A few months waxing chain

On Wed, 5 Dec 2018 12:42:25 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 12/5/2018 10:35 AM, AMuzi wrote:
On 12/4/2018 9:42 PM, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Tue, 4 Dec 2018 14:48:25 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 3:33:15 AM UTC-8, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

fantasy ~ noun* ~ Imagination unrestricted by reality.

cheers,

John B.

Or perhaps he's either simply trolling or arguing for the sake of
arguing?

Cheers

Over the years I have spent many hours cleaning that wax residue off
cogs and rings. I have disassembled and scrapped and finally used
acetone to clean off the remainder until changing to Rock and Roll.
Now no residue. But apparently you sat here with me and showed me
that there was no such thing.

Tom, I have to believe that you either don't know what you are talking
about or simply a liar.

I believe Tom. No reason to doubt his description.

I've seen waxed chain systems as Frank describes, shiny and neat but
I've also seen gear trains more encrusted with wax than the floor under
The Virgin Mary's niche.

And as I said in a slightly different context:

My method is unusual. I don't remove the chain and soak it in a hot pot
of molten wax. Instead, while my chain is still on my bike, I use a
low-flame propane torch to warm the chain about 15 links at a time,
apply the wax/oil cake like using a crayon, then reheat those links
until I see the wax flow into the chain bits. I then backpedal and repeat.

Here's the pertinent part: When the entire chain's done but still warm,
I backpedal the chain while gripping it with a handful of paper towels.
I think that gets a lot of excess external wax off the chain. Maybe
othes who do the hot wax soak have too much wax caked on their chain? I
don't know.


If you use heated wax and simply pop the chain into the wax and leave
it there for a bit the chain is heated to roughly the same temperature
as the molten wax and if the chain is removed from the wax and simply
hung up to cool there is relatively little wax on the outside of the
chain.

(But of course, this requires the chain to be removed from the
bicycle.... or a very large pot :-)

cheers,

John B.

On 12/5/2018 6:03 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 9:42:30 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/5/2018 10:35 AM, AMuzi wrote:
On 12/4/2018 9:42 PM, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Tue, 4 Dec 2018 14:48:25 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 3:33:15 AM UTC-8, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

fantasy ~ nounÂ* ~ Imagination unrestricted by reality.

cheers,

John B.

Or perhaps he's either simply trolling or arguing for the sake of
arguing?

Cheers

Over the years I have spent many hours cleaning that wax residue off
cogs and rings. I have disassembled and scrapped and finally used
acetone to clean off the remainder until changing to Rock and Roll.
Now no residue. But apparently you sat here with me and showed me
that there was no such thing.

Tom, I have to believe that you either don't know what you are talking
about or simply a liar.

I believe Tom. No reason to doubt his description.

I've seen waxed chain systems as Frank describes, shiny and neat but
I've also seen gear trains more encrusted with wax than the floor under
The Virgin Mary's niche.

And as I said in a slightly different context:

My method is unusual. I don't remove the chain and soak it in a hot pot
of molten wax. Instead, while my chain is still on my bike, I use a
low-flame propane torch to warm the chain about 15 links at a time,
apply the wax/oil cake like using a crayon, then reheat those links
until I see the wax flow into the chain bits. I then backpedal and repeat.

Here's the pertinent part: When the entire chain's done but still warm,
I backpedal the chain while gripping it with a handful of paper towels.
I think that gets a lot of excess external wax off the chain. Maybe
othes who do the hot wax soak have too much wax caked on their chain? I
don't know.

(BTW, this on-the-bike method was my own brainstorm. But years later, I
learned that another local guy had come up with the same trick. He was
the owner of a respected LBS and a super-competent rider.)


Riders use more or less or much more of various waxy things. 'Wax' is
not a standard thing at all.

True. And it's a wonder that the tiny congregation of chain waxers is
not (yet?) suffering the same religious splintering as the liquid
lubrication church.

("You use motor oil? YOU HEATHEN YOU!!!")


--
- Frank Krygowski

Well, I remove the chain and making sure it's clean I put it in the oven to preheat it. In the meantime I have my can of chainwax in a double boiler melting. When the chain is warm enough that you need oven mitts to hold it, I loop it through the melted wax. But there is a whole lot of excess wax on the chain that is pushed off after reattaching it to the bike and when you backpedal it, it leaves a pile of wax under the rings and cogs. This can was supplied by Park Tool and the directions with it.

