Firstly, on your comfort this bicycle weblog can be open on Monday, January twentieth, which is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
I imply positive, I gained’t be updating it that day or something, however you’re greater than welcome to come back in and make your self at residence.
Transferring on, after making an attempt skinnier tires, I’ve put the Garvel Kings again on the Roadini:
I do choose them, and I feel the rationale could also be that the bike sits greater with the fatter tires, which is in some way extra in proportion with the longer wheelbase and common roominess of the bike. With the 32s it type of had just a little little bit of a “lowered CRV” factor occurring:
[From here.]
As for the Garvel Kings themselves (the precise mannequin is “Gravel King SK”), I famous some dialogue within the feedback yesterday about their propensity for flinging very small rocks as a consequence of their tiny, closely-spaced knobs:
Apparently individuals even name them “Gravel Flings.”
I had no concept this was even a factor earlier than I took supply of the Roaduno, although I did instantly discover it the primary time I took the bike onto a path. Nonetheless, I quickly modified the tires–not due to the flinging, however as a result of I used to be having hassle getting certainly one of them to seat correctly (I might really feel just a little “hop” when driving), and I occurred to have a pair of Bruce Gordon tires within the ol’ tire piile that appeared to be a greater match. So after I was placing the Roadini collectively I figured I’d give the Garvel Filngs one other shot, and never solely did they roll easily and hop-free, however I additionally haven’t actually seen a lot if any flinging, although I believe it is because the bottom has since frozen and there’s actually nothing to fling till it thaws:
As for flat-resistance, which I consider another person additionally talked about, I don’t wish to tempt the Puncture Gods, however up to now so good–although the Homer initially got here with the slick model of the Garvel King, which rode very properly, however which I ultimately gave up on as a result of I used to be getting too many flats:
I might suppose the knobby model can be at the least rather less flat-prone for the straightforward purpose that there’s extra rubber for small and pointy issues to burrow by means of earlier than they’ll liberate the air from the tire, however I assume we’ll see.
By the way in which, I ought to be aware that I’m utilizing primitive interior tubes. I wouldn’t essentially rule out going tubeless on the Roadini sooner or later, however typically on a motorbike like this I don’t thoughts utilizing a heavier-duty tire with tubes over a lighter one arrange tubeless, since pinch flats aren’t actually a lot of a priority, and I’d quite not take care of topping up the sealant and all that stuff. In fact the calculus is completely totally different on the Jones:
If you’re driving 3-inch tires at low double-digit pressures over rocks and logs, tubeless is the one technique to go.
However perhaps subsequent time I modify the tires on the Roadini I’ll attempt it with out tubes, who is aware of?
In different information, a reader informs me that the New York Instances’s “Ethicist” has taken as regards to bicycling and visitors lights:
Right here is the query:
And right here is the reply:
From the Ethicist:
These of us who stroll in New York Metropolis know the unwelcome expertise of getting bicyclists whizzing by means of pedestrian crossings when we have now the sunshine. Every year, the truth is, just a few hundred unfortunate pedestrians on the town can be injured from encounters with bicyclists, a handful fatally. With a pedestrian scramble — also called a Barnes Dance, in honor of the visitors engineer Henry Barnes — vehicular visitors is paused in each instructions; pedestrians can cross the intersection diagonally if they need. In case you’ve forded Tokyo’s well-known Shibuya Crossing on foot, you’ll be struck (or, quite, not struck) by the flexibility of lots of, even hundreds of pedestrians to swarm throughout the intersection with out bumping into each other, not to mention a automobile or bike.
I’ve little question that you just’d be a cautious crosser; your evenhanded abstract of the scenario suggests that you just’re capable of look in each instructions and measurement issues up. However one rationale for these scrambles is to reinforce pedestrian security by utterly separating automobiles from pedestrians. Cyclists who play it by ear, or eye, are defeating the purpose of the system. And norms get settled by choices that folks such as you make. Keep put when your gentle is pink, and also you function a job mannequin for different cyclists. Predictability and social belief are strengthened when individuals comply with the principles even after they don’t see any profit in doing so. At a Barnes Dance, it truly is greatest to let the visitors indicators lead.
Setting apart the difficulty at hand for the second, I’m unsure individuals needs to be trying to the New York Instances for moral recommendation, because it’s just a little like consulting PornHub’s Requirements and Practices Government in issues of style. However, total I discovered his response passable, although I might have finished with out the gratuitous discourse on “Tokyo’s well-known Shibuya Crossing,” which serves no goal right here in any respect other than establishing how well-traveled the author is. (That is colloquially often known as a “humblebrag.”)
Anyway, as soon as he returns from this flight of fancy to Japan, he notes that every yr “just a few hundred unfortunate pedestrians on the town can be injured from encounters with bicyclists, a handful fatally.” Actually reckless cyclists pose an actual hazard to pedestrians, however the “handful fatally” half was fairly jarring, and it leads me to suspect he’s getting his statistics completely from the “AI Overview” you get once you do a two-second G**gle search:
I’m unsure what the quantity is for 2024, however in keeping with the DOT, in 2023, bicyclists killed two pedestrians:
In 2022 it was three:
And listed below are the prior years all the way in which again to 2008:
Now I understand he’s The Ethicist and never The Semanticist, however in 16 years there have been solely two years by which greater than two pedestrians have been killed by cyclists, and almost half of these years noticed no pedestrians killed by cyclists. So I’m unsure the place he’s getting “a handful” every year. I imply positive, technically one is usually a handful–simply ask double hand job man:
However to say a “handful” of pedestrians are killed by cyclists in New York Metropolis every year is sort of deceptive. Take into account: I’ve 4 Rivendells, and also you’d be proper to say that’s a handful. But when I promised to provide you a handful of Rivendells yearly and half the time I don’t offer you shit, you’d be proper to name me a liar.
In any other case, sure, the Ethicist is right that try to be thoughtful in direction of pedestrians and be a mannequin bicycle owner and blah blah blah. Although in the case of cycling-related questions it’s typically higher to seek the advice of somebody who really rides a motorbike:
Put that in your hand and stroke it.
