TommyTwoTone

When I was working my employer had us on standby every other weekend, but they had to pay us half of our hourly pay for each hour on standby. We had 1 hour response time to report to work if called and then drew time and a half. It limited what you could do on standby week-end, so I mostly worked around the house, but it was easy money. This was for Department of Defense related specialized work.

drobotnik

Way back when I knew a pro who was a jerk. He did an interview with a local recumbent rider he dubbed “the recumbulator” and posted the video on his friend’s vlog. We thought it was soooooo funny. Then I showed my now-wife the video and she disagreed wholeheartedly.

“That guy’s cool. He doesn’t give a **** what anyone thinks and he’s having fun.”

For me, when I see a recumbent rider, I still think Recumbulator, but as a title of honor. The position is better for your back, more efficient, faster, and you can carry tons of stuff farther. The more people on bikes and trikes the better, don’t let anyone get you down and ride on, Recumbulator!

big chainring 

I get where the OP us coming from. It is an odd cultural thing. The trendy thing right now is getting a racing bike, clothing, shoes, and a computer....go out and ride fast. Is it the Lance effect?. Maybe the Bobke effect, as we can watch the grand tours on tv now. And to some extent these people annoy me.🤣

There are the Rivendellians with more upright bars and fat tires. I'd really like to see this faction of cycling become really popular. Its sorta the way I started riding back in the day. Your bike was your way of getting around. Functional, fun, practical.

I also see the Dutchie-fiets, young anti-car bunch with the bathtub on wheels.

I'm an odd one. I ride bike boom era bikes and wear vintage jerseys to rekindle the vibe of the '70's. I like to jump in with the racer crowd and hold a wheel till my heart maxes out or my legs cramp up.

And you got your laid back recumbent riders, like the OP.

Its all good!

rydabent

The name recumbulator is a new one. It doesnt bother me at all.

OTOH I have a T-shirt that says Trike Pilot, which is what I mainly ride around town. I do however switch to my recumbent bike for at least one ride a week. At 81 I think it is a good thing for an old guy to do to keep his balancing abilities sharp.

sheddle

I ride in a city, and my favorite thing is seeing all the different types of people on bikes.

There's the rich white roadies with S-Works (that seems to be the most popular disposable-cash brand here- are Cervelos not cool for rich guys anymore?) Tarmacs, young roadies with Allezes, commuters of every type with RadPower e-bikes, younger bohemian types with all types of vintage frames from old clunker Peugeots to pristinely-taken-care of Bridgestones and Miyatas, old dudes with custom steel frames or gorgeous vintage road bikes, a huge amount of people with commuter/cargo bikes going to-or-from somewhere, and a massive fleet of every type of person on rental e-bikes.

Anyone who thinks cycling is only rich and white is only seeing the $10k bike roadies. I don't even hate those guys anymore, as far as I'm concerned, god bless them for keeping bike shops afloat by blowing their mid-life crisis money on a racing frame and Di2 shifting, rather than a Tesla or Corvette.

All bike riders are cool. Except the tri-guys who think the big ring and full aero position on the MUP is a good idea, but those are only 1/3 bike riders.

sheddle

Every young person I know (including me) would kill for those things. What we actually have is zero OT compensation for salaried employees, bad health insurance options*, no pension, and poor retirement options, unless you're in one of the last remaining unionized industries.

I think people sometimes fail to get exactly how weak labor has gotten in this country since PATCO.



*I had two options at my last job. One had a massive deductible. The other one was one of those great "you're fine unless you have to be hospitalized in which case you're on your own for paying that $50k bill" plans. I took the latter because my medication (a generic drug that should cost next to nothing to make) would otherwise have cost me about $1000 a month.

I-Like-To-Bike

Would you care to name this city where you ride can amongst a huge amount of people with commuter/cargo bikes going to-or-from somewhere, and a massive fleet of every type of person on rental e-bikes, as well as a collection of rich white roadies, young roadies, commuters of every type, younger bohemian types, and old dudes with custom steel frames or gorgeous vintage road bikes?

Gorrister

You could probably catch all of that if you rode the entirety of the five boroughs of New York

I-Like-To-Bike

Maybe so if you have a very liberal definition for a "huge" number of people commuting by bicycle, or "massive fleet of every type of person on rental e-bikes" especially when considering percentage of the population for the entirety of the five boroughs of NYC.

