[peterw_diy]

@cvcalhoun 183691 wrote:

The website for the Elf says,

The ELF can achieve 20 MPH with electric assist, and 30 MPH with pedaling.

What happens at 30 MPH? Do the brakes kick in? Does it deploy a drag chute? Does it disintegrate?

[peterw_diy]

@lordofthemark 183246 wrote:

Well I’ve finally found a bike skill I am elite at – I can ride at, I guess, 3MPH (maybe its 4MPH?) without falling down

Sounds like the beginnings of a Pointless Prize – longest ride under 4 MPH. Sure, vicegrip and dismal can put in double centuries, but can they do that at Kidical speeds?

[peterw_diy]

@jrenaut 183146 wrote:

So I have a set of Moose Mitts, which I love, but they depend on external cables.

Really? I haven’t mounted mine in months, but they attach at the bar end with elastic loops and by the stem with Velcro. I’ve used mine with bar end shifters and “aero” internal brake cable routing, with no cables in the old school STI gear cable area. I haven’t yet tried them on my Ergopower bike, but the FAQ also says they should work: http://moosemitts.com/faq.html

Q: Hi. I’m very much interested in the road bike version of Moose Mitts. But I have internal cable wiring (Di2 electronic shifting)…will these mitts work?

A: Yes the Drop bar version (road version) work with pretty much every type of drop bar shifter, SRAM, Shimano, Cables, or electronic…Heck they even work with ‘ole skool’ bar cons.

I have wondered if they’d stay in place better if they attached to the brake lever blade somehow, but they work for me without relyng on external, old-school-STI-style gear cables.

The fact that they provide warmth with cross/interrupter brake levers makes them awesome in my opinion, as I prefer riding the tops in urban settings. Is what’s bugging you that you’re always using the traditional brake levers (riding the ramps, hoods, or hooks) and feeling a bit more lateral play now that the mitts are only attaching at two points?

[peterw_diy]

Is this the yarn merchant?

[peterw_diy]

@hozn 182582 wrote:

I think I use the same technique: accelerate to 15-18mph then brake smoothly back down to walking speed and do that a dozen or so times.

Thanks. And I just noticed on my old invoice that my rotor is an RT66, which should work with and pads.

Time to clean, sand, and try again…

[peterw_diy]

@hozn 182554 wrote:

I generally bed in new pads.

What’s your preferred technique?

As for the squealing …. I would guess a contaminated rotor, though I have had some pads (jagwire scintered come to mind) that are just noisy pads. I switched back to organic on my commuter so I don’t scare peds when it is wet out.

Yeah, I’ve rubbed the rotor down with isopropyl alcohol, which helped only for a bit. I think I might pull and lightly sand the pads next. Supposedly the brakes ship with organic pads, but I wonder if they’re more metallic than my resin-only Shimano rotor likes.

[peterw_diy]

The White Industries crank looks really nice, but it’s (unsurprisingly) expensive — $300 for the arms, $175 for the VBC rings — and 26/46 is achievable with a standard 74/110 BCD crank. So why not just use something like this $158 Sugino double plus chain guard from Rivindell, throw away the chain guard, and spend another $40 to buy a 46T 110 ring?

[peterw_diy]

Official bridge-opening celebration and free “safety swag” this Thursday at 10am: https://www.alexandriava.gov/localmotion/info/default.aspx?id=92893

(This was originally scheduled for Tuesday the 6th.)

[peterw_diy]

@ginacico 182379 wrote:

I can’t afford to be a gear masher. Spin to win is equivalent to knee preservation, and I’ve been really spoiled by triples.

So why not keep using triples? Yes, they’re unfashionable, but so what?

[peterw_diy]

@accordioneur 182136 wrote:

20 MPH is unrealistic. No one will adhere to it, even with serious enforcement. Better to enforce existing speed limits and keep people off their phones while driving.

A posted limit of 20 means enforcement at 30, which sure beats enforcing at 35.

[peterw_diy]

@Starduster 181752 wrote:

Again, here’s the Greater Greater Washington study: https://ggwash.org/view/69307/who-killed-dcs-dockless-pedal-bicycles

Thanks for that. The maintenance/lifespan angle is very interesting, especially that both the Lime electric scooters and the Jump electric bikes seem to have an average service life of only a couple months,if I’m reading the later graphs correctly. (The author clearly states that initially the scooters averaged a service life of about three weeks.)

I’d love to see a comparison to CaBi, and a closer analysis of repairs vs replacements. While getting people out of cars has clear spatial benefits, I dislike the idea that these devices might be so disposable, which reinforces what I witnessed in California, with fatally wounded scooters lying about the sidewalks like mundane packaging litter.

[peterw_diy]

@PeteD 181368 wrote:

Bad: Motorist not cited for Dooring under § 46.2-818.1. Any accident where perceived damage is less than $1000 is not a cite-able offense either.

$1000 of property damage is a threshold for mandatory reporting of a collision, I think that’s likely what the officer was getting confused by. (Of course not being required to file a collision report doesn’t mean not being able to issue a citation.)

https://one.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/stateCatalog/states/va/crash.html

[peterw_diy]

🤞🏽

While it’s pretty easy to move to the sidewalk there, it would be nicer to stay on the roadway & leave the sidewalk to people on foot.

[peterw_diy]

Wow, CaBi online support is so bad, it’s like they’re trying to be awful.

Having heard no response two weeks after emailing “customerservice@bluebikes.com” as directed by CaBi’s initial response, I tried the online support form again. This time, after merely two days, in addition to the same sort of boilerplate response that didn’t address my questions, CaBi directed me to email “bikeangels@capitalbikeshare.com”. This time I didn’t need to wait two weeks for confirmation that sending the email was pointless — I got an immediate response from CaBi’s email provider that the email address “bikeangels@capitalbikeshare.com” isn’t valid. 👍

My greener side is still interested in helping rebalance, to make CaBi a more appealing alternative to autos. But that desire is outweighed by my growing animosity towards CaBi.

[peterw_diy]

@lordofthemark 181091 wrote:

we suggest instead that the highway entrance and exit ramps be controlled by HAWK beacons.

“controlled” by HAWK beacons? I think you are asking too little. Why shouldn’t Duke get a decent pedestrian bridge like Quaker/Gunston has?

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