RL peeves! >< @$!#
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@ThatOneDude With frequency. There are a few Amish women locally who are using the computers to manage finances or to take college classes. There are a few men who have used them for the purpose of advertising one craft or skill or another they have for work, to deal with government stuff they are request to do and for different financing/budgeting things as well. And then there are a few Amish men who have been caught trying to use it to find themselves mail order brides or attempt to look at porn. (In the library, which we have blocks again, so then begins the awkward "I'm trying to look at family pictures but the computer won't bring them up and I wondered if there was something wrong with it.") They don't have mad computer skills, but it's like phones that they are allowed to use as long as it's not in their house. There are a lot of them that carry disposable cell phones around, and my understanding is that they are suppose to leave them in an outbuilding and not take them in the house when they return home. Though the frequency of how many get to do that may have changed in the last couple of years, given that there was cyber sexting/harassment case not long ago locally where the suspect was a young Amish man. (Txting pictures of his junk to a 12 yr old girl he fancied.)
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The Amish go to Walmart. That blew my damn mind.
Fun? What is this fun thou speakest of?
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@Luna Where else would they save money AND live better? Duuh.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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@2mspris said:
@ThatOneDude With frequency. There are a few Amish women locally who are using the computers to manage finances or to take college classes. There are a few men who have used them for the purpose of advertising one craft or skill or another they have for work, to deal with government stuff they are request to do and for different financing/budgeting things as well. And then there are a few Amish men who have been caught trying to use it to find themselves mail order brides or attempt to look at porn. (In the library, which we have blocks again, so then begins the awkward "I'm trying to look at family pictures but the computer won't bring them up and I wondered if there was something wrong with it.") They don't have mad computer skills, but it's like phones that they are allowed to use as long as it's not in their house. There are a lot of them that carry disposable cell phones around, and my understanding is that they are suppose to leave them in an outbuilding and not take them in the house when they return home. Though the frequency of how many get to do that may have changed in the last couple of years, given that there was cyber sexting/harassment case not long ago locally where the suspect was a young Amish man. (Txting pictures of his junk to a 12 yr old girl he fancied.)
The Amish are allowed to use telephones, they just can't have them inside their house. Many Amish have telephones in their barn for this reason. I'm not sure what the logic behind this is, but that's my experience, just as they're not allowed to own cars, but they're allowed to hire drivers to take them places where they need to go.
Edit: My phone decided that Amish were Irish. Interesting.
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Doing the footwork to buy a new bicycle. Argh. You have to have a PhD in bicyclology before you can tell anything for sure as you wade through obscure part numbers and terminology. Questions such as "so uhm, why is this cool looking bike $200 more expensive than that cool looking bike?" are answered with "well, better parts". No shit, really? So what kind of better are we talking about? Is it actually $200 worth of better? Is it "$500 HDMI cables are better than $20 ones" better?
"Well, they are lighter" they say. Notice they never ever tell you how much each bike weighs even though it's the whole freakin' point of everything! But okay, so it's lighter - by how much? 50 grams? So I'll pay $200 for 50-100 fewer grams of weight then put on a jacket or grab an extra fork for my lunch to waste the difference?
I mean there has to be a breakpoint in the quality curve after which adding better parts is subject to steeper diminishing returns but when I put the question to Google? There are two answers, each more precious than the other. "It depends since that's different for each person" is one - thanks, man! That makes everything clear. But the second one is even better - "ask your bike store what better fits you". So you mean ask the people who want me to spend more money how to spend money efficiently, because that works so well for every other aspect of life.
Meh.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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...the Irish. Buncha drunken leprechauns is what they are.
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@Admiral said:
...the Irish. Buncha drunken leprechauns is what they are.
Lol yeah, my phone's autocorrect frequently hates on me. I corrected it.
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@Arkandel said:
Doing the footwork to buy a new bicycle. Argh. You have to have a PhD in bicyclology before you can tell anything for sure as you wade through obscure part numbers and terminology. Questions such as "so uhm, why is this cool looking bike $200 more expensive than that cool looking bike?" are answered with "well, better parts". No shit, really? So what kind of better are we talking about? Is it actually $200 worth of better? Is it "$500 HDMI cables are better than $20 ones" better?
