Text 24170, 102 rader
Skriven 2007-12-16 14:29:00 av JOAN MACDIARMID (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av CAROL SHENKENBERGER
Ärende: Bicycles
================
 Hi, Carol,

 JM> I've been known to go biking in the winter, but when the
 JM> roads were cleared and dry, and in daylight.
 JM> And at U. of Ala. I relied on the bike year-round,
 JM> including before sun-up for an 8AM class. But campuses
 JM> are much more bike-friendly traffic-wise.

 CS> True, and so is Japan <g>.  Clemson University is also very bike
 CS> friendly and many students used them back when I was there.

 I visited Clemson as part of some Chemical Society Student
 Affiliates conference,and remember it as a very nice campus.

 JM> You were lucky to find bike lights running on AA batteries.
 JM> The rip-off artists at my bike shop only offered one with a
 JM> special battery pack that was quite costly and didn't last long.

 I tossed the lamp rather than having to buy $12 batteries constantly.

 CS> Well, thats one thing you can find easy in Japan.  Good bike lights,

 What the market wants, the market gets, I guess.

 JM> I saw one non-racing bike made for little girls (pink with flowers)
 JM> listing for about $1000! Lots of expensive bikes, racing or not!
 JM> I got my last one for $10 at a garage sale! Sturdy and it gets me
 JM> my exercise and a good outdoor experience.

 CS> Good deal!  You cant find cheap ones like that in Japan.  At least,
 CS> not in  Sasebo.  People just use them up.

 Chuckle! *I'm* the one using up old bikes around here! I've ridden
 two of them into the ground so far. I keep shopping for old bikes
 of a particular type I like at garage sales, because they don't
 make them new any more, I guess.

 CS> I dunno how much the Cultech pedigree clysdale ;-) weighs but I
 CS> couldnt pick it up even before my back went wonky.  Don has trouble
 CS> too.  It doesnt have a  'kickstand' but a tripod <g>.

 CS> Hazarding a guess, a little over 100lbs?  We warned the movers when
 CS> they came to them that they were HEAVY overseas units.  Fortunately
 CS> these movers didnt want to play any 'macho games' so used 2 of them and
 CS> agreed, they are solid.
 JM> I don't buy mine for looks. I do store them indoors to avoid rust.

 CS> Didnt really have that option in Sasebo once we moved to housing.  In
 CS> the Cho, they were on the front porch which was partly covered.  At
 CS> work though, chained to a fence.

 Mine are parked in a little foyer just inside my apartment door,
 so I have to go through the kitchen to get into the place, as the
 bikes block entry to the living room. When I biked to work, I was
 lucky to have permission to bring the bike up to the lab with me,
 and kept it mostly in a lesser-used corner out of the way.

 CS> Nope.  Me, I'd be wanting more bike racks probably ;-)
 JM> Me, too. This campus has no real bike racks, while Alabama had rows
 JM> of them in front of every building in the '70s. Pity, it's flat enough
 JM> to be bike-friendly, too.

 CS> Do folks there use bikes much?  Perhaps they don't at least partly due
 CS> to lack  of racks?

 Not too much, really. I think more do bike into the older campus
 which is now mostly the specialty Schools related to Health, like
 Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Dental Sciences, etc., and a School
 of Architecture. Most undergrads take classes mostly on the new
 campus in Amherst.

 CS> I recall mentioning lack of racks in Sasebo at the pier.  No one
 CS> really thought it much of an issue until we got a CO who rode his bike
 CS> in every day like I did. He complained to the base and got them
 CS> to bring in 4 big ones for the pier. Next day, they were filled.
 CS> He called for 2 more and that was just about right.

 Good when you can get the brass on your side and understanding the needs.

 CS> Unfortunate.  I had to deal with gravel many a time and it can be a
 CS> problem.

 JM> I have biked a few times on ice, carefully, and can manage that with
 JM> very cautious turning. But a few inches of snow acts a lot like
 JM> gravel, both squooshing under the tires in unpredictable ways. Anyway,
 JM> until they widen my road and add a generous shoulder, I will be using
 JM> it for biking as little as possible.

 CS> I can well see that one.  I'm just glad I have my snow tires <g>.

 Now that you are in the land of endless snows? Hee, hee! (I am holed
 up today in a huge snowstorm, making a pot of chili to keep me warm.
 My area doesn't usually get much snow, though Buffalo has that
 reputation because of the areas (ski country) south of it which
 get tons of snow from a "lake effect" off Lake Erie. But this is
 a major generalized storm and we were warned yesterday to not plan
 any travel short of emergency for this Sunday.)

 Joan
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