Bicycling for Work

In article <nPwgc.166025$JO3.97096@attbi_s04>,
[email hidden] says...

...

Quoted message said:

Laugh at Americans in their ridiculous gas-hogging SUV's.
Go ahead and laugh at them. They deserve ridicule.

Indeed, we do!

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return
address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

Mark Hickey said:

I've seen some incredibly heavy people on bikes - some who
I would expect to have trouble walking (at least very
far). It's nearly the perfect workout for them since
they're not damaging their already overloaded joints.
There is one particular very, very heavy woman I passed on
my regular ride - she would ride a heavy upright bike on
the sidewalk at a very, very slow pace. As the months went
by, she lost probably 50 pounds (22kg) and got faster. I
haven't seen her for a while (my schedule changed), but I
wouldn't be surprised to see her riding faster (and
thinner).

Perhaps bike clubs could work with cities, parks and rec
depts., YMCA/YWCA, etc., to plan easy routes for new
cyclists who are very unfit. It's easy to forget how even
the slightest hill can be a major obstacle for some people
-- they even feel the tiny grades designed into "flat"
streets for drainage purposes. Around here it would be quite
a challenge to plan such a route because it's so hilly. But
I'm sure it could be done somewhere, even if it's a parking
lot or a soccer field. Of course, this is one of the key
"selling points" of rail-trails, but not all communities
have them.

Most bike clubs have a collection of progressively harder
rides, that one can move "up" with. But the easiest ones are
still way too advanced for non-enthusiasts. Perhaps we could
extend this ladder all the way down to the most basic level,
so anyone who can roll around a flat parking lot has a
starting point, and a path for improvement.

Matt O.

Quoted message said:

Anyone uses bike going to work???

I do. Have been for nearly forty years.

Quoted message said:

I don't know if a car addicted American can leave their
addiction at home and ride bicycle.

A lot of them have a very long commute to work, perhaps
thirty miles or more. That makes for a long bicycle ride.

Quoted message said:

About 20% of Americans people are physically unable to
ride bicycle because they are too fat.

I can believe the 20% figure, but not the explanation that
they are too fat. Lack of balance and poor co-ordination are
much worse hindrances than fat.

There's an article in this Month's Rolling Stone about
Neil Young using biodisel in all his tour busses...
full respect..

Mike

"Rocketman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:nPwgc.166025$JO3.97096@attbi_s04...

Quoted message said:

"mark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:mJwg-
[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Red Cloud" wrote ...

Quoted message said:

Anyone uses bike going to work??? Gas price is all
time time now. Perhpas it's best time to ride bicycle
to work.

I love it when Americans grumble about the high price of
gas. Let's see, regular gas in the Denver area is $1.70
- $1.90 per US gallon (~3.8

liters),

Quoted message said:

and in my corner of Colorado it's $1.80 -$2.00. Would
any British

readers

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

like to give us an update on the price of gas in their
corner of the

world?

Quoted message said:

--
mark

A few weeks ago when I was in the Czech Republic,
gasoline was about $3.30/gal (22.5 korunas/L). It's
probably higher now.

I was happy and amazed to see that many fuel stations in
CZ also sell biodiesel. It's comical to me that in the US,
only a few researchers and activists have even
*experimented* with using biodiesel. In CZ, it's already a
commodity.

Laugh at Americans in their ridiculous gas-hogging SUV's.
Go ahead and laugh at them. They deserve ridicule.

R

LioNiNoiL_a t_NetscapE_D 0 T_NeT said:

A lot of them have a very long commute to work, perhaps
thirty miles or more. That makes for a long bicycle ride.

I've met several people who ride that far to work every day.

For 3 months, I did about 30 miles round-trip. It took the
same time as driving at rush hour, but it was a lot more
pleasant. Great way for a time-strapped businessperson to
get some miles in, too.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

About 20% of Americans people are physically unable to
ride bicycle because they are too fat.

I can believe the 20% figure, but not the explanation that
they are too fat. Lack of balance and poor co-ordination
are much worse hindrances than fat.

