A bit of a Do

On 11/12/18 10:05 am, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 10 Dec 2018 08:25:30 -0800 (PST), wrote:


Oh, this is really great. This SOB lives in Thailand and is telling us about the conditions in the US.

Conditions in the U.S.??

You mean like the nationality of MIT students? That is freely
available at MIT's web site?


Maybe the "conditions in the US" uniquely affect wax based chain
lubricants, and cause thick gum to build up on the chain rings and
sprockets - that doesn't happen in other parts of the world? Doesn't
explain Frank's experience, but ...

--
JS

On Tue, 11 Dec 2018 12:24:24 +1100, James
wrote:

On 11/12/18 10:05 am, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 10 Dec 2018 08:25:30 -0800 (PST), wrote:


Oh, this is really great. This SOB lives in Thailand and is telling us about the conditions in the US.

Conditions in the U.S.??

You mean like the nationality of MIT students? That is freely
available at MIT's web site?


Maybe the "conditions in the US" uniquely affect wax based chain
lubricants, and cause thick gum to build up on the chain rings and
sprockets - that doesn't happen in other parts of the world? Doesn't
explain Frank's experience, but ...

Ah but a single deviation from the norm is just an anomaly. Every
survey has such outliers which can be ignored :-)

After all, more then a quarter of USians still believe that the sun
goes round the earth. see
https://tinyurl.com/ycblu4ol

"To the question "Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go
around the Earth," 26 percent of those surveyed answered incorrectly."


cheers,

John B.

On Monday, December 10, 2018 at 8:26:16 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/9/2018 9:14 PM, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 10 Dec 2018 12:48:05 +1100, James
wrote:

On 10/12/18 12:20 pm, John B. slocomb wrote:

Sunday we had a bit of a do here in Thailand. The King led a bicycle
ride which was well attended and the riders got a free tee shirt :-)
see
https://www.bangkokpost.com/photo/ph...g-for-the-king
for some nice pictures.

The photos were from the Bangkok event but the same ride was done in
each province. I haven't seen any estimates of the total of all riders
but estimates, before the event, were in the millions, nation wide.

The official name of the event was "Bike Un Ai Rak" which literally
translate into something like "Bicycle warm exercise love" and is a
continuation of the mass ride that was done in honor of the old King.


There is a sea of helmets and hi vis in the photos. I noticed a couple
of people riding without a helmet, out of hundreds or thousands with
helmets.

Is that normal?

Generally speaking the (I'll call them transportation) riders wear no
special equipment. I mean the folks bicycling down to the morning
market to buy the day's food. "Recreation Riders". for want of a
better description, nearly always wear a helmet and usually a gaudy
jersey ...

Fashion is weird and powerful. And lately I've marveled at how uniform
fashion is around the world - or at least, around the westernized world,
which now seems to be most of the world.

Before our first trip to mainland Europe I spent some time trying to
find out how Europeans dressed, so we wouldn't stick out too much. This
year I decided it didn't matter at all. We just wore our normal clothes
and succeeded in blending in, to the point that we had people in France
approaching us to ask questions (maybe directions?) in French.

So, about the bike garb: In Switzerland, France, Germany and of course
Netherlands we saw lots of people on bikes. The great majority were
dressed just as if they were walking.

But we saw a few people who obviously identified as "cyclists." Even if
they were riding at 8 mph and had multi-layer belly bulges, they were
decked out in skintight lycra and had a useless but fashionable plastic
hat on their head. If you're a "cyclist" it's fashionable to dress that
way, so that's what those "cyclists" did.

And I fully expect pushback from the lycra and helmet fans here. But
before you attack, understand that I do wear the funny clothes for long
rides (over 20 miles) or fast rides. But 8 mph? On a bike path? Come on!

--
- Frank Krygowski

In defense of this: I've said many times that a helmet protects you from the vast majority of accidents - the common fall from hitting a crack in the road or falling over upon starting etc. In these sorts of accidents you almost always have either time to partially cushion your fall with your hands and arms or to fall on your side so that the only weight your head carries is the weight of the head and only the short fall from your shoulder to the ground.

