Author Topic: Odd fetishes  (Read 6114 times)

Odd fetishes
« on: 07 August, 2018, 10:27:28 am »
I confess to thinking that black mudguards* are an abomination, unless 1; the frame is a light colour, or 2; they are painted to match a black frame (I think that mudguards painted to match the frame can look really nice).

* the correct colur for many bikes is silver.

Wowbagger

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Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #1 on: 07 August, 2018, 10:28:56 am »
Ah, but is that really a fetish? If that's the standard of fetish we can expect on here, I will be severely disappointed.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #2 on: 07 August, 2018, 10:37:05 am »
Ah, but is that really a fetish? If that's the standard of fetish we can expect on here, I will be severely disappointed.

Sorry!

I gave up trying to be "interesting" years ago.

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #3 on: 07 August, 2018, 01:18:31 pm »
I confess to thinking that black mudguards* are an abomination, unless 1; the frame is a light colour, or 2; they are painted to match a black frame (I think that mudguards painted to match the frame can look really nice).

* the correct colur for many bikes is silver.


I agree on all points. But then I think that brake calipers and derailleurs painted black (not carbon) are an abomination too.
Old enough to know better, but young enough to do it anyway

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #4 on: 07 August, 2018, 01:35:10 pm »
White mudguards are best on vintage bikes.

I count pedal strokes on climbs.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #5 on: 07 August, 2018, 03:06:46 pm »
Sometimes I see if I can guess how many pedal strokes it will take me to get home, if it's a short journey and I'm tired. Just to try to make it go quicker!

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #6 on: 07 August, 2018, 06:49:21 pm »
I dump any remaining contents of my water bottle just before the last climb of the day.  Marginal gains.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Zed43

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Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #7 on: 07 August, 2018, 08:31:00 pm »
I confess to thinking that black mudguards* are an abomination
I don't know, I think it goes rather well together with tan sidewalls.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #8 on: 07 August, 2018, 09:38:48 pm »
I always unclip ny right foot at traffic lights.  It's the easiest one to click back in if you're right-footed.  Does everyone unclip the dominant foot, or do you do the kerbside foot?
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #9 on: 07 August, 2018, 09:45:23 pm »
Kerbside. And I'm right-footed.
Rust never sleeps

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #10 on: 07 August, 2018, 09:47:15 pm »
[Not a fetish] Ditto. Right footed, left side dismounter. Riding home some time ago I was musing that it might be useful to practise dismounting to the right. Fortunately I waited till I got home to try it because I ended up in the flower bed rather than on a pavement by some traffic lights. I haven't risked it since.

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #11 on: 07 August, 2018, 09:55:32 pm »
I'm right footed but I always set off with my left foot and put my right foot down at lights.

Obviously I mount from the left and scoot on the left with my left foot on the pedal.

Most people I see at traffic lights, maybe 9 out of 10,  put their left foot down.



Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #12 on: 07 August, 2018, 10:14:27 pm »
Kerbside. And I'm right-footed.

Same here
Old enough to know better, but young enough to do it anyway

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #13 on: 07 August, 2018, 10:34:06 pm »
Kerbside. And I'm right-footed.

Non kerbside, and right footed...

J
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Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Kim

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Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #14 on: 07 August, 2018, 10:53:53 pm »
I always unclip ny right foot at traffic lights.  It's the easiest one to click back in if you're right-footed.  Does everyone unclip the dominant foot, or do you do the kerbside foot?

I taught myself to put my right foot down to reduce stress on that knee from the first push on the pedal when starting off.
 I'm reasonably ambifootrous as a result, which comes in handy on tandems.  I suppose that means my right foot is naturally dominant, but interestingly it's my left leg that I tend to stand on (my legs are unequal lengths, and I tend to alternate between bearing the weight on one then the other, rather than b0rking my lower back).

I'm better at mounting from the left, though I can do it the other way if it's convenient because I'm in ABROAD or a car park or something.  I'm surprisingly uncoordinated at wheeling bikes from the right; this extends to lifting bikes in and out of the dangly bike spaces on trains.

