Folding Bikes - Barbarians at the gate..

Last night when traveling home from work (at 7.30pm from an information evening from the college I work at) I got verbally abused by 3 separate groups of 'feral' kids! This within a 2 mile ride. Does anybody feel they get more abuse than normal for riding on a 'clownbike'? It could just be the area I live in?

As it was dark and my lights are mounted at the top so not sure if the kids even realised it was a small wheeled bike until I had gone past? (There are also alot of people who bike at night where I live but I've not seen a single person with lights yet. I have a theory it's to avoid the attention of the feral kids lol)But I do get a load of comments during the day also.. but they could just be laughing at my face? :roflmao2:

I get more comments about how neat my bike is rather than abuse, and it's mostly from people who happen to be walking by as I'm unfolding it. The only times I've been yelled at were on a particular stretch of road I ride up, and the comments were unintelligible because the vehicles were going so much faster than I was so they could have been yelling insults or encouragement for all I know. I'm a short girl, though, so maybe I look more at home on a small bike (read: like a child) than taller people do.

We have had no really negative comments that I can remember over the last 3+ yrs of riding folders, and we are tall (5'8" & 6'3") so we are definitely clown bike-like.

The bikes do get the attention of kids of all ages, and we've heard "cool bikes" many times. I always say "Thanks".

in my town more and more people are switching to folding bikes
ever keeps asking me where to get one, how much, etc, etc....

i feel like a sales rep now.

unfortunately i'm not getting any commission out of those sales

No one really comments, just interested looks. My friends make fun of my bike but that's my friends. I don't see why kids would make fun of your bike. I see a lot of kids with those single speed BMX bikes with 20" tires that look like kids bikes. Maybe they are frustrated that you can actually sit on your bike.

I have only rarely had any adverse reaction to me and my bike in over 3000 miles of riding it. The only times it ever happened were both very drunk teenagers.

It is generally not a good idea to stare at people in inner city areas, but I expect you learned that by the time you were twelve. Smiles and winks go along way to pacifying louts as you pass by if they are showing an interest in you. Even drunk people are usually favourably disposed to confident and friendly passers by. In the end, they are only kids and I have had three of my own so I don't really bother about them that much.

Plus teenagers are jerks. I know I use to be both.

I started to get some abuse once, a few months ago, but they stopped in mid sentence and one of them said "actually that's a well smart bike".

For some reason there are lot more crazy people/kids in North America got nothing better to do than to throwing insults at you at high rate of speed or try to scare you with their cars. it doesn't matter if I was touring the rockies or riding in the city. On the other hand, I never had a insult thrown at me while riding in Japan or Taiwan. It's scary to think that these people have lic. to drive. you might as well give them a loaded gun. Are we that different from other cultures?

For some reason there are lot more crazy people/kids in North America got nothing better to do than to throwing insults at you at high rate of speed or try to scare you with their cars. it doesn't matter if I was touring the rockies or riding in the city. On the other hand, I never had a insult thrown at me while riding in Japan or Taiwan. It's scary to think that these people have lic. to drive. you might as well give them a loaded gun. Are we that different from other cultures? [emphasis added]

Yes, we are very different from other cultures.


The US has been almost ruined by the automobile; the car has drained many american cities and towns of all vitality and has spread the population out into the vast suburban stretches, where "there is no there there". Strip mall after strip mall, and no safe place to ride!

Societies that tax their citizens roughly comparable to what US citizens are taxed but which spend most of the tax revenues on the people and on domestic infrastructure, not on gargantuan defense budgets, produce happier healthier citizens, happier and healthier families. For all the talk of "family friendliness", the US is a family-hostile environment compared to truly family-friendly cultures and countries. Compare, for example, the average days of vacation taken annually (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0922052.html) by the Italian worker versus the American worker's average annual vacation, and the hours of overtime worked by the American worker versus, say, the Norwegian. No time (or energy) for biking!

TIME AFTER TIME (PDF (http://www.epi.org/briefingpapers/120/bp120.pdf))
Mandatory overtime in the U.S. economy
by Lonnie Golden and Helene Jorgensen

An International Comparison of Unpaid Overtime Work Among
Industrialized Countries (PDF (http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---integration/---stat/documents/publication/wcms_087918.pdf))
by Takeshi Mizunoya
[missing its tables--must contact Mizunoya]


Regards
T