15 ms·

In praise of the humble Sheffield stand

563 points by _dain_ 4y ago

_dain_ 4y ago
(Submitter) It makes me think that we ought to retire the phrase "reinvent the wheel". There's lots of different kinds of wheels and it doesn't seem crazy that you would need to make a new kind. And when people do make new kinds of wheel, they generally meet some minimum bar of worthiness (rather than being say, square). But I've never seen any improvement to the classic Sheffield stand, save possibly for the sub-variety with the extra bar underneath. Yet industrial designers insist on inflicting their patently inferior "innovations" onto long-suffering cyclists. Especially irksome when it happens in my own city of ... Sheffield! So maybe we should say "reinvent the Sheffield stand" :)
- hprotagonist 4y ago
  don’t reinvent the pneumatic tire or the saddle, either :)
- trollied 4y ago
  Hello fellow Sheffielder :)
  - _dain_ 4y ago
    eyup
    - snalty 4y ago
      there's dozens of us!
- Aeolun 4y ago
  To be fair, if nobody tries to improve on something good, we’d never have something better.
Jolter 4y ago
Page unreadable on an iPhone (tried both Safari and Firefox). All the images are blank… Any advice?
- forrestthewoods 4y ago
  Works fine for me. Maybe a content blocker?
  - Jolter 4y ago
    Ah, yes. I forgot I had enabled Firefox Focus as content blocker, for some reason. It must have a rule for Twitter images or something. Thanks!
- _dain_ 4y ago
  Twitter link: https://twitter.com/BrixtonHatter/status/1493299809574342659 https://twitter.com/BrixtonHatter/status/1493299809574342659 Alternate ad-free lightweight frontend: https://nitter.net/BrixtonHatter/status/1493299809574342659 https://nitter.net/BrixtonHatter/status/1493299809574342659
- saila 4y ago
  The images don't load for me on desktop Firefox, but I can see them when I view the thread on Twitter. They seem to be blocked on Thread Reader because they're classified by Firefox as "Social Tracking."
- aembleton 4y ago
  Try https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1493299809574342659.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1493299809574342659.html
micheljansen 4y ago
In The Netherlands we commonly refer to these as “staples”
- abyssin 4y ago
  In French we call them reverted U.
  - chrisseaton 4y ago
    Reverted?
    - TacticalCoder 4y ago
      I think he meant "inverted U". An upside-down U if you want.
      - jenaimarre 4y ago
        "Un U renversé"
causality0 4y ago
I don't understand why many of the stands he calls useless are useless. Sure most of them are less economical but as long as there's a loop of metal anchored to the ground how is it useless?
- _dain_ 4y ago
  They don't work for many bicycle geometries[1]. Small vs large frames, small vs large wheels, wide vs narrow tyres, tricycles, tandem bikes, cargo bikes, recumbent bikes, hand-cranked bikes etc. Also if they are too finicky about the exact way you lock the bike (particular orientation, particular lock-point) it can be hard to make it work when there are obstacles (such as other bikes). The Sheffield stand makes the fewest assumptions. The "wheel grabber" kinds are particularly useless; thieves just detach the wheel or snip the wires and make off with the remainder. [1] I'll give an example: the other week I tried to lock my bike to a trapezoid shaped stand, kind of like #13 in the thread but longer and without the lower wiggly bit. It was perpendicular to a wall, with the tall end towards the wall. The diagonal part happened to be exactly parallel with the mid-frame of my bike. Since parallel lines do not intersect, I would have had to move the bike completely inside the stand in order to make a D-lock fit around it, which was precluded by the placement next to the wall. I couldn't put it the other way and attach it to the rear chain stays because it would have jutted out into the path and obstructed pedestrians. Try as I might, I just couldn't make it work. So I just attached it to a metal fence ten yards away.
  - abyssin 4y ago
    And there’s the risk of getting a wheel out true if the slightest pression is applied to your bike horizontally.
  - contravariant 4y ago
    You're supposed to fix the frame to the stand, why are you just attaching the wheel? Wheel "grabbers" (usually just called 'fietsenrek') are pretty common in the Netherlands, especially the 2 level ones, because they allow the greatest number of bikes in a small area. This does have some downsides obviously, but in the Netherlands 'largest number of bikes' tends to outweigh other concerns.
jmclnx 4y ago
I have never seen a Sheffield stand where I live, but far better than what we have. The only way to lock a bike to the ones here is to take up 5 or 6 lock points since these are designed only to lock your wheel to them. Have a ulock ? Find a sign.
- saila 4y ago
  Not sure what kind of racks you have but for some back-in parking might be easier than front-in. I try to lock one of the back tubes and wheel if possible. I'm also a fan of the Sheldon Brown lockup strategy[1]. There's also a modified version that may be more secure[2]. [1] https://sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html https://sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html [2] http://www.802bikeguy.com/2011/07/the-modified-sheldon-brown-bike-locking-strategy/ http://www.802bikeguy.com/2011/07/the-modified-sheldon-brown...
  - stereoabuse 4y ago
    I too use this Sheldon Brown style but, because my main NYC commute bicycle has quick release front and back, I pop off my front wheel and position it adjacent to the rear one so the u-lock can go around both as well as the the stand (which is more than likely a parking sign post). Takes 5 seconds, saves me carrying a second lock, and no wheels stolen in 15 years of Manhattan and Brooklyn cycling!
Symbiote 4y ago
Several of the "useless" ones are very common in Copenhagen, where bikes often aren't locked to the stand at all. My bike is in the third type right now, and will use the fourth at work tomorrow. (Of course, the point remains that these aren't suitable in England.)
Freak_NL 4y ago
Those staples work well; plenty of those in the Netherlands. One alternative that works fairly well is this fixed post thingy: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Fixed_bollard_bicycle_stand.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Fixed_bo... The clamp for the vertical seat bar is probably what limits this to conventional framed bicycles, but the U-ring welded below is very useful for attaching the lock as I did on the photograph. The big benefit of this one is that the clamp can be closed, and that your bicycle is then essentially storm-proof (I would guess for at least one Beaufort more than the Sheffield staple).
- n4r9 4y ago
  Those are probably fine for the Netherlands where the vast majority of bikes are city-bikes with stands. They don't offer much leaning support or multiple points of contact with the frame though, so unlikely to get the approval of the author of that article.
jeffbee 4y ago
There's an American firm called Forms+Surfaces that has a whole catalog full of terrible, weird bike racks. They must have a lot of mindshare among architects apparently because their junk keeps popping up all over California. Nobody who has ever used a bicycle would choose them but they keep showing up anyway. Here's a fun tweet where local well-known cyclist rips them out of the pavement with his bare hands. https://twitter.com/prinzrob/status/1230204877491433473 https://twitter.com/prinzrob/status/1230204877491433473
- woodruffw 4y ago
  > Nobody who has ever used a bicycle would choose them but they keep showing up anyway. It's probably a safe bet that, in many municipalities, the city planners see cyclists as a nuisance and are solely interested in doing what (they think) will shut them up. They also might see normal looking bike racks as an eyesore, hence sloppy installations combined with useless designs.
- wffurr 4y ago
  Those particular racks don't seem awful other than the way they're (not) secured to the pavement.
  - jeffbee 4y ago
    "Can be permanently secured to the ground" and "Can be temporarily secured to a bicycle" are the only two requirements!
    - wffurr 4y ago
      Presumably the installers just used the wrong sort of concrete anchor...
      - jeffbee 4y ago
        In this particular case, true, but the design of these also lacks feet, so the leverage of the rack works against it, rather than in its favor.
pkulak 4y ago
So, which is the Sheffield Stand? The first one?
- blamazon 4y ago
  Yes. It looks like a big staple.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
pkdpic 4y ago
