Do you ever feel like 2nd class citizens on your ebike?

[morph999]

I went to taco bell the other day on my e-bike and I just felt weird. I looked at around all the people driving cars and I felt beneath them. I felt like they were better than me even though I had a car at home that is perfectly driveable. I felt like some little kid compared to them even though I'm technically an adult. Do you guys ever feel this way? If I just get over this feeling, I'd be a lot better. I guess after driving a car for 15 yrs, it just feels weird to be in a place of business and not have a car outside waiting for me.

Have you guys ever felt this way, maybe in the beginning? Did it go away or do you still feel that way ?

 

[Ypedal]

nope.. i'm as comfortable with my ebike as Reid is with his Gayness !

I have way more fun on my bikes than car drivers couped up in their iron coffins.. that alone makes it all worth while for me. :wink:

 

[spinningmagnets]

"felt beneath them"?...Dude, I feel like Noah,...and the floods a'comin!

When Europe went to war in 1939 the US was not at war until 1941, the US wanted to stay neutral (after the bloodbath of 1914-17), but production can't start overnight. Congress wanted to look neutral to the public, but still be "prudent" by designing a modern long-range bomber to help prevent England from falling. They were able to get approval for a modern long-range "anti-submarine reconnaisance" plane...that just happened to have a floor that opened.

Homes in brush-fire country should be fireproof, with a pool as a water supply and automatic sprinklers on the roof to keep the structure cool as a brushfire passes through. Houses in tornado country should have a huge basement and a concrete dome aboveground, houses in a flood-plain should have the entire first floor be the garage...but do they?

When everyone else spent their extra money on luxury items, this guy built his house on deep-sunk concrete piles and though it looks normal, its build like a tank...BE THIS GUY!!!

 

[Anonymous]

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[morph999]

how can I help feeling like this?

 

[Ypedal]

Lithium ? :lol:

 

[Malcolm]

how can I help feeling like this?

Lithium ? :lol:

:lol: that just about sums up the whole meaning of this forum

 

[morph999]

hahaha

It doesn't make sense to haul around a 3 ton hunk of metal just to go out to eat but yet since everyone is doing it, I feel weird now not doing it.

I've been made fun of my whole life. Maybe I'm just afraid of being made fun of. One thing is for sure, I'm getting in better shape. USA is just not a very bike friendly country and I hate that. It's all about this macho bullshit.

 

[GCinDC]

as i speed through town, passing other bikers & cars, pedestrians turn their heads to watch.... no one knows WHAT I AM!! I love that.

in the winter, i wore a face mask so it was easier to hide my grinning/laughing face! now it's really hard to keep a straight face...

what's your kit? need a few more V?

 

[knightmb]

I get the opposite where I live. I see a lot of faces of jealously about them. When they are stuck in traffic that is miles long, I'm flying past everyone on the shoulder at car speeds. Where I live, we have shoulders that are nearly a lane wide, so it's very friendly for bicycles. Plus, for any place in town where the speed limit under 40 MPH, I can easily keep up with traffic in both acceleration and cruising.

When I go to the bank or really anywhere, people are so jealous that I'm riding outside in great weather and that I'm getting exercise to boot and to top it off, spending pennies per charge rather than dollars per gallons. I have a couple of dino-burner cars I use for long trips or when time is really important, but that's such a small percentage compared to just riding to the store to grab a gallon of milk and some candy vs. the same thing in the car and burn 1/4 gallon of gas for a simple 5 mile round trip.

Where I live, it's one of the highest rated "cycling" counties in the US as far as bicycle friendly goes. So, you often see a lot of cyclist riding around here, even if I am the only e-bike person flying around, hehe. I've made sure that at least in my area, cyclist get respect. I don't run red lights or stop signs, I stick with the flow of traffic, I signal, I do everything that I would if I were driving. After years of this, drivers learn to respect that.

 

[morph999]

yeah but trying riding your bike through the rough parts of Memphis......hate to get a flat in memphis, TN. My area isn't that rough but it's not really bicycle friendly. There a few here and there but mostly only crackheads seem to be riding bikes for whatever reason and the occasional professional bicycle team.

