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Cyclists Groups
For
bike trips, but also occasionally odd other summer sport events
may also be announced on the bike@ list, eg for water skiers, surfers etc, also bike trips to
join other Beer Gardeners.
Index (To be sorted later
)
If you ski in winter, or want to learn
later, also join the Ski Group Mail
List
If you also walk or hike, also join
the walk Mail List
Consider also joining the
bike-fast@ list
- The off-putting name was chosen 'cos it's short !
- Does not mean fast racers!
- Does mean faster than most though.
- Sample measured 2014-04-25: on un-tarmaced dry loose stone,
on hard mud West path of Isar heading North, before & after
Gross- Hesselohe brucke, suggest we bike-fast@ may want maybe
25 ? KM/hr & the 20 KM/hr perhaps OK for bike@ is
frustratingly slow for bike-fast@ )
- Definitely No clunkers (or "city rad" either
generally)
- For cyclist who may be faster, &/or go further,
- who know to plan the effects of their move on Other
bikes,
- who can use maps & compasses & plan routes,
- tend to narrower wheels,
- can fix their own bikes on route,
- prefer tarmac to stones,
- tend to clips,
- don't have fat tyres
- don't have fat saddles
- don't have suspension etc.
- Ie about 10 to 20% of people on bike@ ;-)
- More Info or ask organisers
&/or the most proficient cyclists in the bike@ group.
Other cycle groups
Sometimes we cycle to Beer Gardens
(which is how this section started).
Cycling Hazards, General &
Local, & Local Fines
The Normal
HazardsBefore mere human laws, consider the immutable Laws
of biology & mechanics: ;-)
Science
- Human Alcohol Absorption: Alcohol in bloodstream will
keep rising after you "down in one" the last of your beer,
& jump on your bike, & test the brakes - hard -
before going down that steep hill ;-).
- Stress laws: Tensile steel brake cables will break when
hardest applied = most needed (just after hardest tested ?
see above).
- Kinetic
Energy: (The "over the handlebars" law ;-)
1/2 mv^2
(If its cooler at end of evening, its easier to
cycle faster without overheating. (+ alcohol might
accelerate). If you go 20% faster, That's 1.2 x 1.2
= 44% more energy for brakes to dump before bike
stops.
-
Braking distance :
The law of Crunch ;-)
s=ut + 1/2 at^2
ie first part of braking distance doubles if tipsy
slow thinking distance doubles
+ if brakes can dump kinetic energy into heat at a fixed
maximum rate, if you have double the speed, you quadruple
that second part of your braking distance.
- Friction coefficients: Few pedestrians or car drivers
have any clue that wet bike wheel rim brakes in heavy rain
can easily take over 4 times the distance to stop. (Not
[hydraulic or other?] disc brakes, they seem to suffer less
from wet)
- After kinetic energy flies you off a bike, The law of
Gravity kicks in ...
- Then Murphy's / Sod's Law: "I'll buy a crash helmet now
I've crashed ;-)"
Defective Humans
- Few car drivers cycle regularly, few understand
problems of cyclists. Some cyclists act like idiots,
provoking car drivers (eg cycling in parallel when it might
be legal but also obstructive, or jumping traffic lights.
Such provoked car drivers probably then treat the next
cyclist badly. Pedestrians are clueless eg wandering the
entire width of Diener Str (S of Marienplatz) where yes,
its their Right, but if they had a brain cell, they'd leave
middle of road clear for bikes. Cyclists provoke each
other, eg 2 fat slow cyclists can block a path completely,
never overtaking (there's a fine for that BTW!).
- The Law Of Evolution, or "Some Are Foolish, Some are
stupid, (some aggressive), they won't learn, & Will
walk or drive into you."
Evolution ceased in Europe. Many humans remain foolish
&/or spatially clueless (or drunk) etc, & it
will only get worse. Society removed previous
evolutionary "survival of fittest" selector mechanisms.
Since Europeans could breed & have their offspring
supported by the state, there's no reason to suppose
there's evolutionary incentive for humans to improve.
Lack of intelligence doesn't preclude any from
breeding, rather the opposite, more who will foolishly
misuse all of cars, bikes, ... & shoes ;-)
Local Munich
Hazards
- Don't be misled by bike friendly PR you hear about
Munich. There's lots of room for improvement, & most
cyclists who ride fat slow City Rad don't realise how bad
most (not all) city bike paths are & how dangerous tram
tracks are to bikes with narrower wheels.
