Dan Fixes Coin-OpsBike thread: wow cleaning/lubing the chain made a BIG difference, also uh
Cycling sure changes your butt huh
Alright so, in the shower, showering my stuff, and noticing wow
Wew
Whoooo OK
So I've got the wee cycle computer thing working (standard leaky-battery repair, see many of my other posts) and it tells me I've gone like 3km on this thing, gonna guess probably about another 3 before it was working, so in just 6km of fairly unchallenging just-for-the-fun-of-going-fast cycling my arse has firmed up impressively and... elongated? Like, territory that I once thought of as "Lower back adjacent" are now Very Definitely Unmistakably Arse Meat?
And also like, my thighs and butt and lower back feel way more powerful? To where I'm wondering if this has increased my moving-heavy-stuff capacity?
Bikes are great because you pedal them super hard and the wind goes through your ears and you zoom around laughing "HAHAHA I'M GOING SOO FAST!!!" and you look down at your speedo and it says 16
Anyway yeah get a bike, they're fun and free and they make you strong and give you a nice bum and they go really fast (they don't go really fast, but they FEEL like they go really fast)
π¦π² "Look at me, zoom zoom zoom, so so fast"
Speedo reading 11mph π "Sure are, champ! Good job lil' buddy!"
π¦π² *sets the speedo to km/h so I go even faster*
Speedo reading 11mph π "Sure are, champ! Good job lil' buddy!"
π¦π² *sets the speedo to km/h so I go even faster*
Me, 8 years old: π "Cor, wouldn't it be ace if pushbikes had their own roads. Their own little roads that could take shortcuts where the big roads can't go. You wouldn't get shouted at for riding on the pavement, or shouted at for riding on the road, you'd have a Bike Road and it'd just be for bikes and the car drivers wouldn't get cross with you for going too slow and the walkers wouldn't get cross with you for going too fast. Bike roads. Wee little bike roads just for bikes. Cracking idea."
Me, in my forties: π¦ *whimsical chuckle* "Ah, the follies of youth."
Me, still in my forties but now fully qualified to talk on infrastructure decisions having owned a bike for like two weeks: π¦ "ACTUALLY YEAH SOD THIS THE LITTLE RAT WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG"
Kiddo is spoiled now and has two bikes, because I saw one for $20 that had suspension and a seven-speed gearbox. She's just figured out downshifting, took her a while to develop either the thumb strength or the technique.
Turned up at the park with 39km on the clock, kiddo went "Let's get to 50!" so that's what we did this afternoon, just zoomed around the park for 11km while she cycled up and down the gears
(oh, except the $20 bit? this was at one of those thrift stores where everything has a price sticker in a different colour, and on a given day of the week a given colour till be 75% off. So it was a FIVER)
Also we went to the local bike co-op and got spouse a bike, here it is
I don't think I've ever ridden a step-through-frame bike before but I was chosen to take this for a test ride as spouse can't ride yet and wow, this thing is just... So. Chill.
My bike:
π² come sit on me
π¦ ok
π¦ wow you're not comfy at all
π² face down ass up, that's the way
π¦ is that for like
π¦ aerodynamics or something
π² uh yeah aerodynamics aye sure
Spouse's bike:
π² take a seat
π¦ wow it's like sitting in a chair
π² ??? how else would you sit???
π¦ face down ass up
π² you've been riding that aerodynamics guy haven't you
You literally sit normally? Like you're sitting at the computer? And pedal? And your feet when you're pedalling are pretty close to the ground, no worries about tipping over. Dude at the shop said it was a good beginner bike, I think it's just a good bike in general, it's a very easy relaxing ride, I could ride this around all day
Back in the day, back when I were a wee lad, this would've been called a girl's bike.
