Aw man, I thought it was some cool new advocacy... but no.
 

http://lajolla.patch.com/groups/arou...cross-la-jolla

Orange bikes showed up in various places around town... where I noticed them was along a 50 MPH arterial road that has bike lanes and bike paths on either side... I quickly thought they were some sort of advocacy to get motorists to watch for cyclists... but no, apparently just some gorilla ad for a gym... sigh.

Jeeze ride a bike and skip the gym. :notamused:

Unintended consequences, the bikes may still remind motorist to watch for cyclists even if that is not the intended purpose.

I share your disappointment at the misuse.

Honolulu had a guy buy a bunch of X-Mart Lowrider bicycles and locked them up all over town on the sidewalk bike racks. He had signs on them asking people to pay him to put their advertising on them. Honolulu has tight sign laws and this guy was looking for a way around the laws. After a week of them taking up good lockup spaces, many asked the city and police to remove them. Of course the homeless began stealing them - easy targets. But the guy gets all up in arms and claims the cyclist that asked the bikes be remove, as the one stealing them.

Yeah right, like any of us would want that junk.

fixed.

Actually I do that.... to get an upper body workout when the ocean is too cold for me to swim in.

But of course the irony that I see is folks driving to the gym to ride the stationary bikes.

Yeah I like the unintended consequences... but I asked my wife as she was driving if she noticed the bikes... "No, what bikes." So I wonder if other motorists notice them. And they will be going away, so the positive aspect is short lived.

^^I know what you mean. I used to see a lot of people driving across town to walk on treadmills, ride stationary bikes, etc. Always seemed silly to me.

As autocentric and non motorized road user unfriendly some locales can be, I can see why a number of people choose to drive to a location where they can exercise.

Maybe those folks read BF posts and got scared out their wits by the constant refrain about murderous, criminal, and "distracted" drivers running down cyclists throughout the land.

At least it keeps them off the weights that I want to use.

Funny :lol:

What really gets me is the people that own both a riding lawn-mower and a treadmill and have both in their homes, especially when they have like only a 1/4 acre worth of grass to cut.

(big long sigh) Only in America (shake head).

I think you mean guerrilla ad. Though from the looks of some weightlifters I've seen...

They can watch "The View" while on the treadmill and still walk slow enough to not sweat.

Why does other people's lawful behavior or their possessions "get" YOU? (Shake my head.)

Does it affect your/or anybody else's bicycling safety or advocacy efforts?

Nope, its actually none of my business, and you have a legitimate point about that. Still makes me shake my head though.

That's not hard. It worries us when we see our neighbors degenerating. (Who appointed me to be the judge of humanity??!! ...I'm self-appointed.)

They are degenerating. Physically and mentally. And it will affect us. Already has, for that matter.

But if this helps, I don't propose writing laws to deal with it. I don't think that can be done realistically.

But I still worry. And I still resent it.

Saw the same thing last summer where I live. Marketing for Orangetheory fitness.

Strange coincidence. Orange is the color of choice for bike racks shaped like bikes near me.

I was going to say in Los Angeles then I realized the ones I see all the time are near Warner center at the main hub for the Orange Line.

Our particular gym was much better when it was a hamburger place run by an really nice elderly couple who actually shoveled sidewalks properly and retired when they felt like it after 50 years. I never fail to holler that I'm out and about while they are broke and going nowhere fast.

Never fear, they have ethanol to wreck the mower and force them to ramp it up on a trailer every 5 weeks when the alcohol ruins the motor. Nobody said exercise is dead there.

Actually motors in and of themselves run much better on alcohol fuel then on comparatively very dirty gasoline regardless of type of alcohol (there are multiple different alcohol fuel chemistry, ethanol is only one of them) cleaner exhaust with less pollutants and cleaner engine that runs at cooler lower temps and actually produces more horsepower. The problem is in the fuel delivery system the materials that certain components in that area (mainly hoses, seals, and gaskets) are made of materials designed to be gasoline tolerant not alcohol tolerant both of which do nasty things to those kind of components but in different ways and most materials for those components that are gasoline tolerant are not alcohol tolerant and vic-a-versa with only a few select materials that are tolerant to both. Run gasoline in a fuel delivery system designed for alcohol fuel and it can wreck it, run alcohol fuel in a fuel system designed for gasoline and it can wreck it. There are some fuel delivery systems made with materials that are tolerant to both but that is not very common. Believe me its not the alcohol per-say that is the problem, I used to run high test pure alcohol racing fuel systems both aviation and ground vehicle and I can assure you alcohol is actually the superior fuel, its just your fuel system has to be built to use it (or properly converted).

