@GreenToTheCore Thank you for understanding.
@shelivesthedream Yes, same here! When I started cycling I would always show up sweaty regardless of wearing the ideal and minimal cycling clothing. Thank goodness there were showers and a locker so I could actually shower, change, and groom myself. Forgetting important garments like my bra was super fun, and once I had to use loads of toilet paper to prevent a 'scene' in my business-casual dress shirt. Definitely advanced planning required to pack, get up, cycle, change, lock the bike, etc. And fack yes, locking up your bike properly is a pain in the groin! Plus, starting off cycling, for me, was really hard. My glutes, thighs, quads, as well as that part that gets sore when you ride a bike too long hurt for WEEKS... even though I worked out regularly. I did get markedly better at it, and once I invited my husband on a bike ride that included my route to work. He was super tired and had a hard time keeping up, even though I was also trying to be mindful of biking slowly. I was like, 'Welcome to my commute.' Haha. And yes, starting off cycling can be intimidating and not everyone can adopt a 'fuck you' attitude when they cycle. Part of the major reason why I was able to start was because I had a job change and the route was decent, so we had the confidence to ditch the car completely. If I would've had to bike to a prior work place, as much as I would've liked to, it would have involved using the highway, and part of the route would be routinely flooded during the rainy season, being near a river and all. Luckily, now if I want to cycle to work it's much shorter (like 10 minutes) and I generally get away with not showering, but may sweat a little bit, especially whenever I come across what seems to be the only hill in the city.
@AnnaGrowsAMustache +1 for not having effortless hair like everyone else seems to. I also have problematic hair, and it's a pain to have to wash it frequently and restyle if needed. Sometimes on good days I get away with air drying, but if there's humidity in the air, it doesn't matter what I did or didn't do. Even when I don't bike, I have a hard time looking as cool, neat, and collected as everyone else. It's mind-boggling.
@UncleX @LennStar Lol, are people seriously betching at me for saying cycling without a helmet is dumb after betching at me for making an offhand comment about not wanting to wear certain clothes when I still find a way to cycle every day? Maybe ya'll just bopped your heads while cycling without helmets or something... but you do you.
Cycling without a helmet is widely regarded as precarious, I didn't make that up. There's a huge difference between saying, "You should feel comfortable cycling wearing ____!!" vs. "You should be practical and safe." There's a reason why when you go to a bike store and test ride their bikes, they give you a helmet. It's to limit their liability. And yes, I agree that traffic of the vehicular variety does, in a way, institute helmets for cyclists, but realistically, you can still get hurt even without others involved. You could fall over, hit something, get stuck in a pothole, take an not well-calculated sharp turn, etc. My husband managed to fall over and hurt himself without a car involved. It's not uncommon. And he's a grown-ass man! What about kids, teenagers, etc, who deign to cycle?
While drivers should convert to cyclists so we can all be safer, it's not a close reality. Autonomous vehicles are, though. I recommend the book 'No One At the Wheel,' it also gives an interesting account about bikes way back when and how cars prevailed and bikes are second or maybe even third-class citizens of the road, and how the attitudes of drivers totally changed to being very "me me me," for lack of a more eloquent summary. The helmets don't "make" it safer to be around cars, it just protects your head. So the study cited is very interesting and all, but really all it does it speaks to the idea/correlation that people can be asshole drivers so long as everyone else is protected by head gear, lol. That study's not going to help you for all the other drivers who are just 'regular' types of assholes and will get close to you even without a helmet (why should we forget about those 'regular' assholes just because of one study, amirite?). There's tons of cycling vs cars stuff to bitch about, like, why are street signs designed to be reflective only to the powerful lights of cars' headlights and not that of my puny flashlight, and I'm not so sure if the "helmet usage is debatable!" card is one that's worth it. Plus, we can debate all we want, but let's be real, betching about it in a forum isn't going to help, and you're definitely preaching to the quire regarding the sentiment 'things should be easier for cyclists to get around safely and everyone else has it backwards!!'' You're going to need to go to city meetings, complain to district supervisors, join a bike non-profit, influence urban planners and the AEC industry, etc. It's a crap ton of coordination that involves a lot of people. Good luck convincing developers to change their ways - they basically run some cities, get the rules bent all the time, and ignore the well-written literature from decades and decades ago basically about best management practices for urban planning/design, or basically how to have the best city ever for a healthy, happy population (including cyclists!).
I maintain flip flops are dumb for riding a bike, but maybe that's just because I'm not some effortless graceful gazelle of a mustachian who always does everything perfectly and never has their foot slip the pedal, never gets abrasions on their ankles, always stops riding the bike in the perfect position and never has to adjust the pedal with their foot while they wait for the light to turn green, etc. Or maybe people are simply riding around with fuzzy covers over their pedals instead of the tactile, teeth-like designs that are pedals.
Topic: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun) (Read 4648277 times)