> known as the "Sheffield rack" or "Sheffield stand" after the city of Sheffield in England where these were pioneered [wikipedia] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_parking_rack https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_parking_rack Just in case anyone was interested in the etymolology. Also they used to make bike racks out of wood? Sick (?!) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_parking_rack#/media/File%3ALow-tech_bicycle_rack_at_Bailiffscourt_Hotel_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1593931.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_parking_rack#/media/... PS I loved this post and I agree completely. Bike rack opinionation achieved.
- tasuki 4y ago
  I'm a bit of a cycling enthusiast and have lived in wonderful Sheffield. Yet I've never heard about this being called "Sheffield stand". Very excited to learn :)
- jml7c5 4y ago
  >Also they used to make bike racks out of wood? Sick (?!) That photo is relatively recent (2006), and it's quite likely that that bike rack is not very old. It appears to be on the grounds of a hotel estate where locking would be unnecessary and a rural aesthetic is key.
  - n4r9 4y ago
    Agreed, I think you can see this rack (or at least the bikes stood in it) in this street-view link: https://www.google.com/maps/@50.7988844,-0.580026,3a,17.1y,192h,84.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSyMLx1jWwuw1qrJO7lLhYQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@50.7988844,-0.580026,3a,17.1y,1... I wonder why the photographer decided to make it black and white!
- cjrp 4y ago
  Makes sense, given Sheffield was a major steelmaking town back in the day.
notatoad 4y ago
Note: The twitter OP has put the #/n indicator in-between the caption and the photo. Which makes sense on Twitter, but when threadreader strips out the formatting it makes it look like the captions line up with the wrong image. Captions precede the corresponding images in this thread.
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  Strange example of a Twitter thread that is less readable when turned into a blog post!
IshKebab 4y ago
I 100% agree. I have never found a bike stand design as good as the simple staple. One particularly annoying thing is stands designed to hold a larger number of bikes, often by lifting bikes and hanging them or something equally annoying. They all end up putting the bikes way too close so in practice people only use every other space and you fit even fewer bikes in. The staple design is just by far the best.
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  And when there are no bikes, they make good gymnastic equipment for kids.
blamazon 4y ago
In my car-centric city (southeast USA, population ~125k) when I visit private property with no bicycle parking, I try to find the owner and offer to install one of these just for the cost of materials. The idea being, they can put in another one when they see more than one customer on a bicycle at the same time. It's very cheap, less than 100 bucks typically as I have the requisite tools in my garage to make them from scratch out of metal tubing. There's a variety of materials, finishing, and mounting options the property owner can choose from. I've done about a dozen of them, it makes biking around my city much more pleasant and my day is brighter when I see someone else using one.
- foobiekr 4y ago
  If I was an owner, I'd have a lot of problems with this just because I'd be worried there'd be some regulation I was violating that would get me fined.
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    If it's on the owner's property, it's probably kosher. Many cities have rules about the proximity of bike racks/stands to fire hydrants, parking meters, etc., but those generally concern public sidewalks. I say probably because, knowing this country, I am positive someone can find a municipality that bans storeowners from putting bike stands on their property.
    - aidenn0 4y ago
      One example from Twitter thread: Might need a tapping bar for accessibility to blind people.
      - idontpost 4y ago
        Blind people that need to attach their bikes to a rack?
        Rebelgecko 4y ago
dang 4y ago
Url changed from https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1493299809574342659 https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1493299809574342659, which points to this. It's fine to posts links to alternative views in the thread, but please submit the original source (per https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).
- tasuki 4y ago
  But... Twitter is unreadable! I get all these weird popups and it requires enormous amounts of effort just to follow the thread. We probably can't fix Twitter. Would it be possible to reconsider the guidelines to allow for alternative views of websites that have absolutely atrocious usability?
  - deadbunny 4y ago
    I've never had this issue with Twitter threads. Granted I'm signed in and viewing with Firefox + ad blocker.
    - thih9 4y ago
      The experience is different when you're not signed in; you can only view a couple of tweets and then you hit a login wall.
  - dang 4y ago
    Some people feel the way you do and some people feel the opposite way. It's clear that no solution will satisfy everyone, so it's best to stick with the original source rule and then have links to alternatives in the comments. (Btw in case it's helpful, I've found the Minimal Twitter extension tolerable - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20517129 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20517129. Personal opinion, not qua moderator!)
- _dain_ 4y ago
  My bad, I thought I was being helpful since people complain about Twitter threads all the time.
mrsuprawsm 4y ago
For most bike "racks" here in NL it seems like the primary purpose is not security, but just having somewhere to lean bikes against and give people a sensible place to park their bikes (as opposed to "in a huge pile") Most people don't bother physically locking their regular city bikes to anything (only using a ring lock on the bike itself), primarily cheap beater bikes but also there's a guy in my street with a €2000 Van Moof e-bike that I think is just leaning against his front wall.
- Rechtsstaat 4y ago
  Yeah, most bikes in NL are not that expensive and/or old, have only integrated ring locks and are still not be attractive to opportunistic thieves. Still, I'm glad that most places have proper Sheffield stands at most one block away here.
- ghostly_s 4y ago
  No one locks their bikes in Japan, either. According to Wikipedia this is thanks to "strong policing and general public disregard for stolen items." I can certainly say I've never heard of a US police department doing anything proactive in response to a reported bike theft.
  - b4je7d7wb 4y ago
    You also have to to do some paperwork for buying a bike. I assume you have to transfer ownership when selling, so stolen bikes probably cannot really be sold on the open market.
    - woodruffw 4y ago
      Out of sheer ignorance: what are the implications of not having the proper paperwork? Do Japan's street policemen take note of suspicious looking bikes and follow up with their owners?
      - Aeolun 4y ago
        I have been stopped when driving suspiciously at night. I do not know what exactly constitutes suspicious, but the main thing they do is check whether your bike paperwork is in order, and (as a foreigner) that your residence card is valid.
orbital-decay 4y ago
Sadly, no amount of locking points provides sufficient protection against an experienced thief. In London, I've seen some of these Sheffield stands cut with an angle grinder.
- wffurr 4y ago
  It doesn't have to be perfect; just good enough. You don't have to lock up perfectly, just better than the bikes around you. And carry insurance and be prepared to replace your bicycle. Or just ride beaters.
  - Fricken 4y ago
    I remind myself that taking transit costs $1200/year. That's what the poor people who can't afford a nice bike do. I don't come anywhere close to having a $1200 worth of bike stolen every year (I'm 45 and have had 7 bikes stolen in my life of commuting by bicycle). I just lock the frame to whatever with a U-lock. Once I had my seat stolen, and once someone made off with my pedals, and again, that isn't enough to warrant threading cables through all my components every time I lock up.
  - analog31 4y ago
    Yup, I ride an old clunker, use a padlock and chain, and try to park next to a nicer bike with a cable lock. You need to have a really good eye for bikes to notice that my ugly bike is actually a finely tuned machine.
levpopov 4y ago
While the overall point of simple racks being better definitely stands, the premise that a bike needs two locks is just silly and impractical. Get wheel locks for your bikes - pinhead, hexlox (my favorite), etc. If your wheels are secured to the frame you just need to lock the frame with one lock/chain. Takes way less time to park and you dont need to lug multiple 5lb locks (unfortunately thats how heavy secure locks actually are).
- aranchelk 4y ago