Most adults can ride a bicycle with no problem. It's the
hills they have trouble with, and being fat makes it worse.

Matt O.

"Mark Hickey" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

There is one particular very, very heavy woman I passed on
my regular ride - she would ride a heavy upright bike on
the sidewalk at a very, very slow pace. As the months went
by, she lost probably 50 pounds (22kg) and got faster. I
haven't seen her for a while (my schedule changed), but I
wouldn't be surprised to see her riding faster (and
thinner).

I was going to post about a woman I used to see on my way to
work. She was coming the other way, and there was only a
brief section where we'd pass each other, if at all.

When I first started seeing her, she had a department store
mountain bike, wore big sweatpants, and a huge yellow rain
slicker, and she was probably about 35 or so pounds
overweight, maybe more. As the months went by, the
sweatpants turned into lyrca bike tights and shorts. The
bike changed to an older used road bike. The woman slimmed
down too. She still wore the yellow slicker, though, on
rainy days.

After about a year and a half, I don't see her any more, but
I like to imagine other changes that happened to her with
the changes happened to her body when she rode that bike to
work every day. I like to imagine her finding a better
boyfriend. I like to imagine that I don't see her any more
because she got a better job, and is riding a different way
to work nowadays. Maybe she's upgraded the bike yet again.
Maybe I'll be riding one day, and I'll see a muscular black
woman on a cool looking bike, wearing a big yellow slicker,
and I'll know it's her.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato
and .net for .com Home of the meditative cyclist:
home.earthlink.netWelcome.htmOpen ↗ See the
books I've set free at:
bookcrossing.comCpeterskyOpen ↗

"Red Cloud" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anyone uses bike going to work??? Gas price is all time
time now. Perhpas it's best time to ride bicycle to work.
I don't know if a car addicted American can leave their
addiction at home and ride bicycle. About 20% of Americans
people are physically unable to ride bicycle because they
are too fat.

I commute by bike every day and have for years, even when
gas was much cheaper. With the air quality around here
(southern California) I wish that a lot more people commuted
by bicycle.

I hope that gas prices continue to rise. I'd like to see the
day when not everybody is driving an extra large gas
guzzling truck just to commute to work or go buy groceries.
I especially hate smelly diesels. Why do they seem to be so
popular now?

Jeff

Red Cloud said:

Anyone uses bike going to work??? Gas price is all time
time now. Perhpas it's best time to ride bicycle to work.
I don't know if a car addicted American can leave their
addiction at home and ride bicycle. About 20% of Americans
people are physically unable to ride bicycle because they
are too fat.

+-------------------+ .:\:\:/:/:.
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| Thank you, | ( (_) )
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\||/ | | | (______Y______) /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\\/\/\/\-
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--

David L. Johnson

__o | More people object to wearing fur than leather
because it is _`\(,_ | safer to harass rich white women
than motorcycle gangs. (_)/ (_) |

Jeff Goble said:

"Red Cloud" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anyone uses bike going to work??? Gas price is all time
time now. Perhpas it's best time to ride bicycle to work.
I don't know if a car addicted American can leave their
addiction at home and ride bicycle. About 20% of
Americans people are physically unable to ride bicycle
because they are too fat.

I commute by bike every day and have for years, even when
gas was much cheaper. With the air quality around here
(southern California) I wish that a lot more people
commuted by bicycle.

I hope that gas prices continue to rise. I'd like to see
the day when not everybody is driving an extra large gas
guzzling truck just to commute to work or go buy groceries.
I especially hate smelly diesels. Why do they seem to be so
popular now?

Because they are cheaper to operate, simply stated. I sure
miss my Mercedes 300CD over here. The typical VW diesel gets
around 49 MPG and diesel is always cheaper than at least the
mid-grade of gasoline. There are no spark plugs or ignition
system to speak of and they just run forever. The Mercedes
300 series is usually described as "indestructible" and a
life-span of a half a million miles is not unusual.

