Posted on 02/04/2023 7:45:09 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
Welcome to The Bicycle Thread.
A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas. 🚴♂️👍
Everyone has their own reason for starting cycling. Whether it’s to improve fitness, build muscle or lose weight, many people start with a certain goal in mind. However, although the physical benefits are widely documented, what is often forgotten is how much it can benefit our mental health too.
Didn’t we just have a monthly bike thread?
Yes but now we have a new one.
Questions:
Can the National Parks system build cross-nation bike trails?
Is there any organization pushing for this that I could join and support?
National cross-country trails would not only benefit our citizens but would be an attraction that would bring in visitors from around the world. It would promote the development of mom and pop business that would be needed to support the bikers.
I don’t know about the National Parks system. But I think that would be a super good thing to do.
Last year I rode 2,800 miles and the year before 2,500 miles. That’s like coast-to-coast and back.
Of course that spread over two years. A young-er person could do it shorter.
As a factory trained Schwinn mechanic, and one who appreciates American craftsmanship this bike blows my mind (has been blowing my mind since I first saw it):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65214324@N02/52224741667/in/album-72177720300649073/lightbox/
Steel stem shifters, Opaque Green, looks pristine to me, even the tires look NOS. No paint rash on the chain stay. Beautiful survivor.
The way things are going, the interstate highway system will become bike trails because no-one will be driving any kind of motorized vehicles.
Voila! No capital required.
It got hijacked by a bunch of bicycle hating lunatics.
I am a cyclist, but I stopped commuting on my bike last year as it’s just getting too scary on the roads. Now I feel safest in my F350.
The bikes are relegated to trails and the neighborhood.
Yep, I made similar comments. I like to ride but tend to do more on the trails and bike-friendly backroads. Too many lunatics out there! And to be honest I admit I’m no longer really interested in proving I can ride a century of 5000 ft. of elevation gain in a day, just like to get out and enjoy the countryside and get some exercise without obsessing over distance or speed.
Sweet...now that is what is meant by ‘just driven off the showroom floor’ but then looks like it has never been used.
Those of us in the Cream City are fortunate to have politicians supporting expansion of the Oak Leaf Trail system in Milwaukee and surrounding areas. It makes for beautiful rides throughout the southeastern Wisconsin area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Leaf_Trail
I don't think it's what Eisenhower had in mind, but we're one hostile act or EO away from exactly that.
I’ll call when the ice has melted from our driveway....which has been present since our surprise Dec. 29 snowfall.
A few months ago, while bicycling, I saw a hungry fox sniffing a trashcan and then eating some crap on the grass. So the next morning I brought two leftover meatballs. But then all there were was a bunch of hungry geese. So I ate the meatballs. Now today I saw a lot less geese at the same place, after I ate their meatballs...
I lusted over those when i saw them in the window of bike shops in Bozeman and West Yellowstone in the late 70’s/early 80’s. Of course, as a starving college student there was no way i could afford one.
Now that i could afford one (maybe?) there’s no point since we live on a steep long hill and my legs ain’t what they used to be.
There are myriad good and useful things for which there is never enough money. If you want an earful, talk to the maintenance crews sometimes if you encounter them on some remote stretch of the C&O Canal towpath, which at 185 miles is a small fraction of what would be involved in a national bike network. Or talk to the NPS Civil War historians about the issues that arise with highways slashing across Civil War battlefields. Ever been to Antietam? Many have. But have you ever visited the Alfred Poffenberger farm -- not the Julius Poffenberger farm, which is on the standard tour -- or the Hauser house or Hauser's Ridge? If not, you've never seen the confederate left, and you don't understand the field beyond the West Woods. Why not? A highway, and never mind that the NPS owns a lot of ground on the other side of the road. This is an issue on several battlefields.
If Congress ordered it, the NPS would do as it was told, but that would often be a stretch. That's not a knock on the project; it just involves a range of management issues that are outside of the NPS's current organizational structures and skill sets.
There are, however, groups that are working on this, and I suspect the NPS is perfectly happy to cooperate as part of a coalition effort, as long as other partners are willing to tackle the day-to-day management issues. See national bike trail system
I live in D.C. and hang around in Civil War circles. My impression is that the NPS senior management is generally not enthusiastic about small, scattered sites with low visitor rates. These may be very significant sites that should be saved -- there's often no argument about that -- but for the NPS, every independent unit involves staffing, maintenance and oversight responsibilities. We have quite a few small, oddball NPS units in the D.C. area, and cumulatively they aggregate into a big enough complex to justify the administrative overhead. But staffing tiny, remote sites is something the NPS would probably rather leave to state and local parks authorities. For the National Capital Region, see: National Capital Region
Here is a sad but interesting story. About a doctor who could easily afford a high price car but instead rode a bicycle , no doubt for his enjoyment but also his good health.... RIP.
ER doctor hit, stabbed while riding bike died at O.C. hospital where he saved livesMammone had been riding his bicycle north on Pacific Coast Highway when he was hit from behind by a car, according to authorities.The driver, 39-year-old Long Beach resident Vanroy Evan Smith, got out of his white Lexus and stabbed Mammone repeatedly with a knife, officials said.
I asked an older gentleman what his motivation was tor riding a bike. He cited the usual benefits, and added “It changes your head.”
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