  Pitlock are nice. The day I lost my Pinhead key and opened one with a flathead and a hammer in less than a minute was a little sobering. They’re still better than a quick release.
  - levpopov 4y ago
    For sure, nothing is 100% secure (and even with multiple U-locks an angle grinder will win out after a while). I've had a good experience with hexlox so far - they are super hard to remove without a key. Haven't had any theft issues in multiple years of parking around San Francisco.
- Rechtsstaat 4y ago
  Well, I'd say that two locks are nice to have, if not entirely necessary. You can quickly use just the ring lock if you're hopping in and out of a store, and get out the larger one to lock your frame when you're storing your bike for a longer period.
- thrwyoilarticle 4y ago
  With wheel locks + 2 D locks you can get around the problem of the bike being used as a lever to break a single D lock. It also means thieves are less likely to screw with your bike trying to take the wheels off.
- ciupicri 4y ago
  Pinhead & Hexlox barely say how they work or offer any instructions and they're also quite expensive compared to cheap bikes.
wtch98 4y ago
This is a very angry person. He claims he's going to explain why the alternatives are crap. The first he starts off OK. I've never seen this specific design, but fine, you can't securely lock your bike. No explanation on what "securely" means (presumably at least two locks, one through each wheel) He talks about "wheel benders", but doesn't explain what makes them deserve such a name. It goes downhill from there. Number 3 his entire argument is "kill it with fire".
- woodruffw 4y ago
  It's written in the "Twitter voice." The angry tone is clearly for humorous effect. (Also: it's called a "wheel bender" because it can bend your wheel. It deserves the name because it does that, sometimes.)
- loeg 4y ago
  They’re called wheel benders because they bend wheels. Bicycle wheels are strong in the direction of ordinary load, but relatively fragile being pushed from the side. In that kind of rack, it’s very easy to apply force to the side of the wheel, because that is the only contact point keeping it upright.
jakear 4y ago
Generally reasonable except: > Sexy? > No. > Doesn’t pass the simplicity test and completely unnecessary. If the only complaints about an "art" style installation are that it isn't simple or the absolute minimum, that sounds like a major win.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  I think the simplicity in question refers to the installation's practicality for locking bikes.
Cockbrand 4y ago
In general, the author is right, and the simple design is by far the best. But the classic Sheffield stand with a circular cross section can be easily cut with a pipe cutter. Contrary to an angle grinder, a pipe cutter doesn't make any noise. Thus, the design has been improved by making it solid instead of hollow and giving it a rectangular cross section, like [1]. I used to hate the improved design because it's obviously less friendly to a nice bike's paint job until I learned the reasoning behind it. [1] https://www.thieme-stadtmobiliar.com/de/produkte/fahrradstaender/fahrradanlehner https://www.thieme-stadtmobiliar.com/de/produkte/fahrradstae...
- Cockbrand 4y ago
  That said, there are also a lot of similar and different designs as recommended by the largest German bicycle lobby organization [1]. I'd be curious to know what designs engineers from the Netherlands or Denmark have come up with. [1] https://www.adfc.de/artikel/adfc-empfohlene-abstellanlagen-gepruefte-modelle https://www.adfc.de/artikel/adfc-empfohlene-abstellanlagen-g...
  - Doxin 4y ago
    These[0] used to be rather common in the Netherlands And are actually pretty much fine on the wheel bending front if there's enough bicycles parked. You'll just stick your bicycle at the end of a group of bicycles and it'll be prevented from falling over by its neighbors. Still sometimes seen in lowish traffic areas where theft is not very likely. These days you'll more often see these[1] which are a bunch more dense because of the vertical staggering, and you'll note the convenient attachment point for a chain lock. Less ideal with respect to brake and shifter cables, but there's a reason the preferred style of city bike has no gears and a kick brake. At big places you'll often see these[2] which are incredibly dense. Bicycles on the top rows can be accessed by sliding the rail out and tilting it down. No real provision for a chain lock, but if you're parking at a train station you're already not caring too much about theft. Never mind that there being so many bicycles means that having even a halfway decent lock means any would-be-thief is just going to pick from one of the thousands of other slightly less securely locked bicycles. Hope that gives some insight on how it's done in the netherlands. [0] https://www.fietsparkeren.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wsm-img-00240.jpg https://www.fietsparkeren.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wsm... [1] https://www.velopa.nl/media/20001/velopa-fietsparkeren-fietsenrekken-twin-tulip-01.jpg https://www.velopa.nl/media/20001/velopa-fietsparkeren-fiets... [2] https://www.velopa.nl/media/5008/nunspeet_station_10.png https://www.velopa.nl/media/5008/nunspeet_station_10.png
wffurr 4y ago
City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, effectively requires Sheffield stands as suitable bike parking: https://www.cambridgema.gov/-/media/Files/CDD/Transportation/Bike/Bicycle_Parking_Guide_20130926_2017PictureEdits.pdf https://www.cambridgema.gov/-/media/Files/CDD/Transportation... A handful of the other types, e.g. the lampposts, get called out as acceptable as well. I should bring up a few dozen of those and distribute them to various retailers around the city...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
spencerflem 4y ago
I really like this style of bike racks: https://www.wuft.org/news/files/2019/10/ElectricScooter-1024x634.jpg https://www.wuft.org/news/files/2019/10/ElectricScooter-1024... (Don't know the name) It lets two fit in next to each other by raising the wheel of one, and the wheel locks means it just slots in so nicely. Plus a raised part for the lock
- ghostly_s 4y ago
  And impossible to lock your frame except with a useless cable.
  - dymk 4y ago
    No, you can see the mini-Sheffield protruding up between each wheel slot, and you can see a bike's frame locked to it. Hard to see in this picture but it's there.
- cgrealy 4y ago
  They're also great for ruining disc brakes.
- matsemann 4y ago
  Can't lock anything but the front wheel. And it only works for classic bike geometries, so not the more expensive cargo bikes people use as car replacements.
  - dymk 4y ago
    Look closer - there's a Sheffield-ish bar running between each bikes, and one bike's frame is locked to it.
kickingvegas 4y ago
On the topic of bike racks, if you live in San Francisco you can request SFMTA to install one. https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/bike/bike-parking#Request%20bike%20rack https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/bike/bike-parking#Reque...
nicklaf 4y ago
You'll see these stands [0] at Stanford and UC Davis, and they seem pretty good. (Although I made the mistake of locking up a nice LeMond bicycle at Stanford with a cable lock and it was stolen in broad daylight. [1]) [0] https://www.groundcontrolsystems.com/product/undergrad-wheel-well-secured-high-security-bike-racks/ https://www.groundcontrolsystems.com/product/undergrad-wheel... [1] https://bikeindex.org/bikes/49705 https://bikeindex.org/bikes/49705
- wl 4y ago
  It's nice to see they improved those by adding the plastic guard! I've got a bike with a really scuffed up fork on one side from using the old version without the guard for a few years.
_false 4y ago
The ones my apartment block has installed can be simply unscrewed.
- pmyteh 4y ago
  That can be made somewhat more secure by unscrewing them and inserting an appropriate epoxy before putting the screws back. Not as good as a proper fixing, but far better than losing bikes to everyone with a spanner.
jccalhoun 4y ago
In Indiana the types I see the most are the wave and what wikipedia calls the ladder style. I have never figures out how I'm supposed to use these when my wheels have quick release levers on them.
ohg 4y ago
These stands are definitely my favourites. But I use a kryptonite fuhgeddaboudit d-lock and have come across some of different thicknesses which means I have to work the angles a bit if I want to lock both the wheel and frame at the same time as the d lock is quite small. It's not always possible.
quickthrower2 4y ago
> This one was designed by David Byrne of Talking Heads. I like the idea, but notice how someone has chosen to lock their bike to a lamppost instead. > Might get to use this once in a lifetime. Brilliant
