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Ignorant anti-bike essay

October 10th, 2006 by Tim Grahl

bikereader.com:

Our nation is afflicted with a plague of bicycles. Everywhere the public right-of-way is glutted with whirring, unbalanced contraptions of rubber, wire, and cheap steel pipe. Riders of these flimsy appliances pay no heed to stop signs or red lights. They dart from between parked cars, dash along double yellow lines, and whiz through crosswalks right over the toes of law-abiding citizens like me.

In the cities, every lamppost, tree, and street sign is disfigured by a bicycle slathered in chains and locks. And elevators must be shared with the cycling faddist so attached to his “moron’s bath-chair” that he has to take it with him everywhere he goes.

In the country, one cannot drive around a curve or over the crest of a hill without encountering a gaggle of huffing bicyclers spread across the road in suicidal phalanx.

Even the wilderness is not safe from infestation, as there is now such a thing as an off-road bicycle and a horrible sport called “bicycle-cross.”

The ungainly geometry and primitive mechanicals of the bicycle are an offense to the eye. The grimy and perspiring riders of the bicycle are an offense to the nose. And the very existence of the bicycle is an offense to reason and wisdom.

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5 Responses to “Ignorant anti-bike essay”

  1. 1 j 

    Before the hate emails start, PJ Orourke is a great satirist and this should not be taken at face value.
    Funny read!

  2. 2 ethan 

    Oh, it’s a satire. I can appreciate that. All I was going to say was that I think having the sky blotted out by an H3 is “an offense to the eye.” But since it’s SATIRE, I’ll just chuckle. Huh huh huh.

  3. 3 coolman 

    I can’t beleive this guy.

  4. 4 Jill 

    This column is hilareous! It’s so over the top that it actually seems to stump for the cyclists’ cause. We should run it alongside Crazy Biker Chick’s recent open letter to motorists.

  1. 1 dirtpedaler »

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