Yer Doin It Wrong

I think that phrase often when I meet people. I feel bad for them. I get frustrated, watching them do it wrong, again and again. I feel empathy for them, want to help them. When I try to help people doing it wrong, I'm the one doing it wrong. People are deliberately stupid. Their ignorance and suffering are both intentional. I think its an inherent flaw in our evolution that our species is self destructive. Whatever.

The bike ride today was great. I saw very few other cyclists out there, oddly enough. It was weird because the weather was really perfect. I wonder where they went? Up to Tahoe? Maybe. Up 49? Maybe. I looked at some of the local roads, like Banner Lava Cap and Idaho-Maryland (named for a local gold mine) road and realized these would be GOOD rides on a bicycle on a day like this.

But even more, they'd be fantastic on a scooter with minimal protective gear, just going really slow puttering along. My one experience riding a Tomos scooter I was wear a helment, a pair of Bermuda shorts and a teeshirt, and teva sandals. Not boots, not gloves, not a jacket to defend my skin from a crash. Just chillin. Why don't people do that? When I see people in full protective gear on a scooter I think "accident prone" "nerd" and "wishes he was on a Ninja but couldn't qualify for the loan". Might be cruel of me and I've read about how dangerous scooters are, just as bad as motorcycles, but seriously: Its a 30 mph machine. I hit 40 mph on my bicycle, in shorts, down most of the local kills. Good tires, proper maintenance, steep hills.

I don't need tons of safety gear on a bicycle. Other than my 0 mph crash at the end of a ride, I've done well this year. If I get strong enough to bike all the way up to Scotts Flat Reservoir and down to Nevada City again? Great. That would be a fantastic ride some gentle morning with the dawn light shining in my eyes as I pedal up a hill. I look slightly odd on my commuter bike, but not as odd as the 1% body fat racer suit-wearing rider on a $3500 kevlar framed multi-flat per ride bikers with their wrap around shades and starvation diets. I feel kinda sorry for them. They live without beer. How sad is that? You don't need a $3500 etc bike to ride these roads. You need determination and physical strength. Only when you're trying to Keep Up With The Joneses does it matter how fast your bike is, or how little it weighs. If that's how they want to spend their hard earned? Fine. Its a sculpture. It's optimized. I respect that as a fellow engineer (of sorts). But it isn't necessary on these roads.

On these roads my deliberately comfortable bike is great. Now that my seat is broken in, it doesn't even hurt anymore either. I climbed the hills, again and again, and got my heart racing each time and I feel great.

Now, imagine doing that while wearing full safety gear: full face helmet, full armored gloves, armored pants, armored mesh jacket with elbow and spine protector, the same way motorcyclists insist is the proper gear to wear on a motorcycle or scooter. Just picture it. Pretty damn uncomfortable, right? Instead of comfy ride, you're facing heat prostration and what would be a good ride in shorts is a life risking activity in full gear. It would stop you from riding when its only nearly 79F out. So why do riders of fast motorcycles insist that slow scooters require the same gear?

Bicycles aren't any safer than scooters. They go just as fast. I think this is a perceptual problem, that you can justify all the gear on a slow scooter because you're NOT PEDALLING or exhausted, so therefore its more dangerous? That doesn't make sense. Bicycles ride in traffic too. Or that bicycles are exercise so you must look a certain way, but a scooter is a DANGEROUS motor vehicle. That's nuts. When I watch those few scenes in each episode of Jamie Oliver's show, buying ingredients, he's pretty minimalist on the gear in full London traffic, but its an effective way to get around. I see kids on scooters and old small bore motorcycles putting this way and that up and down East Main and I say "right on". They are using their brain to be safe, not layers of leather and pretending they're safe. There's no cure for stupidity, and wearing lots of gear might only reduce the injuries caused by your own lack of life-preserving caution. If in doubt, slow down. This isn't hard. On a scooter its freaking easy.

So full gear on a scooter when the weather is perfect for shorts? Yer doin it wrong. Strip down, slow down, take it easy and be here instead of mindlessly rushing to your doom.