The difference between a girl's bike and a boy's bike is a boy's bike has the crossbar positioned such that an inexperienced rider can stop too suddenly, slide forward off the seat and slam their full body weight into wrapping their testicles around a steel bar at high speed
this was a radicalizing event for many young boys
1980's
π *holding ice against crotch* Dad, how come girl's bikes don't have the bollock-mashing bar
πΊ no need for it lad, they've got nae bollocks
π
πΊ not much point putting a bollock masher if there's nae bollocks to mash is there
πΊ be a bloody waste of money
2020's
π *holding ice against crotch* Dad, why
π You know, I asked my dad this when I was your age, and his answer doesn't really fit in this decade. You probably know a couple of girls with bollocks. Maybe a boy with no bollocks. Either way, girls with bollocks get to ride the bikes without the bollock-mashing bar, and boys with no bollocks can ride the bollock masher, in a lot of ways it's a more enlightened time
π Dad what
π I mean these days girls can ride the bollock mashing bikes too
π So can non-binary folk, bollocks or no
π dad
π Anyway times change is what I'm saying
π The important thing is squashing the bollocks
π
π Flat
π Dad I think I've decided that the pointless gendering of inanimate objects is an institution that has to be smashed
π Like your bollocks
π Like your bollocks
At the Bike Factory
π¦ Johnson, the womenfolk are wearing pants now, we must adapt, deal with it
π yes sir mister Putridson sir right away sir
π¦ good god man what are you doing what are you DOING
π i was removing the testiclular flattening device from the gentlemens' cycles sir
π¦ YOU PUT THAT BACK ON RIGHT NOW YOU SON OF A BITCH
π but sir since all the cycles can be more homogenous now i thought -
π¦ Johnson, we are the SUPPLY side of the equation. If the market demands gender equality, we, as the supplier, will respond with "supply-side" equality.
π sir i'm not sure i
π¦ Put the bollock masher on the girl's bikes too Johnson
π sir
π¦π¬
π¦ Do as you're told, Johnson
π¦ Johnson, the womenfolk are wearing pants now, we must adapt, deal with it
π yes sir mister Putridson sir right away sir
π¦ good god man what are you doing what are you DOING
π i was removing the testiclular flattening device from the gentlemens' cycles sir
π¦ YOU PUT THAT BACK ON RIGHT NOW YOU SON OF A BITCH
π but sir since all the cycles can be more homogenous now i thought -
π¦ Johnson, we are the SUPPLY side of the equation. If the market demands gender equality, we, as the supplier, will respond with "supply-side" equality.
π sir i'm not sure i
π¦ Put the bollock masher on the girl's bikes too Johnson
π sir
π¦π¬
π¦ Do as you're told, Johnson
π¦ We have an increasing number of non-binary customers Johnson, deal with it
π sir yes sir
π
π sir
π¦ Out with it man
π sir, the... with regards to the testicular flattening device...
π¦ With regards to the bollock masher, Johnson, our non-binary customers deserve the same bollock-mashing opportunities as everyone else.
π¦ In fact, now's the perfect time to talk to you about our new motto, Sarah can you come over here a moment
π© sir
π¦ Tell him what your department's come up with.
π© *ahemhm*
π© "Whatever you're packing, we'll give it a whacking."
π¦π¬ Genius.
π sir yes sir
π
π sir
π¦ Out with it man
π sir, the... with regards to the testicular flattening device...
π¦ With regards to the bollock masher, Johnson, our non-binary customers deserve the same bollock-mashing opportunities as everyone else.
π¦ In fact, now's the perfect time to talk to you about our new motto, Sarah can you come over here a moment
π© sir
π¦ Tell him what your department's come up with.
π© *ahemhm*
π© "Whatever you're packing, we'll give it a whacking."
π¦π¬ Genius.
π¦ Johnson, while I have you, how's that prototype coming along?
π the one you requested sir, with the upward-aiming boxing glove mechanically linked to the crankshaft?
π¦ The Bike of the Future, yes
π we're having a few problems finding test riders sir
π¦ Hahahaha I'm sure you are Johnson hahaha
π the one you requested sir, with the upward-aiming boxing glove mechanically linked to the crankshaft?