"Well, they are lighter" they say. Notice they never ever tell you how much each bike weighs even though it's the whole freakin' point of everything! But okay, so it's lighter - by how much? 50 grams? So I'll pay $200 for 50-100 fewer grams of weight then put on a jacket or grab an extra fork for my lunch to waste the difference?
I mean there has to be a breakpoint in the quality curve after which adding better parts is subject to steeper diminishing returns but when I put the question to Google? There are two answers, each more precious than the other. "It depends since that's different for each person" is one - thanks, man! That makes everything clear. But the second one is even better - "ask your bike store what better fits you". So you mean ask the people who want me to spend more money how to spend money efficiently, because that works so well for every other aspect of life.
Meh.
I luckily have a bike mechanic that is awesome. I often roll up to his place and he'll adjust/inflate/take a look at whatever minor thing is bugging my bike and not charge me. But he knows I won't go anywhere else, and when I need something actually fixed, I won't haggle the price. I leave donations whenever I can for his minor fixes.
He'll also teach me about my vehicle as he fixes or adjusts whatever it is, telling me what the problem was and explaining why what he is doing will fix it. He's seriously awesome. I just hope he can find the mudguards and luggage rack for my bike model soon, because I'll need them (especially the former).
Bonus bike porn:
It fits pretty much anywhere. I bring it up to my office, don't have to find a parking spot where it won't get stolen, etc. Awesome.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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Cool bike! See, I have the advantage that I don't actually need a lock that much (they let us park our bikes in an empty cubicle at work, and I rarely leave it anywhere else) but otherwise I really want something more than a baseline model. However there are so many bike stores and it's fairly clear they often have an agenda - for example in one place they were talking me down about disc brakes, possibly because they only had one model at roughly my price range that had them, but in another it was mentioned as a must. Or front fork suspension was talked down in one place ('it wastes some of your energy since city streets are mostly smooth') while talked way up in another ('since you're doing moderate mileage you need it').
And of course good luck comparing even upgrades within the same model line from the same company let alone different ones. If the crankset is better in one but the fork better in the other what does that mean? And what the hell is a derailleur? Do pedal brands matter? Are these tires better or worse?
Can you send your bike guy over?
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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My only suggestion is this: decide your price range, then go to two or three bike stores near you and find which bikes there are in your price range. Take pictures, look them up online, whatever.
Then buy a bike. Buy the one you like. Buy a bike that feels comfortable. Don't buy a bike because of the derailleurs, fork suspension, or disc brakes. Especially if what you are going to be using the bike for is street riding and daily commute. For that sort of thing you just need three things:
- Comfort. You have to be able to sit on the bike and say, "I like this. This is the right shape for my ass not to hurt after a mile and a half."
- Brakes. Your brakes need to work. Your brakes always need to work.
- Style. You have to like your bike, bro. You have to look at it and go, "Damn, that is a neat bike."
Everything else will be minimal when it comes to street riding and commuting. At most you might want to make sure your tires are good and sturdy. But if you buy a bike that isn't cheap, even if it isn't expensive, you'll get a decent ride. All this "without/with this you'll waste energy" bullshit is just salesman talk. Why do you care? If it's a little heavier or takes a bit more energy that just means you're getting a slightly better work out. Lordy me, not that! That's horrible!
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Get a car like normal people! Yesh.
I have a bike. It's pink, looks vintage and most importantly is pink. The decision making process went like this, hey this bike is pink. It looks vintage. It's less than $200. Yay! I'll buy this bike. I can ride around with my kid while wearing a big sun hat and get freckles on my legs.
Buying bikes is easy. Unless you want a real bike.
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@Arkandel To add to Coin's reply, here are a few things to consider:
What are you using your bike for? Is it just for commuting?
If it's just commuting, then you might think of ignoring mountain bikes all together. The cheaper ones are heavy and slow, and the thick knobby tires are awful on the road.
If you like to ride on trails, then a mountain bike will be what you're looking at, but if it's still mostly commuting, I'd recommend getting slicks for it.