Michael J. Klein Please replace mousepotato with
asiancastings

"mark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"Red Cloud" wrote ...

Quoted message said:

Anyone uses bike going to work??? Gas price is all
time time now. Perhpas it's best time to ride bicycle
to work.

I love it when Americans grumble about the high price of
gas. Let's see, regular gas in the Denver area is $1.70 -
$1.90 per US gallon (~3.8 liters), and in my corner of
Colorado it's $1.80 -$2.00. Would any British readers like
to give us an update on the price of gas in their corner
of the world?

British don't worry about Gasoline price since they are not
that too depend on gasoline like here we Americans do.
Americans don't understand why European don't depend on car
like American do. Let the british price be $6/gallon. They
can ride bike anywhere not like American where most
American can't go supermarket without using gasoline.

In article
<[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

"Red Cloud" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anyone uses bike going to work??? Gas price is all time
time now. Perhpas it's best time to ride bicycle to
work. I don't know if a car addicted American can leave
their addiction at home and ride bicycle. About 20% of
Americans people are physically unable to ride bicycle
because they are too fat.

I commute by bike every day and have for years, even when
gas was much cheaper. With the air quality around here
(southern California) I wish that a lot more people
commuted by bicycle.

I hope that gas prices continue to rise. I'd like to see
the day when not everybody is driving an extra large gas
guzzling truck just to commute to work or go buy
groceries. I especially hate smelly diesels. Why do they
seem to be so popular now?

Because they get much better mileage than gas engines, and
require less routine maintenance.

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
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In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

LioNiNoiL_a t_NetscapE_D 0 T_NeT said:

A lot of them have a very long commute to work,
perhaps thirty miles or more. That makes for a long
bicycle ride.

I've met several people who ride that far to work
every day.

For 3 months, I did about 30 miles round-trip. It took the
same time as driving at rush hour, but it was a lot more
pleasant. Great way for a time-strapped businessperson to
get some miles in, too.

I think he meant 30 miles each way, not round trip.

....

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).

David Kerber said:

I think he meant 30 miles each way, not round trip.

I know he did. But as I pointed out, some people ride even
further than that:

bikecommute.combike.htmlOpen ↗

Matt O.

On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 03:27:33 GMT, in rec.bicycles.misc you wrote:

<SNIP>

Quoted message said:

After about a year and a half, I don't see her any more,
but I like to imagine other changes that happened to her
with the changes happened to her body when she rode that
bike to work every day. I like to imagine her finding a
better boyfriend. I like to imagine that I don't see her
any more because she got a better job, and is riding a
different way to work nowadays. Maybe she's upgraded the
bike yet again. Maybe I'll be riding one day, and I'll see
a muscular black woman on a cool looking bike, wearing a
big yellow slicker, and I'll know it's her.

<SNIP>

Claire, why would her losing weight equate to her getting a
better boyfriend (or girlfriend if that's her particular
bent...)? I'm overweight and have had pretty fair luck in
girlfriends over the years and I'd like to think that just
because I lost some weight I wouldn't "trade up" to someone
that wouldn't have had me when I was 20 lbs heavier! Talk
about shallow, to let weight decide who you will date!

Mike, riding for fun, loosing weight is just a nice
side benefit.

Mark Hickey said:

Dre said:

About 20% of Americans people are physically unable to
ride bicycle because they are too fat.

There are certainly a lot of Americans that are incapable
of riding a bike because of weight, but I don't believe
it's anywhere NEAR 20%. Is there any evidence to support
that statistic?

Well, I'd say you'd have to be a farther outlier from obese
to probably something like 'morbidly obese' to dis-qualify
oneself. [1] You can be pretty unfit and still manage to
ride a bicycle.

As for general obesity figures, hey, we're doing better
than the Samoans... Great Britain seems to hard on our
heels though.

suntimes.comcst nwsOpen ↗
worldchart02.html

[1] What is the official difference between obese and
morbidly obese?

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the show?"