How do you get wax with any volume of lubricant in It to form anything resembling a hard wax crayon?

I made my last batch well over 10 years ago, so memory is imprecise; but
I melted the wax, then poured in some oil. (I don't remember if it was
motor oil or gear lube - I suspect the latter.) I didn't measure
anything, I just poured and thought "that ought to be enough." I suppose
I stirred it a bit, then let it cool.

I didn't know it was supposed to be difficult, so I just did it without
too much thinking.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On 12/5/2018 6:28 PM, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 5 Dec 2018 12:42:25 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 12/5/2018 10:35 AM, AMuzi wrote:
On 12/4/2018 9:42 PM, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Tue, 4 Dec 2018 14:48:25 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 3:33:15 AM UTC-8, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

fantasy ~ nounÂ* ~ Imagination unrestricted by reality.

cheers,

John B.

Or perhaps he's either simply trolling or arguing for the sake of
arguing?

Cheers

Over the years I have spent many hours cleaning that wax residue off
cogs and rings. I have disassembled and scrapped and finally used
acetone to clean off the remainder until changing to Rock and Roll.
Now no residue. But apparently you sat here with me and showed me
that there was no such thing.

Tom, I have to believe that you either don't know what you are talking
about or simply a liar.

I believe Tom. No reason to doubt his description.

I've seen waxed chain systems as Frank describes, shiny and neat but
I've also seen gear trains more encrusted with wax than the floor under
The Virgin Mary's niche.

And as I said in a slightly different context:

My method is unusual. I don't remove the chain and soak it in a hot pot
of molten wax. Instead, while my chain is still on my bike, I use a
low-flame propane torch to warm the chain about 15 links at a time,
apply the wax/oil cake like using a crayon, then reheat those links
until I see the wax flow into the chain bits. I then backpedal and repeat.

Here's the pertinent part: When the entire chain's done but still warm,
I backpedal the chain while gripping it with a handful of paper towels.
I think that gets a lot of excess external wax off the chain. Maybe
othes who do the hot wax soak have too much wax caked on their chain? I
don't know.


If you use heated wax and simply pop the chain into the wax and leave
it there for a bit the chain is heated to roughly the same temperature
as the molten wax and if the chain is removed from the wax and simply
hung up to cool there is relatively little wax on the outside of the
chain.

(But of course, this requires the chain to be removed from the
bicycle.... or a very large pot :-)

I still remember the first time I used paraffin, in 1976. I'd just read
about it for the first time, and we were preparing to take our bikes to
Britain for the first overseas bike (and train) tour. British Airways
didn't require disassembly or boxing the bikes, but I thought this
purportedly clean chain lube would make sense.

I don't remember how I heated the wax. I do remember taking the hot,
dripping chain outside and whirling it around to get excess wax off it.

I don't remember any excess wax on the gear train, but I was
disappointed with the performance of the pure paraffin. The chains did
well until the first rain during that bike tour, then they squeaked. So
I went back to using oil on that tour.

It was a long time before I either generated or encountered the idea of
adding a bit of oil to the paraffin, and it a little while after that I
got tired of removing the chain and decided to try heating it on the
bike. For me, this works best.


--
- Frank Krygowski

On 12/5/2018 6:06 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 11:55:48 AM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 12/5/2018 11:49 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/5/2018 12:16 PM, wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 7:26:52 PM UTC-8, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 5:37:55 PM UTC-5,
wrote:

Frank - how often do you clean your chain and re-wax?
How much off-road riding do you do?

I think I re-wax maybe every 500 miles or so. With my
method, there
is no separate "clean your chain" step. I just add
wax/oil mix
using a propane torch while the chain is on the bike. The
only
cleaning is backpedaling the chain through paper towels
once the
entire chain has gotten it's fresh wax.

These days I do only a little off-road riding. Until
recently I was
on the board of trustees of our local forest preserve. I
would ride
through the trails once in a while to see if there were
problems,
and I would cut through on my way to certain
destinations. There
are a few other gravel roads I would use on occasion, but
most of
my riding is paved.

BTW, I had two hospital stays this year, and associated
recovery.
It's been a terrible year for cycling. I don't think I've
done the
chains since February.