π¦ The Bike of the Future, yes
π we're having a few problems finding test riders sir
π¦ Hahahaha I'm sure you are Johnson hahaha
(note, the filter may be on the right or on the left depending on how your machine renders the π¬ emoji. On my phone the filter is on the right, so canonically π¦ smokes his cigarettes from the lit end)
Somehow I forgot that in my country bikes with step-through frames were called "Sit up and beg" style bikes when I were a lad, which just makes this whole situation even kinkier
π¦ It's a whole new world of opportunities in the bike business now Johnson
π sir
π¦ These days anyone can ride face-down-ass-up like a good boy, or sit-up-and-beg like a good girl
π© What about the bad girls
π¦ For goodness' sake Sarah we don't sell to bad girls
π sir
π¦ These days anyone can ride face-down-ass-up like a good boy, or sit-up-and-beg like a good girl
π© What about the bad girls
π¦ For goodness' sake Sarah we don't sell to bad girls
π© Sir at our last general meeting you specified that our target markets were
π©π "Good girls, good boys and good-to-medium non-binary individuals"
π¦ Ah yes, what slogan have you come up with for the medium enbies
π Sir we still haven't designed a bike for the medium enbies
π¦ you WHAT
π©π "Good girls, good boys and good-to-medium non-binary individuals"
π¦ Ah yes, what slogan have you come up with for the medium enbies
π Sir we still haven't designed a bike for the medium enbies
π¦ you WHAT
Bike Thread:
Wow truing up a wheel is a bit fiddly innit
I got a spoke wrench 'cause the trashbike had comedy wheels, I twisted and turned and got it more gooder, should have stopped at Good Enough but instead I got out the incredibly sensitive dial indicator I use for setting my table saw blade and oh man was that a bad idea. A wheel that eyeballed straight enough has that little needle swinging around like a fox's tail in a stripey sock factory.
NEVER LOOK CLOSELY AT ANYTHING is the lesson to take away here
Bike thread update: been riding just a couple times a week since last November, not for exercise, not for commuting, just for the simple joy of going fast. Didn't even ride at all in the cold-cold part of winter. Not even 100km on my odometer.
All the above is just for context. I just went to buy some new shorts, 'cause these ones are falling apart.
And man, see next CW'd post...
Dang, yeah, doing the same thing I do when I buy clothes (typically annually, still wishing I could just give my measurements to a bloke in a shed and have him chuck me a couple of bin bags), y'know, stick my hands in the pockets first to make sure they're worth trying on, liftyleggy, give a wiggle to make sure they're not gonna annoy me, turnyspinnyshoulderlooky to see how much I'll distract folk and WHOA HAHA WHAT HAPPENED THERE
You know how sometimes things change slowly over time and you get the occasional visceral reminder that recontextualizes the last few months?
Damn, my ass is fine now lol
This was totally worth it
I understand why some bike guys wear the tight stuff now, they say it's for aerodynamics or whatever but really it's because they're proud of their new arses and they wanna show them off
I paid $0 for this bike and it's given me hours of bonding time with my daughter and a butt my spouse can't keep her hands off
I am one of Those Guys now, I will evangelize bikes just so there can be more people in the world who are happy with their tocks
I cannot overemphasize enough the gratuitous overpayment in positive changes to my body in exchange for just how casually I've been riding this bike.
Someone who actually cared could get up early, set their odometer to zero, pass what I've done since November and get back home for a normal bedtime. I haven't commuted, I've barely done any hills, and I wasn't trying to exercise. I was half-assing it!
But my bike was all π² Half-assing, huh? You've barely got three-eighths of an ass to start with, let's fix that
My presidential platform is a massive expansion to bike infrastructure so that everyone can spend more time in the extremely attractive state of having a slight sheen of sweat, fingers striped with chain oil that you want to sniff, and a magnificent, powerful, biteable ass
BIKE THREAD: Littleun's bike has always been hard to downshift. So far it's had its cables and housings cleaned, chain cleaned and lubed, housings and cable lubed (I was of two minds how the materials interact but decided heck with it let's give it a go), derailleur cleaned/lubed and endlessly adjusted, shifter and cable replaced, derailleur replaced, and now I've just got a package of new cable housings and fedi, dear fedi, as far as my pinball-technician's eyes can see there's just not anything else to change except the (admittedly dodgy-looking) housing geometry.
