Comments on: Guest Photo of the Day: Theory and Practice of Wheel-Bender Cycle Parking

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 09 May 2020 20:41:35 +0000

A little shout out for the Countdown supermarket chain. My local Countdown gets my business in part because it has simple loop bike stands conveniently placed at the front door. More stands would be nice, but at the moment the number is adequate. From casual observation, this seems to be standard practice for Countdown.

Disclaimer: Whilst I was born in the old Essex hospital in east Christchurch, I currently reside in small town NZ, where the supermarket is doing better than the district council at providing bike parking facilities.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 11:05:53 +0000

When I see that style of wheel bender racks. I generally lift my bike over the rail so my frame is sitting on the rack. This lets me lock my frame to the rack. Often the front wheel ends up in the wheel slot but that’s not necessary.

By: Jan Jakob

Jan Jakob — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 04:09:21 +0000

In reply to Maia H. I personally don't like them. I find them overly restrictive in relation to where you can attach the lock on your bike, and they make it very difficult to lock two bikes together. I don't understand why the wheel needs reinvention in relation to cycle racks. For normal single-tier cycle racks, it seems to me that the Sheffield lock is the easiest to use.

By: Jan Jakob

Jan Jakob — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 03:53:21 +0000

In reply to Jan Jakob. Hmm, but the locking point doesn't actually support the bike in any way and will only work with either very long locks or by only locking the front wheel. I still prefer the ChCh design.

By: Maia H

Maia H — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 02:25:32 +0000

How do people feel about the ‘spiral’ or ‘coil’ bike racks, like the ones outside the Arts Centre on Worcester St? Are they practical? What’s your experience?
Like this style: https://furphyfoundry.com.au/the-products/bike-racks/item/spiral-bike-rack

By: LennyBoy

LennyBoy — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 02:18:54 +0000

In reply to Jan Jakob.

Good spotting about the Bielefeld typo; don’t know how that snuck in there!
The Wgtn double-racks do have a central locking loop (not easy to see in the photo); it might be easier to watch the “how-to” video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABGrqmtZ3gY

By: Andreas

Andreas — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 22:21:19 +0000

I am happy to see that the guidelines consider appropriate spaces for larger (cargo) bikes. That’s a frequent problem: finding adequate space for our cargo bike…

The ChCh bus exchange, btw, works for cargo bikes (the frames are actually pretty good) even if the space is a bit tight.

Jan – for those readers who are less familiar with the spelling and conspiracy jokes regarding Westphalian provincial towns, here’s a helpful link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld_conspiracy . And for the hardcore social constructivists amongst us: Better check it out! It’s also a good region for cycling…

By: Jan Jakob

Jan Jakob — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 20:55:38 +0000

This is a comment pretty much unrelated to my photo, but I like how the bike parking guidelines seem to support the theory that there actually is no place called Bielefeld in Germany.

On a more serious note, I am curious about the Grey Street two-tier parking in Wellington. From what I can see on the photo, the top tier does not allow actually locking the bike, and while both front and back wheel slot in, there is still the possibility that a large or repeated collateral force would bend the wheels, or am I mistaken?

The cycle parking in the bus interchange in Christchurch at least has a frame support/locking option on the top tier. (Although I overall think/agree that it is unfortunate how much money must have been spent on the cycle parking there and the Lichfield St park only to get what is correctly characterised as unacceptable/sub-optimal parking in the guide.)

By: Wayne Phillips

Wayne Phillips — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 08:31:16 +0000

My bikes not in that pic, but I normally park over where the green MTB is.
They have better loops at the cinema side but way too few

The central city spots seem to have figured this out properly

By: C Kilgour

C Kilgour — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:48:39 +0000

The distance apart of the slot racks in the photo above would be less of an issue if it was’t fixed in place next to a wall giving access only to one side instead of both. Having space on both sides would also give people more options of how they secure their bike to it.