Why people don't commute by bike?
 

On Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:03:16 +0100
Basil Jet wrote:
On 2010\08\09 17:22, His Highness the TibetanMonkey, Creator of the
Movement of Tantra-Hammock wrote:
On Aug 9, 8:49 am, Stephen
wrote:
Some people do, therefore you qusetion is vitiated.

Some .4% of Americans do compared to some 30% in the Netherlands.

Something is missing, right?

Yeah, all the Americans have to do is level the Rockies and the
Appalachians to make America as bike-friendly as the Netherlands.

I don't think anyone blames the americans for using their cars if they
live miles from nowhere. But you don't need a gas guzzling 5.0 V8 SUV to
bring the groceries back from the shops. It does seem that some yanks
few profligate waste of resources as a human right and that is what ****es
off many people.

B2003

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

In message , at 09:43:39 on Tue, 10 Aug
2010, d remarked:
I don't think anyone blames the americans for using their cars if they
live miles from nowhere. But you don't need a gas guzzling 5.0 V8 SUV to
bring the groceries back from the shops.

But you do need to own something that's also suitable for long trips on
sometimes very poor roads. The attraction of the SUV concept is that
it's a more suitable compromise than an even bigger traditional 4x4 or
pickup truck.
--
Roland Perry

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:58:52 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
But you do need to own something that's also suitable for long trips on
sometimes very poor roads. The attraction of the SUV concept is that
it's a more suitable compromise than an even bigger traditional 4x4 or
pickup truck.

Unless you're doing proper offroading which might involve driving over
boulders or wet fields you don't need 4 wheel drive and high ground
clearance. Farmers and other countryside workers need 4x4s, anyone else
who buys one is just a poser.

B2003

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

Roland Perry gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

In message , at 09:43:39 on Tue, 10 Aug
2010, d remarked:
I don't think anyone blames the americans for using their cars if they
live miles from nowhere. But you don't need a gas guzzling 5.0 V8 SUV to
bring the groceries back from the shops.

But you do need to own something that's also suitable for long trips on
sometimes very poor roads.

Some people do, indeed. A tiny minority, since most Americans would no
more dream of driving from coast to coast via back roads than they would
boiling their head in Strawberry Jam. In the event they DID actually do a
road trip, most would just stick to the Interstates.

But even for those, it doesn't need to be something as ridiculous as a
Lincoln Navigator or a Cadillac Escalade or a Chevrolet Suburban or a
Ford Expedition or a...

Hell, I did it (Massachusetts down the East Coast, then across through
Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada to California, then down the coast)
quite happily in a 2cv. Sure, aircon would have been nice in the Nevada
desert in August, but it really wasn't an issue for most of the trip...

The attraction of the SUV concept is that it's a more suitable
compromise than an even bigger traditional 4x4 or pickup truck.

You haven't seen the US idea of an "SUV", have you? Clue: We're not
talking Honda CR-V.

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

On 10 Aug 2010 10:20:54 GMT
Adrian wrote:
gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying:

Farmers and other countryside workers need 4x4s

Farmers managed to cope quite happily with Marina pickups when I was a
kid.

I guess it depends on the type of farm and where its located. A 2 wheel
drive road car won't be much use if you've got to transport some animal feed
to a field at the top of a hill on a snowy morning in january. OTOH a lot
of farmers seem quite happy to risk a broken neck driving around on quad bikes
so perhaps they don't need a landie so much these days.

B2003

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

Huge gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

Hell, I did it (Massachusetts down the East Coast, then across through
Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada to California, then down the
coast) quite happily in a 2cv. Sure, aircon would have been nice in the
Nevada desert in August, but it really wasn't an issue for most of the
trip...

Try the Northern States in the winter!

There's much wider use of winter tyres in the US than here - and, again,
they're not drastically different in climate to Scandinavia. Most Scandis
manage quite happily with "normal cars", often 2wd.

You haven't seen the US idea of an "SUV", have you? Clue: We're not
talking Honda CR-V.

Good point. I got picked up from Newark Airport by a "limo" company in a
Ford Expedition. You could have fitted 12 people in it without great
effort.

I think the Chevy Suburban is so called because it's the size of a Suburb.

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

On 10 Aug 2010 10:33:47 GMT
Adrian wrote:
gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying:

Farmers and other countryside workers need 4x4s

Farmers managed to cope quite happily with Marina pickups when I was a
kid.

I guess it depends on the type of farm and where its located. A 2 wheel
drive road car won't be much use if you've got to transport some animal
feed to a field at the top of a hill on a snowy morning in january.

I grew up in the Peak District, not Cambridgeshire.

I don't care where you grew up. A 2 wheel drive road car ain't going up
a wet or snowy field at a steep incline no matter what you do to it so
I would suggest that the farmer you're thinking of probably used his tractor
for the difficult bits.