- Frank Krygowski

Well, from my experience I cannot understand how you don't
get wax build-up on the cogs and rings. This isn't some
build-up, inside of 500 miles I have to take the cassette
and rings off because you cannot clean them without
scraping and then a final wash with acetone. I don't buy
acetone to keep something highly volatile around the house
but because it's necessary.

It may be that final step, backpedaling the chain through a
handful of paper towels to polish off the excess. But even
the little bit that eventually appears on the chainrings is
easy for me to wipe off. Maybe it's softer because of the
small amount of oil I've mixed into the wax.


For several weeks I have been completely unable to ride
because of bronchitis. This is the worst I've ever had
with coughing all night.

sigh I've been fighting that for several years, and
dreading winter because of it. Fortunately, it skipped me
last winter. My fingers are crossed this year.

But I think it triggered other problems - that is,
antibiotics affecting my gut microbiome. C. Diff is no fun.
Email if you want details.


Sounds awful but at least you lived. Best wishes on a speedy
recovery.

The Great American Inscrutable Billing Machine ( a.k.a.
'health care') kills about 35,000* people every year with
hospital-acquired infection. Not infection, mind you, but
rather specifically hospital-acquired infection. Visit at
your peril; financial, biological, existential.

*I've seen estimates double that and higher but 35K is
commonly cited.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

My wife babysits the grandkids and stuff that bounces off of them in school hits us.

Our kid calls her kids "little virus bombs."


--
- Frank Krygowski

On 12/5/2018 6:17 PM, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 05 Dec 2018 13:55:44 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

On 12/5/2018 11:49 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/5/2018 12:16 PM, wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 7:26:52 PM UTC-8, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 5:37:55 PM UTC-5,
wrote:

Frank - how often do you clean your chain and re-wax?
How much off-road riding do you do?

I think I re-wax maybe every 500 miles or so. With my
method, there
is no separate "clean your chain" step. I just add
wax/oil mix
using a propane torch while the chain is on the bike. The
only
cleaning is backpedaling the chain through paper towels
once the
entire chain has gotten it's fresh wax.

These days I do only a little off-road riding. Until
recently I was
on the board of trustees of our local forest preserve. I
would ride
through the trails once in a while to see if there were
problems,
and I would cut through on my way to certain
destinations. There
are a few other gravel roads I would use on occasion, but
most of
my riding is paved.

BTW, I had two hospital stays this year, and associated
recovery.
It's been a terrible year for cycling. I don't think I've
done the
chains since February.

- Frank Krygowski

Well, from my experience I cannot understand how you don't
get wax build-up on the cogs and rings. This isn't some
build-up, inside of 500 miles I have to take the cassette
and rings off because you cannot clean them without
scraping and then a final wash with acetone. I don't buy
acetone to keep something highly volatile around the house
but because it's necessary.

It may be that final step, backpedaling the chain through a
handful of paper towels to polish off the excess. But even
the little bit that eventually appears on the chainrings is
easy for me to wipe off. Maybe it's softer because of the
small amount of oil I've mixed into the wax.


For several weeks I have been completely unable to ride
because of bronchitis. This is the worst I've ever had
with coughing all night.

sigh I've been fighting that for several years, and
dreading winter because of it. Fortunately, it skipped me
last winter. My fingers are crossed this year.

But I think it triggered other problems - that is,
antibiotics affecting my gut microbiome. C. Diff is no fun.
Email if you want details.


Sounds awful but at least you lived. Best wishes on a speedy
recovery.

The Great American Inscrutable Billing Machine ( a.k.a.
'health care') kills about 35,000* people every year with
hospital-acquired infection. Not infection, mind you, but
rather specifically hospital-acquired infection. Visit at
your peril; financial, biological, existential.

*I've seen estimates double that and higher but 35K is
commonly cited.

Simply quoting a number doesn't give an accurate view of the problem,
however, in terms of deaths due to health care per 100,000 of
population the U.S. leads the pack with 826/100,000 in 2013 while in
comparison Japan had 598/100,000. See https://tinyurl.com/ybaq8vx5

From the same site the number of USians who have "have experienced
medical, medication, or lab errors or delays in past two years" is 22%
while an average of comparative countries is 16% with the U.K. having
only 8%.

