rjl20’s Recent Comments

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  Why detach it?

  I added an Xtracycle conversion kit to an old mountain bike a couple of years ago, and got rid of the car a couple months after that. Wanting to remove the attachment hasn't been an issue--it's no more difficult to ride the bike with the attachment than it was without it. I can't think of a reason I might want to take it off, in fact. If I were going to be racing, that's not the bike I would use anyway.

  So, no, taking it off "when you don't need it" isn't really an option. But that's not an option I think you would ever want to exercise. The whole point is that you have the extra carrying capacity all the time, even if you don't think you're going to need it. A used trailer is indeed cheaper, but I can count on one hand the number of times I've actually bothered to get out and use the trailer I bought at a garage sale a couple of years ago, while I've put 2500 miles on the Xtracycle in that same time.

  jdham137 is right: this really is life-changing. It's a pity there isn't a program set up for people who are interested to rent a cargo bike for a month, with the rental going towards the purchase price at the end if they decide they want to keep it. There are a lot of questions about these things where the only way to really understand the answer is to have one yourself for a while.

  As for car carriers, I don't think that the kind that puts the bike in back of the car (attached via trailer hitch or straps on the hatch/trunk) will work. The kind where you take the front wheel off and put the bike on top of the car might work. Basically, I think you'd want a tandem carrier.On Umbra on cargo bikes posted 1 year, 6 months ago 29 Responses

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  Other facilities

  If you're interested in comparing numbers with other facilities in the area, here's a link. Take the Norfolk City Animal Control and Pound Facility, for example. Euthanized 3,046 animals in 2006, and found homes for 993. So they euthanized about as many animals as PETA, and adopted out 82 times as many. Hm. Maybe the city pound is trying 82 times harder than PETA to place animals with families. Or maybe somehow the animals that are given to PETA by their owners are 1/82nd as cute and healthy as the strays the pound picks up. I dunno.

  Something's fishy, but I don't think it's the math.On Comment bait posted 1 year, 9 months ago 9 Responses

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  "reclaimed by owner"

  I'm pretty sure it's safe to discount the "reclaimed by owner" numbers because those are the animals that were brought in by their owners to be spayed/neutered. A very small percentage of those "reclaimed by owner" numbers are probably some of the strays from the intake numbers. But if you compare the "Others" intake and "Reclaimed by owner" disposition numbers, they match up pretty closely. As do--and this is the point--the "Surrendered by owner" and "Euthanized" numbers.

  PETA managed to place 12 animals for adoption in 2006. Do they even have an adoption program? Because I'd expect numbers like that to account for, say, shelter workers adopting animals themselves.On Comment bait posted 1 year, 9 months ago 9 Responses

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  Fuzzy math?

  Well, according to the report, PETA took in 3175 dogs in 2006, of which 2131 were claimed by their owners, 8 were adopted, 25 were transferred to  another agency, 3 died in the facility, 988 were euthanized, 17 were still at the facility at the end of the year, and 3 were "miscellaneous".

  If you don't count dogs that were returned to their owners, that's 988 killed and 56 not killed, or about a 5.7% survival rate. It's worse for cats: 1942 euthanized, 2 adopted, 21 transferred (and 4410 returned to their owners), for a 1.2% survival rate.

  That's, uh... not so good. CCF may be a front for Phillip Morris, but those numbers apparently came from PETA itself.On Comment bait posted 1 year, 9 months ago 9 Responses

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  Between high-end and low-end...

  Well, there is a middle ground between a $3000 mountain bike and a $170 toy store bike. Something entry-level but decent, like a $500 Mongoose Otero Comp, if you like the full-suspension Mongoose. Or the $400 Electra Townie, designed for city riding. Or a Marin Novato, around $500. And that's just the new bikes at retail. $300 and a little craigslist-searching will get you a bike that's a lot better constructed than that Spear. Heck, $150 and a few hours of maintenance would probably get something I'd trust more.

  I dunno. I don't want to rain on your parade. I think the electric system looks awesome. I just think that buying a toy store bike to build up from is a false economy. It may look like the $7000 bike, and the electric system may perform better, but I would be very surprised indeed if it's as mechanically sound. And, you know, if I were going to have a motor on my bike that could push me to 30mph and above, I'd want really good brakes. Or, at the very least, decent brakes. The brakes that came with that bike aren't designed to be decent; they're designed to be inexpensive.

  (Speaking of killing ants with sledgehammers, I've heard the very same metaphor used to describe using a full-suspension bike on city streets and curbs. Just sayin'.)On Ultimate Seattle hybrid plug-in posted 2 years, 5 months ago 25 Responses