Getting Around

  Part 1 of a 4 part series on commuting, recreational riding and the social interaction called "Traffic."

   I attended ExpoCycle, Canada’s annual bicycle dealers trade show, in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. Afterward I had a few days to explore the town on my bike. 

   First, (or actually by now, second) let me tell you Toronto is big. Compared to Miamitown… well even Cincinnati, for instance. Toronto is way bigger. In Toronto EVERYBODY rides a bike… well except everybody drives too, and takes taxi’s, and walks, and rides streetcars, subways, trains and busses... Yes, I know it doesn’t seem to add up... let me explain… 

   If you took everybody in greater Cincinnati and cloned them 9 fold, and put each iteration on one of the aforementioned transportation modes, then took the last batch and divided them up to travel by skateboard, roller blades, roller skates, and “other” (I’m not exaggerating, there really are a number of commuters in the streets with traffic, using skates and skate boards), I think you’d have an idea of what’s happening out on the streets of Toronto. 

 

   When I’m stateside, I commute the vast majority of the time to work via bicycle, I’m no newbie at this game. Most days I bet I have to interact with a dozen cars, as well as an occasional pedestrian or squirrel, in my 3.5 mile journey to and from Miamitown. A couple times a week I even see another commuter on a bike on Harrison Ave. 

  In Toronto I had to interact with dozens of cars, pedestrians, cyclists, skaters, boarders, and “others”, just to get out of the parking garage driveway, then dozens more as I plowed my way to the first intersection, all the while overtaking and being overtaken by cyclists traveling various speeds on and amazing array of bicycle styles.

   But it’s more complicated than that. Bike lanes come and go. Street car tracks seem to be everywhere just begging your tire to slip on the steel track or get wedged in the gap between the track and pavement. Pedestrians are swarming the sidewalks and oozing onto the streets at intersections. 

  There are a separate set of traffic lights for the street cars right next to the lights for the rest of traffic so at times you are simultaneously faced with a red light AND a green light. Cars parallel parking, or pulling away from curbs, car doors opening and closing. Cabs diving from left lane to the curb just inches in front of you to grab a fare. Roads end, or become one way “Do not enter”, no left turn, no right turn, road construction… it all comes at you so fast...

 

   From my description you may think that it’s bumper to bumper gridlock... no, actually it’s not even what one might call “crowded” much of the time. There’s lots of traffic moving but it’s a sort of roomy traffic like on a busy college campus… except on the “expressway”, there it’s grid-lock. Could the prohibition of bicycles be a contributing factor?… Hmmm…

Well, what d'you know?

No really, what do YOU know?

  A customer came in to the shop today. He's one of many over the years to tell me something stunningly inaccurate, laughably so, only the laugh must be withheld in the interest of compassion since the would-be comedian is not attempting humor with the statement. "This is a pretty nice bike." he said, nodding toward a bike he brought-in for a tune-up. He was referring to what I would have called a "hunk of junk on wheels." I had seen the exact model of "bike" before. A customer GAVE us 2 of those bikes because they were clogging up their garage... they "... just never rode them." It was a situation where "it's the thought that counts" because it was in reality no better than giving us two bags of garbage "because we want you to sell them and make a little money."

  They seemed to be "like new" which in this case is a misleading phrase that might lead one to believe the bikes were in "good shape." Actually they were barely used junk. It's no wonder the owners found things to do other than ride them. They we're likely clueless to the fact that there is a huge difference between what some of us call a "bicycle shaped object" (BSO) sold at discount stores and a real, ride-able, bicycle shop quality bicycle.

  But people who don't know bikes don't know that.

  I know bikes, I can spot a BSO from a distance, but people that don't know bikes don't even recognize one when they're riding it. This is incomprehensible to me, but there are certainly things that I don't know, about things that I don't know... like golf. If you showed me bags full of shiny new clubs, I would certainly be able to spot quality differences in machining, fit and finish (which many discount bike purchasers don't seem to have an eye for), but beyond that I have no clue. You could hand me the cheapest one to swing at a ball and perhaps I'd even make contact with it propelling it some distance, but since I have no experience beyond "putt-putt" golf, the action would mean nothing to me... it looks like a club, and I was able to move a golf ball with it, and it's shiny, I guess it's a "pretty nice golf club."

  I've often mused about professional bicycle racers. They are paid to ride really nice bikes. I wonder how much more they'd have to be paid to race on a BSO. I wonder if any pro rider would, even for money, be willing to subject themselves to the complete lack of fun that riding a BSO would offer. I think it would be interesting to watch a race where pro riders were all on BSOs and recreational riders were given pro level bikes. What would happen? Would a BSO even make it through one stage of the Tour de France? I'm pretty sure it would not. Could an elite pro racer manage to hang with an average Joe (known as a Fred in the bike world) in such a race? I doubt it, but I'd like to see it proven. There's no question that there would be many injuries to the pros do to the misfitting of these "one size fits all" "bikes" Perhaps seeing the carnage from such a race would be a wake-up-call to the average clueless bicycle consumer, that just because something looks like a bicycle it is not necessarily worth riding.

  I've heard the illogic many times "The bike was a great deal, it was a third of the cost of the cheapest bike at a bike shop." ... So if a piece of rancid meat cost less than an edible one is it a good deal?

  What do YOU know? If it's bikes then you know what I'm talking about. If you don't know bikes then you'll be better off not pretending you know anything about them. And I won't pretend I know anything about golf bats.

  At WTB we don't mind chatting with people that don't yet know bikes. It's very satisfying to see the light-bulb come on when a person understands for the first time the difference between BSOs and a real bike. And it's even more satisfying when a customer rides a real bike for the first time and appreciates the difference. "Well, what d'you know!?!" they exclaim, "You were right. This IS fun!"