- Munich is only really bike friendly if you bike is a
clunker, a fat tyred slow City Rad! Planners will learn
little new from average cyclists who may eg attend ADFC
city Innen-stadt cycle tour days on fat tyred slow bikes
(Agonisingly slow rides BTW, high risk of zero speed
collisions from jams !)
- For better understanding ask someone who cycles fast,
on narrow wheels
- Many local car drivers are clueless don't cycle
(or if so, just fat tyred slow clunkers, called a "City
Rad" in Munich).
- Best get the views of people who regularly cycle (inc.
fast, on narrow tyres), & regularly drive a car too,
useful for understanding different views &
perspectives.
-
Tram Tracks:
- Many car drivers don't know bikes with narrow tyres
(tourers, racers) can't cross a tram track at speed at
a narrow angle (more so if wet), else they would catch
in the rut, crash & risk being run over. They're
too clueless to realise the narrower a bike tyre, the
more the cyclist has to slow down, to achieve a
sufficiently acute angle to cross tram tracks safely.
You can get chased between tram tracks, too fast to
cross the tracks, & cant slow down cos vehicle
behind too close.
- Or drivers would like to force you to cycle between
tram track & line of parked cars, with risk of any
opening car door (from many careless Car drivers &
rear offside passengers opening doors) causing Major
injury, with no possibility to swerve across tracks
with narrow wheels.
- A few drivers don't even realise, crossing tram
tracks at a dodgy oblique angle is not the time to
expect a cyclist to evolve a third hand, or cycle one
handed, to signal turning with the other arm.
(Reminds me of a moron driver coming down
a steep hill in England
,
driving too close, who wanted to then cut round outside
me & turn left, forcing me to turn left when I
couldn't, who shouted I should have signaled left, to
which I shouted back "I need Two hands to _Brake_ with
!! & further knowing I wanted to turn left too, but
could only do so if & when I could decelerate
enough to do so. & & if I'd evolved a third
hand in a millisecond to suit the moron car driver, it
would have still done him no good, as I couldn't have
decelerated before the middle of the junction (very
steep hill). The aggressive driver moron ignored bikes
don't have foot brakes, don't have 4 wheels, &
can't take tight corners downhill at speed. Every
country has fools at the wheel. None I know of requires
an intelligence test before a driving
test.
- Wet Braking Distance Triples ! How few car
drivers & pedestrians know that happens with rain,
metal rims, & rubber blocks ?
- Some Pedestrians assume they will hear motors of all
vehicles, & too lazy to look for bikes &
electric/combi cars.
- Most Pedestrians assume all bikes are slow,
& eg a bike bell is a signal to later slowly consider
strolling off the bike path. Not all bikes can or will stop
in time. Some stand in bike lanes & deliberately don't
get out of the way.
- Munich pedestrians & cyclists sometimes cross
junctions as soon as their light goes green, without first
looking left for vehicles turning right. (The Ich
habe Recht mentality ;-) Ignorant that foreign eg
British & some other car drivers are used to a
different traffic light timing pattern, & will Not
expect them to start crossing just then. A pedestrian or
cyclist knocked down by a foreign car driver in such
circumstance may usually have law on their side, but it
will be No less painful or injurious.
-
Ignition Key Syndrome
Munich car drivers mentally become encased in their
steel car, the second an ignition key is in their hand,
while they step out from kerb, & open drivers door,
further obstructing the road.
-
Big City aggression
Munich being a big-ish city, drivers are more
aggressive than smaller German cities (eg Aachen), or
UK {Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells etc}.
(If you wonder if this author's perspective may
suffer from lack of experience of Big cities, not so: I
happily drive a car in London, I've been around Hyde
Park corner London, a few times on a bike, not Too
often, risky, & round the Arc De Triomphe Paris ( a
few times, car only).
-
Germanic Recht Haben
Native English speakers generally consider locals on
average as more obsessed with their rights, laws &
insurance than we are, & less flexible. More people
(car drivers, cyclists, pedestrians) seem to be less
flexible. Supposing the law to be on their side gives
some people a deluded sense of security but doesn't
stop accidents, pain & injury, it merely influences
who might pay if people get caught.