 

[jag]

Interestingly I get quite different reactions from people depending on what bike I ride. When I ride my roadbike people assume I'm upper class with the time and money to spare for such leisure. When I ride my ebike or mtb outfitted with panniers people assume that I'm poor and ride a bike because I have no other choice. I've even been offered handouts; a quarter by the ladies outside the farmers market, and a free bread at the bakery...

Luckily I'm not much bothered by what other people think of me. It is more a matter of taking into account the prejudices of whoever I'm going to. The roadbike it the best choice for a trip to meet people in the areas of McMansions, while the utility looking ebike lends itself to strike up conversations with the people collecting bottles for refund, native Americans (whom Canada shamefully somehow fail to properly integrate, despite doing well with just about any other etnicity) and just plain workers.

Martin

 

[mrzed]

I have always felt superior to people in cars while riding my bike. Especially back in university when I would show up at the top of the hill (SFU in Van BC) after 250m of hill climbing in the rain. Granted, the superior feeling is not really to be encouraged, but it was part of the motivation to keep the pedals spinning.

I sometimes feel inferior to regular bike riders on my eBike now. Then I remind myself that I'm pulling the kid trailer to daycare on days that I'd be tempted to take the car before I electrified.

 

[dogman dan]

Yeah, dressing like a roadie, or an engineer health nut commuter seems to help. At first, in my construction work clothes, I tended to look a bit homeless.

I got over that inferior feeling fast last summer as I breezed by the sams club gas pumps on the way home everyday. The place would be jammed, since it had the cheapest gas in town, everybody there waiting in line like 1974 to shave a few pennies off 4 buck gas, all of em pissed as hell, sitting in line, or even madder when they saw the total at the pump. Yeah, I started to feel real superior right away and the feeling hasn't gone away as I get to work and back on 15 cents of electricity. Now when I need to drive, it make me feel like a dumass to be in the car or truck.

I definitely feel inferior to real road bikers. I used to be one, in my ute.

 

[Zoot Katz]

At age 21 I scrimped and saved to build myself a professional quality racing bicycle. Full Campagnolo Record on a hand built Reynolds 531 frame.
The bike was on par with anything in the pro racing circuit at the time. What I liked best about it was looking down my nose at guys in their pretend racing cars. Street legal Porsche, Maserati , Lotus etc were phoney IMO. My bike was a thoroughbred. Their cars were castrated yet they mistook them for their manhood.

Later in life knowing you're able to whoop ass on your fluffy scud jockey peers, and too many mouse potatoes twenty years younger, is a morale booster that permeates every aspect of your person. Gravity, time and the wind keeps your ego in check. The miles travelled in your lifetime become human scale events.

I relish not being confined to a cage snarled by traffic. Having free parking closer to the door than the handicap spot is accepted as a given. Never having to grovel to a tow truck driver or beg for a boost or push is emancipating. I'm mostly immune to the whims of OPEC and their minions.

Man on a bicycle is the most thermodynamically efficient animal or machine on the entire planet. Ebikes can be arguably more efficient for their slightly larger footprint.

Yet, all this advantage is not at the expense of others space or time.

You're a king of the road.

It's when I'm forced, manipulated, legislated or intimidated into using second class infrastructure created for ghettoising bicycles that makes me spit. Parking facilities could stand more thought in their implementation.

 

[mrgarci1]

Yeah, dressing like...an engineer health nut commuter seems to help

So true. When I commute in my office clothes w/my laptop bag, I get no hassle, no hate, a few curious looks at worst. Riding the same bike near Arizona State University campus in my street clothes (looking like a student, I just graduated last year), I catch all kinds of hate. I almost got beat up by a drunk guy who was yelling at me from the passenger seat of his girlfriends car this weekend. Not sure if it's the more professional crowd near my office, or if it's me, but I've learned it pays to look nerdy.

But to the original question, yes, I sometimes feel like a second-class citizen, especially at places like the grocery store. I take more time than most people bagging my groceries because I put them in my backpack & reusable bags, and between that process and loading them into my bike, I def. get some strange/unfriendly vibes from people. But you know, I always keep in mind that it's not my problem - I don't have to impress anybody w/my bike or my lifestyle, and if everyone lived the way I did, I'd like to think the world would be less noisy, polluted, dangerous, and stressful. My mantra (almost literally) is "be the change" as in "You have to be the change you want to see in the world."