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Beltalowda 4y ago
These are my favourite: https://i.imgur.com/jpF0eZV.png https://i.imgur.com/jpF0eZV.png Slightly more complex design, but easy to lock, easy to park, bike doesn't fall over, doesn't damage the paint on your frame, fairly compact if you have multiple bikes. They're pretty ubiquitous where I live in the Netherlands; although some stores have really crappy "wheel-only" stands like in the thread.
- y7 4y ago
  Agreed. These are a lot more space efficient than the Sheffield stand.
- ohgodplsno 4y ago
  These don't work if your bike has slightly bigger wheels (and quite a few people use mountain bikes), and will bend your spokes.
Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
It seems like people have an itch not only to reinvent the bicycle, but also the bicycle stand.
barbs 4y ago
I feel like there should be a term for over-designing something that doesn't need to be redesigned. I guess "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"? A classic example for me is microwaves. The amount of variations I've seen to enter in a time and turn it on is absolutely ridiculous.
- Pelam 4y ago
  Yes please! I feel "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn’t capture it in a meaningful way. I think this is more of a mental and organizational phenomenon than one guy attacking a working machine with a spanner. A simple lack of resourcing and time pressure may be part of it, but it may have componenents of a kind of willful ignorance of prior art and complexities of the world, even ego driven, self serving and arrogant attitudes. Perhaps it is related to the famous NIH-syndrome in software, but clearly different too. In software I think this manifests as continuous churn of features and UI elements as well as negligence of usability and technical aspects. ”Fast Food Design”?
beebmam 4y ago
I breathe such a sigh of relief when I see a Sheffield stand available when I'm looking to park my bike. I also love the extreme brutalist look it gives to the buildings its next to. Punk as all hell
thaumasiotes 4y ago
> On a similar theme, what about one unit you install and it holds lots of bikes? > Not bad, but still not good enough imo If that's your idea of "lots of bikes" (see the picture), something is very wrong. Go to a grocery store in Shanghai, where people regularly use bikes, and there will be a fenced-off bike parking area with no stands of any kind. That's how you hold lots of bikes. The stand is a way to say "we don't expect people to use bicycles, but doesn't our stand look cool?".
watersb 4y ago
Not quite bikeshedding... Sheffielding?
wly_cdgr 4y ago
Sheffield stand is pretty good. Even better would be to create a culture where people don't steal bikes, so you don't need to lock them up at all
tengbretson 4y ago
The fact that the poster knew the proper name for one and only one style of bike stand makes it seem to me that they started with a particular conclusion in mind and worked their way backwards to fit it.
fulafel 4y ago
Depends on the prevalence of frame locks in your city. If people use simple frame locks a lot, get stands with a dangling cable or chain that can attach to the frame lock.
ur-whale 4y ago
Writes on the topic of usability. Posts on Twitter. Spot the contradiction.
opjjf 4y ago
In Germany, we call them "Kreuzberger Bügel", named after Berlin's Kreuzberg district, where the same design was first used. (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreuzberger_Bügel https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreuzberger_Bügel)
- nickkell 4y ago
  I don't remember seeing any here. Usually they're the crappy small stands where you slot the front wheel of the bike in. You can either only lock that front wheel to the stand or lock a wheel to the frame of the bike. Neither tactic is really secure though.
- wink 4y ago
  Never heard the term, but I heard "Kieler Bügel" in the past.
collaborative 4y ago
Anecdotal. My new life of biking to work ended on day 1: bike stolen in less than 1 hour. And it was from a Sheffield stand too
- beachy 4y ago
  Bike theft seems like a problem that could be solved, or at least beaten down a lot. Super easy to attach tracking devices and monitor remotely, then just go around and arrest the thieves. There could hardly be an easier enforcement activity. Why is this not done when it seems like bike theft is at an epidemic level?
  - camtarn 4y ago
    You'd think so, yes. In Scotland we have a similar problem with motorcycle theft. And lots of motorbikes have trackers on them. Anecdotally * , though, even providing the address that a stolen tracker is reporting isn't enough for the police to investigate. The thought seems to be that the police are simply chronically underfunded, so they're prioritising whatever their internal targets are - presumably violent crime incidents. Obviously this will vary hugely by region and police force. Some of them probably would be happy having easy cases handed to them on a plate. * Very anecdotally! I don't have any stats on this, and the anecdotes come from a fellow biker who is part of an anti motorbike theft campaign group, so take with the appropriate number of grains of salt.
  - jml7c5 4y ago
    Bike thieves can be quite professional and experienced, and are likely to figure out common placement points for trackers. Not to mention that they will try to offload the bike quickly anyway, so you have a limited window within which to catch them. And even if you do catch the thief, you'd likely need further evidence to achieve a conviction. It's a frustrating problem.
  - n4r9 4y ago
    I recently reported a bike theft to the police in the UK. A few days later I received an email from someone who "screens" incoming crimes. It said "I cannot send the matter for further investigation as the value of the item stolen falls below our threshold to investigate". They didn't even check if there was CCTV coverage in the area. I'm guessing that the bike thieves in this area are well aware of the value of this threshold and operate accordingly. It feels like I'm living in a Discworld novel where petty crime is "designed in" to society. There's a mutual unwritten agreement that the thieves can do what they like, as long as they stick to lower-value items. If you're too poor to afford a replacement, tough luck. Even my home contents insurance was pointless, as the excess was greater than the bike's value.
jwr 4y ago
Praise indeed! I don't even try to park my bike at those "spokebreaker" low stands that you put your wheel into, they might as well not exist. Those are the stands that people who don't use a bike think bikers want. I didn't know this inverted U design was called a "Sheffield stand", but this works very well.
kilotaras 4y ago
Most of egregious stands are caused by principal agent problem. You have 1. Person designing stand. 2. Person approving/ordering stand (usually business or city). 3. Person locking their bike. If you're lucky (1) or (2) is also (3) at the same time. Otherwise, you get bunch of metal that at best looks nice.
alkonaut 4y ago
Simple rule of thumb for me is: if I contemplate having to lock the wheels of the bike, or bring the saddle with me so it doesn’t get stolen, then I’m not leaving my bike there. I bring my other bike that costs less than a wheel of my expensive bike instead . Or I just walk. If I’d lose a wheel in even several years of daily biking I’d probably never bike there again.
SamWhited 4y ago
I work with a co-op that installs these around the city of Atlanta: https://www.ocaatlanta.com/mural-bike-racks-to-be-dedicated-on-december-3rd/ https://www.ocaatlanta.com/mural-bike-racks-to-be-dedicated-... They look great, but like a lot of the stands in this list they aren't always the most practical.
andrew_ 4y ago
Author just comes across as angry. And I'm not really sure why.
Cockbrand 4y ago
I like the broad range of this discussion between "I never have to lock my bike" and "Whatever you try, your bike will get stolen or dismantled within minutes". While I'd like to live in a society without theft, I'm at least glad that where I live, I can leave my bike attached to some immovable object with a u-lock for a few hours and have a good chance of returning to it still being there with nothing missing.
- archon810 4y ago
  Don't try this in San Francisco or Oakland (or anywhere in the Bay Area really). That is if you still have a bike to lock and don't get robbed of it at gunpoint.
pie_flavor 4y ago
One thing that I think is commonly missed is that the entire rack isn't cleaned out at once usually. You don't need to have flawless security that it'd take a jackhammer to remove. You just need to have better security than the guy next to you.
pjs_ 4y ago
You really know you are dealing with a serious bike enthusiast when you see a DIY Sheffield stand installation in the front garden. Many such cases in Oxford and Bristol ofc...

