If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)

Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

IT article about cycling in Dublin

Yakuza · 2014-04-19 07:55:23

Some analysis of the issues facing Dublin cyclists. All well known to members of this parish, but perhaps some coverage in a national paper might raise some general awareness of them. The video that accompanies it refers to the fact that not many drivers know its not mandatory to use cycle lanes any more, something I know…

Options

Comments

Options
#32 19-04-2014 8:56pm
Lyaiera

Registered Users Posts: 5,818 ✭✭✭

Join Date: May 2012

Posts: 5652

gadetra wrote: »

To the poster who asked what's wrong with the walk through bikes, there's nothing wrong with them. But a high geared, heavy, less aerodynamic bike is harder to cycle around, and a far less pleasant experience. I have an old racer, with a rack on it, and I can bring an awful lot of stuff around with me between the rack and a rucksack. So racers are not inconvenient, they make the task a lot more pleasurable and easier, two things which may encourage more women into cycling, which can only be a good thing.

I understand where you're coming from. I want a road bike, I want to go faster, I want to be more aerodynamic, and I want to be able to do long spins at a steady pace. Some people don't want that though. What they want is the dress flapping in the wind with the bread, cheese and fancy meats in the basket in the front for their picnic. They want to be sitting up because they find that easier and they don't mind not being aerodynamic because their purpose on the bike isn't to get from point A to point B, or to improve their fitness, or to do anything that most of the posters in this section of boards are concentrating on. They've bought into a lifestyle that is totally different to the racing/training/sportive lifestyle. It happens with lots of things. Look at the car world. There are people buying uncomfortable, inefficient, and often expensive cars when there are cars far superior to them in every scientific and engineered way but they drive them simply because they like them. It fits into their ideas of who they are and who they want to be.

As for why women are less inclined to cycle in the ways typical to this board I think the safety aspect specific to cycling is probably true, but women are less inclined to compete in pretty much every sport. There's numerous reasons for that and often the basic idea of competition is seen as off putting (I know I hate the machismo, aggression and "ball-breaking" associated with a lot of competitive areas.) I'm sure the lack of exposure of female athletes and female sports events is an issue. And I'm 100% sure that archaic notions of what it means to be feminine continue to be subtly pervasive and incredibly damaging. I also wouldn't be surprised if the "second shift" contributed with time constraints.

0