No One's Going To Steal Your Fixie (at Saturday's Bike Swap)

From Chicagoist:

Photo via Chicago Critical Mass Twitter feed.

 

http://chicagoist.com/2013/03/11/no_ones_going_to_steal_your_fixie.php

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Permalink Reply by David Barish on March 11, 2013 at 6:37am

The bike behind shows how this could have been accomplished with the frame over the rack.  I am surprised the bike owner was not more flexible.  After all, it takes years of a devoted yoga practice to ride his or her bike.  My back hurts just looking at that machine.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on March 11, 2013 at 6:54am

+1 I see rack hogs like this in the Loop too often.  Not enough rack space, too many rack hogs.

David Barish said:

The bike behind shows how this could have been accomplished with the frame over the rack.  I am surprised the bike owner was not more flexible.  After all, it takes years of a devoted yoga practice to ride his or her bike.  My back hurts just looking at that machine.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on March 11, 2013 at 7:02am

This is a terrible rack design. The "polite" way to lock up a bike here (by placing the front wheel between the vertical posts) is not secure since there is no way to lock up the frame. Locking the front wheel enables anyone to simply pop off the quick release and steal the rest of the bike.

These racks are also called "wheel benders" for a reason. All it takes is for someone to push on the frame for the front wheel to get bent.

Don't blame the bike rider. He was simply looking for the most secure way to lock up his bike given the poor choice of rack.

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on March 11, 2013 at 7:07am

As Steve notes in the comments on Chicagoist - there are a lot of reasons why the frame over the rack thing can't always work for all bikes. He mentions fenders and other clearance reasons - but I've been reluctant to do the frame over thing with a non-scratched up bike (historically not a much of a problem for me). Depending on the rack and size of the bike it is possible that the bike's frame can get pretty scratched up by doing the frame over thing. 

That being said, I would never hog up a rack like that, unless it was parked too close to a wall to use "properly".

It turned out that there were plenty of places to lock up at the swap anyway.


David Barish said:

The bike behind shows how this could have been accomplished with the frame over the rack.  I am surprised the bike owner was not more flexible.  After all, it takes years of a devoted yoga practice to ride his or her bike.  My back hurts just looking at that machine.

Permalink Reply by John Wilson 6.0 on March 11, 2013 at 7:23am

I once encountered a cyclist chaining her bike to the rack in front of a Jewel in the very same manner. In the process, there was nowhere left to lock up another bike. She looked up at me and my bike and either obliviously or sarcastically (I honestly couldn't tell which) asked, "Did you need to park here, too?" I curtly told her yes and she moved her bike.

Unbelievable.

Permalink Reply by David Barish on March 11, 2013 at 7:39am

I respectfully disagree. I do blame the rider. We are all riders.  Once somebody hogs the rack there is no rack for anybody else. We all agree these antiquated designs are not ideal racks.  If you get to a location and that is what you see it becomes your reality. The question is how you handle the reality. You can say you are the only person that matters or you can adapt and find the best solution under the circumstances. That solution may include finding a different location. If the rack is perceived to be a threat to your bike, try something else rather than taking that rack entirely out of circulation. I was not at the swap as I was out of town. However, I find it hard to believe that another location was not available within a couple of blocks. Many times these old racks are in small towns or in places where there is rarely a bike. I guess this method is ok if you do not see any other bikes around and you think you are in a low impact area.  This was the bike swap.  That was not going to be a valid assumption.



Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:

This is a terrible rack design. The "polite" way to lock up a bike here (by placing the front wheel between the vertical posts) is not secure since there is no way to lock up the frame. Locking the front wheel enables anyone to simply pop off the quick release and steal the rest of the bike.

These racks are also called "wheel benders" for a reason. All it takes is for someone to push on the frame for the front wheel to get bent.

Don't blame the bike rider. He was simply looking for the most secure way to lock up his bike given the poor choice of rack.

Permalink Reply by Green Machine Cycles on March 11, 2013 at 7:40am

All the above rebuttals to the original poster's complaint failed to recognize, or at least failed to mention, the "straw man" in the argument as well. Let's suppose the bike's owner has devoted years of practice to some form of yoga, which, I might add, is a fine complement to the physiological stresses of cycling. Is that sufficient reason to invoke the double entendre lambasting the Cinelli owner's decision to use the poorly designed rack thus?

For once and for all, the last thing Chicago needs is an etiquette posse hunting down every person whose behavior or decisions could possibly be construed as insensitive, oblivious, marginal, or egotistical. There is no "correct" way to use a bike. If there was, we would never have seen the development of mountain bikes, folding bikes, tandems, and any other "non-standard" bike you can think of. 

Do we want more bicycles on the road in this town? Yes. Do we need more non-cyclists aware of the difficulties cyclists face in every aspect of our lifestyle choices? Yes. Do we need facilities and infrastructure that better accommodates cyclists of all stripes? Yes. 

Blaming only the cyclist every time something mildly irritating happens greases the already slippery slope we're on to witnessing cyclist-on-cyclist fisticuffs at the bike rack, in the bike lane, and at the bike shop.

Let's work toward education and not punishment.

Permalink Reply by Davo on March 11, 2013 at 7:55am

if there were no other spots to lock up Id lock over (but not to) that bike. Now would that be a dick move or am i using the space that was given the best I know how/

Permalink Reply by Sean Newby on March 11, 2013 at 9:26am

Seemed to me like there was plenty of fence space. Just saying.

Permalink Reply by Barry Niel Stuart on March 11, 2013 at 9:47am

Up here in Milwaukee, I've Facebooked a couple of rack hogs, myself.  It doesn't always cause them the embarrassment needed to discourage them from taking up as much rack as possible.  Some of their heads are too big for a helmet.

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on March 11, 2013 at 10:09am

They must have left by the time I got there.  That would have stuck in my memory.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on March 11, 2013 at 11:05am

Those racks were temporary racks brought by Working bikes to accomodate people attending the swap.  There were the upside-down U racks there, although not enough.  There might or might not have been a space on one of the permanent racks at the time that cyclist arrived.  All of that being said, I agree with David Barish.  Ezra--this has nothing to do with correct way to use a bike.  The point is that it was selfish--like it is selfish to cut ahead of everyone else in a car line or a standing line.  It is selfish to take up more than one parking spot whether with a car or with a bike.  And sometimes I think a really big part of our problems in this world is that people are more and more selfish and less and less considerate.

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