Jim, I've seen pictures of a rack similar to the one you saw in Amsterdam. That one and the Belgian rack are wonderful in their simplicity, but their elegant functionality relies a great deal on the population using bikes that have a relatively uniform size and shape of the frame, and also relatively uniform width and radii of the tires. Bikes used on UW Campus have tires ranging in width from less than 1" to nearly 3", and diameters (at the bead) anywhere from 406mm to 622mm, and the profile of the tires makes that measurement vary even more.
Racks like the one in Amsterdam would therefore have to accommodate tires as narrow as 20mm all the way up to 65mm (even disregarding different radii). There are existing racks on campus that are actually very similar to the Belgian one (e.g. US Dairy Forage Research Center, and there used to be another example in Yahara Place Park). While they are heavily used (because there is no good alternative to them in the areas where they still exist), they do not readily accommodate different frame sizes and shapes. Consider whether those racks would accommodate this bike: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml00/00187.html which is, unfortunately, ubiquitous on this campus, or this bike: http://www.trekbikes.com/women/wsd_products/bikes/bike_path/7300wsd/ or this one: http://www.cannondale.com/usa/usaeng/Products/Bikes/Mountain/Hardtail/CO2/Det ails/1352-0FSW9-CO2-F9-Feminine Those two basic designs could be modified to deal with the variety we have here, but they would probably no longer be so simple or in expensive. Alternately, we could try to get everyone to ride bikes that are essentially identical like the Dutch, the Danes, [name a northern European country], and then designing a rack would be much easier. But ultimately I'd rather get more people riding ANY kind of bike. Chuck -----Original Message----- From: W Madison Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:00 AM Since I don't think we can attach or embed photographs, I have a photograph of each bike parking rack on Google Picassa: Amsterdam rack: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FHAWtp9VPM3UH9T99jAeolriZ2SnukJQEa-v2fLH l7I?feat=directlink Belgian rack: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ftA4eF0CZlp2acmmUE6LFVriZ2SnukJQEa-v2fLH l7I?feat=directlink Jim On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 8:28 PM, Robbie Webber wrote: > Sorry, hit send before I was done. > A decent rack will have the following properties: > * Supports the bike frame in two places, so that the bike can be leaned > against the rack. NO FENCE RACKS, that only support the wheel. These can > bend the wheel if the bike is jostled. Also fence racks don't allow: > * Accommodates a U-lock, and allows the bike frame and wheel to be locked to > the rack. > * Bike parking spaces are a minimum of 2 feet in width, six feet in length, > with a five foot access aisle (what would be a drive aisle in a parking > lot.) Racks should be placed no closer than 2 feet from a vertical surface, > so that the front wheel doesn't hit the wall/planter/curb when you park at > the rack... _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
