What were the handful of instances wherein violence wasn’t required to defeat fascists?

Result: there are 16 beans.

I’ve ridden electric stuff with really bad/jerky throttles

What are those models with bad throttle response?

My commute used to be 52 miles every weekday. Gatorskins very quickly proved themselves to be a hard no. Those tires somehow magically merge low traction and low longevity. Tread wears out quickly, sidewalls degrade quickly, and flat resistance was on par with tires that don’t claim to be hard-wearing. I’ve had sidewalls start to delaminate in under 500 miles. After about a year of that chaos, I switched to Vittoria Rubino Pro III on most of my bikes and never looked back.

While I have no love for Conti Gatorskins, that chunk looks like it was initiated by a lateral cut. The top edge looks very clean, while the remaining edges look torn.

I generally mistrust Conti tires regardless of mode. I had a new car and motorcycle that both came with Contis. Just terrible. Switched to Michelins on the motorized vehicles. That resulted in better traction, better ride, and better wear.

I have a hypothesis that the Nassau pirates were a successful socialist economy. The Flying Gang/Republic of Pirates was founded mostly from former privateers (legally sanctioned and “licensed” marauders). The democratic and socialist nature of the republic was a growing threat to royalty and the American ruling class, especially given that Africans could be full crew members and even captains with all the rights afforded those roles. Furthermore, European royalty and American capitalists were the only ones “allowed” to pillage native lands. The pirates were in turn sacking European and American ships of their ill-gotten and exploitative gains.

Having a socialist, comparatively egalitarian and equitable society amidst the Carribean sugar plantations was too much of a threat to the ruling classes. The pirates were ruthlessly pursued and purged from history. Sure, King George I (and some others? don’t recall) first tried to bring the Nassau pirates (back) into the fold with offers of amnesty. This is analogous to offering modern engineers well-paying jobs; most terrorists whose names you know start out as engineers*. The ruling classes first wanted to put the pirates’ skills to use for their own gain. Benjamin Hornigold was one who returned, hunting down his former peers.

*think about that the next time you run across a bored, disgruntled engineer

I find it very odd that books on the golden age of piracy all remark how the pirates supposedly kept no records, yet discuss at length how the pirates had healthcare, disability, pensions, equitable wealth distribution… these things all require assiduous record-keeping. And so my bullshitspiration is that there were records. But the campaign to wipe out the pirates was so thorough that we are now led to believe that the pirates were just brigands and chaotic anarchists.

Never heard of this person/channel previously. I fell down the rabbit hole of his videos. Thanks for wrecking my morning productivity! 😆

Wait, you said a 1x can have a similar range, and then immediately followed up with:

you do have to sacrifice either a bit of top end speed or climbing ability

It is impossible for both statements to be true at the same time.

No, no, no. It was riding a bicycle. Duh!

superior due to the narrow-wide chainring

Fully agreed. Narrow-wide rings are absolutely a boon to mountain biking as are derailleur clutches. And 1x is superlative for hard trail riding on that factor alone.

A factor in the issue I take is the proprietary nature of modern bike drivetrains. With older drivetrains, we could mix and match to our hearts’ content. But now, even within a component line, e.g. Deore XT or SRAM X[n], specs such as pull rates can be different even for the same cog count. “These are the only combinations of components we think you should use, and we will do everything we can to block you from customizing.” Shimano is especially egregious about this expensive mess, and they know it, which is why they tried to un-hash things with CUES.

Pretty much everything 3x9 all works together. Road derailleur and cassette with mountain crank and bar-end shifters? Sure! Gear range for days. I sincerely believe this is to sell more bikes. Want to climb hard pack and mixed surface? You need a gravel bike! Want to get groceries? You need a commuter or loaded tourer! Want to go on a fast road ride? You need a road bike!

