Originally Posted by fixedgearhead
I remember the last time I bought a new bike from a dealer when I lived in California,1997. It was a Bianchi road bike that was for my wife. When the salesman delivered the bike after the prep, he handed me the reflectors in a small box, that, By law, are required to be installed on all new bikes that are delivered in California. He said, here, you can install these if you want to. I appreciated that even though it was against the then prevailing law. That is one of the examples of naderism run rampant. I think that if they could, they would try to prevent us from doing anything that they viewed as "Dangerous".
I hope we are flying under the radar when it comes to fixed gear bikes. I know that in Boston, there was an attempt to enforce the law on Brakes attached to fixed gear messenger bikes by the State Legislature as a result of somebody accidentally running down a legislator. If there is one somebody you don't want to hit on a brakeless track messenger bike it is a polititian.
Fixedgearhead
i think i remember reading about this, and i don't think it was a politician. i seem to remember it being some CEO/corporate bigwig type. i bet he/she was walking out into the street from between parked cars (which happens all the friggen time in boston, and they walk out RIGHT the hell in front of you and then get the deer-in-headlights syndrome). either that or the messenger just didn't stop at the crosswalk (which also happens a lot), but most of the time they at least slow down at intersections.
maybe the one i read about was much more recent, but i know that the CEO one was responsible for making all the messengers in boston register with the city and carry a license and courier ID with them at all times. and also wear a big old blaze orange and black number patch on their bag...i think they also had to display a little placard on their bikes too. most either don't do either, or they just put the placard in their spokes.