BadNudes profile

All my bikes are ATBs! 

ATB 4 LYFe

Just came here to see where you're running your thumbies these days. Under-the-bar for the win.

Stayed for the thoughtful and thorough review. Always appreciated, Andrew. I feel you really set the standard for gear reviews, great mix of technical info and personal flair.

The glyphs don't help a lot, but at least they didn't make up new words to describe the compound and casing and use endurance/soft/super soft and trail/enduro/downhill. That gets two thumbs up from me. Easier for me to understand than most brands.

I love WTB for keeping it as simple as it should be. Teravail also simply offer supple or durable casings but no options for compound, not discussed much here because they're probably better suited for the middle hump of the bell curve rather than the north shore asymptote.

NEWS HEADLINE: "DRIVER OF 5 TON LIFTED PICKUP WITH BUMPER AT SHOULDER HEIGHT RUNS STOP SIGN, HITS AND KILLS CYCLIST"

Everyone: "But was he wearing a helmet?" "Did he have lights?" "Is there any other way we can blame the victim?"

Me: "f*ck this world..."

https://thenib.com/height-of-folly/

Cool that the Trek lights can link together like that, would only have expected that from much more pricey systems. Will have to check those out.

I'm with you 100% on feeling a bit defeatist on this. Especially in North America, infrastructure and government favours cars and nearly ignores everyone else. We are completely alone out there.

To be clear, I didn't get the "these things happen" attitude from your writing, it just seems to be the prevailing attitude of the public. Your insights were refreshing and entertaining as always.

The "what more could've been done" feeling/question is familiar and unfortunate. It amounts to victim blaming. What could have been done? The driver could have done the bare minimum and driven safely.

So glad you came out of this one relatively OK. Here's to hoping that somehow we can stop this downward spiral...

I wish I could find a lightweight helmet light that installed/removed quickly and had an integrated rear red light. doesn't need to be super powerful, 500 lumen would be more than enough. Would be a perfect compliment to my always-on-the-bike little blinkers. My current options (700-800 lumen Niterider and Blackburn) are heavier than I find comfortable on a helmet, are almost always on the low or medium settings, and I need to bring two; front and rear.

Head-mounted lights are really nice when you're wondering "does that cager coming up to the intersecting stop sign see me?" you can flash the windshield for a little more confidence (be mindful of doing this with your 1500 lumen torches) and, as has been noted, a bit of movement signals to the driver, "that is definitely a person and I should probably try to avoid killing them".

That said, always remember there are more drivers on the road, average car sizes are getting more humongous, and people are paying less attention than ever before. Sharing space with drivers is getting more dangerous. Do your best to stay aware of drivers around and behind you and assume they don't see you, or worse are trying to scare/maim/kill you. 

Glad you came out OK Andrew, and thanks for sharing your perspective. 

PS. BUT WERE YOU WEARING A HELMET?!

I like my Koma lights from Blue Lug a lot. I have a few sets and leave them on the bikes all the time. Not super bright, but bright enough IMO, and very inconspicuous/nearly invisible on the saddle rail mount (when off). I also use a reflective triangle dangler on my seat, which is actually surprisingly effective in low light. If I'm going out on a proper night ride I'll use a more powerful set of lights, but it's nice to always have a backup on the bike in that case, or to avoid being stranded in the dark when an afternoon ride gets extended a little longer than expected.

You're right, language is important and we should all be mindful. e.g. I hate when a driver kills or hurts someone and media report it as an 'accident'. This gives an 'unfortunately, these things happen' tone. It should be called a crash, which makes it harder for the driver to shirk responsibility (but they will still try) and indicates that it was preventable with safe driving practices, like almost all driver-cyclist/pedestrian crashes.

That said, I think we cut Andrew some slack here because 'hit by a Subaru' sounds a little more interesting, and maybe because 'hit by a driver' might conjure an image of a punch delivered through the window of a car; a bit ridiculous, but sadly not too hard to imagine these days. I think he does a good job of conveying the driver is obviously at fault. Unfortunately it sounds the driver can essentially shrug it off per usual because there are no real repercussions for unsafe driving.

With average car sizes (SUVs, trucks) getting humongous, drivers becoming more complacent and reliant on safety sensors/equipment, politicians more focused on fueling car-dependent suburban sprawl (more drivers) than densifying and improving person-based infrastructure in our city cores, it really feels like we're headed to an indoor-only world, especially in our cities. And people wonder why kids don't play outside anymore... We're doomed.

Thank you for linking the Bird fork! I've been waiting with my fingers crossed for almost a year for the RSD fork to finally arrive, lately even considering going the cu$tom route to finally ditch the clapped out sliders that were supposed to only be a stop-gap. The Bird is hair short and missing some braze-ons for it to be a final-form part for me, but in stock is 100% better than yet another delayed delivery notice.