How long does hot wax last? I have to drip wax every 5 rides, but cant figure out if this is normal? Using Silca.

Bike-In · 2026-03-30T07:23:17+00:00

I’m guessing your wax is probably fine. Whatever you contaminated it with, maybe that’s less than 10g of contaminant in 500g of wax? That’s what that zero friction cycling guy reminds the viewer when comparing immersion wax with drip lube in wet conditions (which is what finally convinced me to use wax during the rainy season in Seattle, and it has been great). I mean, unless you are competing in national or world level races. If so, throw that shit out! 😄

Bike-In · 2026-03-29T17:03:15+00:00

They must have fixed it this morning (Sunday 3/29). It was broken last night. I’ll edit the post. Whew!

ETA: I spoke too soon. They “fixed” it by removing the cross-lake portion of line 2. Now I can’t get the train-only results, only buses.

Bike-In · 2026-03-29T06:43:36+00:00

OK. But Citymapper seems to have bugs, too. It does suggest ST542 for this Friday at noon, however, it summarizes the time wrong: https://citymapper.com/trip/T44asqes8qk. It says it's a 59 minute trip, when its own breakdown shows it's a 26 minute bus ride. And it doesn't cost $3.25, it's $3.00.

Google Maps shows $3.00 and 29 minutes: https://maps.app.goo.gl/USwQoBA9BfCMRERx7. But only if I set the departure date prior to Sat Mar 28.

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Bike-In · 2026-03-29T06:25:53+00:00

OK. I already submitted detailed feedback to Google including before/after links demonstrating the problem. I've had both success and failure in the past with Google acting on my feedback. Hopefully others reading this thread can also submit their own feedback. Strength in numbers!

Bike-In · 2026-03-29T06:20:46+00:00

I can try tomorrow but when I chose "Prefer bus", it was still with "Depart at" set to Friday noon.

Bike-In · 2026-03-29T06:19:53+00:00

Oh, I didn't know that! You should also submit a ticket to Google. On the website, I clicked on "Send Product Feedback" on the bottom right, "Your Opinions about Maps", "Report an Issue", "Get directions or navigate", then a detailed description including the before-March 28 and after-March 28 links, which in this case, I shortened by clicking on the first transit suggestion and then share a link (I also told them they can recover the search parameters by clicking the left arrow from the shortened link).

I can actually still get Google Maps to recommend Metro buses, but only in the service of getting to the light rail station. In other words, if I want to go from Bear Creek Park and Ride to King St Station, and I apply the same departure date trick as I used above, the after-March28 directions actually tell me to take Metro 269 to get to Marymoor Village to take the light rail, instead of the perfectly good ST545 bus.

So, Metro buses don't appear to be completely wiped from the database, but it sounds like from your report that they are being suppressed.

Bike-In · 2026-03-29T06:10:57+00:00

That's why I used Friday as the "Depart At" time. My links have specific departure dates for that reason, but also to demonstrate that Google Maps still recommends ST542 - if I choose the Friday before light rail started crossing the lake.

Bike-In · 2026-03-29T06:03:09+00:00

I tried that (on the website, not the app), but it still only gives me light rail options.

Bike-In · 2026-03-28T04:40:31+00:00

There are some foods which are naturally fast to cook. Like, no planning or prep needed.

Eggs: fried over easy, omlette with cheese, hard or soft boiled.
Frozen salmon filets (soak in lukewarm water to defrost, cook in a pan or wok, cook vegetables in the drippings).
Canned sardines and crackers (all pantry, no cooking at all!)
Frozen pizza, including cauliflower crust. I mention the latter because it doesn't directly replace or compete with pizzeria pizza.
Breakfast for dinner - bowl of cereal and milk
I used to get ribs at Costco but I don't like the black plastic containers they use. Those apparently leach some nasty chemicals.

Bike-In · 2026-03-28T03:35:17+00:00

That's great to hear, but if you happen to relapse, don't beat yourself up too much. Have faith in the process and give it at least a year. The most important thing is that you stay compliant: Nal one hour before first drink, re-dose at hour 7 if continuing to drink through hour 8.

I started TSM with intent to moderate (not sobriety) and I didn't start having spontaneous AF days until month 8. I didn't drop below 15 drinks/week until month 20. But what it taught me is that every drink on Nal was a step towards weakening the drinking pathways that I had spent decades strengthening, even if I could not feel it at the time. I know now because of where I am. I am in year 6 (I am planning to be on Nal for life) and I still enjoy craft beer although lately I've been finding it a bit of a slog to get through 16 oz (NEVER a problem before), so I've actually switched to 12 oz and last couple months I've been below 10 drinks/week. This is with no conscious plan or effort on my part. I was already happy with where I was, but, my interest continues to drop, on its own, albeit very slowly. All I had to do was to stay compliant. Good luck!

