As a lot of you famous, a bike owner in Washington state was just lately attacked by a cougar:
There’s now a Gofundme for the sufferer, and it’s a harrowing learn:
As all of the information shops be aware, such assaults are fairly uncommon, although chances are you’ll recall that again in 2018 a bike owner was fatally attacked in the identical space:
It was huge information on the time, and CNN gave it the total therapy, with wildlife consultants and a wincing anchor and all the things:
[CNN anchor reaching out to milk the teats of tragedy.]
Shockingly, as but CNN has not milked both tragedy additional by trying to hyperlink them each to local weather change.
Right here in New York Metropolis and the encircling space you’re even much less more likely to run right into a harmful animal. For instance, it’s been years since there was a rabid coyote unfastened in Yonkers:
And whereas I’ve run throughout the occasional bear, the closest to my house I’ve ever seen one is 90 miles away:
Maybe the best irony of being a biking citydweller is that the lots of of motorists I work together with on any given day pose a a lot larger risk to my well-being than any of those creatures. Once I noticed that bear I stood there till it disappeared, making an attempt to not soil myself; and but I’ll assume nothing of driving on a busy highway the place I’m continually one text-messaging driver away from going to that nice Gran Fondo within the sky, go determine.
Then there’s the rising risk of falling sufferer to the micromobility revolution:
New York Metropolis noticed 21 ebike deaths final yr, which implies we’ve reached a morbid milestone in that ebike fatalities and ebike fireplace fatalities now kill roughly the identical variety of folks:
I imply holy crap:
One purpose for all these fires is that meals supply riders use ebikes with substandard batteries, however luckily town is holding the supply apps accountable:
Nah, simply kidding, town is footing the invoice:
I understand smuggies in the remainder of the nation nonetheless assume ebikes will save society from motordom and cease local weather change, thereby ending disagreeable climate and cougar assaults as soon as and for all, but when New York Metropolis is any indication you possibly can anticipate extra automobile visitors than ever, plus a whole forfeiture of your bicycle infrastructure with lethal conflagrations as an added bonus. Actually, at this level the one web optimistic has been than thieves now not care about common bicycles:
Anecdotally, stolen bikes typically wound up being bought to supply employees, so now that supply employees now not journey common bikes I think the black marketplace for them has largely dried up. I imply I’m certain there are a handful of artisanal bike thieves left who know there’s a specialised market to your gravel bike or no matter, however you don’t hear almost as many tales of woe about how somebody’s valuable Surly was stolen from outdoors of the bar, and I’m guessing the shift to ebikes for supply work is the explanation why.
As for me, I search respite from the hectic tempo of city life within the forests of suburbia, the place I can faux I’m deep within the wilderness, but I’m extraordinarily unlikely to come across both a harmful animal or an inflammable ebike battery:
Positive, chances are you’ll encounter a pink bicycle:
However it’s not even a scorching pink, as an alternative it’s extra of a strawberry yogurt:
I need to say I’m extraordinarily happy with the Faggin, and I daresay it represents the apotheosis of the dirtbag highway ethos–although I did carry out a gratuitous improve by including a Dura Ace rear derailleur:
This in fact was a competitor within the Basic Cycle twenty first Century Friction Shifter Shootout:
The issue I encountered with it within the Shootout was that it was a bit too brief for the 29-tooth low gear I used to be utilizing for the check, however there are not any such issues with the tighter gearing on the Faggin:
I’m even pairing the Dura Ace derailleur with a File hub, which might clarify any fissures you will have encountered within the space-time continuum. Plus, I just lately discovered that later File hubs can settle for freehub our bodies from Campagnolo and Fulcrum wheelsets, which implies I might probably create a Shimano-splined File hub:
That sucking sound you hear is the universe turning itself inside out. I’ll need to get one in all these items, if solely to show the Faggin right into a rolling Shimagnolo fractal that mixes elements from each proper all the way down to a microscopic stage.
