In case you’ve ever longed to see a bunch of cheap-ass handlebars (and one not-so-cheap handlebar) versus a hydraulic press, properly have I received a video for you:

It’s a wierd take a look at that’s teaches us nearly nothing, and but who doesn’t need to see what occurs once you push a $20 crabon bar to its restrict?

Additionally, there’s just one name-brand bar in there, chosen for causes the video doesn’t clarify:

I’m so out of contact with what bicycle elements truly value that I don’t know whether or not that’s quite a bit or just a little for an alumin(i)um riser bar:

It looks like quite a bit although.

Anyway, to not spoil it, however the crabon bar makes a pleasant crackling sound as strain is utilized:

And finally breaks aside like a moist stick:

Listed here are the ultimate numbers:

This teaches us nothing concerning the deserves or drawbacks of the relative supplies, since classes like “metal” and “aluminum” are so broad as to be meaningless, however it was nonetheless kinda enjoyable to observe. Unsurprisingly the name-brand bar did finest, little doubt as a result of it was warmth handled or no matter else they do to an honest high quality mountain bike bar. Additionally, it appears to me the crabon bar’s excessive quantity belies the truth that it was the one one that really broke aside.

Talking of being crushed by a hydraulic press, that’s what it’s prefer to stay in New York Metropolis, and the DOT goes to whip out the ol’ shoehorn and cram an extra-wide bike lane into tenth Avenue:

After all this can be a good factor, and it’s solely “cramming” if you happen to consider that tenth Avenue ought to have eleventy million lanes for automobiles prefer it does now, although I admit this half scares me a bit:

Advocates are all the time warning about induced demand with regard to freeway widening and automobiles, and I can’t assist considering wider bicycle lanes are simply going to imply extra motor scooters and the like going the place the bikes are purported to be–consider it as “in-douched demand.” Actually, at this level it appears hopelessly naive to assume that something resembling a devoted bicycle community can exist in midtown Manhattan, and the time period “bicycle lane” itself is starting to sound like a vestigial linguistic remnant from a bygone period, type of like the way you’ll nonetheless hear “dial” with regard to cellphone numbers though no person’s truly dialed a cellphone in like 40 years.

Nonetheless, as I say, total the brand new Bike Lane XL is an effective factor, or on the very least not a nasty factor, and it’s equally naive to fake this new sort of transportation doesn’t exist or that the town shouldn’t attempt to determine methods to accommodate it. I imply positive, the brand new bike lane may very properly transform a clusterfuck, however in comparison with what’s there now how dangerous may it probably be? It’s 2023 and the present state of New York Metropolis’s streets is simply embarrassing. Principally, it’s simply automobiles, bikes, varied mutant motorized gizmos, and pathetic curbside eating sukkahs battling for house:

Sooner or later I’ll stop this weblog and open a sequence of House Depot-scale Judaica shops referred to as “I’m Gonna Git You Sukkah.”

By the way in which, word the scooterist whizzing by on the sidewalk:

In the meantime, from the identical native information outlet comes this story a few bicyclist who has critically injured a pedestrian:

I can’t ensure, however that appears very very like an electrical Citi Bike to me:

The story calls him a “hit-and-run bike owner,” however it was extra like he hit, hung round for awhile, after which casually rode away:

“The bike rider initially remained on the scene and was there with the police however later you see the individual choose up the bike and experience off.“

After that first half-hour Citi Bike fees you $4 each quarter-hour, so he in all probability was nervous about working up a giant invoice. Anticipate advocates to start out foyer without cost Citi Bikes on the premise that it’ll encourage riders who run down pedestrians to stay round.

It’s irritating that bike-on-ped crashes get a lot consideration, whereas drivers hit individuals so typically it appears completely unremarkable. Equally, it’s tempting to dismiss individuals who say stuff like this:

“I don’t even take into consideration automobiles after I cross the road; as I cross the road I’m on the lookout for the bikes. Left, proper, I’m on the lookout for the bikes. It’s horrible.“

I imply how arduous can he be on the lookout for something in these glasses?

Nonetheless, the reality is that a lot of the driving within the Chrystie Avenue bike lane is actually abjectly horrible. Bicyclists run lights on the t-intersections as pedestrians attempt to cross. Gentrification Bros on freshly-assembled consumer-direct bikes curse out aged individuals who dare put a single foot within the bike lane. Just a few months in the past I even noticed a Citi Biker tending to the aged man she will need to have simply hit, proper close to the place this newest crash occurred. So Deal-With-It-Glasses Man actually isn’t mendacity.

Generally you’re the press, and typically you’re the bar. Within the metropolis, bicyclists will be each. We must always do every little thing we are able to to be neither.