A few neat facts about bicycles
04-22-11, 07:57 AM
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04-22-11, 08:39 AM
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I wonder what the car to bike ratio is in America.
04-22-11, 10:25 AM
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I found this pretty interestinghttps://didyouknow.org/bicycles/
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.
04-22-11, 11:00 AM
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04-22-11, 04:27 PM
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04-25-11, 05:53 AM
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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.
04-25-11, 08:21 AM
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Damn people in this sub-forum are too critical, relax people this is the reason I'm rarely over here.
04-25-11, 08:29 AM
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04-25-11, 08:50 AM
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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)
04-25-11, 09:51 AM
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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.
04-25-11, 06:35 PM
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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.
What we really need is to keep the cars in the basements and leave the bikes in the driveway.
04-25-11, 06:43 PM
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"....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.
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.
Last edited by folder fanatic; 04-25-11 at 06:47 PM.
04-25-11, 07:22 PM
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"....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.
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.
Would you trade a new bicycle for one made by Huffy in 1975? They look the same.
04-26-11, 04:20 AM
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Aaron
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
04-26-11, 09:53 AM
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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.
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04-26-11, 04:25 PM
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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.
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05-02-11, 07:57 AM
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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.
05-02-11, 09:25 PM
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In the right lane
05-02-11, 10:58 PM
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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.
05-03-11, 01:12 AM
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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.
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