Lance Armstrong and Peak Oil

Yamaha_R6 · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 14, 2004 Posts: 130

^^^^ HAHAHAHAHA this board cracks me up... Lets have a round two in the hall of flames. I'll bring cokes if you bring the popcon.

NOWHERE on this thread did I accuse you of being mentally ill or anything of the such. I let no personal attacks out. You started it, then our friend Jay here took it to the next level. Lets just have a big group hug before this gets out of hand.

In keeping with the point of this thread, How far can one of these bikes travel on a charge of electricity, and would be possible to make a faster and better version of this that could be used by the public to meet our transportation needs once oil runs out? Also, have any of you seen those ford electric golf cart/ cars. They can go miles on only a few cents of electricity, and their STYLISH TOO!

P.S. You are all now officially being cyber hugged. Surprised

TheSupplyGuy · Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 8:41 pm Post subject: no clue

I personally don't have much of a clue to what the differences between bikes are. I haer people talk about electric, pedal, dirtbike, speed, tricycle, so on. Any suggestions on which one would be the most versatile(assuming I don't have to deal with snow).
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In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.-Thoreau
Peak Oil

Itch · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 30, 2004 Posts: 338

The most versatile bike that requires only man power would be a mountain bike, simply because it can go on both paved roads and unpaved terrain. Road bikes -- the kind that the spandex and lycra jocks use -- are only useful for paves roads, and would get trashed quite quickly when taken off roads.

JayHMorrison · Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 9:33 pm Post subject: Re: no clue

zceb90 · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 4:19 am Post subject: Bikes in Winter

Mountain bikes are widely used in Norway in winter; they even use studded bike tyres to provide a good grip.

Riding a bike in snow is not as hard as one might suppose - some years ago about 15 cm snow fell overnight in London, most unusual and drivers clearly could not cope with these conditions on congested roads. I, as usual, cycled to work and the 2 mile ride only took an extra 5 minutes or so. Guess what - I had the office to myself for over a hour as no one else made it in!

Of course deep snow especially off road is another matter entirely - nordic skiis have been used for centuries in Scandinavia in such conditions.

JayHMorrison · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 6:29 am Post subject: Re: Bikes in Winter

WebHubbleTelescope · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jul 08, 2004 Posts: 909

Yamahaha said:

Yamaha_R6 · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 14, 2004 Posts: 130

^^^^^ what the heck are you talking about hubble???? Hmmm I better break out the dictionary.... wait .... no... to lazy. Nevermind.

MrPC · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:29 am Post subject:

Dooring tends to only happen to cyclists who ride too close to parked cars. You need to ride at least a metre, preferably 1½m out. Not only does it prevent dooring, but it also helps force motorists behind to move into the next lane and only overtake when safe.

Unless you are talking about dooring while in stopped traffic.
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The purpose of human life revolves around an endless need to extract ever increasing amounts of carbon out of the ground and then release it into the atmosphere.

OilBurner · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 03, 2004 Posts: 417 Location: UK

Not wishing to stray too far off-topic here..but...the problem with riding too far out (IME), is that many drivers refuse point blank to give cyclists any space whatsoever. If you're riding 1m away from the kerb then many think you're being selfish or obstructive and respond in kind by driving by really close.

I think that may be more of a problem here in the UK because most of our roads are really narrow.
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Burning the midnight oil, whilst I still can.

MrPC · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2004 5:34 am Post subject:

OilBurner · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 03, 2004 Posts: 417 Location: UK

That reminds me..

A really peeved cyclist took to slashing car tyres for revenge.
Apparently he caused a quarter of a million pounds of damage because a single motorist had soaked him by driving through a puddle...

See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/dorset/3632417.stm

As appealing as that thought is (I've been nearly killed by cars too many times to mention), I suspect there's betters ways of improving the situation! Laughing

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Burning the midnight oil, whilst I still can.

PhilBiker · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 30, 2004 Posts: 1326

I recently bought a hybrid bike myself for working out and for post-peak transportation. I got a little trailer also. Today I use it to bring my dog with me when my wife and I go out for pleasure/workout rides. In the future I could carry a lot of food in it. Today I ride my bike to the grocery store whenever I go for light shopping. Much better than the car. I need to get spare parts (tires, tubes, tools, etc).

highly recommend this webiste Bikes R Not Toys www.bikesrnottoys.com for good information on why you shouldn't go to Wal*Mart or a toy store for your bike.

azreal60 · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2004 8:54 am Post subject:

Biking is an interesting topic, cause it really is an elegant solution to alot of transportation problems. The problems i see with getting it to be more useful are a few fold.

1. Biking is not all weather useable.

It is not if you want to remain prestine and looking nice on your way to work, but if your willing to get a bit muddy, you can always get to work no matter what on a bike. Winter is considered a weather condition, but I would point out that properly attired, it is possible to bike in the winter simply using a mountain bike. I would suggest getting a pair of street tires for your mountain bike to increase your ability to get to work quicker during the 7 to 9 months out of the year where you probably will have totally clear roads on your way to work. Then just pop on the treaded monsters when it looks like the weather is going to get bad and stay bad.

2.Biking is dangerous.

Aye it can be. Especially if you have to ride on busy streets with impaitent motorists. ( like alot of other bikers on this site, most of my near death experences on a bike is when someone in a car got impatient and almost or Did clock me on my bike)(the damage i did to his front end was truely funny when all he did was bruise my shin pretty badly) A nice solution to this problem is bike paths. They are easy to clear in bad weather, they can go where roads often can t. There are miles and miles of bike paths in my county, and it is very rare that i see them unused. People are buying into this in a big way. And it is working, I see alot less bikers on actual roads, and more on the bike paths every day.

3. Biking can t get me to work fast enough.

A good point, a bike is not nearly as fast as a car. But it is as fast as a bus if that bus is going thru a city and stopping. (before my bikes where stolen, I used to ride a bus, then biked. I timed it, a 2 hour bus ride was a hour 50 bike ride. It is the freedom of a car in that i only go to where i am going, and i can regularly get to 20 miles a hour on a bike, which is only a bit slower than a city bus. And if there is a traffic jam, guess who that is biking around you at a dead stop? ( i swore to save enough money for a bike after i lost a monthly bonus for being on time because of 3 days of solid traffic jams) As congestion gets worse and worse, biking becomes more and more intelligent.

I would post more, but I have like 1 week of posts to get thru for moderation purposes, so i have some reading to do.
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Azreal60