 

[Zoot Katz]

These days in most of North America, a person riding a bicycle in a suit and tie creates a mental speed bump.
Part of the advantage of ebikes is that you can easily wear normal clothing.
Weather and safety gear look a bit out of place but you don't have to dress like you're engaged in an athletic endeavour.
Citybikes are popular now that NA is buying European style utility bikes.
Bikes made for wearing normal clothes help would-be bicyclists see themselves on a bike.
More bikes and better dressed bikers would be the result.
Myself, I prefer dayglo fluorescent hot pink, funny retro reflective hats and wigs. Flowers too have a calming effect on cagers.

 

[chet]

I live in small town america, and i work for the water department, so every one knows me. they already know i'm not quite normal. i have been having a good old time riding around town and commuting to work, stores, and stuff. i stop at any intersection where i see a car and wait for them. i think i get to work in less time than with my car. people notice that i'm going too fast for a bicycle, and i have to explain my ride often. i am superior!

 

[Anonymous]

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[Zoot Katz]

ooh, I just thought of something that could make me feel second class. Say I was a mall shopper. Malls are most often private property so they can legally exclude bicycle traffic.

Shopping malls, big-box stores and *marts, are generally designed for car and truck access only. I don't usually shop in those places but when I have, I just take my place as legal vehicular traffic to get where I'm going and find a place to lock.

Malls set in the middle of asphalt deserts and miles away from public transit generally have no pedestrian access either.

Understand that type of planning is as blatant a declaration of class war as any gated living compound.

 

[Reid Welch]

nope.. i'm as comfortable with my ebike as Reid is with his Gayness !

I have way more fun on my bikes than car drivers couped up in their iron coffins.. that alone makes it all worth while for me. :wink:

I am comfortable with myself; it's just who I am; not an "activist" or promotor.
I "out" myself because, believe it or not, many people think that they've never had a gay person among their friends.
It's better to be visible, known, and perhaps be thought of as just another human being, not a freak.
Humor:
Yes, it's only the ding-ding bell and flashing valve LED lights that make me look gay to SUV suckers.
The heck what they think. I'm a more honorable person for using a bicycle instead of a car.
Of course, anyone of them can kill me at will...and some would, if they knew at all that the cyclist was gay.

 

[Anonymous]

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[knightmb]

Two words.

Truck Horn!

Now when people honk at me, I scare the bejezus out of them with my "return" honk. Needless to say, no one wants to honk at me anymore?

The horn has so much power, I actually use a separate 12 volt SLA to power it. I think if you are out to get respect (even if it's not really necessary), it sure doesn't hurt to be so loud that people stomp their brakes because they thought they were about to hit another car. 8)

 

[dogman dan]

I guess the engineer health nut thing is a local deal. You get near campus, and for some reason a lot of the bicycle riding adults work in the sciences. Chem,
Biology, Engineering. The look is the full on commuter with all the reflective safety gear, valve stem flashies, etc. Like the suit, it just says to people, I choose to do this, not I lost my driving licence in a DUI.

My work clothes daily endure tar, paint, mud, etc, so I dress from goodwill, and really do look homeless most of the time. It's funny the looks you get in grocery stores when you open your wallet , dressed in rags, and there is cash or lots of credit cards there. A homeless bum actually keeps his clothes cleaner than I can after just a few hours of work. So in my work clothes, people do look down on me a lot, and it shows on the space the give me. Changing into the commuters reflective coat, or a roadies jersey really helps with the road respect.

 

[biohazardman]

Feelings come from thoughts. We are in control of our thoughts and nobody makes us think this way nor that way although some try. The car you drive or don't, the house you live in, money you have or not really means little. What does matter is that you are honest, have decent morals, live according to the truths you are aware of and are happy in whatever life you choose to have. As for the rest the only things you take with you when you leave this earth are your relationships with God your family and others and the knowledge you have gained here. So what really matters? Don't worry so much about what others think cuz it just doesn't matter. Ride your bike and enjoy it while you can.