What new Gear Hub Tech?

I think nowadays most tech innovations have been in internal and integrated gear systems and drivetrains around continuous gear shifting, though most often related to gearbox and e-bikes.

eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Ak8ZsQpl8

But then new gear hub tech comes out, and you start considering ebikes, also a pannier would be nice… maybe a cargo bike makes more sense instead…?

Any hobby entry point can cascade into upgraditis

Interesting research but very early stages. There’s a good chance that this isn’t really specific to bikes, but more generally applies to the benefits of people enjoying hobbies and a good quality of life translating into a better psychological state, which is known to affect health outcomes in a myriad of ways specially related to brain function and hormones.

Interestingly, the data also shows that mixed-walking is associated with reduced dementia as well… and I find it a bit confusing that the authors are lumping driving and public transit together in the nonactive category because public transit usually involves a good deal of walking too without people categorizing it as a walking mode of transport.

Beyond separating public transit from driving, I think major factors to control for are: 1) how often these non-commute activities happen; and 2) what’s the stress level of that transportation mode. With those three things in mind I think it would clarify why would walking be associated with worst outcomes than nonactive…

A bike (the bicycle kind, not the motorbike kind, that’s a different wallet-sinking hobby)

Not saying “trust”, I’m saying “might be interesting, evaluate it”.

I find Beeline quiet routes generally pretty likeable, so I do give them a try from time to time.

I’d give it a try. It’s probably a very basic suggestion algorithm that is just being labeled AI because why not, AI is the new Metaverse so everything gotta have AI in it to make it flashy.

That’s what this paragraph seems to indicate:

Strava says every activity is now automatically analysed by a machine learning model, which looks at 57 different factors, such as speed and acceleration.

They properly call it Machine Learning, meaning that this is probably old school supervised techniques instead of LLMs so it means it’s just a glorified linear regression. Should be fine.

I don’t think so. Sure first step is regularizing sales and not going after existing owners, and the ones already on the streets are a long term problem, but these things will eventually break down, they don’t last generations.

I think no one disputes that we need a clear separation of electric bicycles and electric motorcycles and the presence of pedals ain’t enough.

Presumably once that’s sorted out, e-bikes can and should become the norm. They’re the “all ages and abilities” equalizer.

Cyclist in Japan have had dedicated bike lanes or marked paths on the road for many years but still use the sidewalk even if it causes problems for pedestrians.

I’m speaking a bit out of my field here because I’m not Japanese, but I had the impression that historically, many Japanese cities are much more amenable to share the sidewalk with cyclists (compared to EU/NA), and several of these bike lanes start and end abruptly as part of the sidewalk instead of the road anyway, right? Same goes for pedestrian sharing space with cars and bikes in their narrow streets, sidewalks are almost non-existent because they’re culturally acclimatized to just walking in the street and hop on the sidewalk only if a vehicle needs to pass by.

And by looking at the ridiculously unsafe bike “lanes” they have (almost all are totally unprotected), I’d definitely be on the sidewalk if I lived there too. If you want Japan to enforce bike lanes, you gotta ask Japan to build better bike lanes first 🤷‍♂️

Blind spots are blind because there’s no direct path from any part of the bike to the driver’s eyes. If the design is specifically worried about being in a blind spot, ironically the better design is to concentrate the LED power with narrow beam of light so the bike can cast light further away outside the blindspot.

Anyway, being in a blindspot is dangerous even for cars that have those ridiculously overpowered bright headlamps. When a driver says the “cyclist came out of nowhere” it just means the driver was driving carelessly. More lamps won’t solve that.

Interesting idea but I’m not sure the benefit is worth the cost and the bulky gadget. Regular bike lights don’t have such a narrow beam of light, unless by “regular” they mean the most laser-focused bike lights of the market. My two lights are pretty diffuse.

In what situations are said cyclists hard for motorists to see that a combination of normal bike light and high viz material won’t work? Foggy day, cyclist and driver are perpendicular on an intersection? If it’s foggy, the fog works as light diffuser. If it’s not foggy, any piece of reflective material would do the trick… unless truckers are not turning on their headlights in total darkness, at which point normal bike lights are enough again.

Having spent that much time in a truck, he understands what makes cyclists difficult to see.

lol no, that’s not how it works, there are professionals that dedicate their lives to studying vehicle lighting

It’s exactly as (un)secure as I expected. It’s a wireless device made by bike part manufactures… can’t expect better, realistically.

Still, I wouldn’t recommend someone against buying one because of this. The threat model for cyclists is getting maimed by vehicles or psychopaths laying booby traps out there. Hackers messing with my gear shifting is the least of my worries.

I’m tired of trying to convince drivers.

It looks like to me the goal isn’t to convince drivers to behave, but to recreate some momentum ahead of election year. It’s already a big win just to increase election turnout among people who are already convinced we need more/better cycling infrastructure and improved road designs. Another big win would be to get those people to show up on council meetings, and just voice their opinion louder. Visibility for local advocates has that organizing power.

There are many ways to make that work, and what happens is usually a combination of one or more of these factors:

1. Living/working a short distance away from a grocer, so it’s a quick trip that can happen any day of the week
2. Having a grocer in the commuting route such that a quick stop doesn’t really add any extra travel time to your day
3. Shop for the next week or two of groceries instead of buying a lot of things in bulk for the month
4. Forego big wholesale purchases like getting 3 month’s worth of toilet paper at once for big savings
5. Having a cargo bike or at least some extra pannier/baskets to increase capacity

Using an e-bike helps, but I wouldn’t say it’s as big of a factor as those above. I don’t have one, don’t think I will any time soon.

I’m good with having 1, 2 and 3. I still get wholesale stuff at a discount, but I get those delivered to my place instead. The delivery fee is offset by purchasing in bulk. But for everything not wholesale, I get it sorted with a 15 minute detour on my way back from work once a week. This is all pretty easy to make it happen, but only because I live somewhere (Vancouver downtown) that has a decent urban fabric and passable cycling network.

My work is 2km away from my place so I gladly commute by bicycle, though sometimes I take the bus and sometimes I walk.

I wouldn’t do 17km, but 10km I might. Really the biggest factor to me isn’t the distance, but the safety of the route. Though I’d guess it’s hard to find 17km of contiguously safe commutes out there.

Indeed! Everyone that yearns for this infrastructure, engage the local Vision Zero community!

The real solution here is to educate people about the importance of helmets and about the importance of other safety measures such as safe cycling practices.

So the real solution to cyclists getting run over is teaching cyclists about safety?

I’m not against teaching the importance of helmet and cycling safely - I think those are relevant ingredients - but this is FAR far away from a real solution.