answer.