B2003

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 09:43:39 on Tue, 10 Aug
2010, d remarked:
I don't think anyone blames the americans for using their cars if they
live miles from nowhere. But you don't need a gas guzzling 5.0 V8 SUV to
bring the groceries back from the shops.

But you do need to own something that's also suitable for long trips on
sometimes very poor roads. The attraction of the SUV concept is that it's
a more suitable compromise than an even bigger traditional 4x4 or pickup
truck.

And you can still drive your kids to school that's half way up a f***ing
mountain.

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

On 10/08/2010 11:20, Adrian wrote:
d gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying:

Farmers and other countryside workers need 4x4s

Farmers managed to cope quite happily with Marina pickups when I was a
kid.

I regularly see one here driving across fields in his 306.

Weapon of choice when it gets sticky is the quad-bike, not landrover.
This is in the Dales, so nice and hilly.

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

In message , at 10:12:34 on Tue, 10 Aug
2010, d remarked:
But you do need to own something that's also suitable for long trips on
sometimes very poor roads. The attraction of the SUV concept is that
it's a more suitable compromise than an even bigger traditional 4x4 or
pickup truck.

Unless you're doing proper offroading which might involve driving over
boulders or wet fields you don't need 4 wheel drive and high ground
clearance. Farmers and other countryside workers need 4x4s, anyone else
who buys one is just a poser.

You've got lots of experience of USA roads, then? I agree that to some
extent the 4x4 part is a red herring; the same vehicle with 2WD would
normally be as good (except in the snow - and some people do live where
it snows a lot in the winter).
--
Roland Perry

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

In message , at 10:16:25 on Tue, 10
Aug 2010, Adrian remarked:

You haven't seen the US idea of an "SUV", have you? Clue: We're not
talking Honda CR-V.

I've owned one (which is probably more than most of the correspondents
in this thread have). It was slightly smaller than a Range Rover, and
completely typical of the breed.
--
Roland Perry

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

Roland Perry gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

I agree that to some extent the 4x4 part is a red herring; the same
vehicle with 2WD would normally be as good (except in the snow - and
some people do live where it snows a lot in the winter).

The right tyres make damn near as much difference to traction on snow as
4wd does, though - and much more difference in cornering and braking.

I've been using winter tyres the last couple of years, for my (2wd)
commute across some reasonably exposed back lanes - and getting up and
down unploughed/ungritted reasonably steep hills with little drama.

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

On Aug 10, 2:43*am, wrote:
On Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:03:16 +0100

Basil Jet wrote:
On 2010\08\09 17:22, His Highness the TibetanMonkey, Creator of the
Movement of Tantra-Hammock wrote:
On Aug 9, 8:49 am, Stephen
wrote:
Some people do, therefore you qusetion is vitiated.

Some .4% of Americans do compared to some 30% in the Netherlands.

Something is missing, right?

Yeah, all the Americans have to do is level the Rockies and the
Appalachians to make America as bike-friendly as the Netherlands.

I don't think anyone blames the americans for using their cars if they
live miles from nowhere. But you don't need a gas guzzling 5.0 V8 SUV to
bring the groceries back from the shops. It does seem that some yanks
few profligate waste of resources as a human right and that is what ****es
off many people.

B2003

And at the same time they make it nearly a "suicide mission" to go and
get the groceries on your bike.

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:17:43 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
You've got lots of experience of USA roads, then? I agree that to some

I've toured most of the east coast up from washington and also quebec and
southern ontario.

B2003

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

In message , at 12:48:14 on Tue, 10
Aug 2010, Adrian remarked:
The right tyres make damn near as much difference to traction on snow as
4wd does, though - and much more difference in cornering and braking.

I'm sure they help, but not as much as 4wd.
--
Roland Perry

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

In message , at 13:34:42 on Tue, 10 Aug
2010, d remarked:
You've got lots of experience of USA roads, then? I agree that to some

I've toured most of the east coast up from washington and also quebec and
southern ontario

How much of that was on rural tracks?
--
Roland Perry

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:10:41 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:34:42 on Tue, 10 Aug
2010, d remarked:
You've got lots of experience of USA roads, then? I agree that to some

I've toured most of the east coast up from washington and also quebec and
southern ontario

How much of that was on rural tracks?

I can't say I noticed many rural tracks except the ones leading off to
distant farms. All the roads in and around small towns were a lot better
paved than around here. I think its fair to say that the majority of people
in the eastern USA and canada at least do not need a 4x4. Pretty much the
same as over here.

B2003

Why people don't commute by bike?
 

In message , Adrian
writes
There's much wider use of winter tyres in the US than here - and, again,
they're not drastically different in climate to Scandinavia. Most Scandis
manage quite happily with "normal cars", often 2wd.
I've got a relation in Sweden, he say's snow tyres are mandatory in the
winter months, they even have dates that they have to swap between
ordinary and snow tyres.
--
Clive