563 points by _dain_ 4y ago

(Submitter) It makes me think that we ought to retire the phrase "reinvent the wheel". There's lots of different kinds of wheels and it doesn't seem crazy that you would need to make a new kind. And when people do make new kinds of wheel, they generally meet some minimum bar of worthiness (rather than being say, square). But I've never seen any improvement to the classic Sheffield stand, save possibly for the sub-variety with the extra bar underneath. Yet industrial designers insist on inflicting their patently inferior "innovations" onto long-suffering cyclists. Especially irksome when it happens in my own city of ... Sheffield! So maybe we should say "reinvent the Sheffield stand" :)

hprotagonist 4y ago
don’t reinvent the pneumatic tire or the saddle, either :)
trollied 4y ago
Hello fellow Sheffielder :)
- _dain_ 4y ago
  eyup
  - snalty 4y ago
    there's dozens of us!
Aeolun 4y ago
To be fair, if nobody tries to improve on something good, we’d never have something better.

Jolter 4y ago

Page unreadable on an iPhone (tried both Safari and Firefox). All the images are blank… Any advice?

forrestthewoods 4y ago
Works fine for me. Maybe a content blocker?
- Jolter 4y ago
  Ah, yes. I forgot I had enabled Firefox Focus as content blocker, for some reason. It must have a rule for Twitter images or something. Thanks!
_dain_ 4y ago
Twitter link: https://twitter.com/BrixtonHatter/status/1493299809574342659 https://twitter.com/BrixtonHatter/status/1493299809574342659 Alternate ad-free lightweight frontend: https://nitter.net/BrixtonHatter/status/1493299809574342659 https://nitter.net/BrixtonHatter/status/1493299809574342659
saila 4y ago
The images don't load for me on desktop Firefox, but I can see them when I view the thread on Twitter. They seem to be blocked on Thread Reader because they're classified by Firefox as "Social Tracking."
aembleton 4y ago
Try https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1493299809574342659.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1493299809574342659.html

micheljansen 4y ago

In The Netherlands we commonly refer to these as “staples”

abyssin 4y ago
In French we call them reverted U.
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  Reverted?
  - TacticalCoder 4y ago
    I think he meant "inverted U". An upside-down U if you want.
    - jenaimarre 4y ago
      "Un U renversé"

causality0 4y ago

I don't understand why many of the stands he calls useless are useless. Sure most of them are less economical but as long as there's a loop of metal anchored to the ground how is it useless?

_dain_ 4y ago
They don't work for many bicycle geometries[1]. Small vs large frames, small vs large wheels, wide vs narrow tyres, tricycles, tandem bikes, cargo bikes, recumbent bikes, hand-cranked bikes etc. Also if they are too finicky about the exact way you lock the bike (particular orientation, particular lock-point) it can be hard to make it work when there are obstacles (such as other bikes). The Sheffield stand makes the fewest assumptions. The "wheel grabber" kinds are particularly useless; thieves just detach the wheel or snip the wires and make off with the remainder. [1] I'll give an example: the other week I tried to lock my bike to a trapezoid shaped stand, kind of like #13 in the thread but longer and without the lower wiggly bit. It was perpendicular to a wall, with the tall end towards the wall. The diagonal part happened to be exactly parallel with the mid-frame of my bike. Since parallel lines do not intersect, I would have had to move the bike completely inside the stand in order to make a D-lock fit around it, which was precluded by the placement next to the wall. I couldn't put it the other way and attach it to the rear chain stays because it would have jutted out into the path and obstructed pedestrians. Try as I might, I just couldn't make it work. So I just attached it to a metal fence ten yards away.
- abyssin 4y ago
  And there’s the risk of getting a wheel out true if the slightest pression is applied to your bike horizontally.
- contravariant 4y ago
  You're supposed to fix the frame to the stand, why are you just attaching the wheel? Wheel "grabbers" (usually just called 'fietsenrek') are pretty common in the Netherlands, especially the 2 level ones, because they allow the greatest number of bikes in a small area. This does have some downsides obviously, but in the Netherlands 'largest number of bikes' tends to outweigh other concerns.

jmclnx 4y ago

I have never seen a Sheffield stand where I live, but far better than what we have. The only way to lock a bike to the ones here is to take up 5 or 6 lock points since these are designed only to lock your wheel to them. Have a ulock ? Find a sign.

saila 4y ago
Not sure what kind of racks you have but for some back-in parking might be easier than front-in. I try to lock one of the back tubes and wheel if possible. I'm also a fan of the Sheldon Brown lockup strategy[1]. There's also a modified version that may be more secure[2]. [1] https://sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html https://sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html [2] http://www.802bikeguy.com/2011/07/the-modified-sheldon-brown-bike-locking-strategy/ http://www.802bikeguy.com/2011/07/the-modified-sheldon-brown...
- stereoabuse 4y ago
  I too use this Sheldon Brown style but, because my main NYC commute bicycle has quick release front and back, I pop off my front wheel and position it adjacent to the rear one so the u-lock can go around both as well as the the stand (which is more than likely a parking sign post). Takes 5 seconds, saves me carrying a second lock, and no wheels stolen in 15 years of Manhattan and Brooklyn cycling!

Symbiote 4y ago

Several of the "useless" ones are very common in Copenhagen, where bikes often aren't locked to the stand at all. My bike is in the third type right now, and will use the fourth at work tomorrow. (Of course, the point remains that these aren't suitable in England.)

Freak_NL 4y ago

Those staples work well; plenty of those in the Netherlands. One alternative that works fairly well is this fixed post thingy: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Fixed_bollard_bicycle_stand.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Fixed_bo... The clamp for the vertical seat bar is probably what limits this to conventional framed bicycles, but the U-ring welded below is very useful for attaching the lock as I did on the photograph. The big benefit of this one is that the clamp can be closed, and that your bicycle is then essentially storm-proof (I would guess for at least one Beaufort more than the Sheffield staple).

n4r9 4y ago
Those are probably fine for the Netherlands where the vast majority of bikes are city-bikes with stands. They don't offer much leaning support or multiple points of contact with the frame though, so unlikely to get the approval of the author of that article.

jeffbee 4y ago

There's an American firm called Forms+Surfaces that has a whole catalog full of terrible, weird bike racks. They must have a lot of mindshare among architects apparently because their junk keeps popping up all over California. Nobody who has ever used a bicycle would choose them but they keep showing up anyway. Here's a fun tweet where local well-known cyclist rips them out of the pavement with his bare hands. https://twitter.com/prinzrob/status/1230204877491433473 https://twitter.com/prinzrob/status/1230204877491433473

woodruffw 4y ago
> Nobody who has ever used a bicycle would choose them but they keep showing up anyway. It's probably a safe bet that, in many municipalities, the city planners see cyclists as a nuisance and are solely interested in doing what (they think) will shut them up. They also might see normal looking bike racks as an eyesore, hence sloppy installations combined with useless designs.
wffurr 4y ago
Those particular racks don't seem awful other than the way they're (not) secured to the pavement.
- jeffbee 4y ago
  "Can be permanently secured to the ground" and "Can be temporarily secured to a bicycle" are the only two requirements!
  - wffurr 4y ago
    Presumably the installers just used the wrong sort of concrete anchor...
    - jeffbee 4y ago
      In this particular case, true, but the design of these also lacks feet, so the leverage of the rack works against it, rather than in its favor.

pkulak 4y ago

So, which is the Sheffield Stand? The first one?

