Originally Posted by
genec
Do you ever drive a car? Do you also refuse to buckle up, or allow the vast array of automatic safety equipment of the auto to work? Do you use a mirror in the car?
When you share the road with autos, you may want to at least enable some safety gear to "level the playing field" with motorists.
Are you serious? This is the worst analogy. My car is under yearly mandatory inspection. A seat belt is required by law. Mirrors are already on the car and I use them when needed, mostly to keep an eye on surrounding traffic because I can't usually hear them while inside the car.
A car is a car and a bike is a bike. Both parties are responsible to take safety precautions. What I'm saying with this whole rant is that I'm tired of people passing judgement on other people who do not employ every single facet of some other individual's idea of safety when on the bike. To the point that maybe even new commuters would be turned off by it. It's kind of like the reason you don't want to go to your local bike shop because the roadie mechanic will just sneer at your commuter rig. (hint: we make fun of triathletes way more than overloaded commuters) It puts off a new rider when the shop guy hassles them for not going clipless when they first buy the bike. It's a similar attitude here and translates to more than just safety gear. (Start a thread asking about backpack suggestions in the commuter forum and see how long it takes for someone to say "You should get panniers instead!")I guess this is why I decided to post it in the "Advocacy" forum. I didn't expect this big of a reaction, but there you go.
Like Adrian said earlier, we should let people be free to make their own discoveries. I would take it a step further and say that we should share our experiences and what we like and why, without jumping down each other's throats for what we're NOT doing. That would be a much more constructive setting for new riders to come into the fold.