In addition total health expenditures per capita, U.S. dollars, PPP
adjusted, 2016, is the highest in the world. An average of comparable
countries is approximately half of what costs are in the U.S. See:
https://tinyurl.com/yaavfq6p

There are other problems as well, of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMqcLUqYqrs


--
- Frank Krygowski

On 6/12/18 10:03 am, wrote:


Well, I remove the chain and making sure it's clean I put it in the
oven to preheat it. In the meantime I have my can of chainwax in a
double boiler melting. When the chain is warm enough that you need
oven mitts to hold it, I loop it through the melted wax. But there is
a whole lot of excess wax on the chain that is pushed off after
reattaching it to the bike and when you backpedal it, it leaves a
pile of wax under the rings and cogs. This can was supplied by Park
Tool and the directions with it.


I put the cold chain in a pot with the cold wax, then heat the whole lot
up until there is no more solid wax, and then leave it a bit longer.
When I lift the chain out, most of the excess lubricant drips off, and I
pull the chain through an old piece of rag to remove excess from the
outside of the chain before reinstalling it.

How do you get wax with any volume of lubricant in It to form
anything resembling a hard wax crayon?


My pot of wax is almost soft at about 40C I guess. It has about 50/50
wax and oil (80w 90 EP gear oil).

--
JS

On Wed, 5 Dec 2018 19:01:22 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 12/5/2018 6:28 PM, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 5 Dec 2018 12:42:25 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 12/5/2018 10:35 AM, AMuzi wrote:
On 12/4/2018 9:42 PM, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Tue, 4 Dec 2018 14:48:25 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 3:33:15 AM UTC-8, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

fantasy ~ noun* ~ Imagination unrestricted by reality.

cheers,

John B.

Or perhaps he's either simply trolling or arguing for the sake of
arguing?

Cheers

Over the years I have spent many hours cleaning that wax residue off
cogs and rings. I have disassembled and scrapped and finally used
acetone to clean off the remainder until changing to Rock and Roll.
Now no residue. But apparently you sat here with me and showed me
that there was no such thing.

Tom, I have to believe that you either don't know what you are talking
about or simply a liar.

I believe Tom. No reason to doubt his description.

I've seen waxed chain systems as Frank describes, shiny and neat but
I've also seen gear trains more encrusted with wax than the floor under
The Virgin Mary's niche.

And as I said in a slightly different context:

My method is unusual. I don't remove the chain and soak it in a hot pot
of molten wax. Instead, while my chain is still on my bike, I use a
low-flame propane torch to warm the chain about 15 links at a time,
apply the wax/oil cake like using a crayon, then reheat those links
until I see the wax flow into the chain bits. I then backpedal and repeat.

Here's the pertinent part: When the entire chain's done but still warm,
I backpedal the chain while gripping it with a handful of paper towels.
I think that gets a lot of excess external wax off the chain. Maybe
othes who do the hot wax soak have too much wax caked on their chain? I
don't know.


If you use heated wax and simply pop the chain into the wax and leave
it there for a bit the chain is heated to roughly the same temperature
as the molten wax and if the chain is removed from the wax and simply
hung up to cool there is relatively little wax on the outside of the
chain.

(But of course, this requires the chain to be removed from the
bicycle.... or a very large pot :-)

I still remember the first time I used paraffin, in 1976. I'd just read
about it for the first time, and we were preparing to take our bikes to
Britain for the first overseas bike (and train) tour. British Airways
didn't require disassembly or boxing the bikes, but I thought this
purportedly clean chain lube would make sense.

I don't remember how I heated the wax. I do remember taking the hot,
dripping chain outside and whirling it around to get excess wax off it.

I don't remember any excess wax on the gear train, but I was
disappointed with the performance of the pure paraffin. The chains did
well until the first rain during that bike tour, then they squeaked. So
I went back to using oil on that tour.

It was a long time before I either generated or encountered the idea of
adding a bit of oil to the paraffin, and it a little while after that I
got tired of removing the chain and decided to try heating it on the
bike. For me, this works best.

I use a little bee's wax, probably less then 25% with the idea of
making the paraffin a bit more flexible, and I add a large scoop of
something called "Super Lube", a light grease that contains PTFE.