blamazon 4y ago
Yes. It looks like a big staple.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

pkdpic 4y ago

> known as the "Sheffield rack" or "Sheffield stand" after the city of Sheffield in England where these were pioneered [wikipedia] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_parking_rack https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_parking_rack Just in case anyone was interested in the etymolology. Also they used to make bike racks out of wood? Sick (?!) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_parking_rack#/media/File%3ALow-tech_bicycle_rack_at_Bailiffscourt_Hotel_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1593931.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_parking_rack#/media/... PS I loved this post and I agree completely. Bike rack opinionation achieved.

tasuki 4y ago
I'm a bit of a cycling enthusiast and have lived in wonderful Sheffield. Yet I've never heard about this being called "Sheffield stand". Very excited to learn :)
jml7c5 4y ago
>Also they used to make bike racks out of wood? Sick (?!) That photo is relatively recent (2006), and it's quite likely that that bike rack is not very old. It appears to be on the grounds of a hotel estate where locking would be unnecessary and a rural aesthetic is key.
- n4r9 4y ago
  Agreed, I think you can see this rack (or at least the bikes stood in it) in this street-view link: https://www.google.com/maps/@50.7988844,-0.580026,3a,17.1y,192h,84.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSyMLx1jWwuw1qrJO7lLhYQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@50.7988844,-0.580026,3a,17.1y,1... I wonder why the photographer decided to make it black and white!
cjrp 4y ago
Makes sense, given Sheffield was a major steelmaking town back in the day.

notatoad 4y ago

Note: The twitter OP has put the #/n indicator in-between the caption and the photo. Which makes sense on Twitter, but when threadreader strips out the formatting it makes it look like the captions line up with the wrong image. Captions precede the corresponding images in this thread.

chrisseaton 4y ago
Strange example of a Twitter thread that is less readable when turned into a blog post!

IshKebab 4y ago

I 100% agree. I have never found a bike stand design as good as the simple staple. One particularly annoying thing is stands designed to hold a larger number of bikes, often by lifting bikes and hanging them or something equally annoying. They all end up putting the bikes way too close so in practice people only use every other space and you fit even fewer bikes in. The staple design is just by far the best.

quickthrower2 4y ago
And when there are no bikes, they make good gymnastic equipment for kids.

blamazon 4y ago

In my car-centric city (southeast USA, population ~125k) when I visit private property with no bicycle parking, I try to find the owner and offer to install one of these just for the cost of materials. The idea being, they can put in another one when they see more than one customer on a bicycle at the same time. It's very cheap, less than 100 bucks typically as I have the requisite tools in my garage to make them from scratch out of metal tubing. There's a variety of materials, finishing, and mounting options the property owner can choose from. I've done about a dozen of them, it makes biking around my city much more pleasant and my day is brighter when I see someone else using one.

foobiekr 4y ago
If I was an owner, I'd have a lot of problems with this just because I'd be worried there'd be some regulation I was violating that would get me fined.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  If it's on the owner's property, it's probably kosher. Many cities have rules about the proximity of bike racks/stands to fire hydrants, parking meters, etc., but those generally concern public sidewalks. I say probably because, knowing this country, I am positive someone can find a municipality that bans storeowners from putting bike stands on their property.
  - aidenn0 4y ago
    One example from Twitter thread: Might need a tapping bar for accessibility to blind people.
    - idontpost 4y ago
      Blind people that need to attach their bikes to a rack?
      - Rebelgecko 4y ago

dang 4y ago

Url changed from https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1493299809574342659 https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1493299809574342659, which points to this. It's fine to posts links to alternative views in the thread, but please submit the original source (per https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

tasuki 4y ago
But... Twitter is unreadable! I get all these weird popups and it requires enormous amounts of effort just to follow the thread. We probably can't fix Twitter. Would it be possible to reconsider the guidelines to allow for alternative views of websites that have absolutely atrocious usability?
- deadbunny 4y ago
  I've never had this issue with Twitter threads. Granted I'm signed in and viewing with Firefox + ad blocker.
  - thih9 4y ago
    The experience is different when you're not signed in; you can only view a couple of tweets and then you hit a login wall.
- dang 4y ago
  Some people feel the way you do and some people feel the opposite way. It's clear that no solution will satisfy everyone, so it's best to stick with the original source rule and then have links to alternatives in the comments. (Btw in case it's helpful, I've found the Minimal Twitter extension tolerable - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20517129 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20517129. Personal opinion, not qua moderator!)
_dain_ 4y ago
My bad, I thought I was being helpful since people complain about Twitter threads all the time.

mrsuprawsm 4y ago

For most bike "racks" here in NL it seems like the primary purpose is not security, but just having somewhere to lean bikes against and give people a sensible place to park their bikes (as opposed to "in a huge pile") Most people don't bother physically locking their regular city bikes to anything (only using a ring lock on the bike itself), primarily cheap beater bikes but also there's a guy in my street with a €2000 Van Moof e-bike that I think is just leaning against his front wall.

Rechtsstaat 4y ago
Yeah, most bikes in NL are not that expensive and/or old, have only integrated ring locks and are still not be attractive to opportunistic thieves. Still, I'm glad that most places have proper Sheffield stands at most one block away here.
ghostly_s 4y ago
No one locks their bikes in Japan, either. According to Wikipedia this is thanks to "strong policing and general public disregard for stolen items." I can certainly say I've never heard of a US police department doing anything proactive in response to a reported bike theft.
- b4je7d7wb 4y ago
  You also have to to do some paperwork for buying a bike. I assume you have to transfer ownership when selling, so stolen bikes probably cannot really be sold on the open market.
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    Out of sheer ignorance: what are the implications of not having the proper paperwork? Do Japan's street policemen take note of suspicious looking bikes and follow up with their owners?
    - Aeolun 4y ago
      I have been stopped when driving suspiciously at night. I do not know what exactly constitutes suspicious, but the main thing they do is check whether your bike paperwork is in order, and (as a foreigner) that your residence card is valid.

orbital-decay 4y ago

Sadly, no amount of locking points provides sufficient protection against an experienced thief. In London, I've seen some of these Sheffield stands cut with an angle grinder.

wffurr 4y ago
It doesn't have to be perfect; just good enough. You don't have to lock up perfectly, just better than the bikes around you. And carry insurance and be prepared to replace your bicycle. Or just ride beaters.
- Fricken 4y ago
  I remind myself that taking transit costs $1200/year. That's what the poor people who can't afford a nice bike do. I don't come anywhere close to having a $1200 worth of bike stolen every year (I'm 45 and have had 7 bikes stolen in my life of commuting by bicycle). I just lock the frame to whatever with a U-lock. Once I had my seat stolen, and once someone made off with my pedals, and again, that isn't enough to warrant threading cables through all my components every time I lock up.
- analog31 4y ago
  Yup, I ride an old clunker, use a padlock and chain, and try to park next to a nicer bike with a cable lock. You need to have a really good eye for bikes to notice that my ugly bike is actually a finely tuned machine.

levpopov 4y ago

While the overall point of simple racks being better definitely stands, the premise that a bike needs two locks is just silly and impractical. Get wheel locks for your bikes - pinhead, hexlox (my favorite), etc. If your wheels are secured to the frame you just need to lock the frame with one lock/chain. Takes way less time to park and you dont need to lug multiple 5lb locks (unfortunately thats how heavy secure locks actually are).

