[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

I own a Tern Verge D9. It's a functional and sporty folder.

The Verge is a snappy feeling ride. Think road-bike handing. The tires are also good, but at 30mm it won't like anything rougher than hard-pack dirt. They're also ISO 451, not the more common 406. This size has fewer tires to choose from for a slightly nicer roll. It's up to you to not if that's a worthy hassle.

FYI, the magnetic latch is terrible. You will have chipped paint on the fork. I don't mind but you may.

Careful folding and unfolding. The stem fold likes to bite the brake and shifting lines. That will screw up shifting.

The matching rack they sell uses oversized tubes. You may need to replace the hooks on existing panniers. Also the racks sits closely to the pedals, so large things may have some foot overlap.

I'm sure I have other thoughts floating around about the Verge D9. Ask anything you'd like to know about it and I'll try answering.

[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 14 points 6 days ago

A very common mistake is to commute what you'd drive. In many cases you'd do better on paths and neighborhood streets. For example, maybe part of an unavoidable highway segment has a frontage road. Hop off onto the frontage for that segment, even if it's technically 60 seconds slower.

Google Maps is a decent start, though imperfect in detail (routing through a busy park on footpaths, or not routing through a park that has a good dirt path). Use street view and OpenStreetMaps to explore ways that auto routing won't pick.

+1 to the suggestions on starting with shorter trips. They'll work out any kinks in your setup and give you time to become confident on your bike.

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submitted 2 months ago by pc486@sh.itjust.works to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
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submitted 2 months ago by pc486@sh.itjust.works to c/bicycles@lemmy.ca

Josh Poertner goes into detail about tariffs and the current trade war affecting his company's bicycle products. He leads with SILCA's new mini electric pump, but also goes into why his US-made manual pumps became manufactured offshore due to a much earlier round of tariffs.

[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 months ago

This is a good, and quite common, question regarding congestion pricing. The fact of the matter is those with less means often cannot afford a car. It's usually not their car if they're driving into a city (e.g. a work truck).

But let's say we have low-income people who do have a car and need to drive for whatever reason. There's programs for that. Two of them.

  • If you're a low-income car owner, you get reduced congestion pricing. It's 50% off the normal fare. They can drive in and pay less than affluent drivers.
  • If you're low-income, you would qualify for the Fair Fares program. It too is 50% off for subways and busses. That prices trips to well below the cost of fueling a car into NYC.

Congestion pricing is also funneling money into metro services, meaning the affluent drivers are actually making low-income access to transportation cheaper while also improving reliability and service levels to those riding transit.

Low-income residents stand to win the most with congestion pricing. Personally, I would focus more on how to better help businesses with legitimate car needs, like dog groomers, mobile mechanics, delivery workers, etc. For example, zero fare for businesses licenses at nighttime periods (to encourage shifting delivery schedules). Programs like that could help small business, which in turn helps boost the income of low-income employees.

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submitted 8 months ago by pc486@sh.itjust.works to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world

Change isn't easy but it's possible. A little good news for everyone's feed.

[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 8 points 8 months ago

Has something changed recently? When I was in Tokyo, admittedly more than a decade ago now, the bike lanes were tiny slivers of paint. And I do mean a sliver; they were not much wider than a foot. It would be unsafe to use them in traffic.

[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 12 points 8 months ago

Mozilla invented Rust to rewrite the rendering engine. Read the history of Servo and bring a tissue to cry into.

[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 13 points 8 months ago

Underground spots are roughly 20 to 50 thousand dollars each. Surface lots are only a few thousand per spot.

Do you want to invest in my coffee shop idea? I need a few million dollars to build the required parking.

[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 14 points 9 months ago

Critical Mass was so successful in San Francisco that it almost doesn't exist anymore. These days discussions of bike lanes is more about what kind of lane rather than if bikes should even be allowed on the road.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11941576/the-night-that-changed-san-francisco-cycling-forever

[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 12 points 10 months ago

When cars are the only way to get to a bar or a friend's place, then you're going to get drunk drivers. Car dependency has a big hand in causing these deaths.

[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 14 points 10 months ago

These disks were designed to self-destruct in the presence of oxygen. They literally rust away.

Oxygen and its O2 form does like to sneak into everything. Even sealed in the original packaging, there's a limited shelf life. Flexplay claimed stability of only one year, which isn't much given it comes sealed in a plastic bag.

[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

Oof. You definitely were taking a risk with that drive train. I'm glad the worst of it is a few broken spokes.

That's clearly have a working bike, not some sort of weekend roadie show piece. Put a dork disk on there! There isn't any shame in favoring function over form.

Awesome call-out on zip ties. They're the duct tape of the bike world.

One small thing I noticed is how your fender and rack are mounted. It's fine to share a single eyelet to mount both, but it's best to mount in the order of frame, rack, fender, washer, and bolt. That ordering shortens the cantilever of the rack load, a much higher load than a fender, on the bolt.

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[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

For sure. These fuses have been a scourge.

Here's a video by a radio fan who's circuit is designed to blow fuses just didn't.

https://youtu.be/apQU_VuJlFU

[-] pc486@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

Not a problem. In that case you'd also have theft charges and would be liable for the car's value in civil court (or whatever the Danish equivalent is).

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pc486

joined 1 year ago