Just make sure you don't fall off your bike while lighting up. It's embarassing. I've smoked and ridden at the same time. I used to smoke while playing softball. I even smoked while skiing. Just gotta make sure an stray ember doesn't get stuck in your clothing.

I tried this for ****s and giggles but I could hardly get around the block before feeling dizzy

From Andy Singer's CARtoons:

http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/singerCa...ercarnsmkr.gif

I always wonder why smokers do that... I mean, just about every car comes equipped with an ash tray, right???

I guess it's just one thoughtless act on top of another.

I always make sure I light up after I crest over the top of the Manhattan bridge. I have a torch type of lighter and the wind isn't that big of a problem. I can ride hands free relatively easy at anything above 10mph (if there isn't any wind). Yesterday in NYC, we had brutal wind. I heard gusts of 50mph from the forecast. My cigarette was put out.

On the Brooklyn Bridge, there isn't a mid point. I usually stop & light up at the 2nd tower.

Don't worry, I don't throw butts on the ground. I usually toss it over the bridge into the East River.

Grrrr.

I normally recommend people start riding a bicycle to QUIT smoking.

When I'm pacing along @ 18mph on the way to work, cigarette smoke is enough to make me want to puke. Hits me worse than vehicle exhaust.

Nice to see all the "tolerant" anti-smoking fascists. As a former smoker, (free at last) I have noticed that the most virulent critics of "the filthy weed" are EX-smokers, NOT non-smokers. It's like they "got religion"! The only way that tobacco smoke from someone outdoors moving at good clip could bother ANYONE is if they were drafting. So don't draft the smoker. Geeze! In NJ the state would go BROKE w/o cigarette tax revenue. The excise tax is over half the cost of a pack, upon which sales tax is then paid. Taxing taxes! In NJ, they want smokers to BUY cigarettes, just don't SMOKE 'em!

And smoking does not= littering. They are 2 separate acts. Let he who has never tossed a gum wrapper cast the first stone.

You live in NYC Mr Fred?

Funny, that photo you posted is from a flickr user in Portland. Either you're Matt.Picio and need to update your flickr profile, or you fail at taking your own pictures.

It's nice to see that you are still easily riled up and make as much sense as usual. :thumb:

I travel back & forth from Portland to NYC 4x a week. I fly with my bike. Too bad I can't smoke on the plane.

Cool. Why no pics of NYC?

And this is purely curiosity for a future trip of mine, how do you take your bike on the plane?

You're making a generalization here based upon your sense of smell and your sensitivity (or lack thereof) to cigarette smoke. Someone smoking in front of me on a sidewalk at walking speed will cause my breath to catch and I'll end up holding my breath until I can pass them. I can easily smell cigarette smoke coming from a car 100 yards ahead while in my car at cruising speed although, at that dilution, it is a minor annoyance. Luckily, I've never had to ride behind someone smoking, but I have no doubt that it would "bother" me if not interfere with my breathing until I could pass them.

That's terrible! You could burn down half the city when the river goes up in flames!

Again, as I said before, it's a concept of externalities. If what you do harms only you, I could care less. When it harms me, well I don't care for that. This is a pretty clear concept. You could get into the whole societal cost of increased healthcare for smokers, but that's a long a sophisticated argument I'm not making. I don't like to smell your smoke - it burns my lungs, even in small quantities.

And who tosses their gum wrappers? Haven't you ever heard of a trash can? They're everywhere! Inside, outside, take your pick!

Not to jump on the attack, but I have to agree. None of my habits require me to litter small bits of paper along the ground, so I expect the same from others.

I work in the water quality division here in the District and I have become numb to seeing large quantities of trash along the rivers, but it still irritates me on general principle.

To satisfy your curiosity: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0018THWX0

I have pics of NYC. Not in the mood to post.

I met a few forum members on rides in NYC too. Ask Riverside guy about his ride when he (and his bike) fell into the pond in Central Park moonlight ride. I was there. He was wearing a yellow jersey/jacket.

Ask jyossarian about the time he got a flat on his Iro (blue handlebar tape with Brooks B-17 saddle) on a Central Park ride.


I'm being completely sincere & honest here. Have you thought about living a bubble? Hopefully you don't live in a large city where you're passing by people smoking all the time. If you get that sensitive to smoke, you really need to do something about it (i.e. wear a face mask while walking the streets or put the car in recirculate and have your windows up).

It must be horrible living with your sensitivity.

Are you sensitive to other smoke? Fumes from cars? Fumes from factories?

The angst amongst cyclists regarding cigarettes seems odd to me.

Playing soccer, folks tease me about smoking at halftime but most people don't get angry.

I lit up after the Urban Assault Race a few years ago and nearly everyone there acted like I had turned radioactive. The looks of disgust and the eye-rolls were everywhere. Of course their mouths dropped open when it was announced that my partner and I had won the race that day.

And yes, I have a DIY pouch on my aero bars that holds my cigarettes and lighter. It is a torch lighter so I can get one burning on the move. I usually fire one up around the halfway point of my 24-mile ride to work.

He'd set his beard on fire!

I do smoke but I don't light up while riding.

Come winter, cruiser bike, fedora, cigar, flask ... yeah.

It's not just cyclists. Society as a whole treats smokers as pariahs. I would assume it to be worse with people engaged in healthy activities.
Thank god.
Now if we could do something about alcoholics.

Here's the problem with what you're saying - you're misunderstanding why people don't like your smoking.

Most people don't care about the harm you're doing to yourself. I don't - I find it odd you'd want to, but people do all sorts of self-destructive things, so whatever - so knock yourself out.

Most people dislike it when it intrudes on them. THEY have to inhale YOUR smoke. It's not the same thing as "offending" others with, say, an ugly outfit. It HARMS people, in a very direct way, even if only a little bit at a time. You know it harms them, and still do it. This is what people dislike, mostly.

I don't agree with lbb often, but on this we are as one.
Except for the mom part if she's hot.
If mom's hot, I mean.
If lbb's hot I'm down all the way.

I actually do what I can not to smoke around other people. On the particular day I mentioned, I even went to the other side of the parking lot, so as not to subject them to it.

+1 Smokers don't bother me ... I'd prefer if gov't would legalize smoking (including the wacky-variety) everywhere and ban cars in most places.