I’ve been thinking about your post as I was biking to work this morning. I see others have talked to you about tires in the meantime but for on road riding I can really recommend pretty slick tires even on a mountain bike they will make a huge difference in resistance, especially if you inflate them as hard as they can take(look on the side of te tire for something that says inflate to xx psi). Hard smooth tires run nearly as good as racing tubes.

Another thing I was thinking about is saddle height. Most new cyclists put their saddle way too low, which is understandable as you want to be able to put your foot on the ground when you lose balance. However that is not the best thing for transferring muscle power to your pedals. I found that for good force you want to have your saddle so high that when you sit on it and you put a foot on the pedal at it’s lowest point, with your foot parallel to the ground, your leg is fully stretched.

This does mean that to put a foot on the ground you have to keep your other foot on the pedal and slide forward off the saddle. The posture of your leg for pedalling will be way better getting more power to the bike and reducing stress on the knees.

Make sure your foot rests on the pedal with the front part, like you can see bike racers do. That allows for more muscles to work on pushing than when the pedal is under the middle of the foot.

Beware that raising the saddle does change the front-back balance a bit as your weight sits higher.

I read you bike down stairs, if it is only one or two steps that is not going to change much but if it’s a full flight of stairs that might be a problem.

Frankly I’m 52 years old and have been riding bikes since I was 3 and I have not ridden off more than a couple of steps at a time for the last four decades, it’s just not something I wish to inflict on my bike, nor on myself. Hopping down half a meter while at speed is no problem, but really riding of flights of stairs? You are a braver man than me.

If the current regime was in anyway interested in research, they would no doubt do much worse.

They don’t seem to want to gain any kind of knowledge though…

Hehe, I’m a big guy and weigh about 100kg, on flat ground I’m on the highest gear nearly all the time because my legs are strong rather than agile, but up a relatively steep hill I need to go on the lower gears and crank myself up there.

The Ferengi would mock him mercilessly, he is a cheap fraud and doesn’t have the lobes for business.

Russia’s most densely populated, and politically most relevant are is on the European continent. Get that into your fucking head.

It is but losing the traitor in the assembly is not a bad thing. Now if Europe could jailbreak all that American tech they have in their military gear too, that would be nice.

The guy talks like he feels strongly about issues but remains absolutely vague, which allows people to subconsciously fill in the blanks, so they hear whatever they want to hear.

That thing that I’m afraid of, he is going to solve that once and for all, without fussing about saying things are complicated like the democrats would.

It’s not easy to take action that really works. Protests only do so much. Armed resistance is problematic and can backfire in so many ways…

I read Musk fired the Tesla manager for Europe and North America over the low sales, as if those weren’t a direct result of Musk’s own actions. Like there is only one person responsible for pushing the stupid cybertruck and for associating the brand with fascism.

I’m not American and I wish you guys the very best, but my expectations for the 2026 elections is on par with the elections in Russia. Every non republican candidate may end up in jail or out of a window.

My Guy, you really don’t have any idea.

Rich, coming from the side actually putting people in Camps where they get beaten and humiliated by masked men.

Yes but somehow those are way less agressive at taking away your rights and even try to make the world moderately better. It’s the difference between the guys hacking holes in the boat and the ones not fixing the holes fast enough. Sure, both are letting the boat sink, but there does seem a serious difference.

Happens regularly often the police officers find themselves compelled to kill their passive aggressor in self defense.

I think you vastly overestimate the imporance of the US. And yes recently, with Trump the US is turning in on itself to become more like Russia. It breaks with allies, alienates trading partners and isolates and inpoverishes its own population. Its position as a hegemon is crumbling to dust rapidly.

Yeah yeah, US exceptionalism much? You would be surprised how little Europe depends on the US, but as you imply, it’s become an abusive relationship that Europe needs to get out. Russia is no alternative for the US. The reason Europe needs to sever ties with the US is that it has become too much like Russia. China? Yes Europe does a lot of business with China already, that is not about to change.

It’s only a way of starting an interaction, it escalates easily with things like “illegal possession”, “resisting arrest” and “assaulting a police officer” . Which are all things that might happen without the suspect doing anything really.

You are very optimistic. You need the state to optimize sharing of resources because without it you get smaller and smaller tribal groups competing. Mutual aid groups on a voluntary basis alone are easily splintered and there are too many people who get a kick out of destruction.

Certainly, it would be more limited in capability on paper, but now they have a big member who likes bossing the others around and is also a huge liability. Losing that would be a serious win.

I agree that it currently is, but it doesn’t have to be.

I really don’t know how to solve these problems. It would require people to stop being selfish, scared , petty and mean to start with, but there is a huge propaganda machine fanning on those feelings constantly. Revolution is a huge waste of resources, energy and people and usually leads to a new government by the new batch of the most eager and ruthless opportunists.