I have a little thing on my blog called
Stat Counter; it tells me how many hits per day this blog gets and from what area they come from.
At the beginning of this year, I was getting about a 100 hits a day; now, six months later that has crept up to 200-250 hits a day on average.
When this suddenly doubled to 521 hits yesterday, I wondered why. It was due in part to a link posted on a British Forum; appropriately named
Another Cycling Forum. Like most of these forums, they cater to the younger generation, whose enthusiasm is only surpassed by their lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge, that is, outside their own little world they live in.
These British kids were discussing the
New Jersey Quick Release Ban; old news here but for whatever reason they thought it was worth discussing. Some of them thought my blog on the story was “Silly.”
What people in other parts of the world have to understand is that here in America we have politicians who constantly pass laws to protect us from ourselves.
Then we have lawyers who uphold those laws, when what we really need are laws to protect us from politicians and lawyers.
I’ll give you a hypothetical example. On the South Coast of England there are the famous White Cliffs of Dover. Chalk cliffs that a quite beautiful and rise several hundred feet above the English Channel.
You can walk along the top of these cliffs and on a clear day see the coast of France that is only some 25 miles away.
There are signs posted along the cliff top footpath, warning people not to go near the edge because the soft chalk may crumble and they could fall to their death.
If that were America the there would be a chain-link fence with barbed wire on top because someone thought that Americans were stupid enough to go to the edge to see if it really would crumble.
Such a fence would spoil the natural beauty of the cliffs, and ruin the view for everyone. But, of course if Dover were in the USA someone would eventually fall over the edge, and someone would sue the Town of Dover for their entire budget for the next twenty years, so it is cheaper to put up a fence.
So to these young British cyclists, yes I think quick release hubs are a good idea, but here in America it is “Cheaper to put up a fence,” like fitting solid axels and hex nuts to some bikes.
In particular, the ones sold at Costco or Wal-Mart, were the checker at the cash register will not show you how to adjust the quick release spindles, so your wheels won’t fall out.
At the beginning of this year, I was getting about a 100 hits a day; now, six months later that has crept up to 200-250 hits a day on average.
When this suddenly doubled to 521 hits yesterday, I wondered why. It was due in part to a link posted on a British Forum; appropriately named Another Cycling Forum.
Like most of these forums, they cater to the younger generation, whose enthusiasm is only surpassed by their lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge, that is, outside their own little world they live in.
These British kids were discussing the New Jersey Quick Release Ban; old news here but for whatever reason they thought it was worth discussing. Some of them thought my blog on the story was “Silly.”
What people in other parts of the world have to understand is that here in America we have politicians who constantly pass laws to protect us from ourselves.
Then we have lawyers who uphold those laws, when what we really need are laws to protect us from politicians and lawyers.
I’ll give you a hypothetical example. On the South Coast of England there are the famous White Cliffs of Dover. Chalk cliffs that a quite beautiful and rise several hundred feet above the English Channel.
You can walk along the top of these cliffs and on a clear day see the coast of France that is only some 25 miles away.
There are signs posted along the cliff top footpath, warning people not to go near the edge because the soft chalk may crumble and they could fall to their death.
If that were America the there would be a chain-link fence with barbed wire on top because someone thought that Americans were stupid enough to go to the edge to see if it really would crumble.
Such a fence would spoil the natural beauty of the cliffs, and ruin the view for everyone. But, of course if Dover were in the USA someone would eventually fall over the edge, and someone would sue the Town of Dover for their entire budget for the next twenty years, so it is cheaper to put up a fence.
So to these young British cyclists, yes I think quick release hubs are a good idea, but here in America it is “Cheaper to put up a fence,” like fitting solid axels and hex nuts to some bikes.
In particular, the ones sold at Costco or Wal-Mart, were the checker at the cash register will not show you how to adjust the quick release spindles, so your wheels won’t fall out.