-
1st Sunny Days In Spring - Cycle Morons! ...
Cycling on the left !
Beware too many cyclists in Spring act like morons, as if
they've not seen all 4 wheel traffic all winter drive on
the right, & never learnt to cycle on the right, so
they cycle on the Left & middle of cycle paths, &
assume all cyclists oncoming are slow enough to &
& will stop for them. Of course there's a law against
it, doesn't stop the morons. Apparently the first few
sunny days in spring the ambulances scrape up an excess
number of cyclist off the cycle paths. ! Bells of course
are completely useless you'd wait beyond collision time
for these morons to react at all. Shouting "Rechts!"
loudly, aggressively, & in agonised stressed tone at
these morons sometimes helps avert a collision, far more
effective than a bell if you have a Loud voice. Sometimes
morons ignore that too, sometimes they shout back Links
as if it's their counter proposal for a political debate
or other moronic abuse. Sure there's a law & fine to
enforce cycling on right, but being morons, neither
Kinetic energy of a fast oncoming bike, nor German law
persuade morons to cycle on the Right.
The same morons, (both cyclists & pedestrians)
have to learn afresh each spring, that on a red light on
a cycle path at a 4 way junction, one shouldn't roll bike
or walk those last 3 metres up to 2nd white line at a
crossing, 'cos any moment there'll be a pile of bike
traffic at 90 degrees on the flank that the morons will
be obstructing.
By high summer the danger from morons recedes... till
next Spring, every year, zombies never learn.
- Summer Clueless Tourists They swarm in summer
& Oktoberfest, they often innocently have absolutely No
idea they're standing in a bike path, on what casually
appeared to them to be pavement.
- Föhn (On sunny days, if wind from Mountains
in South, dry air, (positive ions apparently), Many more
people act stupidly. (Simple proof to observe: Count
the stupid mistakes on such days, compared with other days.
Only count objective mistakes you remotely observe, not any
subjective mistakes where you are either the wronged party,
or you made the mistake). I used to think Foehn was
maybe a local gullibility joke on visitors, like supposed
existence of Wolperdinger, ; it's not, Foehn is a real
traffic hazard, not a joke!
-
The dangerous continental habit/law of "Give way to
the right",
which aggressive "my right=law" obsessed inflexible
drivers convert to " Screw any traffic to the left,
I'll pull out regardless, Es ist meine Recht
("It's my right") ...,
I'll pull across that single or line of car driver[s]
or cyclist[s] on the left, ignoring any/ all of:
common sense, courtesy, risk, kinetic energy, bad
road surface, poor visibility, possibility of bad
brakes, T junction, or narrow road ahead I want to
turn left into -
(The French to their credit, on their
major routes, reduced this dangerous continental habit
on their major routes, decades back),
Munich re-introduced greater use of this daft legal
system (maybe around 1995 ?), when they removed white
lines & signs from city junctions (in the stupid
name of Verkehrs-
Beruhigen") . That would have required more
courtesy & sensible flexibility in case of near
simultaneous arrival at junctions. Of course that often
didn't happen with "Es ist mein Recht - Muenchners" - I
saw many more near accidents after.
-
Taxi Drivers
Though Munich drivers are aggressive, Taxi drivers are
far more so, & brainless. I've had taxi drivers
shout at me to use cycle paths, paths they've doubtless
never tried at speed, drivers too stupid to even guess
the paths are damned unsafe at speeds I can cycle. Some
taxis have dangerously tried to use their taxi body to
force me off the road, real road swine some Munich
Taxis. (I'm a car driver too, Munich taxi drivers more
dangerous than normal Munich drivers, & less
disciplined than London black cab Taxis.
Some summers back I cycled to Wolfratshausen &
back to Munich, it was night, cool & I was going
very fast, needed smooth tarmac, & a long braking
distance in the dark, not bike paths; I wasn't so much
slower than cars, all no problem, till I got back to
outskirts, when multiple brainless taxi drivers started
horning & harassing me. 'cos I wasn't using the
crap city cycle paths, where I could have only gone a
3rd the speed or less, cos of bumps, jags, irregular
edges, protruding brambles & abrupt terminations of
path with no notice. Impossible by bike light.