Widdershins brake levers might as well be break levers.  I like to think I can cope with the typical tadpole left=front left, right=front right arrangement, but put me on a slippery surface and I'll clearly start to favour the left.

Ben T

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #15 on: 07 August, 2018, 10:54:09 pm »
I'm right footed but I always set off with my left foot and put my right foot down at lights.

Obviously I mount from the left and scoot on the left with my left foot on the pedal.

Most people I see at traffic lights, maybe 9 out of 10,  put their left foot down.

I'm exactly the same as this, (including in the observation that I'm unusual, and in having the tendency to scoot), and regardless of what side of the road I'm on.

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #16 on: 08 August, 2018, 08:43:37 am »
I'm right footed but I always set off with my left foot and put my right foot down at lights.

Obviously I mount from the left and scoot on the left with my left foot on the pedal.

Most people I see at traffic lights, maybe 9 out of 10,  put their left foot down.


Isn't this one of the reason why Britons ride/drive on the left side of the road? Because a majority of people are right handed, and right handed people tend to mount horses/bikes from the left, so from the pavement if you ride on left. Continentals got it all wrong :demon:

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #17 on: 08 August, 2018, 09:46:01 am »
weirdly continental folk seem to mount bicycles and horses from the left too, even though they drive on the right. Something to do with sword hands and oily chains I expect.

cheers

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #18 on: 08 August, 2018, 11:58:55 am »
The weird thing is why do continental folks drive on the right! Commonly accepted belief here (although never proven) traces the first law on driving on the right back to Napoleon, who allegedly said: "Because the Britons drive on the left, let's do the opposite thing".

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #19 on: 08 August, 2018, 12:05:32 pm »
The weird thing is why do continental folks drive on the right! Commonly accepted belief here (although never proven) traces the first law on driving on the right back to Napoleon, who allegedly said: "Because the Britons drive on the left, let's do the opposite thing".

It is believed by many that we ride on the left so that when you draw you sword, you meet the person coming the other way sword to sword.

I was explaining this to a colleague at work (in Amsterdam). She said "That's lovely, but how many swords do you own."

"Three"

"oh"

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #20 on: 08 August, 2018, 01:06:46 pm »
Ah, but how often do you carry one on your bike?  I suppose it would be useful in Hackney, for one of those Crocodile Dundee encounters.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #21 on: 08 August, 2018, 01:37:16 pm »
I'm left footed, and unclip the right at stops.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #22 on: 08 August, 2018, 02:24:48 pm »
I always unclip ny right foot at traffic lights.  It's the easiest one to click back in if you're right-footed.  Does everyone unclip the dominant foot, or do you do the kerbside foot?

I track stand* :smug:

* When that fails, I unclip on the right left.

Ben T

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #23 on: 08 August, 2018, 06:25:07 pm »
The weird thing is why do continental folks drive on the right! Commonly accepted belief here (although never proven) traces the first law on driving on the right back to Napoleon, who allegedly said: "Because the Britons drive on the left, let's do the opposite thing".

It is believed by many that we ride on the left so that when you draw you sword, you meet the person coming the other way sword to sword.

I was explaining this to a colleague at work (in Amsterdam). She said "That's lovely, but how many swords do you own."

"Three"

"oh"

J

It's because you get on a horse from the left, because being right handed you have your sword on your left hand side and thus swing your right leg over the horse.

Re: Odd fetishes
« Reply #24 on: 08 August, 2018, 09:01:12 pm »
I confess to thinking that black mudguards* are an abomination
I don't know, I think it goes rather well together with tan sidewalls.

I have to agree, and what is all this talk of white and silver mudguards  Surely mudguards were black long before they were silver or white?  I remember owning a bike with white mudguards as a teenager in the 70s and I was more embarrassed than even a teenager in the 70s should have ever been :-[
Most of the stuff I say is true because I saw it in a dream and I don't have the presence of mind to make up lies when I'm asleep.   Bryan Andreas