What are you riding your bike on? Do you have nice roads? Hills?
Where I live it's pretty flat, and I really only ride on the road. For my commute, I have a single speed road bike with caliper breaks that I got for $500. It's fantastic--fast, and easy maintenance. My only issue is that I'm heavy and my roads are like a warzone, so I find I'm fixing my tubes once or twice a month. It gets easy with practice
If you have hills, bump up for some gears. I got a second bike and the one or two hills that I encounter are now a laughable breeze.
If you have back/neck issues, many places will sell decent commuters without drop bars, or will even swap drop bars for risers.
If you're not into doing maintenance, I'd steer away from disc breaks. They're difficult to adjust properly and your wheels will pretty much never be true. If they're not perfect, you'll get drag off of them. Good for your quads, but might not be the most enjoyable bike ride .. My second bike has disc breaks and even my store's mechanic has difficulty getting them just right, in order to get rid of the drag, I have them set pretty loose.
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@SG Thanks for the input, that really helps. I'll be using it mostly for my commute (~15km each way) on city roads - some of them are bumpy and some are uphill but nothing extreme. The insight on the disc brakes is useful! I was thinking of a road bike or a hybrid, there's no point in anything else. As for gears... I barely shift on my existent bike - I go between 3-7 based on the road and that's about it.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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@Arkandel said:
@SG Thanks for the input, that really helps. I'll be using it mostly for my commute (~15km each way) on city roads - some of them are bumpy and some are uphill but nothing extreme. The insight on the disc brakes is useful! I was thinking of a road bike or a hybrid, there's no point in anything else. As for gears... I barely shift on my existent bike - I go between 3-7 based on the road and that's about it.
That's a pretty long commute on a bike. Mine will be about half that when the office moves. But I guess it feels really long because right now I live six blocks away from work and the change to living seven kilometers away will be pretty huge.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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@Coin Yeah, I'm not happy with my commute at all. At least in the spring+summer I can make better use of it by cycling when it's not rainy but once it's cold enough it's dead time stuck in the subway and buses for two hours a day - that's a huge waste of time, even if it at least means I can read books to make some use of it. On the other hand the neighborhood where I live is pretty nice and quite safe, otherwise it wouldn't have been an issue at all to move somewhere closer to my job.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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@Arkandel said:
@Coin Yeah, I'm not happy with my commute at all. At least in the spring+summer I can make better use of it by cycling when it's not rainy but once it's cold enough it's dead time stuck in the subway and buses for two hours a day - that's a huge waste of time, even if it at least means I can read books to make some use of it. On the other hand the neighborhood where I live is pretty nice and quite safe, otherwise it wouldn't have been an issue at all to move somewhere closer to my job.
I get carsick sometimes if I'm reading while on a bus/subway/car/whatever, but sometimes not. It's weird. It's good you can make use of the time.
I am dreading the cold months, but I will just man up and get some gloves and a warm jacket. And I guess take the subway/bus when it rains. But the cold really shouldn't stop me.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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@Coin When it's -25 with the wind chill the last thing I want to do is be riding a bicycle.
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@Arkandel That's a pretty decent commute, I'd probably opt for at least a few gears in that case. Pretty much any road bike would be ideal for your needs. A lot of the bike nuts that I know don't like hybrids, but try them out at your bike store and see what you like. I really notice the difference between my road bike and my cyclocross weight wise.
Another couple things that just popped into my mind:
make sure the bike you're looking at can take a pannier rack. This will be extra important if you don't have showers at work
Wearing a backpack for a 40 minute bike ride gives some serious swack.make sure you get a bike that's sized for your body. I'm a bit taller than most, and my old mountain bike gave me some serious back pain because it was too small. Most dedicated bike shops will know more about this than general shops like Canadian Tire or United Cycle.
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Video games where you can get through it easily enough until the very final, end-game situation.
I'm looking at you, Pillars of Eternity, for making me go to "easy" for one fight, but you're far from the only one.
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I don't live in fucking Alaska or fucking Antarctica, and it is fucking snowing so hard that it is almost a fucking blizzard. It is May, and it is fucking snowing. Fuck.
