When I visited the United States the first time in 1992, I found the state of bicycling abysmally strange. Coming from Hungary where bikes were nothing special really, but standard tools of transportation that pretty much every family had, usually single speed, old, strong and fairly comfortable – and, curiously, mostly black – I didn’t have an extremely high set of expectations. I guess I just didn’t understand what I saw here: thin-wheeled ten speeders with very low horn-looking contraptions for a handlebar, and wide-tired beasts with even more speeds, that had straight handlebars, but set just as low and uncomfortable. Not one bike with fenders, lights, bells, rear or frong bike racks or locks, which was a standard feature in Hungary. Walking into a bike shop felt like going to a men’s section of a department clothing store; lots of gray and black wear. I even remember trying to comfort myself musing, that these strange equipments at least still come with seats. Little did I understand, that they were mostly used for sport or maybe some leisure riding, but not for transportation.
The bicycle world has changed tremendously since, I am lucky to say. Now it is inspiring to walk into most bike-shops. They still have the feather light road bikes for thousands, and the uncomfortable mountain bikes with cheap shocks, but there are some comfortable bikes, as well as ones that come ready for rain and night-riding, not to mention the hybrids, the 29-ers and the cargo-ready bicycles and tricycles.
One of the most informative tools around bicycling proved to be the Internet for me. Not only informative as to what is available and where, but it also helps learning about how to integrate biking into your life. Or just be inspired by what is possible. One of my favorite site is Joe Bike, one of the largest single bikeshops in the world, and what is even better, they specialize in utility and urban bicycles. I have found evaluations, advice, statistics and user opinions about many bicycles and bicycling-related activities on their site. Incidentally we also agree about the particulars of cargo bikes: just look at their Yuba Mundo page!
I am fascinated with Tom’s Cargo Bikes. He modifies existing bicycles – drastically – to make them cargo ready. Or you can say he cuts up and reassembles bicycle frames to specialize them for cargo carrying.
These are just a few of the vast amount of resources out there in the information world. But Transition Amherst also has a list of linked resources to support bicycling, look here for more.
