Bicycle escapades

[wolfie]

Is it because my bike is cheap...?
Also my butt got numb and my crotch really really hurt on the seat. It made me wonder how guys can stand it.

Cheap bikes generally have cheap seats. Cheap seats tend to be small and hard, so your weight is supported by your crotch. OK on a racing bike (narrow seat doesn't foul the rider's legs, and they're standing on the pedals instead of sitting on the seat). For touring/recreational/commuter riders, you want a seat where your weight is supported by your buttocks. Will probably cost in the $20-$40 range, but there are wide, sprung, gel seats available on the aftermarket - far more comfortable.

[Seshat]

If the bike has gears, it may well be slow because you're in the wrong gear. Once you've gotten started, you should be in a gear where you don't actually feel much resistance, you're just rolling your legs around as fast as is comfortable.

[Sliceanddice]

Hmm...after reading the rules on cycling in my state there are some things I don't agree with. Like having the bicyclists share the road with automobiles. Cars scare me unless I am in one. And When I'm in a car and there's a cyclist on the road, I feel scared, like I'm going to hit him...sigh. It makes me wonder why these rules are here, certainly cyclists getting killed by cars is much higher than pedestrians getting killed by cyclists? *googles*it seems so. So why have the cyclists go with the cars. Scary.
Maybe I should just do indoors excerise.

Because technically bikes are supposed to follow the vehicle laws not the pedestrian laws. That means signaling on turns, indicating stops, and turning from appropriate lanes. Most states have a maximum passing distance law (where you have to give bicyclists a 3ft birth when passing and bicyclists must help accommodate) and as long as the rider properly signals and obeys the laws the car driver will be always at fault for any accident, but that means proper safety gear and reflection as well

[Yurimaru]

HotelMinion - I've had the same issue when I take my bike out on the bike trail, locally. Finally, I asked a guy from my class who regularly biked... They have special padded bike shorts. Those spandex-looking shorts and pants are not just so everyone can look like a Pro Cyclist. They come with lovely padding that helps a person not have the ol' Numb Butt. Look online or at a bike store and see what might work for you.

[Chromatix]

It's not only the padding, incidentally. It also involves careful placement of seams.

[dalesys]

Numb Butt ain't so bad... it's the Electric Willie that'll really zap you!

[Lace Neil Singer]

Round my way there are bike lanes all over town. However, the Lycra Louts (as in, nutter cyclists who seem to be on a personal mission to end up a red stain on the road) refuse to use them cuz they believe that cars should "share the road". Yes, and as a motorcyclist I also believe that; however, since I don't have a deathwish, I prefer to ride defensively and get to my destination in one piece. There's one particular road which is a notorious accident black spot, but with bike lanes on both sides. Only the sane cyclists use them; the Lycra Louts instead insist on riding right in the middle of the road.

[Minflick]

Or in my neck of the woods, 3-5 abreast on a steep and twisty mountain road, which means we can't give them the legal 3 ft clearance without crossing the double yellow line, on a blind curve. Or staying behind them..... with flashers on so the next person around that blind curve doesn't cream ME!

[Sliceanddice]

Or in my neck of the woods, 3-5 abreast on a steep and twisty mountain road,

and this is the problem the cyclist responsibility is to merge right into a single file to allow for the flow of traffic to pass them when a car comes up from behind

[wolfie]

Round my way there are bike lanes all over town. However, the Lycra Louts (as in, nutter cyclists who seem to be on a personal mission to end up a red stain on the road) refuse to use them cuz they believe that cars should "share the road".

Why is it that the people without weight to throw are always the first to throw their weight around?

Or in my neck of the woods, 3-5 abreast on a steep and twisty mountain road, which means we can't give them the legal 3 ft clearance without crossing the double yellow line, on a blind curve.

How high do the "wannabe red stains" jump when they hear the air horn?

[DGoddessChardonnay]

How high do the "wannabe red stains" jump when they hear the air horn?

And one blast of an air horn from that Peterbilt of Natural Selection will turn those red stains brown!