Living Car Free - A few neat facts about bicycles

I found this pretty interestinghttp://didyouknow.org/bicycles/

I wonder what the car to bike ratio is in America.

I found this pretty interestinghttp://didyouknow.org/bicycles/

Well I didn't know that you needed a lot of pedaling to get around on a pennyfarthing (ordinary) or that gears allowed a bicycle to go as fast as a car. Maybe the reason I didn't know is because they aren't facts.

Ordinaries were pretty fast and because the front wheel was so big they didn't need that much pedaling. They were also pretty dangerous which is the main reason they fell out of favour. The greatest factor as regards speed (on the flat) was the introduction of the pneumatic tyre.

I wonder what the car to bike ratio is in America.

Significantly higher if you only count cars that are being driven vs. bikes that are being ridden.

I wonder what the car to bike ratio is in America.

I believe that more bikes are sold annually.

I spotted three errors of fact in the first two paragraphs (Da Vinci did not draw a bicycle - that drawing is thought to be either that of a student of Da Vinci, or an outright fake - Comte de Sivrac made his invention in 1790, not 1690 - and there's no evidence that Kirkpatrick MacMillan ever added pedals to a velocipede), so I'm not sure how reliable the information on that page is.

Damn people in this sub-forum are too critical, relax people this is the reason I'm rarely over here.

Damn people in this sub-forum are too critical, relax people this is the reason I'm rarely over here.

LOL, if pointing out errors in a webpage is being 'too critical' and if that's being cited as evidence that I'm too tense, maybe you're just way too touchy.

It's not just this thread. Also not just your response I wasn't singling you out sorry if it sounded that way. (misplaced rant)

I wonder what the car to bike ratio is in America.

Probably many more bikes than cars in America, but most of them sit in garages or basements. Everyone who buys a car, on the other hand, uses it, so the car/bike ratio doesn't really mean much, other than that a lot of bikes (and resources used to make those bikes) have been wasted.

Probably many more bikes than cars in America, but most of them sit in garages or basements. Everyone who buys a car, on the other hand, uses it, so the car/bike ratio doesn't really mean much, other than that a lot of bikes (and resources used to make those bikes) have been wasted.

But it also makes buying a second-hand bike such an awesome deal!

What we really need is to keep the cars in the basements and leave the bikes in the driveway. :)

"....The bicycle as we know it today – with two wheels of the same size – looks almost exactly the same as one from 1900..."

If this is true, I do wonder why the bike companies keep on churning out another latest, greatest models or just dump the old almost-as-good ones to the forgotten side of the road out of the attention of the ever more busy, distracted consumer? The only thing that pops in mind is out of control capitalism and excessive greed.

"....The bicycle as we know it today – with two wheels of the same size – looks almost exactly the same as one from 1900..."

If this is true, I do wonder why the bike companies keep on churning out another latest, greatest models or just dump the old almost-as-good ones to the forgotten side of the road out of the attention of the ever more busy, distracted consumer? The only thing that pops in mind is out of control capitalism and excessive greed.

Because looking the same isn't the same as being the same.

Would you trade a new bicycle for one made by Huffy in 1975? They look the same.

Because looking the same isn't the same as being the same.

Would you trade a new bicycle for one made by Huffy in 1975? They look the same.

If it was one of today's Huffys? Hell yes! Bad as the ones from 1975 were, they were better built than the ones of today.

Aaron :)

I happened to see a Wright St. Clair in the Air and Space Museum. It really was a surprisingly modern looking bike even though it was over a century old. No hipster would be able to resist it.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/webimages/640/2006-28254_640.jpg

Damn people in this sub-forum are too critical, relax people this is the reason I'm rarely over here.

Actually, this is one of the politest forums I've seen on the Internet, considering we discuss some very controversial topics. Not always, of course, but usually.

It's sad that the first thing I noticed on that Wright St. Clair is that the chain is loose. On second look, it is a gorgeous bike.

It's sad that the first thing I noticed on that Wright St. Clair is that the chain is loose. On second look, it is a gorgeous bike.

That's OK. The chain is loose!! Details are important.

That crankset is gorgeous though.

What is even more amazing is that Fred, who holds a number of bicycle speed records, was 50 years old when he set the Absolute World Speed Record for Cycling.

Let's hear it for the old folks.
:50:

It's sad that the first thing I noticed on that Wright St. Clair is that the chain is loose. On second look, it is a gorgeous bike.

I thought that the wooden rims are sweet. And knowing that it's one of the oldest bikes to have the left pedal thread reversed so that the pedal doesn't fall off is good too.

Very cool, will be sharing this with the bike folks at work!