Any tips for routing the housing? To my eyes it looks like one or two too-sharp transitions
Here's some pics (alt for all three: cables routing in black housing against a pink bike)
Am I right in thinking these could be done smoother? Her thumb's just not strong enough to shift down γ(γ)γ
So remember last night when I was all "Nah, it's the picture taken at a funny angle," well I just went to take another pic and looked at it with fresh eyes and went "Oh wow yeah that's hecked up huh"
(2 pics showing a gear shifter at an "It's just my art style" angle)
See I copied the mounting angle from my bike, where I sit at a weird angle because my bike is a face-down-ass-up-like-a-good-boy style. I've reevaluated the angle a bit here so it's closer to being parallel with the brake lever, but aye, that top housing routing is Bad
Gotta figure out a new housing that takes the bag into account 'cause she loves her bag y'know
Alright so. I re-routed the upper housing, crossing it over the top of the yoke around the speedo, and that made things a good bit easier.
It was when I was pulling the cable through that I noticed it'd gotten frayed inside the lower housing! That was a brand new cable that came with the shifter!
So I replaced the lower housing entirely (got one of those cheap all-in-one kits online with the cables and housing and ferrules and a cutting tool and all those other bits and bobs), new cable also, and WOW what a difference. The old housings were all rusty and scragged up inside! So I replaced all three sets of housings and now it shifts BUTTERY SMOOOOOOTH
Once I'd figured out where the problem lay, it wasn't hard to fix it. The housing comes in a roll like this and you cut it to length
Popping a new cable on was similarly easy, it also comes very long and you cut it to length.
Learned from last time that it's a good idea to leave it slightly long and melt a little dab of solder just upstream from where you intend to cut, so it doesn't have a chance to unravel before you get the ferrule on
I don't have a dedicated crimping tool for these ferrules but I bet one of my electrical crimpers will do the job
Passes the tug test, and job's a good 'un!
Another job where fixing the problem took a fraction of the time of figuring out which bit was the problem.
Haven't ridden bike in a few weeks 'cause holiday and Other Crap, just took it out for a quick spin round the block and OOF MY BODY FORGOT QUICKLY
Backs of my thighs are burning real good now
Gonna hafta just keep doing it more eh
I got a new bike!
The other one's a road bike and very tall and not especially comfy so I got this one for $15 from a local bike co-op.
This one's got more relaxed geometry and shocks on the front. Also I kinda dig the colours; and by the colours I mean the way it's still red in the back but the previous owner ground off all the paint in the front.
Spent a while with naphtha and brushes clearing massive chunks of gross outta the drivechain, got the chain off and cleaned up well enough to determine that it was beyond salvage
Didn't need a chain wear gauge to figure that, just wiggled it in my hands lol
So, bike: $15
New chain: + $15
Got the new chain on, skippetyskippety on 4, maybe I shoulda looked more closely at those back sprockets before hitting checkout huh, alright yeah 4th is absolutely shagged, it's bollocksed, it's an ex-parrot, the only chain it was ever gonna work with was the one that could extend out a full link past the same number of links on the new chain. 4's the worst but they all look pretty ragged.
So, bike: $15
Plus new chain: + $15
Plus a new cassette: another $15
Gonna want new cables and housings on it too... brake pads...
oh and it's had a new tube already. Plus wants tyres.
Aside from that it's great
Freewheel, not cassette apparently. Anyway new freewheel turned up (they sent the wrong one) and I sent it back and got the correct one and the cassette removal tool turned up (I ordered the wrong one) and then I ordered the correct freewheel removal tool and then that turned up and MAN
this does NOT want to come off
Wrapping my biggest adjustable spanner in a rag so I can bang away at it with a big hammer, still not coming off
Dripped some oil in, gonna give it overnight and then tomorrow I'm gonna get out the pipe wrench and blowtorch and Tell that thing
For those following along at home, PB Blaster was what made the difference between "Impossible" and "Possible, albeit by smacking a massive pipe wrench with a hammer"
Haven't updated y'all in a while, Halfred has new shifters and brakes now but what I came on here to say was CHECK OUT MY BIG BIKE BUTT BAGS
Touching bikes calms me down in these troubling times
Spousebike has buttbags now too
These were $12 off AliExpress. The difference between these bags and the identical ones for $40 off Amazon is that the Amazon ones have sat offgassing in someone's garage for a couple days so they don't have that New Manufacturing smell to them.
