Okay, a bit more Reddit for the morning's blogging, mainly because this is a bit of us...
[rentdue_nofoodforyou/Reddit]
The Bike Mechanics Subreddit has had its mind blown by one US-based mechanic's tale of how one customer racked up a "ridiculous abomination" of a ticket by asking for $3,000 of upgrades to be put on this $250 Walmart gravel frame.
DT Swiss wheels, Shimano GRX groupset and dropper post (that's yet to arrive) later and this is the end result. "I do not care how much it costs. I want it to work good," the regular customer apparently told the mechanic, giving the green light for upgrades totalling 12 times the value of the original bike.
The mechanic continued: "[He] skipped out on nothing, and I'm pretty sure if we didn't stop him, he would've let us put $7K into it. DT Swiss rims, hubs, and bladed spokes. He asked about a Chris King bottom bracket and headset, but maybe that's for next time lol. $85 tyres. Zoom in on the 203mm front rotor and all the configuration it took it make things work great. This was awesome to be honest.
"It rides how you'd expect an upgraded Walmart frame to ride. Shifting and braking work great, but something still feels… off. Definitely not something I would notice if I hadn't been doing this for a while, but my customer is very happy and that's all that matters."
It's been dubbed The Bike of Theseus by one of the astonished Reddit users to comment on the post. To save anyone out of the loop, like myself, that's after the Theseus' paradox — a thought experiment that raises the question of whether an object that has had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object.
Another top comment added: "Wow! Well, all he has to do is upgrade the frame someday, if he wants to."
Another comment said: "These frames are not garbage like a lot of other Walmart bikes. Both this one and the OT MTB get pretty good reviews for what they are and I think the intent is to provide a decent foundation that you can build on as you progress as a rider. Incrementally replace parts as you need them and as your skills and needs advance. I really like the idea of making very affordable bikes that aren't absolute garbage to ride. I'm sure a lot of potential riders are turned off by heavy, shitty, poorly designed and specced BSOs from box stores."
To which the mechanic who did the work said: "I totally agree! It's one of the reasons we agreed to do this for our customer. It's been getting a lot of compliments as the project progressed from other customers."
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And when talking about pointless MGIFs...
https://youtu.be/S7enDsD5bpc
"Mum settles legal action over air pollution death"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yx6leg4nqo
Ironically, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah is against LTNs.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/appalling-councils-f...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ella-adookissidebrah-rep...
Cycling will be more dangerous due to council clampdowns, say campaigners (Gruniaad)
Critics of cycling bans in city centres say they unfairly punish cyclists and push them on to congested roads
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/oct/31/cycling-clampdowns-city-cou...
For me - and nothing to do with cycling - the most depressing transport thing is to increase the bus fare cap at the same time as freezing fuel duty, not even reversing the emergency 5p cut. That cut was brought in because of rising petrol prices; it's currently about 30p less per litre than it was at that point. There is no justification for prioritising keeping that now unneeded cut over bus journeys.
I share a number of the frustrations about the budget.
As an EV driver I got a very unwelcome letter on Wednesday telling me in effect that the government doesn't make enough in VED from taxing petrol and diesel vehicles so I would now have to pay VED at the current normal tier (i.e. £190 per year). Meanwhile, people who bought dirty diesels through the 00s and early 10s under the "old" VED system will be paying a fraction of that (it was £20 on my 2010 A-class). So whilst it is necessary to levy VED on my vehicle which doesn't emit anything in order to raise funds, we aren't willing to tax the people that actually do the f-ing emmissions. Its very frustrating.
More interestingly, until you realise how little it is, was the extra money for road maintenance - however £500m vs the c. £16bn to fix all the pothole is again a drop in the ocean. But its alright, we can continue to fund motorists to the tune of £5bn plus per year.
Just imagine what we could do with £5bn - one obvious example is that that's the roads across the country being meaningfully less shit within 3 years - with knock on benefits to people property not getting trashed by poor quality infrastructre. And then at least when the motorists yell about paying for the roads they might have a bit more of a leg to stand on!
EV's are heavier, create more particulates and road damage. Not excusing the ridiculous budget of course.
I don't think the particulate bit is true. Regenerative breaking means there are not creating brake dust.
I'm with Carlton on the budget - such a tiny amount of money to allocate to the most effective investment we have. I was hoping that Labour might be forward-looking, but they're just looking backwards at the impossible personal motor car dream that the manufacturers spent a lot of time and money advertising.
It's symptomatic of the system we have that we 'laud' breadcrumbs.
I was expecting fuel duty to be raised, it's an ideal time, world oil prices are low, pump prices are low too so banging up duty would've been lower impact than it was last year when petrol and diesel were over £1.50/l.
As a whole, the budget was 'more of the same' with no account taken of the elephant on a skateboard thundering towards us in the form of climate change and environmental breakdown.
Same happens to me all the time, riding or driving, if I keep a safe driving distance (2-3 sec.) between me and the vehicle ahead, it never fails, another driver will pass and occupy that little space!