Re: Thoughts on industrial design

Am Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:17:50 -0400 schrieb Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>:

On 4/30/2025 3:10 AM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:

Am Tue, 29 Apr 2025 16:27:05 -0400 schrieb Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>:

I've
gotten slower as I've aged, and I think I may be the oldest among those
I normally ride with; but I'm among the faster members of the usual
group. Maybe the key is choosing the proper group to ride with!

 
I don't do group riding, never did. Most people in Germany don't.  The
bicycle is mostly a means of transport, for us. 

>
I just finished another club ride, with a snack afterward. Definitely a
social situation, with lots of conversation. A beautiful day, nice roads
in rural territory, very pleasant. I think there were 13 people on the ride.

When doing one of my leisure rides through the area, I mostly meet
couples and families, groups are rare, on comparison.  Further out in
the countryside, I mainly meet single people or couples on racing bikes.

When walking to the bakery or to the physical therapy studio early in
the morning, when school begins, I see lots of students of all ages that
cycle to school. Some of them ride alone, some in pairs, some in groups.

>
These rides make up the bulk of annual riding for almost all members of
our club. The group on this ride were almost all retirees, and it seems
to be their main form of recreation. I'm unusual in that I have other
outdoor activities I also do regularly.

There are bicycle clubs in Germany, almost all of them members of the
national biycle club and bound to its rules
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Cycling_Federation>
("Bund Deutscher Radfahrer", BDR), a member of the UCI. 

When our children where young, we considered getting a club membership
in a local club for them. We lost interest when we where told about a
strict helmet law: nor helmet, no rides - at a time when only the very
small minority of organzized bicyclists in Germany and other European
countries used bicycle helmets.

People do leisure rides all the time in small groups, mostly families
with children, couples old and young.  I remember organizing a bicycle
tour including a picnic when one of our sons celebrated his birthday -
about a dozen children on small bicycles. Part of the fun was inspecting
and adjusting the bicyles parked in a line in front of the house. :-)
Nice memories ...

>
I'm even more unusual in that I do use my bikes for utility purposes -
transportation to the grocery or other stores, the library, friends'
houses, etc. and in the past, transportation to work. This is so unusual
here that it draws comments from other cyclists and has triggered my
being interviewed by news outlets!
>
America is different from Germany.

Indeed.  Most Germans own at least one bike and those who don't can
easily rent one, in most cities. You'll find almost no German who
doesn't use a bicycle now and then. People use a bike when a distance is
longer than what they like to walk, or when there is something to carry,
for example groceries. Long distance riding is rare in comparison, but
that isn't different from how people use cars.

It is not all sunshine and roses, though.  Decades of helmet propaganda
had an impact, so did the the availability of essentially unregulated
electrical bikes marketed as bicycles. Even those who previously denied
it now reluctantly admit that e-bikes are riskier than bicycles.
Unfortunately, it's a little bit late for that, the damage has been
done.


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