My New Job (Was: Social Thurs 8 Jan 2009)

[Jasper]

2009/1/5 Paul Makepeace <paulm at paulm.com>:
> On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 2:20 PM, Roger Burton West <roger at firedrake.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 05, 2009 at 02:13:48PM +0000, Paul Makepeace wrote:
>>
>> >Get a bicycle or a scooter. Do your level best in the meantime to ignore any
>> >commentary from anyone who hasn't actually ridden in London.
>>
>> Seconded. Advice from a relatively new cyclist on request, or distilled
>> at http://firedrake.org/roger/cycling/ .
>
> Cool. As a two-time Strida owner I can assure you they are most
> certainly _not_ "gimmick" bikes, esp. considering they've won a whole
> bunch of folding competitions beating Bromptons for folding speed
> (<2s), maneuvrability, and something else I forget. I rode from West
> Hampstead to Mayfair (i.e. non-trivial distance) the other night, and
> can take it on buses, tubes, and trains with never any hassle, esp
> since they weigh <10kg. The newer Strida 5 is a nice improvement over
> its already-decent-but-slightly-sloppy previous incarnation.

I used a Brompton solidly for a year, and while it was heavy, and had
a very close-up riding position, which took a while to get used to, I
liked it a lot. Until I made the terrible mistake of buying a
large-ish motorcycle, and each time I get on the Brompton now I am
utterly terrified. It feels tiny and ridiculously flimsy.

Cycling in London isn't bad, as long as you don't do anything stupid,
like riding up the inside of a large lorry where the driver can't see
you. You do get the odd shit of a bus driver, too.

Jasper