Long story short, the correct way to say that would be they run ethanol in a riding lawn-mower with a fuel system that is designed for gasoline (and actually designed not to be compatible with alcohol fuel) and it wrecks the fuel system on the motor. Doesn't wreck the motor, just the fuel delivery system (which of course means it don't run but its not the motor itself that gets wrecked).

I've got a couple 2-stroke chain-saws right now that I run on mixture of pure 190 proof ethanol and bio-diesel and they run great on it and have for several years. BUT I properly did a full conversion on their fuel systems to be fully compatible with alcohol fuel. Had to do it in my case since I use multiple cords of self-cut fire-wood for winter heat every year and the exhaust fumes from regular gasoline 2-stroke chainsaws were making me so sick I would vomit and couldn't hardly stand up with a pounding migraine headache. I seem to be more sensitive to being up close and breathing those kind of fumes from a dirty gasoline 2-cycle (even the modern ones that aren't as bad) then most people. Don't get sick anymore cutting my firewood after changing over to alcohol fuel with the bio-diesel mixed in for 2-cycle lube.

Not in 89 RON regular unleaded. And my late father's biggest thrill as a gas station operator was filling Former Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus' tank back in the early eighties. Briggs and Strattons ain't no chainsaw motor, they aren't even the same kind of engine.

Apparently, they just opened one, here in Plano (wealthy suburb of Dallas). The orange bikes are showing up around here, now.

Call them and explain to them that if they were actually serious about bikes and not just being gimmicky they'd do something to help people own THEIR OWN bikes, like support a cycle rebuilding charity like Boise Bicycle Project over here that is a non-profit organization dedicated to fixing bikes and getting them to riders of all ages.

anyone who has been to Vegas, and has realized that there's more to Vegas than just the strip (the other 130 square miles) realizes why some places are autocentric.

on the other hand, I never understand using public transport in places like DC, Boston or NYC to go to the gym.

Bikes and/or feet have gotten me there sufficiently well enough to make it intelligent.

I've run almost every kind of internal combustion motor there is on alcohol high test fuels, 2-cycles, 4-cycles, even a couple Wankels, an expansion piston a 6-cycle (hybrid IC/steam cycle) and a two different OP (opposed piston) engines, simple carberater, super-charged, throttle body injection, port injection, low pressure direct injection, and high pressure direct injection.

Plain old pure ethanol is equivalent 108 octane better then 104 aviation grade gasoline and has quicker vaporization rate, quicker ignition, and faster flame speed at lower working temperatures for the same amount of power output and can be run at higher compression levels and don't require as advanced timing with allows for higher RPMs before over-running of the ignition occurs (not the correct technical term I'm sure but what we used to call it). Any engine can be made to run on alcohol including diesel cycle engines and will run better smoother and cleaner with more power then if it were run on gasoline especially if you get into some of the more exotic alcohol chemistry and don't stick with just plain jane ethanol. And its not just a new motors only thing, look up the original instruction manuals for the Ford model A & T which both clearly stated that the car would run better and last longer on alcohol fuel then gasoline. Also look into some of WWII war-time alcohol fuel set-ups both for higher power war time combat engines and oil conservation on the home front both pure alcohol and alcohol gasoline mix blends.

The complete lies and half truths and misconceptions spread about alcohol fuels are a travesty of the first order. I really love the mechanics that say to use "heat" and similar additive products to "fix the mess that ethanol added to gas causes" THOSE ADDITIVES ARE ALCOHOL !!! I've had more then one "professional" mechanic (in quotes for a reason) give me this line and I tell them to read the fine print on the back label that says whats in the stuff they are saying to use to "fix the mess that ethanol added to gas causes" and their eyes just about bug out of their head and they start stampering and then saying the label is wrong and that can't be so. It's totally laughable, it is true that alcohol AND gasoline BOTH can cause problems with certain components in the fuel delivery system (primarily hoses, gaskets, and seals as I previously explained) where the material they are made of is compatible with one fuel but not the other. Want to make a high test racer really, really mad add some of that nasty gasoline to his pure alcohol fuel and watch the gasoline mess up his fuel delivery system by attacking those components that are alcohol tolerant but not gasoline tolerant in his/her set-up. There is also a mixture issue the air/fuel ratio between gasoline and alcohol fuels is slightly different and on older engines means you have to manually adjust the mix needles slightly (or even adjust the injection system on a really old mechanical non-electronic injector system, not very common but they do exist). Other systems if run on pure alcohol need just a little bit of bio-diesel or other light lubricant oil that will mix with alcohol mixed in usually about 1-2% to provide some lubricant properties to the fuel. Some older injector systems need it as do some carburated super-charger systems where the supercharger needs the slight lubricating properties of gasoline that alcohol lacks. This of course if your using pure alcohol fuel not a gasoline/alcohol mix.