They smell like my school bags did in the 80's when they were fresh off the market stand
Putting big thicc bike butt bags on bikes calms me down in these troubling times
I mean it about touching bikes being calming
There's something very reassuring about a machine that doesn't need petrol or electricity but can still take you 100km in a day
Got some spare tubes, a patching kit and some basic tools, maybe $20 worth, all fits in the bottom quarter of the saddlebags no problem leaving room for lots of snacks, and with that much it'll just Keep Going
As long as my legs work, this machine works, and there's enormous comfort in that.
Bikes make you aware of the power of your legs.
Weird gendered thing about the top versus bottom halves of your body: most women I know are aware of how strong their legs are, whereas when a bloke thinks about his strength, like he's gonna try and move something heavy, he tends to think of his arms and chest and back. I've seen many fresh new trans lads suddenly becoming more aware of their shoulders or biceps for example.
Which, like, even a really strong person's arms don't have nearly as much torque or endurance as the most thoroughly ordinary leg. So after a couple of times of looking down at my little ten-dollar Sunding speedo/odometer and seeing Just How Far I'd gone, I think it kinda altered my relationship with my legs? Like now, when I have to do something that needs a lot of strength, even like unscrewing a big rusted bolt, I keep thinking of how this would be much easier if I could let my legs do it instead of my arms? I move differently, I stand differently, I'm more aware of this whole half of my body I've been under-using
And I say this to the women and femme and AFAB people in my life and they're like ??? you didn't know??, and the not-bike-riding cis blokes I talk to about it go ??? oh huh yeah I guess, wild???
It's almost as if modern american carcentric life has hidden my whole entire legs from me lol
Capital hates bikes because bikes make you VISCERALLY AWARE OF YOUR PHYSICAL POWER and capital hates it when people are aware of their power
I'm finding that talking about bikes is very calming today so lemme show you my little speedo/odometers.
This is a SunDing bike computer mounted on the handlebars of my spouse's bike. They're about a tenner on eBay. I got one for my kid and was that impressed with it I got two more lol, one for me and one for spouse. Right now you see it's just telling the time, which is better than the fancy one that came with my fancy bike.
The fancybike one is fancy and wireless, which is Bad Actually because it means you need two batteries, one for the transmitter and one for the receiver; it also means you have to press a button to wake it up. I'll show the wire and how it works in the next post
(this is a show and tell post so the images don't have captions but are instead explained in the post body itself)
See it's just mounted with ordinary cable ties. There's a little clip on the bottom, so the computer itself can be separated from its mounting bracket. The bracket has a pair of electrical contacts (not shown) that interface with the computer, and that black wire goes down to the front wheel.
You zip-tie the wire to the frame, leave a little bit of slack so you can turn the handlebars and the suspension works, and it goes into this black tube.
Inside the black tube is a reed switch, which is a little glass vial with two bits of tin or steel inside not quite touching, both bits of metal soldered to the wire (the black wire is actually two wires inside insulated from each other just like your headphone wire). There's a magnet that you clip to your spoke, you can see it as a black circle in the photo, and when the magnet passes the black tube it pulls the bits of metal together inside the reed switch, completing the circuit just like any other switch.
This is cool and better than wireless because getting the switch properly aligned with the magnet can take some fiddling, and during your fiddling you don't know whether the computer or the switch isn't working properly, so you can test the switch by setting your multimeter to continuity mode, touching the probes to the prongs inside the mounting bracket, and listening for the beep as the magnet goes by. Similarly you can test the computer by just shorting its contacts with a bit of wire, and then confuse it into thinking you're going 100km/h by flapping pliers quick against the contacts lol
When you first put the little watch battery in the computer it asks the diameter of your wheel (there's a chart in the instructions where you can just read the numbers on the side of your tyres and it gives you a number to punch in - tip, take a pic of this chart or consult the charts on sheldonbrown.com when it's time to replace the battery), and then every time it sees a switch closure from the magnet going past it Maths It and figures out your speed.
As soon as you start riding, this display comes up with your current speed, average speed, top speed, odometer, resettable trip meter, how long you've been riding, it even has a thermometer inside and will show the temperature. You can tell it miles or kilometers and celsius or fahrenheit when you're setting it up.
It's very easy and cool and cheap, like I say about a tenner on eBay. I like it a lot.
