Advocacy & Safety - Bike Racks - Waikiki, and bike activity

My wife and I just spent a week in Waikiki, and the bike racks we saw, I thought were pretty cool. Apparently strong too, since I saw some bikes that had obviously been locked to them for a long time, with nothing left but a badly twisted frame. Anyway, here's the rack:

http://www.4wahls.net/images/hawaii/bikerack.jpg

These racks were everywhere in Waikiki, not so common in other areas, and they were heavily used. We had to look to find one without bikes locked to it. We didn't get to ride while we were there, but in that area there were a lot of tourists renting and riding, and a lot of locals riding. Mostly mountain bikes, mostly junk, but a few more dedicated riders including a few roadies. I rarely saw a helmet used, but apparently no helmet law, since motorcyclists didn't wear them either. A few "wrong way" cyclists, and a fair number of sidewalk riders. The streets are in pretty rough shape in a lot of areas, but for the most part it looked like cars gave bikes plenty of room, I've certainly seen worse. I saw a couple of shops that catered to triathalon bikers, and visited one that was actually closed but let us come in and look around anyway.

Mostly wanted to share the bike rack, cause I thought they were cool.

Drivers there do a lot of stupid things, but they do them slowly, so traffic injuries/fatalities are pretty low for that state. Hawaii is absolutely infatuated with cars, and it's a common saying among locals that "they" won't be happy until the entire place is paved, but it's nice to see bikers surviving there. I think if I go there again, I'll buy a decent "comfort bike" for $200 or so and ride it all over, then sell it or give it to someone who needs it when I leave. Distances there are small, but it's pretty common to cover 1 mile in 1 hour in a car, so people consider it a real trek to go somewhere only a few miles away. It's hot there, and with so many overweight people, plus a local-culture emphasis on being neat, clean, and nonsweaty, people are even more averse to walking than they are on the Mainland.

Thanks for the pic of the Waikiki bike rack - I'd forgotten about those!

thanks for the nice sentiments about our bike racks.
glad you enjoyed yourself, and if you come back, hope you can find a time to ride. But be careful. lilHinault's right. Drivers do stupid things here, but they do it slowly.

This is the web site for the Dero racks, although it does not seem to be working right now.
http://www.dero.com/

It's hot there, and with so many overweight people, plus a local-culture emphasis on being neat, clean, and nonsweaty, people are even more averse to walking than they are on the Mainland. In comparison to the rest of the U.S., Hawaii has one of the lowest rates of obesity. http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/
Maybe all of the overweight people you saw were tourists! :)

twahl, it sounds like you enjoyed your trip here. Was Island Triathlon and Bike the name of the store you visited that was closed?

I really did enjoy it. I have no idea what the name of the shop was, just that the guy at Bike Factory said it was their sister store. He wrote the phone number and "Boca" on the back, so maybe that's the name of the store? I just kind of wandered in, it was a small shop, on the corner of the same cross street as Bike Factory, a block off Ala Moana.

The link is back up. A direct link to the bicycle bike rack is:
http://www.dero.com/bike_bike.html

Come on Sprocket Man, you know we have plenty of heavies. We probably have the heaviest police force in the nation, most other police forces have a weight/fitness requirement that would force many of Honolulu police off the job.