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email hidden]> wrote
in message

Quoted message said:

Even before we start

invading people for oil.

Haven't you started already? Aren't there any British
troops in Iraq?

Dave

On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 03:21:01 -0700, "Raoul Duke"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Even before we start

invading people for oil.

Quoted message said:

Haven't you started already? Aren't there any British
troops in Iraq?

We have indeed. That has wiped out any chance of the
revenues from motoring covering the costs to the economy for
another decade or so at least. Which was my point.

--
Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after
posting. chapmancentral.co.ukchapmancentral.co.ukOpen ↗

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at
Washington University

"mark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Red Cloud" wrote ...

Quoted message said:

Anyone uses bike going to work??? Gas price is all
time time now. Perhpas it's best time to ride bicycle
to work.

I love it when Americans grumble about the high price of
gas. Let's see, regular gas in the Denver area is $1.70 -
$1.90 per US gallon (~3.8

liters),

Quoted message said:

and in my corner of Colorado it's $1.80 -$2.00. Would any
British readers like to give us an update on the price of
gas in their corner of the

world?

Quoted message said:

--
mark

It's not the price of gasoline that's so expensive in
Europe, it's the price of taxes, they pay about the same for
crude oil that the U.S. does. It's their own government
that's ripping them off, something for Americans to remember
when you vote next November.

Just a point to note. About 10-12 years ago the big 3
started a joint venture R&D effort called USCAR. It was
supposed to come up with the definition of the US car of the
future - fuel efficient, environmentally acceptable and lots
of other things. They studied fuel cells, methanol, ethanol,
natural gas, propane, hydrogen, etc, and do you know what
they came up with?

Diesel

An awesome solution except for a few minor details - 1.
still leaves America dependent on the same old sources of
energy. 2. In spite of best available emisson control
technologies, the public doesn't like the smell.

Where is USCAR today - anybody know?

I'm sure glad my bike emits only mud emissions. And even
then, only on certain trails.

;-)

Sniffinvinyl

"Jeff Goble" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Red Cloud" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anyone uses bike going to work??? Gas price is all time
time now. Perhpas it's best time to ride bicycle to
work. I don't know if a car addicted American can leave
their addiction at home and ride bicycle. About 20% of
Americans people are physically unable to ride bicycle
because they are too fat.

I commute by bike every day and have for years, even when
gas was much cheaper. With the air quality around here
(southern California) I wish

that

Quoted message said:

a lot more people commuted by bicycle.

I hope that gas prices continue to rise. I'd like to see
the day when not everybody is driving an extra large gas
guzzling truck just to commute to work or go buy
groceries. I especially hate smelly diesels. Why do they
seem to be so popular now?

Jeff

oooo I think Helen has got you there. What do you want cheap
gas or a future planet for your prodigy?

As usual us Canadians are in the middle - our gas prices are
higher than US and lower than UK. Never can make up our
minds who we want to more like . . .

As someone who is in the energy business I think its too
cheap and not so oil patch can make more money. Its too
cheap because its irreplaceable, it causes harmful
emissions, it renders us dependent on foreign countries with
their political instabilities, it makes us fat and lazy and
none of this is reflected in the prices we are paying today.

Maybe there are more issues than just price to think about
at election time.

Sniffinvinyl

"dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message news:20040419152238.24980.00000025@mb-
m25.aol.com...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It's not the price of gasoline that's so expensive in
Europe, it's the

price

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

of taxes, they pay about the same for crude oil that the
U.S. does.

It's

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

their own government that's ripping them off, something
for Americans to remember when you vote next November.

Indeed we do pay more in tax than on t'other side of the
pond. Of course,

there

Quoted message said:

is the point that we aren't paying too much (tax money has
to come from somewhere to provide public services and
things like our National Health Services) and there is an
argument that has some merit that on the

American

Quoted message said:

side of the pond, you are paying too little, especially in
terms of paying

for

Quoted message said:

the cost of damage to the world-wide environment in terms
of climate

change.

Quoted message said:

Cheers, helen s

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