By Brett Ratner "What are all those bikes for?" If you own more than one bicycle, you've likely heard these words, or at least some variation. And even if you own one bike, but actually use it for things beyond the occasional sunny day toodle to Starbucks, I'd venture to guess you risk a Spanish Inquisition from non-cycling friends and co-workers whenever you ride in the rain, snow, wind, traffic, high pollen count, or any other less-than-idyllic cycling condition. Hopefully most of you reading this article agree that getting people on bikes is generally a good thing. But getting people on bikes can at times seems a monumental challenge when it's hard enough simply explaining them to people. I mean, it boggles my mind how half of Chicago understands a power play in hockey, or can tell you without hesitation that a safety is worth two points in Football...yet can't wrap their heads around the notion that you might want one type of bike to ride dirt trails and a different type of bike to ride on pavement. Or, that the upside of getting a little damp commuting in the rain is that you don't have to endure an hour sitting in gridlock staring at an "Eric and Kathy" billboard. To put it another way, I know nothing about fishing, but I can make the mental leap that fishing in different conditions (river, lake, ocean, etc.) may require different rods, reels and bait. And while sitting in a boat for hours does not seem appealing to me personally, I can appreciate and respect that it's relaxing, enjoyable and beneficial for others. There are many non-cyclists who are genuinely interested in learning more about the activity that we collectively love. And I love talking to those people. But there seems to be another, more confrontational breed of non-cyclist. I'm not sure what their collective end game is when they grill me with questions. Maybe it's to make me question my interest in bikes...or perhaps it's to justify their non-interest in bikes. Whatever the reason, their inability (or at least lack of willingness) to understand cycling has taught me to explain things in terms they can understand; CARS! Here's are some examples I've had success with in the past:
Photo Courtesy of Green Machine Cycles
Photo Courtesy of SnowyMountain Photography
Well, there you have it. Hopefully this will help answer their questions. If it doesn't, you can instead give them an equally blank stare and ask them to explain why they'd rather sit in traffic on the way to a gym to ride a stationary bike. About the Author |
MySpace Tweet Facebook Facebook
Comment
I always respond by asking if they own more than one pair of shoes. Of course they do - probably multiple pairs of dress shoes, a pair or two of casuals, running or training shoes, etc. NOTE: While this response works equally well with both men and women it is NOT a good response when the question is from your spouse or significant-other-female. I like the cars analogy, but don't know many people who own multiple cars - maybe because they spent all their money on bikes!
Great article! Your title made me laugh. :)
This is a great article about what a bike is for. It misses the point of what the bike does for the person. Example (what a bike can do) This bike can climb a mountain. (How a bike affects a person) I love being out in the woods and being able to ..... it lifts my spirits for days!
I ride bikes because it is FUN and I can tell you a thousands of stories about the fun I have related to bikes, would you like to have fun with me? is how an activist converts people to be cyclists. It is not about the bike, it is all about the fun.
At one of the Dutch-bike conferences (ambassadors from the Netherlands) one of them mentioned that the Dutch own 2.5 bikes per person (or something like that). The American/Chicago audience laughed - they all (including me) had more than 2.5 bicycles.
Nice, Brett! But I think I will just go with the last one. It is faster! :-)
N+1 is the number of bikes that you want when N is the number of bikes that you already have. Or S-1 is the number it is safe to possess when your partner will leave you if you owned S bikes. But what if S=N+1 ...
203 members
1 member
270 members
1 member
261 members
You need to be a member of The Chainlink to add comments!
Join The Chainlink