Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

Re:Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as C... by dkhenry on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @03:16PM (#10267403)

I know its not an option for everyone, but a good cyclecross bike will do wonders for that kind of commute. I picked up a hybrid bike and got a set of tires with some tread on them and I can now handle gravel fairly well, and still get good rolling resistance on the rest of my ride

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Re:Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as C... by Florin_Andrei on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @03:29PM (#10267508)

I had a hybrid with fat tires, which I used to ride on trails like that. It makes the ride somewhat more bearable, yes.

But the point is - no pavement, no speed, regardless of what kind of bike your using. Pave those things, and your average speed on a bike would double at least.

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Re:Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as C... by lorenzhs on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @04:26PM (#10267907)

Double? I doubt that. Typically, I ride ~20km/h on gravel and ~23km/h on well-paved roads at commute speeds (i.e., no sweating). Maybe the gravel roads are terrible in SV, but around here, it hardly makes a difference in speed as gravel roads are well-maintained.

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Re:Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as C... by Florin_Andrei on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:05PM (#10268231)

The trail right along the shore is hard dirt, not quite asphalt, but passable. So that one is okay-ish.

But the connecting trail from SJ downtown along the creek towards the bay at some point changes from asphalt to literally a trough full of gravel. You'll lose a lot of speed there, no matter what kind of tires you're using.

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