I have to go wrap twine around my handlebar tape…

Dang, Ted, now I gotta get another new keyboard … got morning coffee in this one … and I’m alternating between choking and laughing.

Josh S. has a perfectly valid point, th. Mark should have four x-rays of bike riders. The third one should still be of that Dutch-style upright, but there should be a bit of red in the lower lumbar region (where you wind up with compressed vertebra after a couple of Black Hole Sized Pot Holes).

The fourth x-ray should be of a recumbent bike and rider. Here is where there should be NO red in the rider’s back. As a matter of fact, to show the TRUE comfort of a ‘bent, the skeleton of a figure in a blue dress should be shown in THAT x-ray: giving a relaxing back massage to the bike rider.

It is not so much CARS, per se, it is our CAR-centric Society that is the problem. I recall an incident when I was waiting at a stop sign in the far right traffic lane at an intersection. A Phoenix policeman pulled up behind me, honked his horn, then pulled up next to me and told me “I didn’t belong out there.” A true, “WTF?” moment.

I am driven by the efficiency of these ‘human – amplifiers’ (aka bicycles ) which for the same energy as walking take up 4 x the distance at 4 x the speed. Like you reading this, I love cycling and look for ways to get bring its benefits to the other 90%.

Yes – infrastructure with, ideally, segregation from cars would be a big help to ‘blue ocean’ folk. In the bicycle industry the only ‘levers’ we have on this are: advocacy, education, presenting an appealing image (!) .. and the design / specification of the bike itself. So this is where I focused (the article was for the Taipei Trade show). Industry people surprisingly agree with the majority of the points, but in discussion are at a loss on how to get from ‘here’–established routes to profit etc.–to ‘there’–getting more folk on bikes.

Yes, for the few hilly cities – gears and slow climbing are the order of the day, (or ebikes maybe ?). Although mainly flat The Dutch DO have very steep short hills at every canal crossing. But as they ALL have ridden continuously since ~age 3 they just apply a subtle extra pedal force and allow the speed to drop–all so effortlessly. (I was in Amsterdam 2 weeks ago and am always amazed at the universally good riding).

Many people in Europe do commute 10 miles or more, and IF they don’t try to race, they arrive dry. Balancing cooling air speed with effort = no sweat.

However, multimodal transport is a great solution for longer commutes, ie Bike > train/bus/car > bike using the bike for what it’s best at–shorter distances to avoid congestion, and other forms of transport for the long leg. The bike–and especially folding bike–is ACE at canceling the negative that trains etc. don’t go door-to-door.

The piece was an amalgamation of earlier writings and FWIW individual pieces are:

Blue Ocean: http://issuu.com/mark77a/docs/notes_mas_taipei09/1
Imagine: – bicycles as consumer products ref: Appl : http://issuu.com/mark77a/docs/imagine_-_bicycles_as_consumer_products_article/1
Posture: http://issuu.com/mark77a/docs/upright_is_right-the_view_ahead/1

All targeting and ‘poking’ the bicycle industry.

Goodness knows how I got from designing bikes to writing about the bike industry!! Some may say, “Stick to the day job”

Mark

I argree, CARS are the biggest issue.. Stupid people think 1/2 a second is a big deal.

I find when trails take to close to store, I shop there more often. I only wish they had covered bike parking, where I could load the bike and don my rain cape.

Quite streets are nice, but all it takes is one stupid motorist to end the enjoyment and make me turn around and spend my money on-line and away from the community I live in.

Comfortable bikes- I have a nice Dutch bike, but I lowered the bars aome to help with headwinds. My commute is only 7 miles, with few hills, but some days the wind can be a bit much.

Our government spends lots of money building BIG roads for cars, but can’t build equally important paths for bicycles and non-mortor travel. This trully sends a message.. So, where do polititions invest their money? Gas stations, auto-insurance, auto reparir????

I broke my leg a few monnts ago.. Ice skating. I found that most (almost all) broken bones are from car wrecks… To all that live with “Helmet law” how does a “full body armor” sound for motorists?

Since publishing this article, I’ve been thinking how good an iPhone-of-bikes would be for cycling–whether or not it was made by Apple. I wouldn’t buy one, but millions of faddists would. It would be good for cycling generally. And, you’re right, people would argue endlessly over it. It would be the bike that cyclists love to hate, but more people would be cycling.

Fodder for a future post…

Thanks for your thoughts.

PS: I use a Mac Mini at work, and a MacBook Pro at home. I have a 2nd Gen iPod Nano, and I can’t wait for it to die so I can justify an upgrade–but it just won’t die. I don’t use a smart phone. (I don’t carry any portable electronics on me that I can’t afford to lose or break [i.e. replace] once a year.)

I think it would be more accurate to say that an iBike would probably be beautiful, very easy to use out of the store, and almost impossible to modify. Pundits would focus on the last point, declare that it would be a failure like all of Apples products are. And before you roll out the old canard that Apple products are more expensive, I would point put that I have yet to see a tablet sell for less than the iPad with similar specs.

I have probably kicked off a Mac/android/windows flame war here…..