Your Bike is Obsolete

On Saturday, November 30, 2019 at 4:39:34 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, November 30, 2019 at 6:37:19 AM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 11/29/2019 10:06 PM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Expect dinner for four at any reasonable restaurant to start at $200 without drinks. And don't expect the wine to be cheap. And corkage fees generally run more than the cheapest wines in the restaurant.

O.K., I'm down in California -- Santa Rosa and not SF, but I've been in SF three times this month, and I saw no reasonable restaurant where dinner without drinks was $50 a pop. I'm talking normal restaurants and not Michelin star art-as-food restaurants. Grocery prices at Safeway in SR are 10-15% higher than Portland, but Grocery Outlet in SR was crazy cheap for some things. Prices at that store beat PDX prices and meet Salt Lake prices (my son is with us, and he has SLC prices memorized -- they are super cheap for some reason). Houses, however, are twice as much as PDX. For example, in the post-fire, rebuilt areas of Fountain Valley its $1.5M and up for a 3,000 sf house new construction. That's ridiculous. Be happy your house is paid for. The big hit in California is housing -- even in the North Bay.

Yes, in the Bay Area, houses are exorbitantly priced (and $1.5M for a
new 3000 square foot house would be an incredible bargain in Silicon
Valley), but groceries are cheap as long as you shop at the right
supermarkets. Once you live in an area for a while you learn where to shop.

I can walk or bike to multiple stores that are far less expensive, and
that have much higher quality on many items, than the mainline supermarkets.

Trinethra Indian Super Markets: https://www.trinethrausa.com/
Sprouts https://www.sprouts.com/
Trader Joes https://www.traderjoes.com/
Marina Foods http://www.marinafoodusa.com/find.html
Oakmont Produce Market (no web site)

Wine is nearly as cheap as in Italy, for decent wine, if you know where
to shop.

Restaurant meals are not $50 per person of course. Dinner without
alcohol at a good restaurant would run around $25-30 per person, and a
higher-end restaurant it would be $50-75. The era of cheap
hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants is over. Lunch specials now are at
least $10, more typically $11-13.

Wine is suspiciously cheap. I just paid $20 for a decent restaurant burger at SFO. $12 for a large beer. What a rip off.

Continuing my rant, it was a 2.5 hr drive from SR to SFO. I could have matched that time on my bike in a good pace line. F****** ridiculous traffic for a Saturday. The rental car was wickedly expensive, and I had to plead my way out of an existing bumper scuff that I hadn't seen when I picked up the car in the gloomy, cavernous rental car garage. My flight is delayed, and my son was told that his flight was rerouted for departure from San Jose. How does that even happen? Alaska Ubered him down to SJ, and I'm not sure whether he'll make his flight. Its the most wonderful time of the year! When I get home, I'm going to hole up in my room and drink with my wife.

-- Jay Beattie.

I drove down to Santa Clara to get some parts and on the way thee were three almost stop and go. On the way back it was more or less clear but I'm driving the speed limit and being passed by car carriers filled with Teslas. 90 mph cars all over the freeway and they will be in the F-ing slow lane so you can't pull on the freeway and then you have trouble getting over to get off the freeway. I did see a cop pull someone over in my rear view mirror. One has to wonder though since while he was pulling someone over a 90 mph car went by weaving through the traffic.

On 11/30/2019 4:39 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, November 30, 2019 at 6:37:19 AM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 11/29/2019 10:06 PM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Expect dinner for four at any reasonable restaurant to start at $200 without drinks. And don't expect the wine to be cheap. And corkage fees generally run more than the cheapest wines in the restaurant.

O.K., I'm down in California -- Santa Rosa and not SF, but I've been in SF three times this month, and I saw no reasonable restaurant where dinner without drinks was $50 a pop. I'm talking normal restaurants and not Michelin star art-as-food restaurants. Grocery prices at Safeway in SR are 10-15% higher than Portland, but Grocery Outlet in SR was crazy cheap for some things. Prices at that store beat PDX prices and meet Salt Lake prices (my son is with us, and he has SLC prices memorized -- they are super cheap for some reason). Houses, however, are twice as much as PDX. For example, in the post-fire, rebuilt areas of Fountain Valley its $1.5M and up for a 3,000 sf house new construction. That's ridiculous. Be happy your house is paid for. The big hit in California is housing -- even in the North Bay.

Yes, in the Bay Area, houses are exorbitantly priced (and $1.5M for a
new 3000 square foot house would be an incredible bargain in Silicon
Valley), but groceries are cheap as long as you shop at the right
supermarkets. Once you live in an area for a while you learn where to shop.

I can walk or bike to multiple stores that are far less expensive, and
that have much higher quality on many items, than the mainline supermarkets.

