BSNYS Friday Fun Quiz!

It's Friday, which means the weekend is coming, which means you're going to ride your bike, which means if you're the sort of idiot who rides around with your skewers open you'll want to make sure your bike isn't included in the massive quick release recall:



So don't forget to do the "#2 pencil test," by opening your quick release and making sure you can fit a pencil between the handle and the rotor:

"If the pencil fits between the handle and the disc, you're fine."

Uh, no, you're not fine, you're RIDING WITH THE SKEWER OPEN.

I find it disturbing that we've reached the point where riding with your quick release open is just assumed, and that the bike companies are obligated to adjust their safety standards accordingly.

If it were up to me I'd just let them all crash.

Then again I am a truly miserable and unforgiving person.  I realized this during my last trip to the Philly Bike Expo, which Stevil of All Hail The Black Market attended with me.  After the show we went to get cheese steaks, and on the way to whichever grease-slinging tourist trap we eventually chose we passed a parked bicycle that had its skewers done up all wrong.  (The owner had clearly twirled them shut like wingnuts instead of levering them closed, which I would guess like 70% of the population does.)

I just scoffed and muttered "friggin' idiot" to myself like I usually do, but get this: Stevil stops walking, kneels right there on the filthy Philadelphia sidewalk (in the cheese steak district no less), and fixes the skewers.

For a stranger.

It was then I realized there are genuinely kind and thoughtful people out there, and that I am definitely not one of them.

However, far from feeling ashamed, it only reaffirmed my thoughtlessness, because as long as there are suckers like Stevil out there helping people for me then why should I even bother?

Sucker.

And now, I'm pleased to present you with a quiz.  As always, study the item, think, and click on your answer.  If you're right then WOW!!!, and if you're wrong you'll see someone go from aero to airborne.

Thanks very much for reading, ride safe, and careful where you stick that pencil.


--Wildcat Rock Machine

1) According to some guy from the Wall Street Journal, New York isn't a bike city because:

--It's not Amsterdam
--Bike share offers "a sensible alternative to sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic"
--Bike share works well
--All of the above

("The heck they will!")

2) Washington, DC public school students will:

--Learn to ride bikes in second grade

--Learn to repair bikes in seventh grade

--Learn to hate bikes in 12th grade

--Establish a bike polo league

3) The New York City Department of Education recently sent a letter to parents in certain "crash-prone" areas asking them not to let their children walk or ride bikes to school.

--True

--False

4) While riding his favorite climb, this Fred keeps finding:

--Bags of weed

--Lost sea turtle hatchlings

--Abandoned sunglasses

--Roadside porn

5) For a brief moment in bike advocacy, pushing your bike along on the sidewalk like a scooter was called:

--Schluffing

--Fluffing

--Sloughing

--Schnorring

6) A Toronto cyclist was charged with mischief for:

--Smashing a driver's windshield with a u-lock
--Deflating a driver's tires after a roadside altercation
--Throwing a driver's keys down a storm drain after the driver hit him
--"Failure to apologize"

(We need more bike-themed courtroom procedural dramas.)

7) A New York City cyclist is suing UPS for:

--Reckless driving
--Blocking the bike lane
--Losing the vintage bicycle frame he purchased on eBay
--Backing into his bicycle while it was locked to a city bike rack

"Bike Lane Freakout Goes Mainstream-Ish-Themed Bonus Video!"

(Via a reader, thank you reader.)

I'd high-five him if I could.