Long story short alcohol is a superior fuel to gasoline in almost every way, it is possible to do some damage to the fuel system though if it isn't alcohol tolerant and was built only for gasoline (something that it has been proven that some engine manufactures have actually spent money to do when it actually would have been a lower cost of production for them to build a system which could tolerate at least some alcohol mixed in with gasoline). It is also theoretically possible to damage the actual engine itself if you really muck up the fuel mixture settings but that is true with any fuel system and you generally have to go over 25% alcohol content mixed into gasoline before the mix settings are far enough off if set for pure gasoline to actually be at risk of causing actual rod, piston, and cylinder type damage.

You really need to educate yourself about what the actual facts are about alcohol fuels rather then just towing the old half-truths and full on lies story the oil companies have been using to campaign against alcohol using up some of their market share (and substantially reducing pollution and other environmental damages that are the result of getting gasoline into your fuel tank in the process) since before the beginning of prohibition which by the way the push for that although primarily led by religious zealots was primarily financed in the back-ground by the oil companies at a time when almost a quarter of the liquid fuels market was alcohol not petro based.

Edit: Oh, yah, I have run Briggs and Stratton engines specifically on alcohol fuel, not straight high test alcohol fuel (no need to even try with those dogs, much better engines out there to modify) but up to 20% mix in gasoline. Have to change some of the fuel delivery components (alcohol tolerant carb kit and new hoses) and tweak the mix needle maybe a 1/8-to-1/4 turn if your going to do it for any extended period of time but nothing more then that needed. I run minimum 10% mix in everything I own that uses gasoline fuel without worries and prefer to mix in as much as I can get away with since I have access to 190 proof pure ethanol for cheaper then gasoline and I have had enough experience with alcohol fuels in the past that I fully understand the benefits both in terms of making my engine last longer and perform better and also for the environment and I've got the skills and no-how to upgrade the fuel system as needed. I've got my 2-ton farm truck with an engine in it that the block is over 40 year old with a couple rebuilds on it modified to run on anything from pure gasoline all the way up to 98% alcohol (have to have at least 2% bio-diesel or 5% gasoline mixed in because the after market port injector system needs just a little bit of lubrication which absolutely pure alcohol doesn't have). Should have seen the look on the face of the mechanic who ran the emission test on it when I drove it all the way over into Washington state and I got told to have it tested since the cop though it looked old enough that it had to be making bad emissions (combined with my Montana license plate I'm sure but she didn't admit that) when it passed with flying colors clean. For a moment I think he thought his test machine was broken, it was running on a tank of E-85 at the time, do like the fact that you can actually find that high of a mix at the pump over there, something my state is lacking, if you want anything more then 10% of the good-stuff up here you have to mix your own or drive all the way to the one gas station in the whole state that sells E-85. Pathetic !!!

But E-15 is where the problem lies. I think the Brazilians ran straight ethanol during WWII but this stuff is harsh on the little B&S and my brother in law who used to rebuild locomotive engines at the old Morrison-Knudsen (Motive Power) rail shop and my late father both said it wasn't worth the money to do stuff and we always have to fix it.

Since I live on Social Security disability it's just not worth being a rocket scientist and there are several locations with ethanol free unleaded now.

You can lead a horse to water but can't make him think, your mind has been poisoned by the half truths and out-right lies of the oil companies. By the way Brazil currently uses E-25 as the lowest percentage of ethanol mix available (and routinely sells full on pure alcohol fuel straight from the pump) which is 10% more ethanol content then E-15 and 15% more then the current E-10 in use across the U.S. No rocket science needed just get the engine fuel system manufactures to stop spending extra money to make their systems non-alcohol fuel compatible (yes, they actually spend more and buy more costly components that are not alcohol tolerant rather then use cheaper materials that are alcohol tolerant). Some people just don't have the intelligence to actually look at the facts and prefer to instead swallow the toxic snot spoon fed to them by the powers that be.

Back to the original topic... Orange Theory has been down here in Tampa for a while... the bikes have turned into rusty crap, chained up around the city.

My opinion is that Orange Theory should be fined for littering and advertising without a license.