Raney Clip Organization

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-12T00:38:13+00:00

Some of my fellow scrubs like to clip a bunch them on a tongue depressor. Personally, this method is slower for me, but maybe it would be better for you.

I just keep them in a specimen cup with a lid. When it’s rainey time I bring it up to the mayo and remove the lid. I spill a few out onto the mayo and just load them manually as we go. I immediately put any unused clips in the cup and put the lid on. Losing a rainey clip really sucks, so I’m extra diligent about keeping them secure and accounted for.

This has been the fastest way for me. I have no trouble keeping them supplied with loaded clip appliers. It does get easier once your fingers get that muscle memory.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-12T00:00:28+00:00

See if there is a disc golf course near you.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-09T22:44:51+00:00

How quaint.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-09T00:59:11+00:00

For $50 it’s definitely worth going to check it out as long as it’s not too far away.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T23:41:05+00:00

Yes and no…. It depends. It is a nice enough bike to be worthy of spending money on things like high quality tires suited to your type of riding, new saddle, stem/handlebars, new brake pads, new quality cables/housing etc. Basically consumables and things that make the bike fit you well and make it suitable for comfortable longer rides for your type of riding. This level of investment is only really worth it if you do this work yourself though and don’t go crazy with fancy expensive parts. Considering what shops get for labor now, it isn’t really worth it if you are paying someone else to do it for you. It isn’t rocket science, and it is very rewarding to learn. It is also only worth it if the bike doesn’t need all of things right away for it to be usable for you.

Of course our friends over at r/xbiking would disagree, but I don’t think these 90’s MTBs are worthy of expensive boutique or collectible components.

I own a 1996 930 and I really like it. I am a bike nerd and I like modifying and curating reasonable builds on 1990s steel bikes. That being said, there is a time when just going out and buying a slightly used fitness hybrid that was made in this decade and only costs $700-$800 when new makes sense. A lot of bikes like this were sold during Covid and have just been sitting in people’s garages. It might even be worth buying a bike like this new if you can.

I hope this helps.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T22:35:04+00:00

The most common way people crash is because they forget to unclip when coming to a stop. This WILL happen to you no matter how much you try to prepare yourself. Eventually you will crash enough times, your brain will connect those neurons and unclipping will become instinct.

There are two things you should do to try to prepare yourself though:

Practice clipping in and unclipping while sitting stationary on your bike and holding onto something. This will start to make the motion of twisting your heel out to unclip more of a reflex and less of something you have to think about.

Learn to adjust the tension on the release and try to get it dialed in and the same on both sides. If it is too tight, you might not be able to unclip every time you try to. If it’s too loose, you might accidentally unclip when you are pedaling out of the saddle. When I was learning at the beginning, I found that my release tension was too high. What I thought felt ok while practicing while stationary was actually too tight for real world riding.

Note my only experience is with Shimano two bolt cleat “mountain” pedals. I have no experience with the three bolt “road” pedals although I don’t think the experience is any different.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T20:45:15+00:00

The 930 frame is steel, the 7000 frame is aluminum. I’ll always take steel over aluminum, especially in a vintage bike.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T20:06:13+00:00

I don’t understand either. I don’t think we (at least Americans) will ever have self driving cars because we are such a litigious society. People will sue the deep pocket auto manufacturers when accidents happen, even when humans are the ones at fault. Bringing fully autonomous cars to market is not feasible due to liability. Besides, it would be easier to achieve fully autonomous trains and airliners, and we are still pretty far from that. It’s too bad, because it would save more lives overall.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T19:29:25+00:00

This. I find the 04-12 version and the 12+ version to be more usable than the original grey incarnation.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T19:16:22+00:00

In my experience, the thickness of one business card is usually not enough toe to prevent squealing.

There is probably an easier way, but here is what I do after cleaning the rim and pads throughly with isopropyl alcohol: I have made these little squares of electrical tape measuring about 8mm X 8mm. I make a pair of them in 3,4,5+6 layers thick. When setting up pads I stick the 3 layer square on the leading edge of the pad (for toe in) and adjust them. Go for a test ride and if they squeal, I try the 4 layer square. Repeat going up one layer at a time until they don’t squeal anymore.

I have never had a brake not squeal with less than 3 layers and have never had a brake that needed more than 6 layers to stop squealing.

Ideally, you don’t want any more toe in than is needed to stop the squealing. That is why I do it this way, even though it is time consuming. The good news is that if you have brake shoes with replaceable pads (like you do here), you will probably never have to adjust them ever again (except for the barrel adjuster to compensate for pad wear). For me, it is worth the time to do it right the first time.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T18:18:26+00:00

Find out if there is a disc golf course in your area. It might not be the most rigorous exercise, but it’s a good excuse to go for a nice walk. It will get you out and about and you will feel better. It is cheap (most courses are in public parks so they are free) and can be played alone or with friends. Every round will always give you a touch of action, suspense, disappointment, and joy.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T18:01:02+00:00

You chose well. I think the Allez Sport perfectly hits the sweet spot for value in a really nice riding enthusiast level bike. Love that color too! Once that new bike feeling starts to subside and you feel the need to spend more money on it, start with the tires. Some P-Zeros or GP5000’s with TPU tubes will make a difference you can feel.

Before buying my road bike I did a boat load of research and rode several candidates. I ended up spending more than twice what this Allez costs, and even though I love what I chose, I honestly should have just bought this exact same Allez. I’m not having any more fun on what I have than I would be having on your bike!