Typical Munich taxi driver aggression was
exemplified in 2013 at a 2 to 1 funnel heading south
along Isar, West bank, south of Fraunhofer- Str,
Here 2 taxi morons drove sideways into each other,
as so used to intimidating all other vehicles, must
have refused to allow each other to take the lead,
& rammed each other, As a pedestrian that day,
seeing no human damage, just 2 taxis, remembering how
often they cut up other cars, I burst out laughing,
hoping 2 moron taxi drivers might learn to be less
aggressive.
Wouldn't so likely see that from black London
taxi cabs, not only better trained in knowing the
roads ("The Knowledge"), but taxis not allowed on
roads if scratched. ) (Yes london cabs will cut
corners in city of London
endangering pedestrians, but after someone I know
got sick of it every day & held out his long
umbrella , brass ferule at end toward the taxi sides,
to prevent them clipping the corner, that they
avoided : A scratch on a London black taxi means off
the road & no earnings !
- Sex Narrow Focused There's a dangerous bit of
cycle path on
Landsberger Str. North side, West just after junction with
Friedenheimer Brucke. Heading West, early evening
cycling fast, late to focus/ host a Beer Garden start: I've
several times narrowly avoided collision between camper van
doors & idiot males crossing South across cycle path to
prostitutes in front passenger seat of white camper vans.
I've learnt to beware as soon as I come over the rise &
see the van rooves.
-
Bike Paths:
- Everyone (planners, car drivers, police) assume all
bikes are dead slow with fat wheels. They don't realise
the bumpy tarmac , swerves, crossings, cobbles &
reduced visibility to cross streets is jarring and Very
unsafe at a decent tourer/race bike speed, & it's
much smoother & safer on the road.)
- Police: I've had various police tell me one
Must use lousey cycle tracks if there. They seem
ignorant & uninterested how bad adjacent tracks
are. One young policeman from his warm comfy car seat
stopped me & told me in mid January that I Must
cycle on the cycle path covered in snow & ice,
& not on the cleared road. Was he legally correct ?
(
let me know.The road surface was clear
& safe, the snow & ice track was very
dangerous, near impossible without deep track mountain
bike tyres.
I had road tyres, as his BMW did; I did not have
mountain bike deep track fat tyres, just as his BMW did
not have off-road tractor tyres. His BMW would not have
held with the dangerous snow & ice surface he (with
4 wheels) insisted I must balance on with just 2
wheels.
- Taxi Drivers sometimes fancy themselves as
unpaid policemen, shouting at cyclists to get on the
bike path, despite a bike path may be totally
unsuitable for tourer/ racing bikes at decent speed;
many inner city bike paths are junk, fit only for fat
old clunkers going very slow. Occasionally some taxi
drivers even use their cars to drive too close to force
cyclists off the road, one even pulled across to block
forward motion, provoking an emergency stop. Criminal
idiocy when the bike is fast, as it was !
- Even many car Drivers have no road senses, eg, get
out of car & stand idly on bike path blocking bike
traffic!
- Car passengers don't look before opening doors
across cycle tracks
- Nearly everyone stupidly assumes all bikes are slow
& can & will stop near instantly, & that
everyone has a right to block cycle paths.
- Munich's bike paths can sometimes be a liability,
it's sometimes safer to cycle on roads that do Not have
cycle paths. Some cyclists don't understand that, I've
never known a cyclist to challenge that assertion, who
didn't turn out to be a slow cyclist, who usually (not
always) rode a clunker (fat tyred city rad). Only those
who regularly drive cars, bikes (also at speed, not
just slow!), & also walk in crowded pedestrian
areas, interlaced with bike paths, are likely to have
good understanding of all perspectives.
-
City Planners: They mistakenly plan for all bikes
being fat tyred slow City Rad.
