Posts by Lisa Black
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Yes we bought a Civia Loring from Tim and Jason and I'll get a Gazelle Toer Populair when I've saved enough. If there was a shop in Wellington that stocked them I'd buy from there, despite the excellent service we got from the Rode chaps. I even thought about opening a bike shop myself, just to remedy this dire situation (I'd call it Lashings of Ginger Beer).
One of the reasons the Rocket Bikes chap gave me for not stocking stylish commuter bikes was that "Only university types buy them." I'm not sure if he's noticed, but this IS a university town...
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Hilary - the Wellington Frocks on Bikes chapter organises riding lessons a few times a year. If there are any others being run (sometimes in February for Bikewise month) we post those on the Cycling in Wellington calendar too.
If you wanted to learn to ride we could put a call out through the website. Someone would almost certainly put their hand up.
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to George Darroch,
Sometimes they just won't believe the evidence of their own eyes. I was in Rocket Bikes in Lyall Bay a while ago and a woman walked in and started ooh-ing and ahh-ing over a quite elegant city bike. Within 5 minutes she decided to buy it. The staff were astonished - it hadn't even been out on the floor for two hours. She put it on layby and they left it on the floor for people to see. The manager told me on my next visit that they were trying desperately to get more because so many people were interested in it as a stylish, functional commuting/city bike.
I mentioned that Velo Ideale in Christchurch have excellent bikes and give retailers special deals, which was about the time he started making excuses as to why they couldn't stock pretty city bikes.
Their sister shop, Penny Farthing in Courtenay Place, sells about one Giant Via W a week. That's a fairly nice modern take on an old-fashioned step-through, comes with mudguards and a metal basket and has flowers painted on it. But it's a single speed. I suggested that a similar bike with gears would likely sell well in Wellington and was met with disbelief.
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to stephen walker,
But we can't afford a gold-plated solution.
of course, everything ever built in nz has to be done on the cheap and be reliant on no. 8 fencing wire.
"For the cost of a single mile of freeway we now have a bike infrastructure." Sam Adams, Mayor of Portland, Oregon on this 4 minute video.
Cycling infrastructure is the number 8 wire solution for cost and the gold plated solution for results.
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to BenWilson,
More integration with public transport would be good to have - bike racks on buses
I understand that current efforts to implement these are running into opposition from the bus companies in Auckland. You might like to let them (and the Council) know you'd use them.
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to BenWilson,
My bike is a mixte frame (hurrah for riding in a dress!), so the lock has to go further to loop through the frame. Plus I stick it through the front loop of my Brooks B190. That means it's hard to control the chain tension so it doesn't really help with immobility.
Unfortunately Jack is right. The back wheel sticks out further into the road than I'm comfortable with if I jam the pedal against the upright support. And my bike tends to fall over because of the loose lock tension.
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to Gary Hutchings,
Those racks also make it possible to park on a slope. The supermarket by Waitangi Park has - somewhat unthinkingly - put its bike racks on a gently sloping piece of concrete.
I can't use the staple-shaped bike racks there because, unlike a car, there's no handbrake on my bike, but I can hook my handlebars in front of the Bikerakk 'handlebar' and my bike stays in place very well.
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City of Sydney research showed a $3.88 return on every dollar spent on cycling infrastructure. Does anyone know where else you can get a 388% return on your investment these days?
David - would you mind if I excerpted some of your article for a Cycling in Wellington post?
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Hooray, hooray for this thread arriving after my book voucher gift and before I've spent it! It's been a while since I knew what I'd like to buy.
I do love that libraries have all the books I can't afford to purchase, but my legacy to my unfortunate descendants is going to be more books than anyone ought to have. My home tends to resemble a library with a house tucked into it. I dream of high ceilings and ladders on runners.
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Yes, Hilary, Maurice Gee has retired.