The bicycle: good enough?

[Brucey]

But at least it's got disc brakes ....

er, shouldn't that read

But at least it's got discs ....

call me a cynical get but I reckon there are no calipers....

cheers

[Samuel D]

call me a cynical get but I reckon there are no calipers....

A small concession to aerodynamics.

The whole concept is of course daft. In addition to the many problems Brucey pointed out, the faring is too rearward to get behind. Instead, it would dump large quantities of air at your chest, likely increasing your drag.

[mig]

the dream of a fully enclosed bike is wonderful, but the reality is that every machine with a hard fairing I have ever seen or tried has been really noisy; a bit like being inside a dustbin whilst people are hitting it with something.

TBH I'm not quite sure I could stick that noise level all the time; to me it is just as intrusive as (say) the noise of riding on the rollers, which I hate. I quite like peace and quiet when I go out on my bike and I'm not sure I'd have it in any fully faired machine; maybe one with a fabric fairing would get 90% of the benefit without the noise?

BTW new materials might in the future reduce the weight of a robust bicycle significantly. However if a town bike went from (say) 15kg down to 10kg, this isn't that big a deal, not when you figure that bike plus rider plus luggage is liable to be 80-110kg for most adults on a commute.

cheers

why..er....have you been inside a dustbin whilst others whack it?

[reohn2]

But at least it's got disc brakes ....

er, shouldn't that read

But at least it's got discs ....

call me a cynical get but I reckon there are no calipers....

cheers

You could just be right,I assumed(never a good thing)they were hidden somewhere in all that CF

[reohn2]

why..er....have you been inside a dustbin whilst others whack it?

Did you never have any fun when you were growing up?

Sliding and rolling down pit slag heaps on old bits of tin,including old dustbins,even the bonnet of an old car were great fun wen a wer uh lad
We once found the bonnet off one of these:-
Turned downside up,half a dozen ragged arrised kids could fit on one no problem

[mig]

nope. none of that for me. mainly "real tennis" & lawn croquet don't you know.

[cicatriz]

Like Twitter, Bicycles are more than the sum of their parts, even when the underlying technologies have a wide range of purposes and are advanced in their own right.

One way of looking at this is that for both, the underlying technologies will improve, possibly even significantly: e.g. material technologies for bicycles or semi-conductor technologies for twitter, but neither would have an enormous impact on the end-user. In this case, I think bicycles may have a bit more scope for growth because changes and advancements will, eventually, lead to cost savings that I don't see as being relevant to Twitter (unless you use it that much it actually has an appreciable affect on your electricity bill or data roaming usage).

However, I don't think there will be a change to bicycles that will get more people cycling in any great numbers. I doubt, even if tomorrow, a bike was announced that had been grown in a lab from some self-repairing, frictionless bio metal that cost less than a £100 that you'd see a huge upswing in bicycle use.

There isn't a lot you can do with twitter itself to get more people using it (even if you thought that was a good thing) - but availability of the technology to use it might. There isn't a lot you can do to get more using bicycles - availability of the infrastructure to use them might.

[reohn2]

nope. none of that for me. mainly "real tennis" & lawn croquet don't you know.

I had my suspicions

[horizon]

Like Twitter, Bicycles are more than the sum of their parts, even when the underlying technologies have a wide range of purposes and are advanced in their own right.

One way of looking at this is that for both, the underlying technologies will improve, possibly even significantly: e.g. material technologies for bicycles or semi-conductor technologies for twitter, but neither would have an enormous impact on the end-user. In this case, I think bicycles may have a bit more scope for growth because changes and advancements will, eventually, lead to cost savings that I don't see as being relevant to Twitter (unless you use it that much it actually has an appreciable affect on your electricity bill or data roaming usage).

However, I don't think there will be a change to bicycles that will get more people cycling in any great numbers. I doubt, even if tomorrow, a bike was announced that had been grown in a lab from some self-repairing, frictionless bio metal that cost less than a £100 that you'd see a huge upswing in bicycle use.

There isn't a lot you can do with twitter itself to get more people using it (even if you thought that was a good thing) - but availability of the technology to use it might. There isn't a lot you can do to get more using bicycles - availability of the infrastructure to use them might.

+ 1 I think that was what I was trying to say.

And yet the big bike firms are constantly trumpeting new products as though they had re-invented the wheel. They wish.

[Brucey]

why..er....have you been inside a dustbin whilst others whack it?

not as such, but amongst other things as a kid it seemed like the best idea ever to climb inside a dustbin and then roll down a (fortunately small) hill....

....none of that for me. mainly "real tennis" & lawn croquet don't you know.

jumpers for croquet hoops...?....

cheers

[531colin]

Until you have been sledging (with half a dozen other kids) on a bit of wriggly tin off an Anderson shelter, you don't know what fun is.....