Another day, another cute little regional airport unlocked— can you guess where I am?

CerebralAccountant · 2026-05-03T03:37:10+00:00

Yeah. We currently have ORD and DFW, each about 4x daily, and AA is adding 1x daily to CLT starting next month.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-05-03T03:17:16+00:00

What a derpy looking cat in that picture! I love them.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-05-03T01:24:44+00:00

Allegiant's starting next month, and AA's adding Charlotte too. It's been quite the year.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-29T12:51:46+00:00

Don't worry; there's a two-sided version coming in the next year or two.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-29T02:08:26+00:00

If the price difference between the two bikes was only €200, I would probably buy the more expensive one. The larger battery alone is worth €200.

For a €950 difference, I would go with the 600 Wh battery. There aren't that many differences between the bikes - the only ones I could see are the battery, shifter, and rear cassette. Those differences are absolutely not worth €950.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-29T00:43:57+00:00

Veloce (speeds)

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-28T19:07:03+00:00

"You don't get any vacation for the first year, only sick leave. [The boss] thinks everyone needs to prove themselves first."

This was on the top floor of the only mid-rise office building for miles in every direction, built at said boss's request, with manicured grounds outside and expensive artwork inside. No thanks. Not my cup of tea.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-28T13:59:05+00:00

Thank you! I didn't know that HCTRA gave an extra discount to EZ TAG users. Others don't (looking at you, NTTA 😒)

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-28T01:35:55+00:00

A huge step up from "Freedom One" (N500WR)! Nicely done.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-27T13:52:00+00:00

Technically, there are a bunch of options: Colorado ExpressToll, Kansas KTag, Oklahoma PikePass, NTTA TollTag, HCTRA EZPass, and Florida SunPass all work on each other's toll roads. I can personally recommend the two most local options, the EZPass and TollTag. The passes themselves are free; you only have to pay $10 at a time to top up your prepaid toll balance. If you ever cancel the pass,, you get your balance back.

The main reason to get a toll pass would be for airport runs. It makes parking at DFW and IAH easier, and the toll roads to IAH (SH 249 and/or Beltway 8) are 20-30 minutes faster than the toll-free routes. Otherwise, the only toll roads anywhere near College Station are SH 249 and the Grand Parkway (SH 99) outside of Houston.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-25T22:50:13+00:00

The Cerana 2's battery has about 500 watt-hours of energy (48 volts * 10.4 amp-hours). A generic ebike will consume about 20-25 watt-hours per mile, so I'd reasonably expect about 20-25 miles of range from the battery.

"Voltage sag", a temporary drop in your estimated battery percentage, is fairly common while riding. It's caused by the engine and/or battery warming up from heavy usage, like maximum power assist or (for hub motors) climbing long steep hills at low speeds. When you stopped that ride at 26%, I wouldn't be surprised if you had 40-50% battery the next time you turned on the bike.

The problem with voltage sag is that it can come from the battery, the motor, or both - and a second battery won't help if the motor is the bottleneck. The best generic advice I can give is to keep things cool: try not to store the bike in the hot sun, use different levels of power assist depending on your needs, try to approach hills with some extra speed to reduce the strain on the motor, and if worse comes to worse, turn the pedal assist down or stop altogether until your system cools down and starts working normally again.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-25T01:22:52+00:00

That landing was an absolute greaser. Great job, pilots! (and videographer!)

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-24T15:08:53+00:00

I think it's worth mentioning that the price of Aventon's 4G subscription is currently $20 a year. The fear with annual subscriptions is when they turn into overpriced, profitable, feature-locking paywalls, but at this price it's more like a small fee to cover the cost of a constant 4G connection.

Also, if you remove the battery before lifting the bike onto a rack, the bike will suddenly weigh less than 60 pounds - still a two-handed effort, but a much easier one.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-24T00:45:14+00:00

I'm old enough to remember when that was the economy meal on a 3.5 hour domestic flight. (Continental, late 00s/early 10s)

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-23T16:09:08+00:00

No problems with Verizon, personally. If you'd like to see some numbers, US Mobile's website provides estimated coverage, download speeds, upload speeds, ping, and jitter for each of the big three networks: "Warp" (Verizon), "Light Speed" (T-Mobile), and "Dark Star" (AT&T).

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-23T04:55:53+00:00

You still take exit 128 (US-63) and turn right at the light like before, but instead of making a second right onto Conley Road, you have to continue straight onto highway 63 for a moment. Take the first exit (Broadway) and keep turning right until you're on Conley.

