Bicycle Basics for Dummies (Bike Week)

Cyclist on road bicycle

In case you hadn't noticed, we at the Antisocial Network are often unimpressed by eHow.com's content. So for Bike Week (our homage to May's status as National Bicycle Month) it stands to reason that we'd point out some of the site's bull-laden content on the topic. Make no mistake about it, eHow.com's stable of freelancers are perfectly capable of screwing up even basic facts, such as in the article "How Does a Bicycle Work?" at SportsRec.com by long-time contributor Laurie Reeves, sometimes known as Laurie Brenner.

Unlike some former eHow content, Reeves' post isn't marked by a single gigantic boner; but a careful reader will still find several misstatements and more than a little of the sort of simple-minded misinformation that's made Demand Media and its flagship site, eHow.com, the laughingstock of thinking people. Here's a small sample:

"A bicycle can take you as far as you want to go, all without wasting a dime on fossil fuels." Funny: an eight-ounce bottle of high-tech chain lube set us back twelve bucks not long ago. And does Laurie think a bike materializes out of thin air by magic? "[they] exploit the raw power in your muscles -- kinetic energy -- to move..." Ummm, no: the power of your muscles is chemical energy. The bike itself attains kinetic energy by its motion. "Bicycles have from one to 30 gears -- little sprockets with teeth attached to the back wheel of the bicycle..." Sorry, Laurie: some high-end bikes have eleven sprockets in the cluster, but the number of "gears" is actually the product of the number of sprockets on the rear and chain rings on the front. We seriously doubt anyone's ever put 30 sprockets on the back wheel... "The larger the sprocket, the harder the pedaling, the smaller sprockets require easier, but faster pedaling" Strange: and here we thought the relationship between gear size and power was the other way 'round... ooops, it is!

For her steadfast, long-standing, and enduring contributions to the stupidification of the internet, we at the Antisocial Network do hereby proclaim Laurie Reeves (Brenner), eHow Contributor, our Dumbass of the Day.

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