Regular Bike People: π¦ I like to post about bike lanes, trails, spandex etc
New Bike People (or maybe just Dan): π¦ holy shit I have LEGS
(I don't know whether the Actual Bike People think I'm annoying or adorable)
ersatzmaus@ifixcoinops Mostly we think "fucking headwinds again?"
Alexis@ifixcoinops You're thinking of MAMILs,* not bicyclists. The latter are right there with you.
*Middle Aged Men In Lycra
DJ Tent Mode@ifixcoinops I have a too-fancy Bianchi and there's not many of them. So by that definition, you are much more of an Actual Bike Person than I am!
Tom Schultz@ifixcoinops I mean, "actual bike person" is someone who enjoys riding a bike. Sounds like that's you! Don't let those spandex gatekeepers convince you otherwise π
aloe@ifixcoinops just came across this whole thread and already wanted to tell u how much it delighted me (a bike person, if ambiguously actual) so
Angela Glansbury π½@ifixcoinops
i enjoyed the bollock crushing part of the thread
i enjoyed the bollock crushing part of the thread
Mx. Eddie R@floppyplopper @ifixcoinops
Too many sports have bollocks crushing traps, and still nobody warns anybody it's coming.
When I was young, I took horseback riding lessons. The teacher was an old European lady. After seeing me suffer in one of my first lessons, her husband took me aside and told me about his time in the cavalry and how after mounting their horses, on command they would all reach down and adjust themselves out of harm's way, and tight underwear will keep me safe.
Too many sports have bollocks crushing traps, and still nobody warns anybody it's coming.
When I was young, I took horseback riding lessons. The teacher was an old European lady. After seeing me suffer in one of my first lessons, her husband took me aside and told me about his time in the cavalry and how after mounting their horses, on command they would all reach down and adjust themselves out of harm's way, and tight underwear will keep me safe.
Eniko (moved β‘ gamedev.place)
Ju@ifixcoinops as a regular bike person: whenever soreness hits, I am painfully aware I have legs
SnoopJ@ifixcoinops in my (extremely limited) experience the wireless systems are also quite susceptible to interference. I was gifted one that is just totally scrambled by my front light unless I position it just-so on the frame.
This one looks lovely!
Federico Mena Quintero@ifixcoinops Thank you for posting this; I've been procrastinating debugging my odometer because I didn't know what to do with the multimeter π
@federicomena give the contacts a wee scrub too, nice and shiny
@ifixcoinops oh I quite like this pickup coil design. I guess you can make it much smaller and just use more windings to make up for the lost area if you don't have to make the whole thing work with the geometry of a big fuckoff battery
Don Whiteside@ifixcoinops This post has helped me figure out how to implement an automatic-on light for my tweenβs bike, thank you!
@donw oh wow yeah, you could even just splice into an existing speedo wire
@ifixcoinops Itβs been really amazing to me the last few months as I try to find an off-the-shelf solution for this. If there is one, it exists at a rarified price range in shops I canβt find. But to my scared-parent mind itβs obvious that DONβT HIT ME, CAR lights should just turn on automatically and not be dependent on my kid remembering to turn them on. Or my ditzy brain, for that matter.
Best I found was one that did auto-off but would re-enable with motion, but only on 2 of 4 modes.
Bee O'Problem 
@ifixcoinops keep calm and SEND IT
Emelia/Emi@ifixcoinops I suspect this exact phenomenon is why dudes tend to "skip leg day" and end up being quite top-heavy.
I've always been aware of my legs being tree trunks (and almost all of that is muscle) I think maybe because everyone around me was so insistent on enforcing "lift with your legs, not your back" even when I was a kid, combined with a gym class teacher who was extremely insistent on learning correct deadlift form?
Piers Cawley@ifixcoinops Look at how long it took the America's Cup lads to switch from arm powered winch grinders to using cyclors. Given how much they bang on about 'marginal gains' at that level of sailing, it's evidence of how large the blindspot is.
vandenberglegs@pdcawley @ifixcoinops Yeah, this kinda flabbergasted me too.
