What is quaxing?

[ScumOfTheRoad]

I just saw #quaxing on Twitter. Please explain what it is?

https://twitter.com/but_cyclists/status/1330827711846227968

[Cudzoziemiec]

Doing shopping by bike or on foot. Named after NZ politician and former Olympic athlete, Dick Quax, who said no one would ever do such  thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Quax#"Quaxing"

[rogerzilla]

He has a wife, you know, Fanny Quax.

[CAMRAMan]

Nasty, right-wing twunt, too.

[nicknack]

He has a wife, you know, Fanny Quax.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Cue rant from me. It is actually quite DIFFICULT to do your shopping my bike in the UK.

I have a car in an underground car park. Fetch coat, mask and keys. Blip remote control, car unlocks. Drive to supermarket. Park in a dedicated space. Car deadlocks. Take trolley and fill up. Unlock boot, transfer groceries. Return trolley to trolley point. These days car locks are effective and you dont expect your car to be stolen or vandalised.

For the bike I put on SPD shoes and maybe special clothing. I have to open a bike cage then unhook my bike from hanging on the wall. Undo heavy chains. Hook on the panniers.
I park on racks right outside the supermarket but I still have a fear of bike being interfered with or stolen in broad daylight.
Panniers into a trolley and fill them at the checkout. Panniers back onto bike. On return home I have the faff of locking the bike up securely with heavy chains.
And I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated bike cage in a dry car park.

[Tim Hall]

Cue rant from me. It is actually quite DIFFICULT to do your shopping my bike in the UK.

I have a car in an underground car park. Fetch coat, mask and keys. Blip remote control, car unlocks. Drive to supermarket. Park in a dedicated space. Car deadlocks. Take trolley and fill up. Unlock boot, transfer groceries. Return trolley to trolley point. These days car locks are effective and you dont expect your car to be stolen or vandalised.

For the bike I put on SPD shoes and maybe special clothing. I have to open a bike cage then unhook my bike from hanging on the wall. Undo heavy chains. Hook on the panniers.
I park on racks right outside the supermarket but I still have a fear of bike being interfered with or stolen in broad daylight.
Panniers into a trolley and fill them at the checkout. Panniers back onto bike. On return home I have the faff of locking the bike up securely with heavy chains.
And I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated bike cage in a dry car park.

Yes, it is a faff. Some possible improvements, bearing in mind I know nothing of your circumstances:
<mode = sucking eggs>
Flat pedals on the shopping bike mean no SPDs
Self scan means fill panniers as you go, no filling at the checkout
</mode>

[Frank9755]

Where I live (west London) it is easier and better to shop by bike than car. 
Quicker to get to the shops
Can park right outside
Can use independent greengrocers, fishmongers, etc in the high street which are much better than supermarkets. 
No SPDs required and no massive locks. 

We are lucky; probably not anywhere better in the country to shop by bike. 

[Kim]

For me, shopping by bike means I can wheel the bike complete with shopping into the front room (AKA bike shed) and lock the door, whereas shopping by car means driving round to find a parking space and doing multiple trips halfway down the road to carry the shopping in, locking and unlocking the car and house at each end.

Bike locks and shoes and saddle-friendly clothing and such are a faff, but less so than that.

[quixoticgeek]

Cue rant from me. It is actually quite DIFFICULT to do your shopping my bike in the UK.

I have a car in an underground car park. Fetch coat, mask and keys. Blip remote control, car unlocks. Drive to supermarket. Park in a dedicated space. Car deadlocks. Take trolley and fill up. Unlock boot, transfer groceries. Return trolley to trolley point. These days car locks are effective and you dont expect your car to be stolen or vandalised.

For the bike I put on SPD shoes and maybe special clothing. I have to open a bike cage then unhook my bike from hanging on the wall. Undo heavy chains. Hook on the panniers.
I park on racks right outside the supermarket but I still have a fear of bike being interfered with or stolen in broad daylight.
Panniers into a trolley and fill them at the checkout. Panniers back onto bike. On return home I have the faff of locking the bike up securely with heavy chains.
And I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated bike cage in a dry car park.