Helmets DO NOT save lives but they save you from a lot of head bumps.

As for lycra - this reduces wind drag considerably. Ride over a known course with normal clothing and then with lycra and see the difference in speed for the same amount of power output.

Now perhaps you can pretend that people that are dress like racers go to slow to require it but that most certainly isn't my experience.

On Monday, December 10, 2018 at 8:26:53 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/10/2018 11:25 AM, wrote:
On Sunday, December 9, 2018 at 5:20:08 PM UTC-8, John B. slocomb wrote:
Sunday we had a bit of a do here in Thailand. The King led a bicycle
ride which was well attended and the riders got a free tee shirt :-)
see
https://www.bangkokpost.com/photo/ph...g-for-the-king
for some nice pictures.

The photos were from the Bangkok event but the same ride was done in
each province. I haven't seen any estimates of the total of all riders
but estimates, before the event, were in the millions, nation wide.

The official name of the event was "Bike Un Ai Rak" which literally
translate into something like "Bicycle warm exercise love" and is a
continuation of the mass ride that was done in honor of the old King.


cheers,

John B.

Oh, this is really great. This SOB lives in Thailand and is telling us about the conditions in the US.

Weren't you telling about conditions in Portland?

--
- Frank Krygowski

I realize that if it isn't happening in your backyard that it isn't happening. But the Antifa is exactly the opposite of their claimed beliefs. This happened in Germany in 1933 and if you think that it can't happen here I can only hope we never see it come to fruition.

As for Slocum. He lives 8,000 miles from the US and believes that he can find unbiased information on the Internet and say something pertinent to the US.

On Monday, December 10, 2018 at 1:16:57 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Monday, December 10, 2018 at 10:25:32 AM UTC-6, wrote:

Oh, this is really great. This SOB lives in Thailand and is telling us about the conditions in the US.

The conditions in the US right now are about 30 degrees. Not much wind. No snow. Rideable, but not enjoyable due to the cold. Sunny day though.


I have never investigated it, but I think almost all internet groups are international. Everyone from anywhere in the world can and do participate. I find it interesting to hear about riding in Europe from a few of the regular participants. And to me even Canada is an exotic locale. Do they ride different up north? I'd like to have people from South America, Africa, Australia and Asia participate more. Its fun to hear about cycling all over the world.

I don't myself believe that people are different because they live elsewhere. You certainly couldn't get such meaningless arguments from people without a rather American upbringing though. As a manager I had to interface with engineering groups from China and even Russia and the Russians were almost all educated in Russia whereas the Chinese were ALL educated in the US. They spoke American without accents and knew their stuff. What this translated to was that the Russians actually developed their own way of doing things which were a great counterpoint to the American way of doing things whereas the Chinese copied American methods down to the slightest detail.

On 12/11/2018 1:01 PM, wrote:
On Monday, December 10, 2018 at 8:26:16 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:

And I fully expect pushback from the lycra and helmet fans here. But
before you attack, understand that I do wear the funny clothes for long
rides (over 20 miles) or fast rides. But 8 mph? On a bike path? Come on!

--
- Frank Krygowski

In defense of this: I've said many times that a helmet protects you from the vast majority of accidents - the common fall from hitting a crack in the road or falling over upon starting etc. In these sorts of accidents you almost always have either time to partially cushion your fall with your hands and arms or to fall on your side so that the only weight your head carries is the weight of the head and only the short fall from your shoulder to the ground.

Helmets DO NOT save lives but they save you from a lot of head bumps.

Speaking of head bumps, someone recently pointed me to this:
https://www.facebook.com/uniladsound...2982419378736/

It looks like almost none of the riders had their heads get close to the
ground. A few may have gotten within an inch, which means they would
have had a "My helmet saved me!" story if they had worn one. No report
of any injuries.

My bike club will be leading hikes in icy weather this winter. I wonder
what the recommended headgear will be?