Eniko Fox@ifixcoinops is this what leaving the metaverse feels like
Cat@ifixcoinops my The Power of Legs Thing was revealed to me by sharing college dorm suites with a succession of college women who liked to rearrange the furniture whenever they got bored
Dataline@ifixcoinops further evidence that I'm non-binary: despite my outie junk I have only ever had toned powerful legs whereas my upper body is just shapely fat and bones. im like if the marxist soccer guy had a long neck, hourglass shape, and high cheek bones and clear skin
Erin π½β¨ @ WHY2025 π ER1N@ifixcoinops I think this is a thing I first became properly aware of when working in a nightclub because when you're moving 35KG speakers about you use your legs or break your back
@ifixcoinops even had a thing with some cis guys about this when they could not believe I can do pistol squads, because I don't look jacked. And my upper body is definitely not, I had to train six months for a single pull up, but these men were baffled when I did single leg squads barefoot on a beach. Because they associated being strong with upper body so much.
synlogic@ifixcoinops I do think most men put too much emphasis on building upper body muscles, esp chest and arms, and not enough on legs or midsection. I'm no hardcore bodybuilder gym rat type but I learned long ago to aim for more balanced muscle development across my body. And I believe women find it more attractive as a bonus haha.
Karin Dalziel@ifixcoinops weirdly the thing that made me aware of my lack of leg strength wasn't biking (which I already did) but indoor bouldering. I came away from the first few sessions with so much pain in my legs, my arms were fine. Legs are still my weakest part of climbing
suzanne@ifixcoinops
I've heard this from climbers, also. A friend mentioned that he started thinking more about how he used his legs after climbing with women.
I've heard this from climbers, also. A friend mentioned that he started thinking more about how he used his legs after climbing with women.
yelling jackal@ifixcoinops That's probably my favourite thing about bikes, too.
Things that Just Work are really reassuring.
(Also there's something to be said for riding a thicc butt bike.)
Things that Just Work are really reassuring.
(Also there's something to be said for riding a thicc butt bike.)
Rocketman@ifixcoinops In addition to keeping going as long as your legs work, bikes are also really easy to repair. Even someone like myself - Iβm chronically underpowered in the mechanics department - can learn to repair almost anything on those things.
Flat tire? Iβve taught six-year olds to patch those.
Lights donβt work? Itβs just two cables. Find & fix.
Fancy hydraulic brake needs a top-up? eBay has refill kits for a tenner, and YouTube will teach you what to do with it in five minutes.
m_eiman@ifixcoinops TIL that those are called panniers, and also that the word pannier comes from "bread basket", and thus you're only allowed to transport bread in a pannier.
@mikaeleiman before putting the panniers on I was calling the frame over the wheel the Baguette Rack
Alaric Snell-Pym@ifixcoinops I want to get things like this for my bike, but I'm paralysed with fear that anything I buy won't have the right fixings to attach to my bike (I don't have a metal frame thingy above the rear wheel for them to go on, I need that bit too). Are they all universal, and if not, how do I get the right kind? Pretty please π
@kitten_tech lemme go take some pics real quick
@kitten_tech Alright so I've got three bikes, spouse has one, kid has two (these were all free or cheap) and the adult ones mostly have similar bolt holes you can use, pics incoming
@kitten_tech I lifted up the flap of the pannier, see how the baguette rack is a black painted steel bracket that forms a V shape, the point of the V intersects with a bolt hole drilled and tapped into the frame
@ifixcoinops Hmmm interesting. So I should be able to buy a generic one and just figure out how to attach it to my bike? There's no "THIS IS A TYPE X AND THAT IS A TYPE OMICRON" sort of stuff to fret about? I just get something and there'll be a way to Make It Work (I have access to machine tools after all...)?
Liam, the eepy-est reaper@ifixcoinops PB Blaster is some epic stuff.
@ifixcoinops Ah, the ol' "I'm through asking nicely" method. Well done!
Nerd That Talks Good@ifixcoinops have mercy!
@ifixcoinops Can't stick if it's a liquid!
Keith Wansbrough@ifixcoinops stating the obvious but have you checked it's not a left hand thread?
SmΓ₯Land@kw217 @ifixcoinops thems fightin words
@ifixcoinops I like waving the angle grinder insouciantly nearby, with a devil-may-care 'I could just wander over there' attitude. Make the bastard sweat.