It used to be really easy to build up a bike that could perform most bicycle functions well. Mixed-surface, loaded, commuter/grocery-getter, randonneuring, snow, rain, club rides… one bike with maybe a wheel change*. Good luck with that now. Gravel bikes are kinda filling that niche now, but the components and frame manufacturers are again trying to fracture that even further. The gravel drivetrain won’t have the range to cover all the use cases without a cassette or crank change.

Moar rant, moar example: my partner works in an LBS. We can literally afford to buy any bicycle we could want. She wants a general-purpose gravel bike, and it’s not even a case of “just spend more money to get these additional features.” Component selection on a pre-built, geometry, wheel selection… all tightly engineered to cover as few use cases as possible. Okay, we’ll build from a naked frame. Oh, the more racy geometry frames lack braze-ons and can’t fit a 50mm tire.

*It makes complete sense to have a full-squish mountain bike for the aggressive off-road stuff, and those bikes are necessarily different. Even for that case, I can hang with the LBS trail/flow rides on my do-almost-everything bike. My current do-everything took me more than six months to source compatible parts and troubleshoot. This used to be a matter of just pulling the trigger on the parts I wanted.

Did you even watch the video? He even addressed the point about which you’re asking. Repeatedly.

The root cause of what you describe is a build or maintenance issue. Properly built, tuned, and maintained bikes don’t drop chains.

Bicycle drivetrains keep getting more complex and expensive. A 3x9 drivetrain is beyond adequate, bulletproof, and inexpensive. But NooOoOoOooo, it’s nearly impossible to get a quality bike with 3x9 now, without a full custom, DIY build. Everything has to be 1x11/12, which is expensive, touchy, and very particular, all while still lacking the gear range of 3x9.

It all seriously sticks in my craw.

Enjoy!

I mentioned the increase in moment arm for anyone else thinking about increasing their rotor size. On my own bikes, I would have zero concerns about 160—>180. This is a super common modification, and it is for cooling purposes.

But people being people, someone else would see “put on a larger adapter and rock out!” And then think they could put on a 203 rotor just because it fits. And THAT is absolutely getting into concerning, “you better know what you’re doing” territory.

The text on the adapter indicates it is for rotors 160 OR 180mm in diameter, depending on the fork design. The flat mount on your fork was designed for 160mm, but there are also flat mounts on other bikes designed for other standard sizes. Contact your fork manufacturer to confirm whether you can fit a 180mm rotor.

Even if a 180mm rotor physically fits, that’s only part of the equation. Increasing rotor size increases the moment arm being applied to the fork leg. The fork needs to be designed for the potentially higher forces. YMMV, and be aware that snapping your fork/frame is a real possibility when increasing rotor size. That said, 160—>180 doesn’t result in a major increase in moment, but primarily increases cooling area.

No paywall link: https://archive.ph/bn5e5

That’s your example of softcore porn? There’s much racier content on magazine covers in the grocery checkout line. Stop trying to impose your puritanical aesthetic on the rest of the world. It’s called /all for a reason. What’s wrong with you?!

Negative. I got mine at 23, but only because it took me five years to find a doctor who would perform it.

Good luck. Also, the recovery times are very serious.

And everyone is different (duh), but there has been a complete absence of regret. Added bonus: my partners have been very appreciative that the onus of birth control is not on them.

Accessible article that’s worth the read. Lots of numbers and compelling narrative, but no sources cited for those numbers. Cite sources for those numbers.

I see a lot of “For the PR” comments. This is only a fraction of why ads are purchased by utilities, large companies, and other entities with whom you never directly do business. The overarching reason they purchase ads is to have influence over narratives by those networks.

Source: used to develop software in the energy sector for a multinational; my employer and their corporate customers regularly bought ads to help bolster energy efficiency initiatives. These initiatives and interventions are frequently countered and opposed by exactly the corporate dickwads you think would oppose reduced consumer energy consumption.

Negative This VO bar is my go-to on almost all of my drop bar bikes, with few exceptions. Anything narrower causes me horrible shoulder pain after about 20 miles. I have broad shoulders, and 46 to 48cm bars are the sweet spot depending on flare, ramp length, etc.