What would you do in this situation?

Old thread from 2023 finally hit bump limit >>1955863

New thread. "Cycling infrastructure" is harm reduction. But not in the way you probably think. The anti-bike crowd considers riding a bicycle on public roads as an offense against the interests of motorists. An so, they wish to create infrastructure to reduce cycling (harm). Yes! Those who advocate for "separate but equal" are (whether they admit it or not) working against the interests of bicycle users:

-The American Automobile Association strongly supports bike lanes
-Countries that place responsibility on car drivers have 70-90% fewer fatalities per billion km traveled by bike. This is of course beyond the pale, drivers must always have total immunity. But hey, look, green paint! We solved safety!
-The true purpose of bike lanes is to neutralize the opposition by corrupting the discourse. Don't support bike lanes? Then you must not care about safety!
-Bike lanes have a curious pattern of appearing where they are superfluous, and vanishing as you approach potential traffic conflict zones. This way, when you get run over by a dump truck making a turn, it's your fault! You shoulda been in the bike lane that wasn't there!

In conclusion: bike lane activists hate cyclists and want to eradicate cycling as a form of transportation.

A few years ago people starting referring to certain China wheelsets as not just "the best Chinese wheels" or "the best budget wheels" but simply "the best wheels". This year, Winspace released the T1600, a CDM (Chinese Domestic Market) product that costs more than a Madone or a Tarmac. It's UCI approved right out of the box (though you may need to tape some lead weights to it to get it to pass the weight restrictions). Western buyers need not apply, though they no doubt will try.

Western brands were folding right and left before the iron curtain 2.0 was raised, now the "tiro de gracia" has been fired and big companies like Trek are going to go bankrupt because their supply chains have been cut off by Import Substitution Industrialization, a popular third world development tactic pioneered by visionaries like Pinochet and Galtieri.

Is this the end of the western bike era? Will tomorrow's dentists settle for nothing less than Chinese bikes on 100% Chinese groupsets?

How is it that 50 years after the invention of the Concorde we still don't have universal ubiquitous supersonic flight everywhere? The Boom XB-1 even solved the sonic boom noise issue and yet nothing is happening with the tech. Why isn't this being fast tracked by airlines and governments everywhere? And don't give me that bullshit about fuel costs being too high. Supersonic flight uses 2x the fuel at most and fuel is like 10% of the cost of a flight, so ticket prices would barely change. Most people would probably gladly pay 50% more for a plane ticket if it meant getting there twice as fast.

An entry level new bike, that is agreeable to ride, not dragged down by antiquated standards like QR, that you won't regret buying, nor immediately feel the urge to swap out half the components because of cut corners, cost approximately USD $1500 at standard retail prices as of late 2024, give or take a few hundred (depending on the finer details).

Now, the prices are going to go up by at least 20%, and the smaller independent brands are going to go under as only the largest players will have the spare cash to ride out the sudden loss of consumer confidence. The most interesting and original bike products will simply disappear from the market permanently until the next wave of prosperity (which may be entirely concentrated somewhere far away and foreign, so that only the wealthiest of your peers will be able to import and use such goods).

How does that make /n/ feel?

"Wofür ist das?"-Edition

Anything public transport in German-speaking Europe is fair game.

Hey /n/!
I could really use your help for something. I am writing a film about bike couriers in a mostly atemporal setting. This is set in a biome-rich beachside town so I would like a few different options for different terrains. Most importabtly of all I would really like to know what the ultimate "jack-of-all-trades" bike would look like if money were not an option.

Thank you for this bikebros!

This thread is for talking about railways, and things related to railways, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - that means we're all about big intercity trains, modest rural trains, long freight trains, trips, tracks, trams, subways, stations, you get the idea. Trains are cool.

If you're planning a journey, take a look at the nationalrail.co.uk/ journey planner - tell it where you're headed from and to, and it'll show you your options before handing you over to a train company so you can buy a ticket. Doesn't matter which train company, they'll all charge the same price for the same seat on the same journey. Overseas visitors - trip.com and thetrainline.com are your best option.

Here's a few links:
~New rolling stock currently on order, listed (trainlogger.co.uk/units/)
~A Visual History of Railway Rolling Stock in Great Britain (gaelan.me/br-stock/)
~The Man in Seat 61 (seat61.com/) - easily the best rail travel resource out there.
~Geoff Marshall (youtube.com/@geofftech2) - likes trains. Mostly harmless.
~Jago Hazzard (youtube.com/@jagohazzard) - London train history. Ditto.

...and some cool 'open data' stuff:
~Realtimetrains (realtimetrains.co.uk/) - live train timetables: ideal for keeping on top of ETAs and platforms.
~Openrailwaymap (openrailwaymap.org/) - not quite 'Google Maps for railway infrastructure', but close.
~TIGER (https://tiger.worldline.global/home/) - live departure boards.
~Traksy (traksy.uk/live/) - live signalling information.
~London Underground Live (www.londonunderground.live/) - a real-time, geographically-accurate Tube map.

What's happening?
~The railway is being put into public ownership: gov.uk/guidance/great-british-railways/
~Phase One of High Speed 2 (Birmingham-London): hs2.org.uk/
~The Transpennine Route Upgrade - upgrading & electrifying the Liverpool-York mainline: thetrupgrade.co.uk/
~The Midland Main Line electrification (no website...)
~The East Coast Digital Programme: nextgenerationrailway.co.uk/

Good night sweet prince

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