Trinethra Indian Super Markets: https://www.trinethrausa.com/
Sprouts https://www.sprouts.com/
Trader Joes https://www.traderjoes.com/
Marina Foods http://www.marinafoodusa.com/find.html
Oakmont Produce Market (no web site)

Wine is nearly as cheap as in Italy, for decent wine, if you know where
to shop.

Restaurant meals are not $50 per person of course. Dinner without
alcohol at a good restaurant would run around $25-30 per person, and a
higher-end restaurant it would be $50-75. The era of cheap
hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants is over. Lunch specials now are at
least $10, more typically $11-13.

Wine is suspiciously cheap. I just paid $20 for a decent restaurant burger at SFO. $12 for a large beer. What a rip off.

SFO is the biggest ripoff for food. Last time I was there in October I
just couldn't bear to pay those prices. I waited for the food on the
airplane since it was an international flight with meals. They fed us a
lot. Not great, but edible.

Continuing my rant, it was a 2.5 hr drive from SR to SFO.

LOL, you may enjoy this piece on Live from Here with Tom Papa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1WzVtt5tM&feature=youtu.be&t=19 We
went to that show.

I could have matched that time on my bike in a good pace line. F****** ridiculous traffic for a Saturday. The rental car was wickedly expensive, and I had to plead my way out of an existing bumper scuff that I hadn't seen when I picked up the car in the gloomy, cavernous rental car garage. My flight is delayed, and my son was told that his flight was rerouted for departure from San Jose. How does that even happen? Alaska Ubered him down to SJ, and I'm not sure whether he'll make his flight. Its the most wonderful time of the year! When I get home, I'm going to hole up in my room and drink with my wife.

2 hour delays at SFO.

The secret of rental cars at SFO is to take the BART out of the airport
over to the Tanforan Mall and pick up an Avis car at the Sears Auto
Center. Probably only a few more minutes than dealing with the SFO train
to the rental car center.

On Sunday, December 1, 2019 at 12:39:34 AM UTC, jbeattie wrote:

Continuing my rant, it was a 2.5 hr drive from SR to SFO. I could have matched that time on my bike in a good pace line. F****** ridiculous traffic for a Saturday. The rental car was wickedly expensive, and I had to plead my way out of an existing bumper scuff that I hadn't seen when I picked up the car in the gloomy, cavernous rental car garage. My flight is delayed, and my son was told that his flight was rerouted for departure from San Jose. How does that even happen? Alaska Ubered him down to SJ, and I'm not sure whether he'll make his flight. Its the most wonderful time of the year! When I get home, I'm going to hole up in my room and drink with my wife.

-- Jay Beattie.

You missed an opportunity. While you were in SF you should have bought from Suspender Factory of San Francisco a set of 2in wide red braces to send an unsubtle message to obstreperous flunkies.

I ordered a dozen pairs c1968 and still wear them to snap pointedly whenever someone delays me.

Andre Jute
Pay it forward

On Sunday, December 1, 2019 at 2:17:56 AM UTC-8, Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, December 1, 2019 at 12:39:34 AM UTC, jbeattie wrote:

Continuing my rant, it was a 2.5 hr drive from SR to SFO. I could have matched that time on my bike in a good pace line. F****** ridiculous traffic for a Saturday. The rental car was wickedly expensive, and I had to plead my way out of an existing bumper scuff that I hadn't seen when I picked up the car in the gloomy, cavernous rental car garage. My flight is delayed, and my son was told that his flight was rerouted for departure from San Jose. How does that even happen? Alaska Ubered him down to SJ, and I'm not sure whether he'll make his flight. Its the most wonderful time of the year! When I get home, I'm going to hole up in my room and drink with my wife..

-- Jay Beattie.

You missed an opportunity. While you were in SF you should have bought from Suspender Factory of San Francisco a set of 2in wide red braces to send an unsubtle message to obstreperous flunkies.

I can guaranty you that plucking your suspenders would in no way impress a US service employee -- who would be stifling laughter and plotting to spit in your Earl Grey.

-- Jay Beattie.

Tom Kunich wrote:
On Wednesday, November 20, 2019 at 1:53:58 PM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 11/20/2019 2:14 AM, Ned Mantei wrote:
On 19-11-19 17:02, sms wrote:
On 11/14/2019 10:49 AM, AMuzi wrote:
https://bikerumor.com/2019/11/11/pat...train-updates/



Peek into the future, where everything you know is wrong.

I guess I'll combine the Shimano 13 speed bottom bracket gearbox with
a Nexus 8x3 rear hub so I can have 312 different gear ratios, and add
a motorized front wheel so I never have to pedal.

Sheldon Brown had (and used)a 63-speed bike-- 3 chainwheels, 7 cogs, and
a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub.
See https://www.sheldonbrown.com/org/otb.html .