I have an electrical heated Wok that holds probably two pounds of the
mix and has a thermostat. I take the chain off and measure it and then
just drop it in the pot. After the thermostat has cycled two or three
times I fish the chain out,with a hook, and hold it over the pot until
the dripping is pretty well stopped and then hanging it up to cool.

There doesn't seem to be much wear, the chain doesn't squeak when
riding in the rain and the sprockets don't get dirty - there is a very
light wax coating on both the cassette cogs and the crank sprocket but
it seems to just clear wax, no noticeable dirt at all.

cheers,

John B.

On Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 3:19:30 PM UTC-8, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 5 Dec 2018 09:17:24 -0800 (PST), wrote:

And after your other comments I have to think that you're a blithering idiot.

So after changing the subject every time that anyone challenges you,
you ale now reduced to insults to prove your point.

cheers,

John B.

I am not changing the subject. I am identifying the problem and you seem to find that insulting.

On Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 7:40:50 PM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/5/2018 6:17 PM, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 05 Dec 2018 13:55:44 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

On 12/5/2018 11:49 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/5/2018 12:16 PM, wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 7:26:52 PM UTC-8, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 5:37:55 PM UTC-5,
wrote:

Frank - how often do you clean your chain and re-wax?
How much off-road riding do you do?

I think I re-wax maybe every 500 miles or so. With my
method, there
is no separate "clean your chain" step. I just add
wax/oil mix
using a propane torch while the chain is on the bike. The
only
cleaning is backpedaling the chain through paper towels
once the
entire chain has gotten it's fresh wax.

These days I do only a little off-road riding. Until
recently I was
on the board of trustees of our local forest preserve. I
would ride
through the trails once in a while to see if there were
problems,
and I would cut through on my way to certain
destinations. There
are a few other gravel roads I would use on occasion, but
most of
my riding is paved.

BTW, I had two hospital stays this year, and associated
recovery.
It's been a terrible year for cycling. I don't think I've
done the
chains since February.

- Frank Krygowski

Well, from my experience I cannot understand how you don't
get wax build-up on the cogs and rings. This isn't some
build-up, inside of 500 miles I have to take the cassette
and rings off because you cannot clean them without
scraping and then a final wash with acetone. I don't buy
acetone to keep something highly volatile around the house
but because it's necessary.

It may be that final step, backpedaling the chain through a
handful of paper towels to polish off the excess. But even
the little bit that eventually appears on the chainrings is
easy for me to wipe off. Maybe it's softer because of the
small amount of oil I've mixed into the wax.


For several weeks I have been completely unable to ride
because of bronchitis. This is the worst I've ever had
with coughing all night.

sigh I've been fighting that for several years, and
dreading winter because of it. Fortunately, it skipped me
last winter. My fingers are crossed this year.

But I think it triggered other problems - that is,
antibiotics affecting my gut microbiome. C. Diff is no fun.
Email if you want details.


Sounds awful but at least you lived. Best wishes on a speedy
recovery.

The Great American Inscrutable Billing Machine ( a.k.a.
'health care') kills about 35,000* people every year with
hospital-acquired infection. Not infection, mind you, but
rather specifically hospital-acquired infection. Visit at
your peril; financial, biological, existential.

*I've seen estimates double that and higher but 35K is
commonly cited.

Simply quoting a number doesn't give an accurate view of the problem,
however, in terms of deaths due to health care per 100,000 of
population the U.S. leads the pack with 826/100,000 in 2013 while in
comparison Japan had 598/100,000. See https://tinyurl.com/ybaq8vx5

From the same site the number of USians who have "have experienced
medical, medication, or lab errors or delays in past two years" is 22%
while an average of comparative countries is 16% with the U.K. having
only 8%.

In addition total health expenditures per capita, U.S. dollars, PPP
adjusted, 2016, is the highest in the world. An average of comparable
countries is approximately half of what costs are in the U.S. See:
https://tinyurl.com/yaavfq6p

There are other problems as well, of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMqcLUqYqrs


--
- Frank Krygowski

He did a good job of describing the problems and didn't identify their sources. The destruction of this country is at the hands of the millennial generation to who the word, "no", has never been uttered. They actually believe that they are entitled to do anything they want to do and if anyone stands in their way it is because they are evil and not because the millennial is wrong.

Look at people like Slocum who judges value as the price of an object or Jay who lives in a town where people will **** in the doorway of a business while people walk by ignoring it. The entire downtown of Portland smells like **** and people there treat it as normal.