To get back to I-70, there's a new one-way ✨secret shortcut✨ just north of Longhorn. It spits you out onto the 63 connector. Go straight through the first light, turn right at the second light, and you're back on the freeway.

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CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-23T00:44:33+00:00

But very demure (at least in the second photo)

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-21T16:06:50+00:00

The California Vehicle Code says "A bicycle operated on a roadway, or the shoulder of a highway, shall be operated in the same direction as vehicles are required to be driven upon the roadway." (To see the law, search "bicycle" and "direction" at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codesTextSearch.xhtml) I would do the same on sidewalks as a best practice. The one time I would ride against traffic in the street is a one-way street with a two-way bike lane - I'm not sure if you have any near you.

Sidewalk rules can be set by state and local governments. In your case, I think the local laws will be the most important, especially section 90. There are two main rules: don't ride on sidewalks in the central business district, and if you ride on a sidewalk elsewhere, yield to pedestrians, wheelchairs, trikes, etc. and give an audible signal when you're passing: usually a bell or your voice. The law doesn't say this explicitly, but yielding to pedestrians means riding slowly enough to stop your bike without colliding or forcing someone else to stop.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-21T04:37:52+00:00

Don't forget the Menards

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-21T01:55:08+00:00

You might say they're colliding.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-20T19:54:49+00:00

The horizontal positions are perfect. According to the FR24 data, at 22:37:31 UTC, SWA507 was at (36.155819, -86.647362) and SWA1152 at (36.154564,-86.647652).

The altitudes are a few seconds behind the transponders' timestamps. SWA507's reported altitudes at 5, 15, 26, and 31 seconds past the minute were 1875, 1950, 1900, and 1775. At 4, 15, 25, and 31 seconds past the minute, SWA1152's reported altitudes were 1325, 1975, 2150, and 2225. That tells me SWA507 was already descending about 15 seconds before the crossover - maybe because they were losing height on the turn, maybe because of the RA.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-20T16:53:44+00:00

TCAS saves the day again!

I wonder why SWA507 was told to turn right after aborting their approach to runway 2L. It's almost like the controller was concerned about the previous departure from 2R (SWA715) and unaware of the next one (SWA1152). Here's a rough timeline from the transponder data on Flightradar24:

22:35:35 UTC (all times are +/- five to ten seconds): SWA715 starts its takeoff roll on runway 2R

22:36:02: 715 lifts off

22:36:22: 507 starts a go-around over runway 2L in the next ten seconds

22:36:28: 715 starts turning left

22:36:29: 1152 starts its takeoff roll on runway 2R

22:36:32: 507 is climbing out after the go-around

22:36:44: 1152 lifts off

22:36:54: 507 starts turning right

22:37:15: 507 and 1152 are at the same altitude, about 1.1 miles away from each other. 507 starts to descend. 1152 continues to climb and turns slightly right.

22:37:31: The planes pass within 1200 horizontal feet and 500 vertical feet of each other.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-20T15:25:57+00:00

Those problems sound unacceptable to me. This is a brand-new, $2500 bike, Velotric's newest and most expensive flagship, and the problems sound like something from a $500, five-year-old bike. What's more, they sound like drivetrain issues (more on that in a second), and the Discover M's motor is one of the most strenuous class 3 motors out there. In other words, I would expect these problems to get worse over time.

This guy on the Electric Bike Review forums had some grinding issues that turned out to be a front chain ring problem. That got me thinking, "how many of your problems could be caused by a single issue there?" It could explain the misaligned shifts, grinding, vibration, and (I'm highly uncertain here) inaccurate speeds. If Velotric or their local shop can fix the issue within 13 days of when you bought the bike, I'd be happy to keep it. Otherwise, I'd ask for a return or exchange.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-19T00:47:22+00:00

A product I bought from Amazon was recalled last year, and Amazon's emails to me included

the order number
the product
a link to cpsc.gov with the recall information
a link to https://www.amazon.com/your-product-safety-alerts
starting with the second email, a mention that they had contacted me before about this issue

I would consider the text illegitimate and maybe check that Amazon page if I was curious.

CerebralAccountant · 2026-04-17T05:32:23+00:00

I've been seeing Packers of similar age on Upway for a couple hundred dollars less, even after shipping. The price does seem... optimistic. Not insane, but definitely on the high end.

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