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Would questions about railbiking be considered on topic on the main site?

Railbikes are normal bikes that are temporarily modified to be use on abandoned railway lines, many of which go great distances into forested areas as well as other places such as dunes, etc.

Here are a couple of images of what I mean: RAILBIKE

Railbiking near the woods

Railbiking near the woods

A railbike

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    I'm just glad you asked -- as i'd never heard of such a thing before!
    – Martin F
    Jan 24, 2017 at 22:37
  • I haven't seen a question by you, so I stole your idea! I hope you don't mind! Feb 1, 2017 at 23:43
  • @Sue Bravo for you!
    – Ken Graham
    Feb 1, 2017 at 23:48
  • The community seems to like the subject! I hope you keep it going! I wish I could give you my votes, since I'd never even heard of this, much less had a question in mind. I've upvoted most of your posts already, because I genuinely like them. I'll go look and see if I can find some more! :) Feb 4, 2017 at 20:16

3 Answers 3

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I think questions about both the activity of railbiking, and the bikes necessary to do the activity, would be on topic.

Railbiking certainly falls into the site definition. In fact, we already have a tag, which is for "questions concerning outdoor activities that include the use of a bicycle."

I've never heard of railbiking, so I Googled it, and it looks like a great way to get around, see the world, spend time with friends and family, and just enjoy being outside. Railriding organizations exist all over the world, so the subject would fit in nicely with our international user base. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people here are already doing it, but just haven't asked questions. If not, there are probably people who'd be as excited as I would to learn something new.

I think the bicycles needed to participate fall into the same category of equipment/gear used for many of our other activities. It may be especially true in this case, because these bikes appear to be custom-designed apparatus, not like any bikes we're used to seeing. People reading questions about railbiking would automatically be interested in the bikes themselves, and having to go to another site to learn about them might be more difficult and less fun.

As with many SE sites, there is overlap between our site and others. My view is that as long as something is on-topic here, we can ask it here. If you don't get the answers you need, or if there's better information for you at the dedicated bicycles site, that's up to you. However, I don't see any reason not to ask about the bicycles here. In fact, it makes perfect sense that you would.

This is of course just my opinion. Our community speaks for itself by voting and commenting, which is how it should be in the SE system!

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As the questions Walking through an active railway tunnel during a long distance walk & Where in the world are train-track right of ways, also public right of ways? did ok, I can't see any reason rail bikes would not be on topic

Be aware as evidenced in both of the linked questions there are questions of legalities, some of which brought forth some strong opinions.

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I think questions about these bikes would be more appropriate on bicycles.SE if the focus is on the bikes themselves. If it is more about the "outdoors aspects", then it should be ok here.

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    Having posted on both sites, I disagree. bicycles.SE is about the religion of bicycling. If you just want to have fun TGO is the place to ask. If you want to know how to tune your very expensive bike so you can ride faster/farther bicycles.SE is the place to ask. Jan 18, 2017 at 11:54
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    @JamesJenkins The stated scope of bicycles is "Bicycles is a question and answer site for people who ride, repair, or build bicycles". That site has bicycle expertise and not at all limited to expensive bike so you can ride faster/farther. You are a moderator on pets. How would you feel about a comment to post a pets question on TGO because it is more fun? The general premise of stack exchange is sites for domain expertise that I think should be respected for the growth of the network as a whole. Truce - just my opinion.
    – paparazzo
    Jan 18, 2017 at 20:03

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