--
- Frank Krygowski

On 10/12/2018 6:52 p.m., jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, December 10, 2018 at 8:26:53 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/10/2018 11:25 AM, wrote:
On Sunday, December 9, 2018 at 5:20:08 PM UTC-8, John B. slocomb wrote:
Sunday we had a bit of a do here in Thailand. The King led a bicycle
ride which was well attended and the riders got a free tee shirt :-)
see
https://www.bangkokpost.com/photo/ph...g-for-the-king
for some nice pictures.

The photos were from the Bangkok event but the same ride was done in
each province. I haven't seen any estimates of the total of all riders
but estimates, before the event, were in the millions, nation wide.

The official name of the event was "Bike Un Ai Rak" which literally
translate into something like "Bicycle warm exercise love" and is a
continuation of the mass ride that was done in honor of the old King.


cheers,

John B.

Oh, this is really great. This SOB lives in Thailand and is telling us about the conditions in the US.

Weren't you telling about conditions in Portland?

Conditions in Portland: foggy, cold and wet. My son was riding in his all black Ninja outfit this morning, which I thought was dumb -- although his flasher was pretty effective. There were times when I couldn't see because of all the condensation on my glasses combined with pea-soup visibility.


Snow here in Montreal and -10C. I'm driving today and dodging those
guys on fixies and fat bikes.

No cotton except my t-shirt -- Amfib tights, shoe covers, poly winter jersey and my rain coat. Some great winter weight waterproof Giro gloves my son got pro-deal for practically nothing. Bike with fenders which are now festooned with some nice reflective tape. I still need a longer flap. Oh, I was wearing my Antifa black helmet balaclava, too. L&M front and rear lights on pulse mode.

Not worried about waterproof at the moment. Won't see slush until March.

On Monday, December 10, 2018 at 5:17:38 PM UTC-6, AMuzi wrote:

Personally, I recognize only two student groups- those who
have met degree requirements and those who have not.

--
Andrew Muzi

I might argue with you on this. If a person meets the degree requirements, then they graduate, earn a degree, and are no longer a student because they graduated. ALL students, who have not graduated, have not met their degree requirements. There cannot be two student groups based on whether they have earned their degree requirements. As you are using it, student is sort of a self defining word. Kind of like bicycle. A bicycle has two wheels.. Thus the "bi".

On Monday, December 10, 2018 at 5:30:12 PM UTC-6, John B. slocomb wrote:
The conditions in the US right now are about 30 degrees. Not much wind. No snow. Rideable, but not enjoyable due to the cold. Sunny day though.

About the same as it is here. Yesterday was a bit chilly, say 27 or 28
degrees and a bit of rain. But no snow. Today it should be warmer,
maybe 30 degrees.

But, of course this is the "cold season" :-)

John B.

We might have very similar climates. Of course where I am, we ain't got to the "cold season" yet. The COLD does not come until late December and all of January.

On Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 1:11:56 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Monday, December 10, 2018 at 5:30:12 PM UTC-6, John B. slocomb wrote:
The conditions in the US right now are about 30 degrees. Not much wind. No snow. Rideable, but not enjoyable due to the cold. Sunny day though.

About the same as it is here. Yesterday was a bit chilly, say 27 or 28
degrees and a bit of rain. But no snow. Today it should be warmer,
maybe 30 degrees.

But, of course this is the "cold season" :-)

John B.

We might have very similar climates. Of course where I am, we ain't got to the "cold season" yet. The COLD does not come until late December and all of January.

The worst weeks of winter are the first weeks of January -- but it is never Mid-West-like cold, and the snow rarely sticks around for more than a week.. I'm going to throw the cheap studs on the gravel bike. I will ride in fresh snow or even old snow with a decent track off the roadway, but not on the roadway with cars in ice-ruts or till piles of old snow. This road is part of my commute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkutHsAPmy4 On low traffic days, its actually a lot of fun in fresh snow but a nightmare in traffic and when its re-frozen and pushed into till piles. You try to ride the adjacent walking path, and its filled with boot holes. Might as well walk. I could not survive in a real Mid-West winter environment -- not without a fat bike.

-- Jay Beattie.