Ned

He should have added a Shlumpf Drive
http://www.schlumpfdrive.com/index.php/home-en.html, a fourth chain
ring http://mgagnon.net/velo/pedalier4.en.php, and an 11 cog
freewheel. 4 x 11 x 3 x 2&4 speeds.

I don't understand how people can ride gears that low. It may be just the
me after the concussion but when I go too slow I cannot balance the bike
and tend to fall off. Because these gears are used on very steep roads
then it is a real problem to get going again.

Lots of folks balance on a bike is fairly rubbish, so might not be brain
injury related, ironically for myself my damaged vestibular systems and
what not find cycling even low speeds easy to balance, and did pre as well.

where as for example taking public transport particularly if dark I have to
really work at not falling. Cycling though it’s like the brain injury never
happened!

If your still suffering be worth exploring if you could have assessments
and possibly rehab, I poo pooed the idea of yet more physio, yet seeing the
specialists means I have a) got back some functionality, b) understand why
things don’t work ie knowledge is power and all that.

Yesterday I went on a ride and where I was usually going 8 mph I was
doing 10-12, When I topped out and started down the other side I tried to
shift into the big ring only to discover I was there all along. I think I
mentioned this before - you burn as much energy spinning at you do
lugging but you go further with fewer pedal strokes in a larger gear.


People have there personal cadences, I spin slower than most but due to
balance and torque can roll up even steep gradients with out risk of
failing and equally can start with out issue, this assumes on tarmac off
road all bets are off though I do enjoy the challenge of a steep technical
climb you have to pick your way up.

Roger Merriman

On Sunday, December 1, 2019 at 4:29:14 PM UTC-8, Roger Merriman wrote:
Tom Kunich wrote:
On Wednesday, November 20, 2019 at 1:53:58 PM UTC-8, sms wrote:
On 11/20/2019 2:14 AM, Ned Mantei wrote:
On 19-11-19 17:02, sms wrote:
On 11/14/2019 10:49 AM, AMuzi wrote:
https://bikerumor.com/2019/11/11/pat...train-updates/



Peek into the future, where everything you know is wrong.

I guess I'll combine the Shimano 13 speed bottom bracket gearbox with
a Nexus 8x3 rear hub so I can have 312 different gear ratios, and add
a motorized front wheel so I never have to pedal.

Sheldon Brown had (and used)a 63-speed bike-- 3 chainwheels, 7 cogs, and
a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub.
See https://www.sheldonbrown.com/org/otb.html .

Ned

He should have added a Shlumpf Drive
http://www.schlumpfdrive.com/index.php/home-en.html, a fourth chain
ring http://mgagnon.net/velo/pedalier4.en.php, and an 11 cog
freewheel. 4 x 11 x 3 x 2&4 speeds.

I don't understand how people can ride gears that low. It may be just the
me after the concussion but when I go too slow I cannot balance the bike
and tend to fall off. Because these gears are used on very steep roads
then it is a real problem to get going again.

Lots of folks balance on a bike is fairly rubbish, so might not be brain
injury related, ironically for myself my damaged vestibular systems and
what not find cycling even low speeds easy to balance, and did pre as well.

where as for example taking public transport particularly if dark I have to
really work at not falling. Cycling though it’s like the brain injury never
happened!

If your still suffering be worth exploring if you could have assessments
and possibly rehab, I poo pooed the idea of yet more physio, yet seeing the
specialists means I have a) got back some functionality, b) understand why
things don’t work ie knowledge is power and all that.

Yesterday I went on a ride and where I was usually going 8 mph I was
doing 10-12, When I topped out and started down the other side I tried to
shift into the big ring only to discover I was there all along. I think I
mentioned this before - you burn as much energy spinning at you do
lugging but you go further with fewer pedal strokes in a larger gear.


People have there personal cadences, I spin slower than most but due to
balance and torque can roll up even steep gradients with out risk of
failing and equally can start with out issue, this assumes on tarmac off
road all bets are off though I do enjoy the challenge of a steep technical
climb you have to pick your way up.

Roger Merriman

Well, that still retains the problem that with really low gears it is very difficult to get rolling again on steep hills because the cranks turn to fast to allow you to clip in.

Since I haven't been riding the Basso perhaps the balancing problem is only related to the smaller sizes of the Colnago and Lemond. From a somewhat faulty memory I can remember being able to sit at a stop sign though an entire cycle balancing.

I had a low cadence but started increasing it because of the racers doing so. It does help on the really steep stuff but most of the time I'm faster lugging. You obtain more distance forward per crank revolution.

Tom Kunich wrote:

Well, that still retains the problem that with really low gears
it is very difficult to get rolling again on steep hills because
the cranks turn to fast to allow you to clip in.

That's a silly-shoes-and-pedals problem, not a low gearing problem.