2x isn’t that bad, the cassettes have gotten so wide I don’t miss the third ring up front. The brake situation is a dealbreaker though, once you go disc you never misc...or something. Anyway, discs >>>>>> rims.

Yes and no. I bought a new-old 2018 Marin hardtail 29er, it’s definitely a world different from my 1994 Ross with literally everything besides the frame replaced, but it’s actually a fantastic city bike, at least with 2.25" road tires, a cut-down bar, and some gearing tweaks. I can cruise up the Hudson Greenway with…

Oh FFS I thought URTs were dead and buried. I gave one a thorough test ride once, 20 miles or so of XC and downhill, and...no, just no.

You noticed a crack...on a seatstay...and just...didn’t do anything? That is literally like noticing a cracked shock mount on a car, oy vey.

143 (142.7 but who’s counting) with top, windshield, doors, bodywork in general, *and* two wheels removed!

I mean, I guess, but when I would carry back in the day I very rarely had my gun in a bag...I would say something about “who puts their gun in their luggage at home, anyway” but I suspect most of us take our everyday purses/backpacks as the Personal Item. Then again, at least with a backpack, why would you put your…

New poll just isn’t loading now, Chrome on Mac. Looks like you broke the polling site, it’s just perpetually waiting for a reply..

Definitely have the captcha off to the side on both Galaxy s10 and Chrome and Safari on Mac.

My driver’s ed teacher (awesome guy, SCCA instructor, definitely taught us some things you probably shouldn’t show 16-year olds, but I digress) drilled head-checks into me, if I went to change lanes without a check he’d poke the second brake pedal and tap my head. Definitely a fantastic habit to have, bike or not.

I don’t get too hung up on the shifting thing in an automatic, but I can totally see where you’re coming from...and I just wave to riders anyway, half the time I still get a wave back, it’s like they know...

A bus-stop chicane is more-or-less trapezoidal, the same shape as bus stop that’s cut out of a curb:

Ever since I got my first motorcycle, I’ve not been nearly as rabid about driving a stick. It’s still fun, for sure, but on two wheels everything you’ve described is there and then some, and three orders of magnitude more intense. Sure, it’s not always a viable daily transportation method, but if you’re going to get a…

Get a motorcycle, you’ll be almost psychotically obsessed with paying attention after a few trips on two wheels.

It can help you pay better attention to the road.

My dumbass 22-year-old self put an ACT race clutch with an unsprung, ceramic-puck disc and super-heavy pressure plate into my 240SX...it was amazing on the open road, but after a drive in traffic I damn near had to hit the gym to beef up my right leg to match

That would be nifty as hell, but you’d be taking up a ton of internal space to make a moon pool and “hangar”, and space on warships is a precious commodity indeed...plus most naval vessels that big are supercarriers that don’t need fuel. Maybe an aerial-style boom and a receptacle on the underbelly of the ship? You…

Amphibious air operations are absolutely necessary, as you’ve said we, and literally everyone else, use rotorcraft for these. I suppose that for the very specific case of China operating in their regional seas this is a useful solution (especially the rapid resupply of their ridiculous “colonies”), but IMO they’d have…

It’s not here in America and that’s all that matters lol

But then there’s no fast super-luxe coupe, I know nobody is really cross-shopping an S65 and Continental GT but as James May would say, it’s aspirational.

Germans did it in WWII, it was less awesome than you might imagine lol  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_XIV_submarine