California politics is so corrupt that it would take multiple firing squads months to finish off those who prosper at public expense.

California has 77 billionaires and 3 of them are Republicans. Why? Because when you have that sort of money you can pretend to come from the people while looking down from your spacious gated communities in the hills and with their private police forces.

On Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 9:40:04 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 7:40:50 PM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/5/2018 6:17 PM, John B. slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 05 Dec 2018 13:55:44 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

On 12/5/2018 11:49 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/5/2018 12:16 PM, wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 7:26:52 PM UTC-8, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 5:37:55 PM UTC-5,
wrote:

Frank - how often do you clean your chain and re-wax?
How much off-road riding do you do?

I think I re-wax maybe every 500 miles or so. With my
method, there
is no separate "clean your chain" step. I just add
wax/oil mix
using a propane torch while the chain is on the bike. The
only
cleaning is backpedaling the chain through paper towels
once the
entire chain has gotten it's fresh wax.

These days I do only a little off-road riding. Until
recently I was
on the board of trustees of our local forest preserve. I
would ride
through the trails once in a while to see if there were
problems,
and I would cut through on my way to certain
destinations. There
are a few other gravel roads I would use on occasion, but
most of
my riding is paved.

BTW, I had two hospital stays this year, and associated
recovery.
It's been a terrible year for cycling. I don't think I've
done the
chains since February.

- Frank Krygowski

Well, from my experience I cannot understand how you don't
get wax build-up on the cogs and rings. This isn't some
build-up, inside of 500 miles I have to take the cassette
and rings off because you cannot clean them without
scraping and then a final wash with acetone. I don't buy
acetone to keep something highly volatile around the house
but because it's necessary.

It may be that final step, backpedaling the chain through a
handful of paper towels to polish off the excess. But even
the little bit that eventually appears on the chainrings is
easy for me to wipe off. Maybe it's softer because of the
small amount of oil I've mixed into the wax.


For several weeks I have been completely unable to ride
because of bronchitis. This is the worst I've ever had
with coughing all night.

sigh I've been fighting that for several years, and
dreading winter because of it. Fortunately, it skipped me
last winter. My fingers are crossed this year.

But I think it triggered other problems - that is,
antibiotics affecting my gut microbiome. C. Diff is no fun.
Email if you want details.


Sounds awful but at least you lived. Best wishes on a speedy
recovery.

The Great American Inscrutable Billing Machine ( a.k.a.
'health care') kills about 35,000* people every year with
hospital-acquired infection. Not infection, mind you, but
rather specifically hospital-acquired infection. Visit at
your peril; financial, biological, existential.

*I've seen estimates double that and higher but 35K is
commonly cited.

Simply quoting a number doesn't give an accurate view of the problem,
however, in terms of deaths due to health care per 100,000 of
population the U.S. leads the pack with 826/100,000 in 2013 while in
comparison Japan had 598/100,000. See https://tinyurl.com/ybaq8vx5

From the same site the number of USians who have "have experienced
medical, medication, or lab errors or delays in past two years" is 22%
while an average of comparative countries is 16% with the U.K. having
only 8%.

In addition total health expenditures per capita, U.S. dollars, PPP
adjusted, 2016, is the highest in the world. An average of comparable
countries is approximately half of what costs are in the U.S. See:
https://tinyurl.com/yaavfq6p

There are other problems as well, of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMqcLUqYqrs


--
- Frank Krygowski

He did a good job of describing the problems and didn't identify their sources. The destruction of this country is at the hands of the millennial generation to who the word, "no", has never been uttered. They actually believe that they are entitled to do anything they want to do and if anyone stands in their way it is because they are evil and not because the millennial is wrong.

Look at people like Slocum who judges value as the price of an object or Jay who lives in a town where people will **** in the doorway of a business while people walk by ignoring it. The entire downtown of Portland smells like **** and people there treat it as normal.

Wow, medication time. Have you even been to Portland?

And why are you so angry? With your massive earnings in the stock market and the Trump tax break, I would think you'd be living like a king, totally unconcerned about the incontinent heathens in Portland. With the new big China deal, you'll be buying those cheap Chinese wheels for $5-10. Korea . . . managed! Be happy. Don't worry!

-- Jay Beattie.