German Fines
A fines web site: www . bussgeldkatalog .
org
New fines @ 2013 April:
http://www.adfc.de/bussgeldkatalog/bussgeldkatalog-fuer-radfahrer
Zusammengestellt vom ADFC, Quelle: Bundeseinheitlicher
Tatbestandskatalog, 9. Auflage 2013, gülit seit April
2013)
New rules 2013 April: http://www.adfc.de/stvo
New link 2014-10-05:
http://www.adfc.de/verkehr--recht/recht/regeln-fuer-radfahrer/fachwissen-fahrradalltag/verkehrsrecht-fuer-radfahrer
(~2009, as read/heard, might be wrong or old, don't
blame me, ask a lawyer if you Need to know):
- 10 Euro. On pavement & pedestrian zones: @ 2009
June
- 15 Euro if obstruction. @ 2009 June
- 20 Euro if dangerous inc. wrong way on cycle path. @
2009 June
- 15 to 30 Euro if wrong way on a road (unless allowed
by sign). @ 2009 June
- 10 Euro: No lights on bike. @
2009 June
- 10 Euro if ear plugs for music (though disputed if
illegal). @ 2009 June
- 25 Euro Mobile phone. @ 2009 June
- 45 Euro + 3 points in in Flensburg: if Red stop light
for less than a second, & no one endangered. (If
longer & an accident, up to 180 Euro & 4 points.
@ 2009 June
- Alcohol > 1.6 Pro mille Drunk Driving. 30 days
pay. + 7 points in Flensburg. If an accident & above
0.3, a higher punishment & usually an MPU test. &
7 points. If they send you for a loony check:
Medizinisch-Psychologische-Untersuchung (MPU). =
Depperltest ) If you blow that you lose your licence. @
2009 June
@ 2016-05 still 1.6: SZ
- 350 Euro.: Over a closed rail crossing. @ 2009
June
- 500 Euro:+ 1 Month loss of driving licence: Cycling
on S Bahn platform. @ 2012 August
- 16.01.2012
talk about making cycle helmets compulsory in the next
few years
Racing Bikes & Recumbent
Bikes etc
DIY Bike Repair &
Maintenance
Periodically people ask me/us about repairing/ maintaining
their own bikes: (I learnt as a kid & always did my
own, so I've never taken bikes to shops for repair, just to buy
parts, but I have occasionally asked advice at
shops)
Shops usually don't mind giving a bit of advice while they're
selling you parts, If some shop Does object, cancel the parts
purchase & buy elsewhere. (I recommend my local bike shop
in Fraunhofer- Str.). On a ride, those of us that DIY are happy
to give advice, but you need one bike in decent order Before
you join a ride, so if that's Catch 22 for you .... Either take
your bike to a repair shop, or
To learn DIY, if you speak German you could try:
Haus der Eigenarbeit
Their page at 2014-10-21:
"08.10.2014 | Fachberatung Fahrrad reparieren ab sofort
gibt es wieder Fachberatung Fahrrad reparieren. Jeden letzten
Dienstag im Monat ab 18 Uhr hilft Ihnen Manuel Gessele beim
Reparieren Ihres Fahrrades.
Wörthstrasse 42/Rgb. 81667 München Di-Fr 15-21
I cont have the enthusiasm to create an ever growing list, I
would be happy to point at someone else's list, mail me an URL (web
ref) to such. Uhr und Sa 12-18 Uhr "
Another possibility:
http://anstiftung-ertomis.de/uebersicht-repair-cafes-in-deutschland/event/6961-repair-cafe-muenchen-giesing
Repair Cafe Muenchen Giesing They meet periodically at:
Nachbarschaftstreff
am Walchenseeplatz Adresse: Bayrischzeller Straße 5,
81539 München, Deutschland
Bike Tours Geographic Alphabetic
List:
- England, Kent, Tunbridge Wells, 77-83 Camden Rd, TN21 @QL.
- Last Sunday each month, 4 groups, range of abilities, meet
outside bike shop: Wild Side
Cycles
- Germany, Bavaria, Munich berklix.org
- en. wikipedia.
org/ wiki/ Bicycle_lighting
- StVO 67:
verkehrsportal.
de/stvzo /stvzo_67 .php German Street Traffic Law 67
- Flashing lights in Germany
- Prior to StVO 67, I had understood
that while while flashers were not legally sufficient,
(& one must also have a continuously on light. (eg via
a dynamo, which goes out at junctions, also legal, but not
nice) ...
A 2nd battery driven light, that didn't go out when stopped
at junctions, & that could flash as an optional extra,
was sensible. (a car driver, often may find a combination
of bike rear steady light + flasher to be optimal to notice
slow bikes, depending on lighting conditions?).
