steelbikeguy

let me offer a photo to illustrate the shape that a toe strap will take in typical use, just in case anyone isn't familiar.....



as far as the end buttons, I don't think I knew about those until the 90's when I bought some from Rivendell.
However... reviewing some photos that I took at the 1982 Iron Horse Classic, I see that Jonathan Boyer has buttons on his straps, so they were definitely around.



In some other photos, there was a mix of buttons and no-buttons. A matter of personal taste, perhaps.

Steve in Peoria

RobbieTunes 

I flash front and rear. Daytime only. (At night, all the light, all the time.)
1. I don’t need vision, I need visibility. If you see me, good. Coming or going.
2. When someone falls back from our group, I’m the sweeper; it’s a a lot easier to see them if they’re flashing.
3. When I pull them back, especially to a strung out group, we can see them up ahead. Visibility.
4. Our new Cliqs will synchronized their flashes....again, increased visibility.
5. Our new Cliqs also act as brake lights, and drivers see me/us slowing....broken record time.

As for Germans, or Swedes or Belgratzians.
Germans listen more to drivers than cyclists. So do Italians and Argentinians and maybe even Samoans.
Just like the U.S. Politics, cronyism, corruption, pick one or all.
They are not smarter or advanced or more honest or less corrupt or less political than other people just because they are German or European or Japanese or Antarctican. The track record there is not all that good. Or anywhere else for that matter.

Anything else is purely mythical. Ascribing some kind of extra wisdom to any group of people or country is inane, inaccurate, and only satisfies some false elitist sense of something approaching vicarious superiority. Like a Rachel Maddow monologue.

merziac

https://www.velonews.com/gear/the-sc...of-being-seen/

This is only one of the many substantial articles, studies and reports.

To me this is a no brainer, maybe I don't have one.

I run daytime flashing lights front and rear, solid at night, cameras and GPS tracking 24/7, period.

Many of these articles stress the aiming for optimum visibility that is likely blinding in some circumstances caused by road surface, uneven ground, lack of suspension, improper adjustment, overly bright, etc.

Just like cars everytime I drive anywhere after dark.

gugie 

Must be quite a scene where you ride.


But keeping with the thread, it bugs me more than most people...I suppose I get to have an opinion too.

thook

- really jacked seat posts. for real?

- thomson set back posts on a vintage bike

-non aero levers with modern bikes and/or disc brakes

RobbieTunes 

Understood.

But at 20 mph on a crowded MUP yelling “on yer left!” as if the TdF TT finish line is just ahead.....
...even Walter Mitty was safer.

lasauge 

The things that make me want to shake my fist mostly have to do with the bike industry pushing fancy new things on riders whether they need them or not, to the point that bikes without them seem to be lacking something and ultimately these things just cause more problems than they solve when you consider the cycling community as a whole:

boost spacing
road tubeless
suspension on cheap bikes
hydraulic disc brakes on road bikes
1x on everything
mandatory dropper posts
integrated headsets
pressfit BBs

And greatest evil of all: patenting ideas so that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th companies who want to use a good idea all have to come out with parts that are all mutually incompatible.

I propose a modern constitution of Lycurgus for cyclists: all bikes should come with friction shifters and tires no wider than 2" and be cable-actuated. That way we can spend less time coveting other people's bikes and just ride simple, reliable, fun machines.

Drillium Dude

Have you ever heard one of the those electronic beeping horns? The most irritating attention-getter I've ever had the displeasure of hearing on MUP. I envision your Walter Mitty-type has one of those, too - with the activation button permanently depressed with a piece of electrical tape.

DD

Johno59

Aluminum spokes.... by a considerable distance.
Fluted seat-post (just add water)
Fire-alarm rear hubs. (where's the ..effing fire?)

iab 

Cyclists hanging out at Starbucks. If you are going get a coffee, at least get yourself a proper coffee.

hsuBM

Blinking lights definitely bug the heck outta me.

The scene here is 1/3 drivers only occasionally glancing away from their phones at the road to just barely keep their car between the lines. Not hyperbole.

Blinking lights thus are simply intermittently functional devices.

If you’re on the road, you’re a vehicle.

It burns me up that bike shops even sell any lights that aren’t as bright as any other modern vehicle’s lights.

Those vehicular “bright enough for a stadium” lights are one of four things that all drivers- not just the sober ones- are looking for. (1- traffic lights 2- the next turn to make 3- land marks for the next turn to make 4- other first class citizens with pavement colored cars and bright af lights)


Quit betting your lives on toy lights.

Germany_chris

Which is where the German or specifically StVZO lights come in they're real lights with a patterned beam for a vehicle and don't blind everyone

jamesdak 

Wow, 10 pages of complaining and still going. Ya'll need to step away from your computers and take a bike out. You might not be in such a fussy mood afterwards.

Het Volk

Regardless of toe clips, whatever is happening with the arms of the 3rd and 4th riders is some Tenent level ****

Het Volk

I think it is bike specific. For example, English 3 Speeds, Dutch bikes or Pashley Path Racers demand to be black. But I agree, I miss how amazing the color schemes of bikes were back in the late 80's through the 90's.

Het Volk

Of the above, suspension on cheap bikes is probably the number one issue. But that really gets to the biggest issue, which is too many people buy bikes that actually make them want to ride less, not more. Department Store mountain bikes are not really made for mountain biking, nor are they fun to ride elsewhere. So they end up with heavy bikes which they don't want to ride (in the event their parents let them ride them) and require more maintenance than what they should ride, which is a basic BMX or commuter style bike.

Wildwood

Bugs bug me.
Mostly in Summer.

Tho' I haven't inhaled a big one in a couple of decades. But it was nasty enough to remember.





Clear your handlebars and your mind will follow.

Johno59

Het Volk wrote,
"But that really gets to the biggest issue, which is too many people buy bikes that actually make them want to ride less, not more."
This started in the 1970s. Folks had heavy,wide tired , suspension 'aided', upright bikes that were of limited use off-road and appalling to ride on roads. After the first summer huffing and puffing they were left in the garage to rot.
In the UK it s only over the last 5 years that 'normal' people are choosing a proper drop bar road bike as their first bike. I commute 15 miles all year round and ten years ago I would have seen nobody on a any bike mid-winter, leave alone a road bike. Now I pass dozens of folks at 0500 all the time, mostly on road bikes.

curbtender

Valves that aren't perpendicular, seats overly tilted and people with electric bikes that have 12 speed drivetrains, especially when they never get out of the 11 tooth cog.

plowmanjoe

bikes are weird, so are blinky lights. weird things get noticed. If you're on a bike in traffic, you should want to be noticed as weird.

gugie 

Cold and raining makes for a pissy cyclist.

Call this a vent thread.

nlerner

seypat

Anyone mentioned Campy 2 bolt seatposts yet?

Reynolds 

Campagnolo 2 bolt seatpost is a great design IMO.
Can't say the same about Thomson setback seatposts and press fit BBs.

Het Volk

why the hate for Thompson set back seat posts?