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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: June 4th, 2025

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  • Disc brakes are the one thing that you really can’t add to a bicycle that wasn’t made with them in mind. (I know there are adapters, but I wouldn’t trust them.)

    Like others said, probably time for a new bike.

    Disc brakes aside, you’d have to upgrade the whole drive train and the wheels to get a modern groupset. Even buying used, you’ll put quite a bit of money into that, even if you do the work yourself. And while you’re at it, you might as well replace the bottom bracket and headset bearings, which aren’t that expensive but are an added cost. You’ll probably need some tools you might not have too.

    Groupsets are ridiculously expensive for the average consumer to buy. The bike manufacturers buy in bulk and pay way less. That’s how they can offer bikes so cheaply.




  • Here’s my problem with all of the automation the manufacturers are adding to cars. Not even Autopilot level stuff is potentially a problem - things like adaptive cruise come to mind.

    If there’s some kind of bug in that adaptive cruise that puts my car into the bumper of the car in front of me before I can stop it, the very first thing the manufacturer is going to say is:

    But the responsibility for safe driving, is on the driver…

    And how do we know there isn’t some stupid bug? Our car has plenty of other software bugs in the infotainment system; hopefully they were a little more careful with the safety-critical systems…ha ha, I know. Even the bugs in the infotainment are distracting. But what would the manufacturer say if there was a crash resulting from my moment of distraction, caused by the 18th fucking weather alert in 10 minutes for a county 100 miles away, a feature that I can’t fucking disable?

    But the responsibility for safe driving, is on the driver…

    In other words, “We bear no responsibility!” So, I have to pay for these “features” and the manufacturer will deny any responsibility if one of them fails and causes a crash. It’s always your fault as the driver, no matter what. The company rolls this shit out to us; we have no choice to buy a new car without it any more, and they don’t even trust it enough to stand behind it.

    Maybe you’ll get lucky and enough issues will happen that gov’t regulators will look into it (not in the US any more, of course)…but probably not. You’ll be blamed, and you’ll pay higher insurance, and that will be that.

    So now I have to worry not only about other drivers and my own driving, but I also have to be alert that the car will do something unexpected as well. Which has happened, when all this “smart” technology has misunderstood a situation, like slamming on the brakes for a car in another lane. I’ve found I hate having to fight my own car.

    Obviously, I very much dislike driving our newer car. It’s primarily my wife’s car, and I only drive it once or twice a week, fortunately.



  • Are you talking about the portable ones for inflating tires away from home after a flat?

    I’ve used one, I had a flat and was reaching for my co2 cartridge when someone handed over their pump instead. It seemed to work fine, and I liked that they could set the target pressure. I would use a floor pump or air compressor at home, though.