BIKE: Low maintenance commuter bike

[Lane Wimberley]

On 4/25/05, Patrick Goetz <pgoetz> wrote:
> 3rd post, I'm an evil person.

To reduce my own evil-potential, I'm combining posts here.  See
comments on bike lanes below (nothing to do with SCB, per se).

> My GF just got a Bianchi Castro Valley and loves it.
> 
>     http://www.bianchiusa.com/607.html

Wow, this looks like a sweet ride.  I've come to appreciate the 700CCs
on my Trek 520 (touring, but I use exclusively for commuting), and
while I've gotten used to the bar-end shifters just fine, I wouldn't
mind having the integrated shift/brake levers (personally).

> Of course to turn it into a truly safe and useful commuter bike we
> replaced the handlebars with a Nitto Dove bar (Albatross for someone
> with broader shoulders):
>     http://www.rivbike.com/webalog/handlebars_stems_tape/16123.html

Nice, but I guess I like being unsafe; I like the drop bars.  But
then, I like going fast.

Bike lane comment: a while back, Mike Dahmus and a few others were
discussing the pros and cons of bike lanes, and Mike enumerated them
as he saw them.  I'd just like to add to the list of pros something
that I think I've mentioned before, but that just occurred to me again
recently.

Bike lanes help to establish fault in the event of an accident.  Of
course, this is arguably outweighed by the possibility that the bike
lane may have contributed to the accident in the first place, or that
the accident may not have happened if it had been a wide curb lane,
say, or if the cyclist had been inclined to ride in the car lane as
traffic.  But, still, if/when accidents do occur, it is sometimes more
obvious who's at fault when there is channelized flow -- at least, in
Texas where laws address how cars should yield to bikes when crossing
bike lanes, etc.

This turned out to be important for me when I had my accident last
August.  Fault was clearly assigned by the police at the scene, and
there was never any issue with who was liable for subsequent expenses.
 (BTW, no, the driver was not ticketed, but I do know that he was a
felon with an outstanding warrant, and since I was unconscious or
semi-conscious immediately after the accident, I don't know if he was
escorted from the scene or not; amazing that he didn't flee the scene,
really.)

-Lane

-- 
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the
human race."
- HG Wells