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4492 Posts
One more happy biker here to share the excitement.
My bike; a Magellan touring frame with (mostly) Shimano accessories.
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Unfortunately, living in Budapest does not always make it easy to bike, and having to commute 56km one-way to work in a nearby town doesn't help me either. The distance would be OK, especially considering that it takes 1.5 hrs with tube-bus anyway, so biking 2hrs wouldn't bother me, but the traffic on the roads leading to the town and the roads from the city are a real drag, so I take the bus instead (I have a driver's license, but am 100% car-free).
I usually do make frequent trips to my parent's place tho, which is ~20km away from where I live, and the road is very nice and pretty hilly, which is fun, as I love hitting the hills with the bike. Going there takes me around 45 minutes (by public transport this is a 1hr+ trip), and getting back home is 37 minutes, and even at night, when there is a night shift bus that goes directly from my parent's place to my place, beating that bus by a good 10mins with a 32km/h+ average just makes me feel like I won life every time I get there. Awesome feeling.
Biking is great. Accidents suck of course, but that's part of the adrenaline rush. 
Good blog.
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Many very good comments! I appreciate you guys keeping the thread alive and also the nice words.
Ancestral - I have considered the point you bring up here. The bottom line is I don't know the answer. You may be right that ultimately cycling is even more efficient than walking/running. I do agree that in terms of calories, biking is far more efficient. Biking does often depend on roads and paths, though, and so I am also interested in factoring that into the equation.
Mynock - I dig your bike! And mad kudos to you for being car-free and enjoying it! I am very surprised to see how many of you love cycling and are also car-free. I am inspired.
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General Stan, I appreciate your post. First, I think you are right, there is a lot we would seem to agree on. But in your post there are some things that stand out to me that I don't agree on, or would at least want to question.
I would be curious, given the way you insightfully critique technology, why you hold scientific and material advancement to be adequate benchmarks by which to measure "success as a species." It is striking to me that you can speak of the "marvels" of modern societies, and simultaneously speak of the fact that they don't necessarily contribute to happiness or wellbeing. I say this in the most friendly way I can: you seem very ambivalent.
On medicine, I would direct you to Illich's book "Medical Nemisis," in which he treats medicine in the same way he treats modern transportation in "Energy and Equity" and education in "Deschooling Society." Agree or disagree, I think he offers interesting and formiddable arguments. For my small part here, I'll say that we modern folks may live longer, but we don't necessarily live MORE. And I say this by way of transitioning to the point that we actually DO NOT work less than our anscestors. So called primitives often work(ed) 2 - 4 hours a day. And the nature of that work is very different than work in modern societies. American work hours have been going up, and we work much more relative to many societies, and, as you point out, we aren't necessarily any happier for the effort. We have skyrocketing rates of depression, alienation, dissatisfaction, etc.
I don't share most people's view of progress or success. It's said that humans are responsible for many of the 27000 estimated extinctions per year. Our luxuries today are highly toxic. Even our drinking water is cleaned with poisons. Our food is unhealthy. Our luxury entails defense which consists of enough firepower to destroy the Earth many times over, and many brutal and unjust wars besides. I do not worship science or see it as a savior, or even a particularly beneficial approach to life (I'm not anti-science either, necessarily, but there is much in science that I am highly critical of). TO me, a better measuring stick would be how harmoniously we live with the rest of reality, how peaceful we are towards each other, and so on...
I basically agree with the rest of what you said (particularly paragraph 2).
Thank you for your post! Happy to hear from you.
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Zurich15365 Posts
Proud owner of a Steppenwolf Taiga, complete Shimano XT accessories, HS33 brakes. Total weight 10.8kg. <3 <3
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I used to go around exclusively by bike. Unfortunately that changed when my job required me to get a car and do business trips. Now I only go biking in the evening and over the weekend. I still use every hour available.
Last summer I was at 300km a week (with a racing bike admittedly). This year I am at 140km a week but most of it is mountain biking / single trailing.
Biking is totally awesome. Too bad I don't live in the mountains anymore though, now I have to drive 200km by car to get to some real, challenging mountains.
Edit: sorry that I didn't contribute to the environment discussion that seems to go on here as I am really indifferent towards it. I just love my bike for sports and, living in the city, for convenience.
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Since I'd rather not bump my own blog which doesn't have much to offer, I'm bumping this.
Anyone have any advice on road-bikes? My friend is absolutely against me buying a road-bike because, as he says, I'm not as experienced as I should be. So a few questions:
How easy is it to break a road-bike? And what is the learning curve for fixing various complications?
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Banzu, the main advice when it comes to buying a bicycle is to get something that fits you very well. A very sweet bike with poor fit is shitty compared to a low end bike with excellent fit.
Beyond that, there are lots of options. What do you want to do with your bike? My personal feeling is that bicycling is a practical form of transport, and should be built around practicality, not sports. What makes a bike practical? A practical bike takes fenders, racks (at least a rear rack), and has gearing that is suitable for your everyday person, not just Lance Armstrong.
The ideal road bike, given MY preferences, is a touring bike, but touring bikes usually start in the 700+ (but any good road bike will probably cost around that much at least anyway - road bikes are typically more costly than other kinds of bikes) range, and the really well regarded ones (including the Surly Long Haul Trucker, and Trek 520) are usually closer to 1200, or more. Touring bikes are built to be capable of hauling all the shit you need to survive for thousands of miles, 8 hours a day. The ideal such bike would be made of steel (more comfy, yet very tough), have a long wheelbase (wheels aren't close together), and have bar end or down tube shifers (instead of STI).
If you want more of a light commuting road bike, or just a sports bike (racing, etc), think about a cyclocross bike or just a straight up racer. These get VERY pricey. I'd spend at least 600 for something new.
If you shop old, get something made of steel.
The interesting thing is this: they are now making "cross" bikes that are essentially road bikes, with thin tires and bigger wheels (700c vs 26 inch mountain bike tires), but with the flat bar of a mountain bike, and often with a wider, more sensible gearing than a racing bike. I think this is a great way to go for someone who wants to commute or cycle, but doesn't plan to do off roading much (or at all). My recommendation in this category of bike is the Trek FX 7.3 - you can get it new for around 560. It's a great bike, and can be accessorized like mad (with fenders, bigger or smaller tires, racks - front and back racks!, and so on). It is really a very sensible bike. Good gearing on it too. My girlfriend just got one and loves it. This is easier to get used to than drop bars, but you'll still be faster than a mtb, by far. It's a good choice.
Other such bikes are the Specialized Sirrus, the Jamis Coda (made of steel, but I hear these bikes are often of less than stellar quality despite good components), and others made by Giant, etc. I'd go with the Trek.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://www.steppenwolf-bikes.com/steppenwolf/data/media/_shared/media/Bikes/Mountainbikes/Taiga.jpg)