Gorrister

I mean, those are obviously superlatives. I’m indulging op. Maybe he lives in Amsterdam or something

sheddle

seattle (one of the busiest bits of it) and yeah, i'm using a bit of poetic license, though the one bit i wasn't exaggerating on was the rental ebikes. those things are all over the place.

bicyclridr4life

24/7/365 establishments and utility companies generally have three shifts.
I was on call 24/7/365 when I worked at a TV station (broadcast engineer) It was rare to be called in after my shift. In 4 years I might have been called in twice.

indyfabz

Stereotype much? BTW...Getting a road bike, etc,, and riding fast is not the latest fad. Hell. I have been doing that since the 80s and have had plenty of company from the start. Also, very few people getting into road riding these days by computers. GPS devices are far more the norm. If anything is a trend it's "gravel grinding."

Into which of your buckets does the century-riding recumbent person fall? On Sunday I drive SAG for our club's annual ride to Brooklyn. Of the 45 or so people, two rode recumbents nearly 100 miles with over 4,000' of climbing.

And into which bucket do I fall? I have a super fine, custom, ti road bike with a computer. (I am a rebel that way.) I also do several fully-loaded tours every year. And I often commute, shop, etc., using a bike. My 37 month old vehicle just went over 8,200 miles, but I don't have a "bathtub on wheels."

P.S. You left out "hipsters on fixies."

rydabent

If you want to see a great span of bikes, volunteer to run a sag stop for your bike club. I have sagged for countless rides my club has put on. You will see everything from really humble clunkers up to $15,000 plastic racing bikes. It really is fun and interesting what you will see.

indyfabz

Yeah. I was in Brooklyn and Manhattan on Saturday and back in Brooklyn again on Sunday. Saw hundreds of cyclists running the gamut during the relatively short time I was there.

bikecrate

Sounds like Washington, DC when I was there on vacation this spring. I wasn't too surprised by the commuters and rental bikes, but it was interesting to see a good number of roadies and vintage bikes around.

I-Like-To-Bike

Yes "a bit" of poetic license.

Are those rental ebikes that "are all over the place", in use by riders all over the place, or all over the place as in mostly scattered around on the sidewalks wherever the last rider left it, and laying about all over various public and private places as just so much litter waiting for a recycler, a trashman or the rental ebike firms to go bust, or a combination of all?

indyfabz

Philly has eBike bikes among its bike share bikes, but they are not dockless, so they don't get left all over the place because the user will get charged. No pun intended.

livedarklions

How about "brokers on Bromptons"? I don't know if that's a thing, but it sounds good!

indyfabz

I have a Bike Friday. Maybe "Frippies on Fridays"?

sheddle

hell yeah it does, I'll put that one in the dictionary

MikeyMK

It is always about me.

I ride a full suspension electric tandem, dressed like a cruiser. It's so eye-catching it steals attention from newborn babies, Ferraris and puppies. But that's my business. Keep to your side of the path and mind your own, i'm not a public conversation donor, i have my day to get on with. Do i know you? No, that's what i thought. Tramps.

I-Like-To-Bike

Somehow I picture rental e-bikes "all over the place" resembling the phenomena of rental e-scooters "all over the place." Is that what "all over the place" looks like in the OP's Seattle?


"Hundreds are scattered around the sidewalks, clustered in newly painted corrals on the street and piled up in the gutters. In early July, one corner alone had 37. In the area around Mission Beach, one of the city’s main beaches, a single side of one block had 70. Most sat unused."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/t...-scooters.html

sheddle

It's not quite that bad though some areas like the sidewalks around the commuter rail station downtown can look close to that way near peak hour.

A significant percentage of the people I see on the roads (I'd guess, off the top of my head, 10-20%?) are riding app-rental ebikes. And that's even with helmet laws which likely would boost ridership even more if they were removed.

indyfabz

Just read that story during lunch. One shocking aspect is that the new and improved scooters one company has developed are supposed to last only 10 months on average. Talk about a disposable society.

In any event, as I note above, the Philly bike share program now has some e-bikes. But it's not a dockless system, so they don't get left all over the place.