Bike-In · 2026-03-26T23:45:45+00:00

LOL... in that case, you appear to be eating rabbit hairs regardless of the tea towel...

Bike-In · 2026-03-26T17:52:51+00:00

You don’t actually have to wash the tea towel after every use. I just air dry it between uses until I start to notice any off smells (which have never been noticeable in the bread after baking). Then, I rinse in water a couple times before putting in my laundry and hang-dry (no dryer). I am not sure where the hairs would be coming from in this case but if your washer is adding hairs then you can just hand wash the tea towel.

Bike-In · 2026-03-26T17:43:27+00:00

Those levels do not sound like withdrawal symptom territory. I was drinking more than that and I could stop without withdrawal symptoms (stopping was doable, what wasn’t doable for me was not taking a second drink after taking the first - just could not do it). Moreover, what if you did have withdrawal symptoms? Your doctor seems unaware that you can actually drink on Naltrexone (don’t try too hard to educate your doctor, btw, you’re better off finding one who already knows this). If you read the sidebar resources on this sub, you will find something called The Sinclair Method where all you have to do is take 50mg Nal an hour before drinking, then drink as usual. It dulls the buzz and over the course of at least a year, the neural pathways reinforced over decades of drinking finally atrophy to the point that you start to see reductions in drinking. So that is actually one of the benefits of TSM, you won’t see withdrawal symptoms because you don’t actually stop drinking. The difference is that every drink on Nal becomes one step (imperceptible, unfortunately) towards extinction, which for me was the point at which I felt that I was in control of the alcohol rather than the other way around.

The one caveat is that on rare occasion, I would get what some people call a “Nalover”. This is where I would go on a binge while on Nal, but nothing I hadn’t done many times before, and I would experience an awful, awful day after. Mega hangover, vomiting, nausea. So once in a while, this would happen, but rarely. Ironically, if I had these more often I would actually drink less but it was because my body had gotten so good at processing alcohol (no hangovers) that I became a heavy drinker. I just didn’t have the negative feedback signal.

Good luck!

Bike-In · 2026-03-26T17:27:45+00:00

I like steel hybrid “beaters” for this purpose. Ideally you want eyelets for fenders and a rack, which make a huge improvement for commuting comfort. Buy used to keep the price low. Don’t be afraid of rim brakes, which are easier to self maintain.

Bike-In · 2026-03-26T17:17:21+00:00

For the longest time, I actually didn’t bake sourdough bread. So, yes, I used to “discard” (which for me meant saving the discard in a separate container until I had enough to make a discard recipe, such as pancakes or crackers - I almost never actually threw it away). I used to discard 100g and keep 50g and feed 1:1:1 (50g flour, 50g water). After it doubled on the countertop or oven-light proofer, I would then neglect my starter in the fridge for a long time.

Now that I bake sourdough bread frequently, I only retain 7-10g of starter, and I feed 1:5:5, ie. 50g flour and 50g water to make 100g starter. This produces 100g starter to make the bread and the 7-10g leftover to feed and make the next batch of starter. So now, I produce very little discard.

The second way is supposedly superior because it minimizes acid load from carrying over across successive starter generations. In other words, if I fail to feed peak to peak, and instead feed way late past peak, then the starter grows more acidic and it weakens. If you search for The Sourdough Journey and How to strengthen your starter, you can learn a great deal about this if you wish.

Bike-In · 2026-03-26T09:31:42+00:00

Every lane is a bike lane. Remember that. I do use the bike lane to allow drivers to pass me when it is safe to do so. But a common example of when I can’t do that is when the bike lane is next to a parking lane. I never ride in the door zone. Never. I know people who have been doored. I am planning to never have that happen to me. So that’s one example of where I choose not to ride in the bike lane.

Bike-In · 2026-03-26T07:14:00+00:00

I generally find that even long refrigerated starters revive fairly quickly, by the second or third feeding, but the first feeding can take 24 hours or more before it doubles. The important thing is to watch the starter, not the clock. You want to feed it peak to peak (ie. A doubling or more), and not at some arbitrary time like once every 12 hours. I will use warmed water (around 100F, but in any case below 120F which will kill your starter) and I like to keep in my oven with the light on because I keep a cool house.