However as StVO 67 includes: "An
Fahrr\xe4dern d\xfcrfen nur die vorgeschriebenen und die
f\xfcr zul\xe4ssig erkl\xe4rten lichttechnischen
Einrichtungen angebracht sein." Which "nur"
seems to annoyingly block flashers,
Maybe "nur" might be supplanted or re-interpreted or
challenged elsewhere ?
- Lights I know include dynamo, & on same bike,
battery driven with multi way switches that can provide
steady on or off or various flash rates/patterns.
- In practice, police will hopefully first remove
cyclists with no lights, then bikes only with flashers,
etc, before pursuing steady + flasher combos, & exotica
of lights that might not run on 6 Volt (Read StVO 67! So it seems an obsolete pre LED etc
law, that should now specify Lumens not Volts!,
Particularly as it specifies "3 W und deren Nennspannung 6
V" & LEDS need less Watts for same brightness.
- Consult a lawyer or police for German law, the above is
just opinion to encourage thinking.
-
UK Law (amusing too).
- Dates:
German Law Changes 2016-12-01:
- Bikes no longer need to wait for pedestrian reds on bike
paths crossing roads junctions, we're finally classed as
vehicles, not slow pedestrians, The big reds for cars at
junctions are now what we must stop for...
- Car drivers may not realise that for a while, so we'll be
more at at risk from car drivers not looking back down cycle
path before they turn right, cars will wrongly expect we must
stop for them, some idiots will turn right without looking
back.
- The laws of kinetic energy, gravity, & friction remain
absolute ;-)
- Heap of URLS from 2020-12 re red lights, no time to review:
Andechs to Giesing 2019-06-09 : "It's all tarmac, fairly
flat and mostly very bike friendly. If I do it again, I'd
probably change one section as the bike route signs have
obviously been superseded by road improvements. The section
from Hadorf to Oberbrunnerstr is now a fast road without cycle
path. There are many cycle friendly other roads to take."
Bikemap app
- en .
wikipedia . org / wiki / Segway_PT 20.1 km/h, 9 km LiOn
Bats
- A friend wrote: took a little while to
get used to the steering, since you don`t turn the "handle
bars" as on a bike, but move them from side to side. Although
the weather was fairly warm, it was actually a bit cold on the
Segway, since you`re not doing anything active yourself and the
air is coming against you.
- Yellow jackets & bike helmets seem sensible
precautions.
- Other models mindways - segway . de
/ modelle
Inc. this scarey one wheel model "ONE S2" for 900 Euro mindways - segway .
de / ninebot - one 24 km/h 30km 11.4 Kg
- Germany:
- Munich:
- Pa name=pubs>Pubs Some pubs en routes we've used:
- Waldgasthof Buchenhain (by S Bahn)
- PS A clip from email:
- I've done a fair bit of cycling: When first in Munich I saw
lots of silly posers in colourful tops & embarasing body tight
black trousers, & flash bikes they didn't exploit, they bought the gear
but didnt go fast or far, like typical trendy Muenchners, mostly posers.
PS Couldnt easily get a tennis court in Munich after Boris Becker started winning,
eg Wimbledon '85
'cos Muenchners suddenly deemed it trendy).
- I assumed those cyclists were also daft/ trendy, legs whizzing round
while going slow, I was only half right, most were were clueless
posers, but a few were good cyclist cruising not fast, but saving their
knees from abrasive pressure.
- For too many years I kept in highest gears, & un-necessarily kept my lowest gear combos
(of front & back cogs) just for going up hills from hell. No longer.
- Nominations of steep hills
- (I always knew to not pedal standing up, (it stretches the
chain, + does you a mischief if chain slips or breaks).
- Problem: How to come down those hills from hell ?
My bowden cables periodicaly snap. Bike shops tell me I cant fit hydraulics on my 1985 Tourer, a Peugeot Modell PX80 28"
-
Consider your life hang on a crazily thin cable or 2.
Consider just the value of you bike hangs on a far thicker bike lock cable or 2
Ponder that over a beer on a bike trip !
Join some of
cyclists mail list[s] on the
berklix.org mail server
- See Also: ../ski/#knees & ../walk/#knees
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