I’ve been doing a lot of driving lately. A lot.Recently I was driving on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson. I noticed something — some things — poking off of the front wheel of a semi truck: spikes jutting out several inches from each wheel lug where only short nuts should be necessary.Naturally I pulled my phone out of my pocket to take a photo. Driving with one hand, I edged the car up close to the spinning spikes, keeping both eyes on the viewfinder.
If you want a mean, aggressive, rugged look for your truck, SUV, or Jeep, pick up a set of these Metal Lugz spiked lug nuts today!
…any wheel, wheel cover, hubcap, lug nut or lug cap, prong, or any ornamentation … that extends out past the wheel’s rim in a manner so as to cause injury or property damage when the moving wheel contacts a person or object.
I haven’t forgotten that this is a bike blog.If you are someone who rides a bicycle to work, then you are familiar with the perverse reasoning that we encounter endlessly. It is considered conventional wisdom: Bikes are dangerous. But how often do you see a weaponized bike?
Informed people know that the risks of cycling for transportation are low; as low or lower than using a motor vehicle. And we know that the risks are largely borne by the person on the bike.Can you imagine the outrage if a trend got going that actually did make bikes dangerous to others? I know: Bikes can be dangerous to others, but what if a superficial fad made themeven more dangerous— say as dangerous as a common non-weaponized compact sedan being driven by a PTA mother.As I pondered this, I got out my brand new sketchbook and this is what I came up with:
Unfortunately this is not something you could just attach to your spokes. This product would have to come with a “mono fork” — a one-sided fork normally used on specialty bikes either to reduce the weight, or to allow for a special fold on a folding bike, but not to accommodate rotating spears.My point is…Hell, I don’t really have a point — least of all a point protruding menacingly from my bike.But how is it that a certain strain of truck driver can mount hostile spikes on his or her rims, and that passenger car consumers increasingly seem to go for scowling Darth Vader grills purposely designed to look mean and angry? While in the minds of those who don’t use bikes and/or don’t know what they are talking about, the bicycle can never be benign enough.
Ted Johnson lives in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Follow his hardly-ever-about-bikes blogging atHalf-Hearted Fanatic, and tweeting at@TedJohnsonIII.