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Why walk a bicycle?

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    Why walk a bicycle?

    I remember walking home from school in the mid 1970s and seeing a teenager walking his ten-speed bike. The chain was fine, as were the tires. Yet instead of riding it, he was walking it.

    You see it all the time, still, and I always wonder why.

    The WaPo has a photo essay up of North Korea, and there's a guy walking his state-issue bicycle past a crumbling factory. Why? Why do people walk bikes?

    In fifty years, I've yet to find out.

    #2
    Sudden development of hemorrhoids?

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      #3
      Maybe people just get tyred.

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        #4
        Happy Birthday, Tobes.

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          #5
          Pedestrian zone? Wrong way on a one way street? Choice of pushing on the sidewalk or riding on a massive highway full of cars going 80mph? Also mechanical problems I've seen: punctures; broken spoke causing buckled wheel which you can't get past the brakes; broken chain; saddle has sheared off; saddle was stolen by street urchins; etc.

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            #6
            I'd always suspected it was less functional and more philosophical.

            Really.

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              #7
              Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
              Pedestrian zone? Wrong way on a one way street? Choice of pushing on the sidewalk or riding on a massive highway full of cars going 80mph? Also mechanical problems I've seen: punctures; broken spoke causing buckled wheel which you can't get past the brakes; broken chain; saddle has sheared off; saddle was stolen by street urchins; etc.

              https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aW-BPno1LHY

              San B, yesterday.

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                #8
                I was once made to walk my bike home by the police, as they saw me cycling unsteadily at 1 in the morning, after a night on the piss.

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                  #9
                  An Oxford policeman did the same to me one day while I was cycling home slightly drunk without lights. Being an Oxford policeman, he phrased it: "Sir, you have no lights. Would you please dismount from your machine!"

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                    #10
                    Someone from a completely flat country offers: hill too steep?

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                      #11
                      Some of the people I used to work with would push their shiny, gearless, brakeless, mudguard-less bicycles because the bicycles would have got dirty if they'd ridden them.

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                        #12
                        I walk my bike a lot:

                        a) when I'm tired
                        b) when it's a scary busy stretch of road
                        c) when I want to get a good look at something
                        d) when the road is too steepily hilly (up or down)
                        e) when I'm a bit saddle-sore

                        Those are the main reasons.

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                          #13
                          Just for the sake of a change. Transfer the work to other muscles.

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                            #14
                            So as not to wear out the bicycle?

                            (I'm not being entirely unflippant - I once helped someone take their luggage from a bus stop to a classroom across the other side of a largish campus. I asked her why she wasn't wheeling one of the suitcases and was carrying it instead and she replied that she didn't want to wear the wheels out)

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                              #15
                              What, so that they're in good working condition for when she does want to use them? What an odd position to take.

                              I walk mine a few metres up the pavement when I take it out, because the road we live on goes the wrong way for the direction nearly always want to travel in. So I walk to the corner, then jump on and ride where I want with the traffic.

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                                #16
                                Maybe he was injured or was sore from all the riding he had been doing. Using the same muscles over and over again can hurt a lot, so maybe he just wanted a rest. Pushing a push bike doesn't seem in the slightest bit strange to me.

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Wouter D View Post
                                  Someone from a completely flat country offers: hill too steep?
                                  When I was younger and cared about what people thought, I would never admit that the hill just before my Mum's village was too steep for me. So instead of walking the bike, like any sane person, I picked it up and carried it over my shoulder, to show that I could have cycled, but the bike was clearly broken.

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                                    #18
                                    I used to really like going up hills. It's nice having a bike in Buenos Aires (especially as I was here for six and a half years before getting it, so I really really missed it by the time I bought one), but being back home a few months ago reminded me that it's even nicer having one in the countryside where a) you can just ride and ride and ride and not have to stop every hundred yards for traffic lights or worry about what cars are doing, and b) there are more hills than in Buenos Aires because there are more hills everywhere (including the Netherlands - I've been to that far southern bit!) than there are in Buenos Aires.

                                    If we ever move somewhere with easier access to nature and in a country where bicycles are cheaper, one of my first purchases will be a nice one.

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                                      #19
                                      I have to walk my bike down the metal ramp to the South Shields ferry. Awkward in cleats. they have started policing it strictly, whereas I always got off if there was anyone walking down, but wheeled slowly if it was clear/empty.

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by MsD View Post
                                        I walk my bike a lot:

                                        a) when I'm tired
                                        b) when it's a scary busy stretch of road
                                        c) when I want to get a good look at something
                                        d) when the road is too steepily hilly (up or down)
                                        e) when I'm a bit saddle-sore

                                        Those are the main reasons.
                                        These are all me too, except for e). This is because I apply a) to d) so frequently I don't think I've ever yet reached the stage of e).

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                                          #21
                                          My saddle may affect me in ways yours doesn't affect you. I'm a sensitive flower

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                                            #22
                                            I had that trouble when I tried riding a horse

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                                              #23
                                              Because the school bullies have stolen your bicycle clips and you're wearing your cool flares. (Suggesting for a friend ... )

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