Wings rides her tall bike for short errands and fun rides – she rode horses as a child and finds tall biking similarly exhilarating. She analyzes intersections for poles she can lean against, or trash cans she can stand on, and she’s learned to trigger crosswalk buttons with her foot. She doesn’t find regular biking any safer; careless and aggressive drivers are still her major worry. But on her tall bike she’s much more careful and deliberate in traffic, “It’s more like driving a bus,” she said.
Wings praises Portland’s Bureau of Transportation for “taking care of bikers,” and Portland’s drivers for giving tall bikers the extra room they need. But tall bikes are not for everyone. “It’s no-nonsense stuff,” she said. “You can get doubly injured falling from tall bikes, but it’s also double the fun.”
Special sidebar on Tall Bike History available here.
The Irondelles, irondelles.net
Dropout Bike Club, dropoutbikeclub.blogspot.com
Chunk 666’s Tall bike Construction Primer, chunk666lab.blogspot.com/2008/09/tall-bike-construction-primer.html
Johnny Payphone’s Tall bike History Page, johnnypayphone.net/tallbikes
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