If one grilled cheese is a problem, have you tried cutting them in half? Diagonally only, of course.
JayleneSlide
joined 2 years ago
A lot of people in the comments are lamenting their physical pains. I feel ya, y'all.
TL;DR: yoga, Pilates, McKenzie Method physical therapy.
Some background first, then a low- to zero-price solutions. My partner and I are both 52 years old. She had Stage-IVb cancer two years ago, the treatment for which left her with ongoing issues. I abused the hell out of my body starting in my early teens:
- dirt biking (crashes)
- mountain biking (crashes)
- road bicycling (been hit by cars seven times, MCL tears, cervical disc herniation)
- software engineering (sedentary, ergonomically shit offices, postural issues, cervical radiculopathy, sciatica, RSIs)
- open ocean sailor (yeah, all of it is just brutal)
Despite all of that, we are both regularly clocking PBs. She's a competitive rower, triathlete, and mountain biker, and I'm a long distance cyclist. AND we are 90 to 99% pain-free, depending if we did our maintenance work.
Doing yoga, Pilates, and McKenzie Method physical therapy (MMPT) keeps you going at full tilt. You can start for free with yoga and Pilates, just find a zero-equipment YT channel that appeals to you. We're partial to "Yoga with Adrienne" and "Move with Nicole." Start slow and easy.
For the MMPT, "Bob and Brad" on YT are MMPTs. Robin McKenzie's books are worth owning, or just check them out from the library. Memorize the exercises, and don't stop doing them just because the pain dropped below threshold(!!!). I...uh... might have direct experience there. :D
Use or lose it, take care of the hardware and software, and all that. With a little care and maintenance, you can rock the hell out of your body for a very long time. I didn't believe it until the first time I met a 70 year old downhill mountain biking champion. His age class starts at 55, so he was beating professional racers 15 years younger than he. He was the one who taught me about yoga, Pilates, and MMPT being the key.
If any of this blather helps even one of you just a little, it was worth the insomnia, typing-on-phone hell. :D
Try a blousing garter or a Velcro strap. If you use blousing garters, fold over your pant leg, put on the garter, then roll up your pant leg.
I appreciate your sense of humor here. I hope that I didn't give you the impression of "just git gud!" There are all kinds of bicycle tips and tricks that are difficult or really prolix to convey online.
- Proprioception
- Walk, carry, lift, mount, and dismount from the left side of the bike
- Proper Q-factor (distance of pedals from centerline of bike) for your biomechanics
- Roll up your pant leg and/or secure the cuff, or wear knickers or cycling legwear
- Keep your chain cleaned and lubricated with the correct lubricant for your locale, wipe off the excess lube
I have an acoustic bicycle with Gates CDX and Alfine 11 IGH. The use cases for this combo are not for me. The absolute win is the lack of maintenance and no greasy chain. However chain maintenance is a non-issue for me. A little care goes a long way. And I'm familiar enough with bikes to avoid the "chain print."
My issue with Gates drive is that the drag is very noticeable. A properly tensioned belt introduces a lot of drag. Adding in the drag from the IGH seals, I always feel like a brake is dragging. Another concern for Shimano IGHs is that they can leak when the bike is on its side. This is a non-issue for bicycles in use, but my bike is designed to be packed for airline flight. It's almost guaranteed that the hub will be vertical during transport, and I've had to clean up small oil spills after traveling with my bike.
Changing gear range is expensive and always requires a student/new belt. On a chain drive bike, changing gear range is simple and relatively cheap. So if you're going the Gates route, try to have a good understanding of your desired gear range before taking delivery.
Finally, repairing a flat tire on the rear is a way more involved process. If you are very familiar with working on belt/IGH bicycles, it's less of a concern. But changing a tube on the side of the road in the rain in the middle of the night (because OF COURSE that's when flats tend to happen) is a real pain. The change goes from a two-minute operation with a chain drive to about 12 minutes (for me) with the belt. There are ways to mitigate and reduce flats (Schwalbe Marathon tires, tubeless tires, tire strips...), but these all introduce some other factor(sl that either increase maintenance, require more tools/supplies, or increase rolling resistance.
Are Gates drive bad? No. They carry a lot of benefits for urban commuters. People who don't work on their own bicycles are an excellent target audience. The system just isn't for me.
The Panthers were right. Revolutionaries should be armed.
If I recall correctly, the tenet was that every movement needs a non-violent faction and a radicalized faction. The non-violent faction is the carrot to the radicalized faction's stick. A comparison might be labor unions: unions are supposed to be a reasonable compromise to managers not getting dragged out of their houses and beaten to death in the middle of the night (or assassinated in other ways). See: Renault CEO Georges Besse.
Unfortunately, so many pro-citizen, pro-labor movements have been overrun by the "strictly non-violence!" mindset and thereby defanged. Additionally, we're the labor, for fuck's sake! We could absolutely hit every oligarch and politician right where it hurts, yet here we are.
Scuba diver and sailor here. Above a certain size, boats have watertight bulkheads and pumps to remove water, like fire hose levels of water. May I suggest a thermal lance? Works great underwater, cuts through metal better than a drill, and can cut a slice long enough to cut past multiple bulkheads.
The rifle on the right is at least a .338 Lapua, but probably .50BMG. The former cartridge was explicitly designed to reach out 1000 meters, penetrate military body armor, and still have enough energy to make the kill. The .50BMG can reach out at least 1800 meters and still serve much of its antimateriel design intent, antipersonnel to about 3000 meters.
Those numbers would put quite a bit within range of the Statue of Liberty.
Source: I target shoot with both of these cartridges, along with .308 Winchester.
I can corroborate this. Source: am man.
My read of this is: Deer and squirrels tend to run in front of moving cars*. The two species are distressed that something interrupted their ability to bolt into traffic.
*Where I live, obnoxiously and assertively so. The mule deer almost wait for cars to approach, run into the road, and then just stand there. Traffic-blocking protests have nothing on the deer.
Is that a Mk6 GTI/R?