Define crap hole.

This should have ended the entire thread.

In fact, it also applies to most of the threads over in the A&S/CV forum.

Speak for yourself. I actually very much enjoy my job. I look forward to going to it, and I look forward to coming home, and I enjoy the ride both ways. It's very sad that people have jobs that they don't enjoy.

:d

As in, they not optional, but mandatory, right?

Hmmm. I guess that I do have two bikes with two different purposes, but the purposes are long and short trips. The electric bent is for long rides (over 5 miles). The beach cruiser is for short trips that are 5 miles or less. As for which is the "commuter bike," I don't know. I joyride on both. I run errands on both. I go to work on both. (Part time temp jobs have been closer, so the beach cruiser works, while full time permanent job is 10 miles away, so the bent works for that.)

Aside from the incessant need of BF posters to define, argue, redefine, and split hairs, I'm not sure what purpose the distinction serves. Saving some gas while getting some exercise is saving some gas while getting some exercise, regardless of the destination.

I hope not. I enjoy your input on this board.

No, not mandatory -- participation is optional, which is why it doesn't make a lot of sense to get bent out of shape when others decide to get into one of these discussions (a violation that I'm guilty of from time to time myself). I'm a bit surprised, like you, at DataJunkie going off in a huff over such a thing.

DJ will be back, he always comes back, cept when he doesn't.

Three...no...4 pages of nitpicking? Holy crap.

definitely one of the whackier threads and inane arguments I've seen in BF for some time! Most enjoyable though.

Interesting that many of the forums get into these debates once in a while. There was a great one about the difference between "long distance cycling" and "touring".

The "living car free" forum gets into some pretty intense debates about what it means to actually be "car free."

There are purists and fundamentalists in just about every human activity- and they can get nasty.

Discuss crap hole vs. Holy crap: compare and contrast.

Will there be a quiz?

If one rides to work on a fancy bike would that be considered high-falutin' commutin'?

rootin' tootin' high-falutin' boot scootin' commutin' !

say what you want but seems to that if you (to each his own) feel it is a commute then it is.

As for me, it seems that if you are using a bicycle instead of a car, then you could say it is a commute.

It seems to me that if I feel a sewer rat is pumpkin pie, then it is.

...right?

If it bites back it's a rat. If it goes down smmoooth it's a pie.

Lance why commutting when he rode his bike from the hotel to the start. Then he was just having a day at the office when he rode up Alpe d'Huez. He got a helicopter ride down but, the other racer commutted down off the Mtn once they finished the race.

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time.
So... if I've properly understood the lengthy sniping, we should re-name this forum to "Riding Your Bike Places So We Can Go Do Stuff."
Wait...what if you don't really do anything at work? That's like riding your bike to sit under a tree and doesn't fit Merriam Webster (The Holy reference book for pointless debates) .. Oh my God.. This DOES get complicated.

It's not a pointless debate, and it's not complicated. Commuting is easy to define, and it's not dependent on the choice of vehicle. Commuting is generally defined as regular travel to home or a place of study. It doesn't matter what someone feels "commuting" is.

If defintions don't matter, then someone who rides to work and sprints past another rider is "racing".

So if someone uses a car it's not a commute? No. Words have meanings. Riding a bike to work is bike commuting. Driving a car to work is car commuting. Staying at home and working via computer is telecommuting.

Words have meanings.

Can we call it "Transportation Cycling" ?

You provide an excellent point.
If people want to parse and categorize their rides into various "functionalities" that's fine, I just think it's rather pointless to argue for a group consensus.
In your example above, it's only a "race" if the rider your sprinting past is engaged in competing with you. If he's not, it's just a fantasy on your part. In that respect, the definition is meaningless.

I agree, this issue is less trivial than it might seem. To communicate, a word must have a specific meaning, so that the speaker and the listener can exchange a thought accurately. Anything less ensures bad communication or no communication at all. One thing I've noticed about all those who insist on their own definition of the word commute is that their arguments are self centered. Communication by its nature requires consideration of others.

While a lot of terms can probably be used loosely in this forum without major loss. The word commute is perhaps the only term in this forum that should have the same meaning for all.