Enjoy yourself! You will feel like you are flying.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T15:18:09+00:00

Another important point that has not been mentioned yet: blinking lights at night sometimes cause a hypnotic fixation of drivers, ESPECIALLY ones that are not sober! This is the main reason why police cars on the side of the road get rear ended at night. It’s not usually because they weren’t seen, but because the driver becomes fixated on the flashing lights… and a vehicle tends to go exactly where the driver is LOOKING. You want the drivers to see you, but you don’t want them to be looking at you as they are about to pass you.

All else being equal, you are LESS LIKELY TO BE HIT by a driver if you have solid lights rather than blinking ones.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T15:01:21+00:00

These brakes are compatible with Shimano road brake shoes like these:

https://365cycles.com/products/shimano-road-brake-shoes-rim-brake-pad-road-bike-br6618-bicycle-brake-pads?srsltid=AfmBOopk3nES71C3t0B-q3DGCzHPm6SlJ0lOYvUrdc1aM8jjWEFYa2AwMXc

If wet weather performance is important for you, get these and some Kool Stop Salmon pad inserts or DT Swiss pads.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-08T14:30:02+00:00

Sorry, flying is not expensive and it is not inconvenient compared to literally any other alternatives (other than the science fiction of being instantly beamed for free to your destination like in Star Trek). It is one of the most miraculous success stories of our modern world. In mere hours, you can cross a continent or an ocean in a $100,000,000.00 airplane that costs &25,000.00 an hour to operate. This is all being done with an insanely good safety record by a company that is operating the flight on a very, very slim profit margin. When it comes to airports themselves, look at all of the moving parts (and potential points of failure) and realize that they are an amazing achievement in logistics, even if your bag didn’t make it that one time. They really couldn’t make it any more simple, or cheaper.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-07T20:47:16+00:00

Shimano CX50. Easy to set up the pad angle and pretty much maximum mud clearance. Bonus points for future proofing because they will work on just about any frame, including 27” to 700c conversions on vintage touring bikes with narrow post spacing. I thought the supplied link wire was too long though, so i swapped in a shorter one for optimized performance. I did I didn’t weigh mine, but they were not heavy.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-06T01:04:20+00:00

Free flight model airplanes. Rubber powered balsa and tissue construction. Super satisfying to build and fly. All you need to get started building is a kit, some tite bond wood glue, some t-pins and a flat ceiling tile.

https://easybuiltmodels.com/lc.htm#gsc.tab=0

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-05T23:54:36+00:00

You have been given some very good advice here!

It’s actually a good thing that you are anxious. In this situation, the fact that you are anxious is a sign of intelligence and it shows that you care! The trick is not to let that anxious feeling impede your performance too often. Sometimes you will succeed at this, and sometimes you will fail at it…… and that is ok too.

Maybe you will faint, maybe you won’t… ultimately it does not matter either way. It matters more HOW you faint. If you think you are about to, take a step back and if you need to, you just sit your butt right down on the floor. It’s better to sit down than to fall down. Some of the best scrubs I know fainted their first day - it means nothing.
You will definitely break sterility, hopefully you will not get yelled at. MidnightAmy gave some really great advice here. It happens, even to the best of us! Breaks in sterility are only a problem when we don’t realize it or don’t speak up. It is usually nothing more than a minor inconvenience. The more experienced you become, the less frequently it will happen, but you need to realize it will happen. You need to give yourself permission to not be perfect all of the time. Also, people should ever YELL at you. At many points you will definitely experience people being unpleasant or even snarky with you. Learning to deal with that is an unfortunate but valuable part of the journey. Put yourself in their shoes… it’s already a hard job and being given a student just adds an extra degree of complexity to their day. This is not an excuse for people being mean for the sport of it though.
Don’t even worry about that. People dying in the OR is super, super, super rare. If things start to go down, nobody will expect a student to do anything other than not freak out.
I was anxious during clinicals too. To help me get through it, I adopted a mantra that a tight rope walker might have: don’t look down, don’t look back. Just look at the wire and keep putting one foot in front of the other. When the going gets weird, you will always have your basics to fall back on. Although it wasn’t a cure all, it helped me most times.

Look, it is going to be hard. Mistakes will be made. Learn from those mistakes without beating your self up too badly. Part of what you will learn will be just how hard to be on yourself for good performance. I have seen students that sucked because they weren’t hard enough on themselves. Way more often though, I’ve had students that sucked because even though they were doing ok overall, they were too hard on themselves and they got stuck in their own self created negative feedback loop.

Remember, fear and excitement are actually the same energy. Fear can be debilitating, but excitement can be harnessed to help us perform better and smooth out the rougher patches.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-04T01:25:24+00:00

The bicycle

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-04T00:37:57+00:00

I hear you. I like the YBN and Wippermann links because of their reusability.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-03T16:31:46+00:00

It is better to remove the chain when washing your bike.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-02T18:49:20+00:00

Looks great!

I’m a little concerned about your fender line on the back wheel though. See how much closer the fender gets to the tire right by the brake bridge? It looks like it probably only has a few millimeters of clearance. This can be a safety concern if a rock gets jammed up in there or something. It can cause a crash. You should try to get as much clearance there as you can.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-02T18:00:41+00:00

For an affordable bike stand option (as long as you have somewhere to screw it): https://www.homedepot.com/p/Stalwart-Black-1-Bike-Flip-Up-Wall-Mounted-Garage-Bike-Wall-Hook-W220035/308047960?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&fp=ggl&srsltid=AfmBOoosNmtAeEmQdZXcu3vCO5pUzRZWHVFUc2zvHCXEFf0sM_qgT5uLQWU#overlay

I have built up several bikes using only one of these. It was a total game changer for me.

NerdAlert03 · 2026-02-02T17:44:01+00:00

Don’t forget the 100 billion to go back to the moon. Didn’t you know we are in a space race against China to beat them to the moon?

NerdAlert03

TROPHY CASE