When i lived in .UK, my shopping by bike was:

Put on normal shoes, and a some clothes, (Sainsbury's Canterbury being sticklers for fully clothed shoppers it seems), pick up Brompton and backpack, walk down stairs, unfold Brompton, cycle to shop, fold up Brompton, place Brompton and the backpack in the trolley. Wander round picking up stuff, goto checkout, pay, pack it all into backpack, place backpack on back, wander outside, remove Brompton from and return trolley, unfold Brompton, ride home, fold Brompton, climb stairs, take backpack into kitchen, put stuff away.

Your issue is you're using the wrong bike, you've got the wrong pedals, and some barbarian has designed inappropriate bike storage...

Here in .NL I do much the same as I did in the UK, except there's a lift in there, and I unfold my bike at the top of the stairs, not the bottom. A lot of Dutch people park their bikes just outside, and leave the empty panniers attached. They then pack shopping into normal carrier bags and put those in the panniers.

It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of SPD's, but why you would need them for shopping I've no idea.

J

[quixoticgeek]

To follow up, the fancy shoes and special clothing thing to ride a bike to the shops makes me think that perhaps we should put on nomex suits, helmets and HANS device, to drive our car with it's roll cage and FIA approved fuel tank, to the shops.

if we continue to treat cycling as something that requires funny clothing, and weird pedals, and is thus anything other than the perfectly normal activity that it is for say, the Dutch, we're going to continue to have low cycling uptake.

J

[Tim Hall]

It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of SPD's, but why you would need them for shopping I've no idea.

J

That's easy. You've gone to the shops on an SPD equipped bike. Not all my bikes have flat pedals. Not everyone has more than one bike and that bike might be equipped with SPDs.

[T42]

Doing shopping by bike or on foot. Named after NZ politician and former Olympic athlete, Dick Quax, who said no one would ever do such  thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Quax#"Quaxing"

Sounds like a cosmetic for men.

[spesh]

With all due respect to all those going "I don't see what SOTR's problem is..." but has it occurred to y'all that SOTR might have just the one bike, set up for fitness rides, hence the SPD pedals?

I'd love to have a fleet of bikes, one for each type of riding and each day of the week, but my circumstances don't permit that so I have just the one bike - a singlespeed set up for fitness riding, with SPDs.

ICBA to change pedals every time I'd want to switch between fitness and utility riding, but then, living in a fairly compact city like Portsmouth, I have plenty of shops within reasonable walking distance, and I only have to shop for myself so being restricted to what I can carry home in two bags for life at the maximum is not an issue.

It's a tad irritating when people assume that what works for them is universally applicable, and they can't see that someone else might have varying mileage.

A little less solipsism, please!

[Butterfly]

I have double sided pedals to overcome that problem. At the moment, thanks to arthritis and plantar fasciitis I exclusively wear walking boots, previously I always wore cycling shoes and managed. If that is how you shop, you set yourself up to do that. If you usually shop by car, it is an adjustment, that may not be worth the investment.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

I will add to the debate. When living in The Netherlands I had a granny bike. Perfect for shopping, flat pedals and loads of load carrying capacity. I dod not have the chance to bring it back to the UK, and I regret it.
I agree with the points about visiting local shops by bike. I made a point of going to a local fish stall, veg stall and butcher last week. It was a real pain finding a parking spot - in fact bike would have been better there.

I think we need more secure bike parking though. I lived in Eindhoven where there is an undergroudn bike park in the centre of town with security guards. They dont want you cycling up and down the pedestrianised streets right in the centre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HdqTZs3vjU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6ewVJUvfhQ

[quixoticgeek]

With all due respect to all those going "I don't see what SOTR's problem is..." but has it occurred to y'all that SOTR might have just the one bike, set up for fitness rides, hence the SPD pedals?

