How I made cycling fun again

How I made cycling fun again
by timdaub.eth12379 🥝 • 1y • proofinprogress.com
AI summary of the linked article

The author describes giving up on using bikes for city transportation and reframing cycling as a sport, after years of frustration over traffic safety in Berlin. They say they once believed bikes could make inner cities less polluted, quicker and safer, but close calls with motorists left them exhausted and stressed. Their new rules are to ride only for sport, keep workouts under an hour (for example, 15 minutes out and back), and minimize time sharing roads with motorists. They report that this has made cycling enjoyable again, and they bought a Canyon Griyl AL 7 gravel bike to do so.

Recommended by 3 curators
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Maybe one day truely safe Amsterdam-style cycling in the city will be possible.

Personally I think Berlin is safer to cycle than Amsterdam currently. Of course there much more cycling roads in Amsterdam and motorists are more aware. But Amsterdam has become so busy with cyclists, also now w/ multiple speeds of popular electric bikes and so-called fat bikes that go very fast cycling has become and is becoming more dangerous. Lots of accidents and almost accidents, at rush hours stuff gets crazy. There’s regulation coming to curb the fat bikes. But maybe currently the bike has become a bit too popular :)
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My cycling experience in Berlin was pretty good, very flat and quite well indicated, even during road works. That said, I completely get the "less road rage and more peaceful ride" side of things
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Ok granted Amsterdam is chaotic Misha. In Berlin it‘s not so much the average experience. More the outlier experience of having a few really crazy close calls from having to share the road with cars.

I don‘t consider other bikers as dangerous as cars tbh. I feel like the chance to be super badly injured by a car is quite high, whereas a crash with a bike may still have all sorts of outcomes, no?

But I get what you‘re saying, I‘ve been in Amsterdam 2 years ago and during rush hour it was nuts.
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What I also like about cycling in Berlin is that you have these nice long stretches and you can bike very fast without having to break all the time. There’s just a lot of space. But I’m also biased since I think Berlin is a very cool city and biking through Berlin also feels very cool lol. But admit car dangers are much bigger in Berlin, in that respect Amsterdam is a lot safer. But watch out for taxi’s in Amsterdam, they are relentless and will push off the road if they can. But what is nice in Amsterdam that from the safety your bike you can curse everything and everyone out loud, as it’s culturally acceptable.
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