Never done it, either, but the marijuana addicts (yes, they do exist, denialists) I’ve known are all like the slow, unmotivated stereotype. Basically whenever they started heavily using is when they stopped progressing emotionally and personally and that was usually sometime in the middle school to high school range,…

I love those frames! And colored tires.

Unless that has some particularly odd diameter, you should be able to find axles no problem, especially with all the wide rear ends now. I don’t know if they always come with the cones, but the ones I’ve bought always have.

While I like index-shifting, friction shifting is underrated for a general purpose bike—quicker setup, easier compatibility, faster to shift multiple gears in one go, and trimming a shift on a multi-chainring bike isn’t a separate operation.

Yeah, much of the appeal of titanium frames is their flexibility.

Original is to leave it alone. I’ve painted derailleurs and the chain shouldn’t be hitting the outside of the derailleur, so it shouldn’t be a problem (except with the inside of the front derailleur, of course). You will want to get rid of the plating to paint it, though.

One to add: making a retro-direct drive.

Would be a lot cheaper with probably marginally less efficiency to have a shaft drive and IGH, which is 100+ year old tech. I think cost has always been an issue, as well the greater internal drag vs external derailleur gearing in spite of the better longevity, reduced maintenance, and increased cleanliness. BUT! I…

I have a 3-speed on a custom cruiser and even in that application, I hate it. Allows a good chain line (which is why I wanted it), but it is heavy (and feels it!), seems draggy, and the ratio range is not that large. I never tried a Rohloff or the CVT Nuvinci, though.

That was one of the worst implementations of a turbo done 20 years ago with the tech from that time. A laggy, torque-steering Saab 900 turbo is closer to that Mazdaspeed Miata than the Miata is to a modern DI turbo. Not that I don’t understand the appeal of a normally aspirated engine, as well. Normally I’m a big fan…

I’ve seen the same thing around the Boston area. BMW drivers today tend to be more like Camry drivers who want to appear to have more money (though between a one-generation-old Camry and one-generation-old BMW, I’d put my money on the Camry owner having more money).

Industrial design is about selling product through improving function and lending a form that’s appealing to an anticipated market demographic(s), not making the kind of more limited-appeal art that has to be understood in context to be appreciated. Good design doesn’t need to be explained. There isn’t any new or…

This is somewhat new to me, but from what I’ve learned, with the current battery chemistry and construction, the bottleneck resistance is in the anode and cathode and that last 10-20% is where the most heat is generated. That’s why a good BMS (this is really where Tesla excels) is so important—the smaller the size of…

That’s why I buy Apple—the overpriced POS hardware fails long before software obsolescence can become a problem!

If you look at the streaming service game, that’s where it’s going (especially once everything is IP), but if you want to watch more than a couple of channels, it won’t save you much money (while each streaming service “channel” has a lot more content and on demand, as that model takes over from standard cable, content…

At this point with tech, it’s forced obsolescence. There will always be the “Ooh, shiny! New! Features that will give me a conversation starter at parties for a couple of weeks!” people, but even for those of us who would keep a phone (or flashlight-that-texts-and-takes-photos if I weight it by actual personal usage) f…

Unless it needs a repeated outside confirmation signal to maintain operation, I don’t see why the connectivity of the car couldn’t be disabled. You’d lose some built-in infotainment features (that can probably be made up for with the phone or other plug in device) and OTA updates of dubious value, but that should be…

Only time I don’t wear a belt is when I have to bring out the trash and it drives me nuts (1/4 mile driveway, so I tie the barrels together behind the hitch rack and drive them down. Since I also pick up fallen branches and such as I go, I leave the belt off). You have way more tolerance than me for annoying sounds.…

This! Holy shit, classical under compression is an abomination even in a car with all the extraneous noises.

That’s great! What’s the car?