There are a lot of benefits to riding your bike everywhere. You get exercise... it's fun.. it's enviornmentally friendly, and even fashionable in some places.
In most cases where you're living in an urban enviornment, I'd say there are very few drawbacks.. but here are a couple that I think are important to point out.
So I'm riding my bike
about 30 minutes ago.. I'm cruising.. riding really fast heading home from a pleasure ride around the city. Going down a really pretty street (see below)
And just admiring how nice all the blossoms look on the ground from the cherry trees. There is so much, in fact, that it almost looks like snow. And similar to riding a bike on snow, they're just about as slippery when you're riding a bike that has tires that measure maybe 1.5 inches across.
So needless to say, I ride over this shit going very fast, not expecting them to be slippery at all.. actually not even thinking about it, but watching for cars coming on the approaching street and my tires come out from under me. I BUST.MY.ASS. in front of 3 cars and a passing cop car, who all stop. Luckily when I fell, my head broke my fall, or things could have been bad. So I went down face first (wearing my glasses) which helped break the fall by giving me that nice diagonal cut above my eye, followed by the side of my face right by my eye. Now.. it doesn't help when you're falling on a bike to be clipped onto the bike with your feet.. it kind of makes bailing out a little impossible. So when you fall, you're dedicated to the fall basically. So I broke my glasses, cut my face, I think I'm going to have a black eye as I have a huge knot under it, ripped my pants, have a cut on my knee, and one on my ankle.
I hit so hard I BENT MY HANDLEBARS but honestly.. none of it really hurt that bad. I laid there on my chest for a second coming to grips with what had just happened, then rolled over and took my gloves off and just cussed at the stupid trees. Looked at my poor sad broken glasses (which I bent back into place and am wearing now, despite the scratches all over the lenses) and got up and dusted myself off. Told the cop and the rest of the people I was alright and didn't need an ambulance and waited for them to leave so I could photograph the whole scene without looking like a total freak.
I'm pretty light hearted about the whole event actually.. and thankful.. I wasn't wearing a helmet (i know, shut up.) and things could have been way way worse. Hell.. I could have gone down face first and busted all of my teeth out, etc etc. So all things considered I'm in a relatively good mood despite the fact that I just got in a fight with the street and lost.
In most cases where you're living in an urban enviornment, I'd say there are very few drawbacks.. but here are a couple that I think are important to point out.
So I'm riding my bike
about 30 minutes ago.. I'm cruising.. riding really fast heading home from a pleasure ride around the city. Going down a really pretty street (see below)
And just admiring how nice all the blossoms look on the ground from the cherry trees. There is so much, in fact, that it almost looks like snow. And similar to riding a bike on snow, they're just about as slippery when you're riding a bike that has tires that measure maybe 1.5 inches across.
So needless to say, I ride over this shit going very fast, not expecting them to be slippery at all.. actually not even thinking about it, but watching for cars coming on the approaching street and my tires come out from under me. I BUST.MY.ASS. in front of 3 cars and a passing cop car, who all stop. Luckily when I fell, my head broke my fall, or things could have been bad. So I went down face first (wearing my glasses) which helped break the fall by giving me that nice diagonal cut above my eye, followed by the side of my face right by my eye. Now.. it doesn't help when you're falling on a bike to be clipped onto the bike with your feet.. it kind of makes bailing out a little impossible. So when you fall, you're dedicated to the fall basically. So I broke my glasses, cut my face, I think I'm going to have a black eye as I have a huge knot under it, ripped my pants, have a cut on my knee, and one on my ankle.
I hit so hard I BENT MY HANDLEBARS but honestly.. none of it really hurt that bad. I laid there on my chest for a second coming to grips with what had just happened, then rolled over and took my gloves off and just cussed at the stupid trees. Looked at my poor sad broken glasses (which I bent back into place and am wearing now, despite the scratches all over the lenses) and got up and dusted myself off. Told the cop and the rest of the people I was alright and didn't need an ambulance and waited for them to leave so I could photograph the whole scene without looking like a total freak.
I'm pretty light hearted about the whole event actually.. and thankful.. I wasn't wearing a helmet (i know, shut up.) and things could have been way way worse. Hell.. I could have gone down face first and busted all of my teeth out, etc etc. So all things considered I'm in a relatively good mood despite the fact that I just got in a fight with the street and lost.
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btw thats a pretty neat bike lock.