Bicycles: An Antidote to Throw-Away Culture | Hacker News Reader

Bicycles: An Antidote to Throw-Away Culture

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22 pointsmrzool17 comments

3 years ago i went to other side of the country to (as usual) hike high mountains there.. but this time on a road bike. 700km one way, 800km the other, avoiding big roads. crossed 3 mountains. 15 days (plus other 5 for the hike). Tent, sleeping bag, tools, cameras, all that jazz. Bike with all stuff on it was like 35kg. Extremely easy to fall down and nearly go wheels up :/

Some things materialized in my mind while doing this quite meditative (and sometimes dangerous) exercise..

- bees fly with same 15-20km/h as you and will escort you if going sameway

- road bike is silent. Quite a few bugs and one lizard went under the wheels

- i was invisible for most people. They do see me but cannot fathom how can i would be there (middle of nothing) on that bike, so.. don't really see me. or talk inadequately..

- i was out of reach of nearly any road-constraints. Signs, limits, fences, gates, whatever. don't this, do that.. just Shrug it. Not more than 40km/h uphill? Well i hardly do 6 so..

- farting while pedalling a bike, is difficult business

- the worse thing are the small halos of flies at face-height in afternoon sun in broadleaf forests, uphill. There's no escaping those - u need at least 10km/h but proper uphill is like 5-6 max. Maybe a motorised fan/blower? Thinking about it..

- there's lots more.. may write it one day

Since then i've been doing such (but smaller) trips each summer, like 500km/4 days. But it's not same, need to increase to at least 10 days. Btw, in 4 years, i raised the average speed from 15km/h to 16km/h - maybe because on shorter distances i take 10% less stuff... :/

have fun

I honestly don't get the leaf blower analogy of the article.

A bit of a side note, but leaf blowers are the stupidest invention I can think of off the top of my head. They are noisy, polluting, inefficient machines that serve no purpose other than to annoy neighbors of lazy people who feel like using a rake is beyond their physical capacity.

Let me guess, you don't do your own yard work or don't have a significant area to sweep or rake? You realize they many electric blowers, right?

Electric blowers and trimmers are super loud too.

They're mostly used by municipal and industrial landscapers for which it would take weeks to sweep every sidewalk in every park in the city by hand.

I live in already bike intensive area and only have a bicycle myself. Since I already have too many hobbies I intentionally try not to work on my own bike. Unfortunately, for me I suppose, the amount of people on bikes now means the bike shops are absolutely stuffed with bikes needing repairs. So, when my rear axle bearing went out I bought a rack and a tool kit after years and years of avoiding it. I couldnt be happier for me and the bike shops.

Same story for me. Most bike shops take way too long to do even the simplest of things. The Park Tool big blue book is really helpful if you don't already have it.

I quit riding my bike for exercise because I had 45 minutes to exercise but 50% of the time I’d spend 30 minutes patching a flat tire instead.

You could try better tires? I haven't had a flat in thousands of miles, even going over glass and goatheads. If you really wanna go nuts you could get a tubeless setup.

Been riding daily for most of my life (I’m 39) and had to patch a flat maybe 4 times in total. Try thicker tires?

Thicker tires solved most my problem and would agree to try something more durable. Though no idea what type of flat they are getting. Also make sure to be riding at a good tire pressure.

Personally I started having quite a few flats with some conti 5000s for couple years. Decided to move to Conti Grand Prix 4 season tires have not had but one flat and pretty sure that was a pinch flat. Self induced pot hole I didn’t hop over.

Flats are a huge pain in the ass. With practice you can get used to changing a tube in a few minutes but it's never fun and kind of kills your workout.

Here are a few tips. For training rides use thicker tubes and puncture resistant tires such as Continental Gatorskin; they will slow you down a little but when riding for exercise that doesn't matter. Don't try to patch a tube in the field; carry a spare tube as a replacement and then maybe patch the puncture later when you get home. Carry a pair of disposable gloves to keep the grime off your hands. Use CO2 inflator cartridges instead of struggling with a portable air pump.

I know some cyclists like self-sealing tubeless tires now. Those may work well for road racing or mountain biking, but they're not great for road training rides. I've had friends get stranded several times because the sealant didn't work as advertised.

How old is your bike? I had a similar problem with a very old road bike I had. I'd get a flat every couple of times I did a ride. Turned out the inside of the wheels had gotten corroded, creating lots of sharp edges and the result was that it took _very_ little to puncture the tube. New wheels fixed it for me, but a cheaper solution that might work (didn't for me, but could) is tube tape to help protect the tubes from the wheels.

Having "fast" tires on a bike is often a false economy. A little more drag is something that you can negate simply by having more endurance by riding more.

I run Schwalbe Mondials w/ tire slime in the tubes, and have never had a flat in hundreds of miles of riding, despite plenty of broken glass, thorns, and staples trying.

Something wrong. I've been riding several times a week for decades and get 1-2 flats a year, maybe.

If you live in an area with puncturevine, either tubeless or slime filled tubes is a minimum requirement. People don’t do this and are then shocked when they have tons of flats.

I ride a hybrid and use thorn resistant tubes now. As my daily rider when I first started I was getting about 2 flats a week. After I made the switch my tubes last so long they fuse to my tires from time, heat, and friction.

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