Petr Shkumatov: “Biking in Moscow is a very expensive pleasure.”

The popular blogger Petr Shkumatov conducted a cycling experiment and shared his results with his readers:

“I decided to buy a bicycle for myself, to understand the pain of those who complain every day to Liksutov, Sobyanin, Putin and Trump that there are no bicycle paths, that you can’t ride at all.

I want to say that riding a normal bike is not a pleasure for the poor. For some reason, in the advertising of the Department of Transport this issue is modestly silent. For example, my bike experiment began with the following expenses:

The bike itself: 59900 r + delivery 500 r + tip to the courier 200 r. All sorts of needs: 14000 r (he took it himself) Wings: 3000 r (not yet bought). Cycling backpack: 7000 r (not yet bought). Total initial costs only: 84,600 p.

No, of course there are great cheaper ones. But it’s like with cars, you can buy a jig for thirty, where the floor is rusty and falls, you can buy Lada Grant, or you can buy Kia Rio. This bike for almost a hundred is Kia Rio in the world of bicycles. That is such a middle class. Of course there are devices much more expensive, but there is already business. There are cocks, there are all sorts of shitty garbage in large numbers. There are stolen and great at half price. In short, there are no significant differences from the car market.

Now for the first impressions. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT BIKERS ARE DISSATISFIED !!! Today, 16 kilometers, of which 4 kilometers through mud in Bitsevsky Park (in fact, not a park, but a forest, mosquitoes ate me there on the go) and I have no (!!!) complaints along the entire route! Everything is made just perfect for cycling, scooter, mono-wheel and other wonders of technology! I pulled the front wheel for a ride on the curb only a couple of times, everywhere the curbs are flooded, just beauty! The need for a suspension fork is in question. You haven’t given pedals yet!

Going along the roadway is also a pleasure. The a-lane is wide, rare taxi drivers are ahead of you with a margin, the cameras are not scary, the lanes are such that you can normally leave the bus and drive on.

In general, I had only positive impressions from today's first long trip in this just started bike experiment. Why the hell do we need these bike paths, about which urbanists are eating our brains? What for? Why clean the parking lot at hospitals? For what? If there are giant sidewalks, submerged borders, wide A-lanes on the roadway, then this city was created for a bicycle, damn it! (excluding climate, yes)

I will share my impressions . You need to get into the rhythm, your legs ache a little after such a race, it’s still difficult to ride uphill, but soon everything will be OK. Follow the updates ...

PS A bicycle, in my experience, is a pleasure for the upper middle class and above. While I am setting it up, I am getting hardened by costs. Really expensive! ”

Not all readers of Shkumatov shared his optimism. Here are just a small part of the responses to this post:

- Probably, it depends on the area. Somehow, she arranged a feat of march of a throw from Balashikha to Schelkovo, she barely survived! On Click there is not even a normal crossing through the MKAD. Yes, another problem, you can come somewhere, but leave it - no. All chains bite perfectly. I have a cheaper bicycle, but it will be a shame if they take me away. By the way, there are a lot of borders on Izmailovo ...

- All this is cool, but living in the North-West Administrative District near the Moscow Ring Road to go to work in the South-West Administrative District / South-Eastern Administrative District / Central Administrative District is simply unrealistic. While you get sweaty, bury yourself (in the OZP, and we have it from September to April), you cannot breathe in exhaust fumes and on many roads - although, judging by the cyclists and the gyro scooter suicides on the treshka, New Riga, MKAD, it is possible if life is not expensive. ..

- Try not to drive on the sidewalks at all - we'll see what you write. Or if you (God forbid) get knocked down at a speed of 80 km / h on an ordinary street.

However, as always, fans in the cycling movement in Moscow were:

- All of Moscow rides through a bicycle without a single border and without dismounting even once. I travel from Pushkino to the Enthusiasts Highway, Balashikha, Shchelkovo, Ivanteevka also traveled. You don’t have to drive along the sidewalks and you will be happy.

- The bicycle has its own buzz ... Yes, the fact of the matter is that they are generally happy with everything ... We want more parks. At prices now, everything is imported expensive. We do not do our own. 80 thousand is generally speaking just a piece of bucks !!! It's just that a thing for the Russian Federation now is a huge amount of money, but in the developed world where they produce something, in particular, their bicycles, this is rogue.