Originally Posted by
acidfast7
Seriously guys.
Bikes smell. My bike lives outside like the vast majority in Europe. It's a tool, not a treasure.
Rubber emits volatile compounds in sunlight, if my bike lives in the sun, which is does 5 months of the year, the rubber of the tyres will smell in a small space. Never mind any grease, lubricant, etc that will emit odour when in sunlight.
Also, bikes are dirty, very dirty.
As is customary in Scandinavia and Central Europe, I never wear outside shoes inside, everything gets left at the door. I keep
Hausschuhe for all my guests. In addition, I make all students leave their shoes in the office and change into indoor-only working shoes, when they enter the research lab. Why would I want outdoor junk tracked into my living/working space.
I, and most of Central/Northern Europe would find a bicycle inside an office strange, weird and quite dirty to be frank. Definitely not professional.
I can understand that the Anglosphere (US/UK/CAN/AUS/NZ) doesn't do this, but we've (my family) has never understood why people want dirt from outside in their living/working space.
Just doesn't compute.
An example to show I'm not nuts:
Swedish Culture Win ? Shoes Off Please
also, that shows why Scandinavians produce the best socks in terms of design/pattern/comfort.
I totally respect your cultural perspective! I would absolutely remove my shoes in your house, and I don't store my bike in my own house, just like I don't sleep or eat in my office.
That said, I don't think many of the Euro/Scando countries you mention are the end-all and be-all of cleanliness - in many of these countries it's customary to only shower once every 3 days or so :-) I would argue that the shoes/off bikes parked outside battle is not the correct battle to fight :-) (my wife and kids and I do remove our shoes at home by the way but we also shower daily, we have lots of water here)
Also, my bike is pretty clean. I don't mind it "hanging" around lol
Here in the US, it's definitely not unprofessional to have it around, in fact, the firm likes it because when they bring college recruits around it makes it appear to be a hip place to work!