For some, bicycles are perceived as old technology, like a stage in the development of the car.
Deep in their unconscious, motorists believe they have the right to bump off cyclists who are seen as evolutionary losers.
Survival of the fittest.
This is of course not true and bikes will outlive the road dinosaurs if their emissions don’t make us all extinct first.
Many cyclists also still think in terms of bikes as they were decades ago. They learnt what they know when they were kids from their dads. A lot of bike riders never blow up their tyres enough and consequently don’t get the full pleasure of rolling along easily. Biking is experienced as hard work.
Bicycle tyres “these days” can be inflated to a high pressure. Read the text on the tyres - mine say they can go up to 100 psi. In the “old days” this would have blown out the tyre or tube or both. Cyclists were warned about using car tyre pumps in garages.
It is very hard to achieve anything like 100 psi with a little hand pump.
I bought a two-hand
floor pump with a gauge. A few pumps and the tyres were 80 psi, much harder than they had ever been. The effect was amazing. The ride is slightly more bumpy, but it is so much easier and free from road resistance.
Although a modern bike looks basically the same, almost all of its parts have been through major improvements. Tyres, brakes, gears, lights, frame all require rethinking on the part of users. A
fold-up bike is now stable and high-tech. An old-style
Holland bike now has some interesting technology including integrated locking, a quality dynamo and halogen lights.
Finally, the air-bag for pedestrians is out. As the world's urban tanks are arming themselves with more war-like capsules etc, navigation for the unarmoured (human) body becomes a death-defying challenge in the urban environment.