aranchelk 4y ago
Pitlock are nice. The day I lost my Pinhead key and opened one with a flathead and a hammer in less than a minute was a little sobering. They’re still better than a quick release.
- levpopov 4y ago
  For sure, nothing is 100% secure (and even with multiple U-locks an angle grinder will win out after a while). I've had a good experience with hexlox so far - they are super hard to remove without a key. Haven't had any theft issues in multiple years of parking around San Francisco.
Rechtsstaat 4y ago
Well, I'd say that two locks are nice to have, if not entirely necessary. You can quickly use just the ring lock if you're hopping in and out of a store, and get out the larger one to lock your frame when you're storing your bike for a longer period.
thrwyoilarticle 4y ago
With wheel locks + 2 D locks you can get around the problem of the bike being used as a lever to break a single D lock. It also means thieves are less likely to screw with your bike trying to take the wheels off.
ciupicri 4y ago
Pinhead & Hexlox barely say how they work or offer any instructions and they're also quite expensive compared to cheap bikes.

wtch98 4y ago

This is a very angry person. He claims he's going to explain why the alternatives are crap. The first he starts off OK. I've never seen this specific design, but fine, you can't securely lock your bike. No explanation on what "securely" means (presumably at least two locks, one through each wheel) He talks about "wheel benders", but doesn't explain what makes them deserve such a name. It goes downhill from there. Number 3 his entire argument is "kill it with fire".

woodruffw 4y ago
It's written in the "Twitter voice." The angry tone is clearly for humorous effect. (Also: it's called a "wheel bender" because it can bend your wheel. It deserves the name because it does that, sometimes.)
loeg 4y ago
They’re called wheel benders because they bend wheels. Bicycle wheels are strong in the direction of ordinary load, but relatively fragile being pushed from the side. In that kind of rack, it’s very easy to apply force to the side of the wheel, because that is the only contact point keeping it upright.

jakear 4y ago

Generally reasonable except: > Sexy? > No. > Doesn’t pass the simplicity test and completely unnecessary. If the only complaints about an "art" style installation are that it isn't simple or the absolute minimum, that sounds like a major win.

woodruffw 4y ago
I think the simplicity in question refers to the installation's practicality for locking bikes.

Cockbrand 4y ago

In general, the author is right, and the simple design is by far the best. But the classic Sheffield stand with a circular cross section can be easily cut with a pipe cutter. Contrary to an angle grinder, a pipe cutter doesn't make any noise. Thus, the design has been improved by making it solid instead of hollow and giving it a rectangular cross section, like [1]. I used to hate the improved design because it's obviously less friendly to a nice bike's paint job until I learned the reasoning behind it. [1] https://www.thieme-stadtmobiliar.com/de/produkte/fahrradstaender/fahrradanlehner https://www.thieme-stadtmobiliar.com/de/produkte/fahrradstae...

Cockbrand 4y ago
That said, there are also a lot of similar and different designs as recommended by the largest German bicycle lobby organization [1]. I'd be curious to know what designs engineers from the Netherlands or Denmark have come up with. [1] https://www.adfc.de/artikel/adfc-empfohlene-abstellanlagen-gepruefte-modelle https://www.adfc.de/artikel/adfc-empfohlene-abstellanlagen-g...
- Doxin 4y ago
  These[0] used to be rather common in the Netherlands And are actually pretty much fine on the wheel bending front if there's enough bicycles parked. You'll just stick your bicycle at the end of a group of bicycles and it'll be prevented from falling over by its neighbors. Still sometimes seen in lowish traffic areas where theft is not very likely. These days you'll more often see these[1] which are a bunch more dense because of the vertical staggering, and you'll note the convenient attachment point for a chain lock. Less ideal with respect to brake and shifter cables, but there's a reason the preferred style of city bike has no gears and a kick brake. At big places you'll often see these[2] which are incredibly dense. Bicycles on the top rows can be accessed by sliding the rail out and tilting it down. No real provision for a chain lock, but if you're parking at a train station you're already not caring too much about theft. Never mind that there being so many bicycles means that having even a halfway decent lock means any would-be-thief is just going to pick from one of the thousands of other slightly less securely locked bicycles. Hope that gives some insight on how it's done in the netherlands. [0] https://www.fietsparkeren.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wsm-img-00240.jpg https://www.fietsparkeren.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wsm... [1] https://www.velopa.nl/media/20001/velopa-fietsparkeren-fietsenrekken-twin-tulip-01.jpg https://www.velopa.nl/media/20001/velopa-fietsparkeren-fiets... [2] https://www.velopa.nl/media/5008/nunspeet_station_10.png https://www.velopa.nl/media/5008/nunspeet_station_10.png

wffurr 4y ago

City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, effectively requires Sheffield stands as suitable bike parking: https://www.cambridgema.gov/-/media/Files/CDD/Transportation/Bike/Bicycle_Parking_Guide_20130926_2017PictureEdits.pdf https://www.cambridgema.gov/-/media/Files/CDD/Transportation... A handful of the other types, e.g. the lampposts, get called out as acceptable as well. I should bring up a few dozen of those and distribute them to various retailers around the city...

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

spencerflem 4y ago

I really like this style of bike racks: https://www.wuft.org/news/files/2019/10/ElectricScooter-1024x634.jpg https://www.wuft.org/news/files/2019/10/ElectricScooter-1024... (Don't know the name) It lets two fit in next to each other by raising the wheel of one, and the wheel locks means it just slots in so nicely. Plus a raised part for the lock

ghostly_s 4y ago
And impossible to lock your frame except with a useless cable.
- dymk 4y ago
  No, you can see the mini-Sheffield protruding up between each wheel slot, and you can see a bike's frame locked to it. Hard to see in this picture but it's there.
cgrealy 4y ago
They're also great for ruining disc brakes.
matsemann 4y ago
Can't lock anything but the front wheel. And it only works for classic bike geometries, so not the more expensive cargo bikes people use as car replacements.
- dymk 4y ago
  Look closer - there's a Sheffield-ish bar running between each bikes, and one bike's frame is locked to it.

kickingvegas 4y ago

On the topic of bike racks, if you live in San Francisco you can request SFMTA to install one. https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/bike/bike-parking#Request%20bike%20rack https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/bike/bike-parking#Reque...

nicklaf 4y ago

You'll see these stands [0] at Stanford and UC Davis, and they seem pretty good. (Although I made the mistake of locking up a nice LeMond bicycle at Stanford with a cable lock and it was stolen in broad daylight. [1]) [0] https://www.groundcontrolsystems.com/product/undergrad-wheel-well-secured-high-security-bike-racks/ https://www.groundcontrolsystems.com/product/undergrad-wheel... [1] https://bikeindex.org/bikes/49705 https://bikeindex.org/bikes/49705

wl 4y ago
It's nice to see they improved those by adding the plastic guard! I've got a bike with a really scuffed up fork on one side from using the old version without the guard for a few years.

_false 4y ago

The ones my apartment block has installed can be simply unscrewed.

pmyteh 4y ago
That can be made somewhat more secure by unscrewing them and inserting an appropriate epoxy before putting the screws back. Not as good as a proper fixing, but far better than losing bikes to everyone with a spanner.

jccalhoun 4y ago

In Indiana the types I see the most are the wave and what wikipedia calls the ladder style. I have never figures out how I'm supposed to use these when my wheels have quick release levers on them.

ohg 4y ago

These stands are definitely my favourites. But I use a kryptonite fuhgeddaboudit d-lock and have come across some of different thicknesses which means I have to work the angles a bit if I want to lock both the wheel and frame at the same time as the d lock is quite small. It's not always possible.

quickthrower2 4y ago

> This one was designed by David Byrne of Talking Heads. I like the idea, but notice how someone has chosen to lock their bike to a lamppost instead. > Might get to use this once in a lifetime. Brilliant

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Beltalowda 4y ago

These are my favourite: https://i.imgur.com/jpF0eZV.png https://i.imgur.com/jpF0eZV.png Slightly more complex design, but easy to lock, easy to park, bike doesn't fall over, doesn't damage the paint on your frame, fairly compact if you have multiple bikes. They're pretty ubiquitous where I live in the Netherlands; although some stores have really crappy "wheel-only" stands like in the thread.

y7 4y ago
Agreed. These are a lot more space efficient than the Sheffield stand.
ohgodplsno 4y ago
These don't work if your bike has slightly bigger wheels (and quite a few people use mountain bikes), and will bend your spokes.

Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago

It seems like people have an itch not only to reinvent the bicycle, but also the bicycle stand.

barbs 4y ago

I feel like there should be a term for over-designing something that doesn't need to be redesigned. I guess "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"? A classic example for me is microwaves. The amount of variations I've seen to enter in a time and turn it on is absolutely ridiculous.

Pelam 4y ago
Yes please! I feel "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn’t capture it in a meaningful way. I think this is more of a mental and organizational phenomenon than one guy attacking a working machine with a spanner. A simple lack of resourcing and time pressure may be part of it, but it may have componenents of a kind of willful ignorance of prior art and complexities of the world, even ego driven, self serving and arrogant attitudes. Perhaps it is related to the famous NIH-syndrome in software, but clearly different too. In software I think this manifests as continuous churn of features and UI elements as well as negligence of usability and technical aspects. ”Fast Food Design”?

beebmam 4y ago

I breathe such a sigh of relief when I see a Sheffield stand available when I'm looking to park my bike. I also love the extreme brutalist look it gives to the buildings its next to. Punk as all hell

thaumasiotes 4y ago

> On a similar theme, what about one unit you install and it holds lots of bikes? > Not bad, but still not good enough imo If that's your idea of "lots of bikes" (see the picture), something is very wrong. Go to a grocery store in Shanghai, where people regularly use bikes, and there will be a fenced-off bike parking area with no stands of any kind. That's how you hold lots of bikes. The stand is a way to say "we don't expect people to use bicycles, but doesn't our stand look cool?".

watersb 4y ago

Not quite bikeshedding... Sheffielding?

wly_cdgr 4y ago

Sheffield stand is pretty good. Even better would be to create a culture where people don't steal bikes, so you don't need to lock them up at all

tengbretson 4y ago

The fact that the poster knew the proper name for one and only one style of bike stand makes it seem to me that they started with a particular conclusion in mind and worked their way backwards to fit it.

fulafel 4y ago

Depends on the prevalence of frame locks in your city. If people use simple frame locks a lot, get stands with a dangling cable or chain that can attach to the frame lock.

ur-whale 4y ago

Writes on the topic of usability. Posts on Twitter. Spot the contradiction.

opjjf 4y ago

In Germany, we call them "Kreuzberger Bügel", named after Berlin's Kreuzberg district, where the same design was first used. (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreuzberger_Bügel https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreuzberger_Bügel)

nickkell 4y ago
I don't remember seeing any here. Usually they're the crappy small stands where you slot the front wheel of the bike in. You can either only lock that front wheel to the stand or lock a wheel to the frame of the bike. Neither tactic is really secure though.
wink 4y ago
Never heard the term, but I heard "Kieler Bügel" in the past.

collaborative 4y ago

Anecdotal. My new life of biking to work ended on day 1: bike stolen in less than 1 hour. And it was from a Sheffield stand too

beachy 4y ago
Bike theft seems like a problem that could be solved, or at least beaten down a lot. Super easy to attach tracking devices and monitor remotely, then just go around and arrest the thieves. There could hardly be an easier enforcement activity. Why is this not done when it seems like bike theft is at an epidemic level?
- camtarn 4y ago
  You'd think so, yes. In Scotland we have a similar problem with motorcycle theft. And lots of motorbikes have trackers on them. Anecdotally * , though, even providing the address that a stolen tracker is reporting isn't enough for the police to investigate. The thought seems to be that the police are simply chronically underfunded, so they're prioritising whatever their internal targets are - presumably violent crime incidents. Obviously this will vary hugely by region and police force. Some of them probably would be happy having easy cases handed to them on a plate. * Very anecdotally! I don't have any stats on this, and the anecdotes come from a fellow biker who is part of an anti motorbike theft campaign group, so take with the appropriate number of grains of salt.
- jml7c5 4y ago
  Bike thieves can be quite professional and experienced, and are likely to figure out common placement points for trackers. Not to mention that they will try to offload the bike quickly anyway, so you have a limited window within which to catch them. And even if you do catch the thief, you'd likely need further evidence to achieve a conviction. It's a frustrating problem.
- n4r9 4y ago
  I recently reported a bike theft to the police in the UK. A few days later I received an email from someone who "screens" incoming crimes. It said "I cannot send the matter for further investigation as the value of the item stolen falls below our threshold to investigate". They didn't even check if there was CCTV coverage in the area. I'm guessing that the bike thieves in this area are well aware of the value of this threshold and operate accordingly. It feels like I'm living in a Discworld novel where petty crime is "designed in" to society. There's a mutual unwritten agreement that the thieves can do what they like, as long as they stick to lower-value items. If you're too poor to afford a replacement, tough luck. Even my home contents insurance was pointless, as the excess was greater than the bike's value.

jwr 4y ago

Praise indeed! I don't even try to park my bike at those "spokebreaker" low stands that you put your wheel into, they might as well not exist. Those are the stands that people who don't use a bike think bikers want. I didn't know this inverted U design was called a "Sheffield stand", but this works very well.

kilotaras 4y ago

Most of egregious stands are caused by principal agent problem. You have 1. Person designing stand. 2. Person approving/ordering stand (usually business or city). 3. Person locking their bike. If you're lucky (1) or (2) is also (3) at the same time. Otherwise, you get bunch of metal that at best looks nice.

alkonaut 4y ago

Simple rule of thumb for me is: if I contemplate having to lock the wheels of the bike, or bring the saddle with me so it doesn’t get stolen, then I’m not leaving my bike there. I bring my other bike that costs less than a wheel of my expensive bike instead . Or I just walk. If I’d lose a wheel in even several years of daily biking I’d probably never bike there again.

SamWhited 4y ago

I work with a co-op that installs these around the city of Atlanta: https://www.ocaatlanta.com/mural-bike-racks-to-be-dedicated-on-december-3rd/ https://www.ocaatlanta.com/mural-bike-racks-to-be-dedicated-... They look great, but like a lot of the stands in this list they aren't always the most practical.

andrew_ 4y ago

Author just comes across as angry. And I'm not really sure why.

Cockbrand 4y ago

I like the broad range of this discussion between "I never have to lock my bike" and "Whatever you try, your bike will get stolen or dismantled within minutes". While I'd like to live in a society without theft, I'm at least glad that where I live, I can leave my bike attached to some immovable object with a u-lock for a few hours and have a good chance of returning to it still being there with nothing missing.

archon810 4y ago
Don't try this in San Francisco or Oakland (or anywhere in the Bay Area really). That is if you still have a bike to lock and don't get robbed of it at gunpoint.

pie_flavor 4y ago

One thing that I think is commonly missed is that the entire rack isn't cleaned out at once usually. You don't need to have flawless security that it'd take a jackhammer to remove. You just need to have better security than the guy next to you.

pjs_ 4y ago

You really know you are dealing with a serious bike enthusiast when you see a DIY Sheffield stand installation in the front garden. Many such cases in Oxford and Bristol ofc...