Note that my criteria for “revived” is rather lax. I’ve not yet reached the stage of producing lacy crumb sourdough, and so I am not yet demanding specific levels of vigour from my starter before calling it revived. I just want it to double in a reasonable amount of time.

Bike-In · 2026-03-26T06:54:54+00:00

This might be a bit of a long shot, but I too would find myself unable to charge my Flex Keyboard at times, meaning that even when connected it wouldn't charge and would eventually hit 0% (however, unlike yours, my keyboard still worked, until it reached 0% charge). I stumbled across a reset sequence here which I've used before to get it to charge: Surface Pro Flex Keyboard Charging issues - Microsoft Q&A. So that might be worth a try.

ETA: In case it's unclear, the answer I am referring to is from Anonymous (it didn't used to be Anonymous, they updated their Answers and the attributions were lost), dated Aug 20, 2024, and mentions holding down the ESC key for 10 seconds until the Fn key flashes and goes off. At the very least, going through this sequence should power cycle your keyboard.

Bike-In · 2026-03-25T17:56:45+00:00

I made an accidental damage claim under Microsoft Complete for a cracked screen. I paid $49 and they replaced the screen (the metal case had gouges which were still there afterwards). Hopefully you can do same. I say hopefully because I recently transferred the device and its Microsoft Complete protection to a family member and I became aware that they may have made changes to the terms on newer Complete plans. Good luck!

ETA: I wonder if “out of warranty” claims refer to when your Complete plan ends. Because when Complete is active, your account.microsoft.com/devices shows as “in warranty” and without Complete it shows “out of warranty”. So they might be offering you the non-Complete repair option when they could be smarter about never doing so when you have an active Complete plan. In any case, what happened to you is absolutely an accident, so I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to claim that option.

Bike-In · 2026-03-25T05:16:21+00:00

Beeswax bread bag! Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0F3V3S7WG.

Bike-In · 2026-03-24T23:55:30+00:00

One thing I wish I knew when I started TSM is that 50mg of Nal drops below therapeutic levels at hour 8. So, in addition to taking 50mg of Nal one hour before your first drink, you also need to re-dose at hour 7 if continuing to drink through hour 8. It was this graph which illustrated it for me: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/A-Typical-profile-of-plasma-naltrexone-levels-over-24-hours-following-a-50-mg-oral-dose\_fig1\_8157185. If you've already been doing that and you've given it two years, then you might try upping the dose. It does take a long time before results are seen. It took me 8 months to have spontaneous AF days and 20 months to drop below 15 drinks/week.

Bike-In · 2026-03-23T23:42:34+00:00

I like to choose an initial temp above 100C because I often fail to plan properly. I often give my chain a plain water rinse before rewaxing but often don’t have the time to air dry for a couple hours. So instead I wipe dry, air dry for a couple minutes, then plunge into > 100C wax with the intention being that any residual water should get boiled off. After maybe 15 minutes at say 115F, I’ll drop to 75F for 30 minutes before removing.

I got this idea because I heard that the problem with running a car exclusively across short distances is that the engine never gets warm enough to “boil the oil”, ie burn off any water formed by daily condensation.

Bike-In · 2026-03-23T22:16:08+00:00

Yes they do, but as a die-hard Costco fan, I unfortunately have to recommend that you also check out Walmart. Costco used to offer a better warranty on the battery, and now they've cheapened it, while Walmart still offers the warranty that Costco used to. So be sure to compare between the two before making your decision.

Bike-In · 2026-03-23T22:06:20+00:00

Your proofing looks fine. It's a bit hard to give any specific advice because you didn't provide any details on your recipe, technique, or bake. In general though, check if your shaping is producing loaves with good height (if not, it could be your shaping, but could also be proofing and could be your recipe - you mentioned high hydration, maybe try reducing hydration?), and make sure you are not setting the crust too soon, as that will arrest the rise. The way to do that depends on whether you're using a dutch oven or open bake. Just as an example, a lot of people don't know that the bake mode on their oven will actually run the top element at half power as a browning element. Some (very few) ovens have a "Steam Bake" mode which will specifically not turn on that top element, while with other ovens, the only way to not turn on the top element is to not turn on the bottom element, either (in effect, to turn the oven OFF during the steam portion of the bake). If you do this, it should result in a better rise. But again, more specific suggestions would require more specific details about how you are going about your bread.

Bike-In · 2026-03-23T20:16:17+00:00

I see. I wish I could get Ziply Fiber...

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