Of course, but his exact wording is "It is actually quite DIFFICULT to do your shopping my bike in the UK."

I'm pointing out that is due to choice to do the shop on a bike with the wrong pedals. It's the same as if I was to say that it's bloody difficult to do the shopping in a car, and then describe getting into my Ariel atom. Sure, I may only have one car, and it may be set up for track days rather than the weekly shop. But that is an inherent issue with my choice of vehicle, not with the concept of using a car to go shopping.

I'd love to have a fleet of bikes, one for each type of riding and each day of the week, but my circumstances don't permit that so I have just the one bike - a singlespeed set up for fitness riding, with SPDs.

I am fortunate, I have two bikes, a Brompton for city riding, and another bike setup for long distance, tho the long distance bike has both SPD and flats (thanks M324 pedals!).

ICBA to change pedals every time I'd want to switch between fitness and utility riding, but then, living in a fairly compact city like Portsmouth, I have plenty of shops within reasonable walking distance, and I only have to shop for myself so being restricted to what I can carry home in two bags for life at the maximum is not an issue.

My housemate has a road bike which she fitted SPD-SL pedals to. She lets me lend this out to friends, and guests, so we can still go for a bike ride together. I have a set of these:

https://www.mantel.com/pedal-plate-vlak-pedaal-adapter

Which allow the SPD-SL pedals to be used with normal shoes. They work surprisingly well. I wonder if they make a version for SPD...

It's a tad irritating when people assume that what works for them is universally applicable, and they can't see that someone else might have varying mileage.

A little less solipsism, please!

Yes, that works both ways...

J

[Kim]

My legs don't magically become the same length when I go shopping, but the real reason I tend to use SPDs is because I'm usually changing my trousers anyway.  (I go shopping on a bike with a saddle, because shopping involves riding through urban traffic and then locking up or folding the bike.)

[phantasmagoriana]

I found it easier to shop by bike when I didn't live in a flat (this being the reason I got rid of my bike trailer a while ago - I just wasn't using it because I had no desire to lug the bike, trailer and shopping each up two floors).

Shopping now generally involves putting on my shoes and walking to the shop

[quixoticgeek]

My housemate has a road bike which she fitted SPD-SL pedals to. She lets me lend this out to friends, and guests, so we can still go for a bike ride together. I have a set of these:

https://www.mantel.com/pedal-plate-vlak-pedaal-adapter

Which allow the SPD-SL pedals to be used with normal shoes. They work surprisingly well. I wonder if they make a version for SPD...

https://pedal-plate.cc/

Looking at the manufacturers website, it turns out that yes, they do do them for normal SPDs too.

J

[Cudzoziemiec]

but then, living in a fairly compact city like Portsmouth, I have plenty of shops within reasonable walking distance, and I only have to shop for myself so being restricted to what I can carry home in two bags for life at the maximum is not an issue.

Which is equally quaxing. As is taking the bus.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

I think things are changing. I live in SE London and the big Tesco is near me. Laid out with hundreds of free car parking spaces. Well 3 hours parking free. There is a local Lidl with free parking spaces in a nice car park.

However recently I see more small local supermarkets, Coop, Tesco Metro etc. which are below blocks of new apartments and are on busy roads with zero parking. They do good business. What does irritate me about a lot of these is the complete lack of bicycle parking. I am sure the planning permission had a drawing of lovely bikes parked on secure stands. The reality is chaining your bike to some manky railings.
This does not count for all local supermarkets - my nearest Coop has good Sheffield stands. But my point holds in general.

I guess things in cities are changing and will continue to change away from large purpose built shopping centres.
Please discuss!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Often the pavements simply aren't wide enough for sensible bike parking. But this is partly because the carriageway is wide to accommodate parking as well as moving traffic.

[Pingu]

So, not servicing skis with a duck, then. Disappointed.

[The Family Cyclist]

Ref quaxing can I remind you all of this

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=96256.575