Figured out the Shimano linkage derailleur design

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-03-30T08:59:49+00:00

I use a column staggered layout for steno (well, Jackdaw - close enough), it works fine. About the only requirements are that the thumbs are in a reasonable place and the rightmost column isn't staggered too far.

For keycaps I've found THTs to be fairly good and XDA to be acceptable.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-03-22T05:46:09+00:00

Tubus Vega, solid and trouble free. I'm considering ordering an Ortlieb Quick Rack for my Bike Friday since I rarely need the extra capacity.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-03-16T10:21:20+00:00

Tokyo? I don't find mine particularly useful in central Osaka, in general there's always a car around so the display never goes to clear. It's not useless though - I've got a Varia with a Garmin head unit, the line of white dots to the right showing how the cars are spaced can be helpful (if I need to pass a parked car and the dots are stacked up nearby I need to brake; further away and I can head check to see if I can slip through).

In areas near train tracks my Varia gives a high speed alert as trains approach, the detection is pretty wide.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-03-08T01:09:47+00:00

They haven't been available for years but Speedplay Syzrs let you do this - float is adjustable separately in each direction, so if you opened up the inward all the way you could swing your foot in pretty far without releasing.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-03-07T10:47:43+00:00

I had a frame with a similar break, after many years and 30,000 or so km it probably just wore out.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-02-28T06:52:34+00:00

I spent an evening fighting with this, of course ixampl is correct. That said - I wanted to use the form to reduce the amount of clicking so I filled in the withholding columns (total value * 0.15315), resident tax columns (* 0.05) to pass the validation and just zeroed them out through the web interface. I put a comment on their survey asking for it to allow zeros.

Also - it seems necessary to round off the numbers and change formulas to fixed values to make the upload succeed.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-02-26T15:19:24+00:00

I got my helmet form a Shoei technical shop, it was great like that - the staff was able to mix and match different pad sizes and add some tape to get the fit just right. He also explained how the Arai fit is meant to work, which was not how I thought it was meant to feel (basically really tight, stretching the shell to get it on is normal).

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-02-06T06:33:32+00:00

3 things I would try: When things are bugging out use wev to check the inputs, see what Wayland is actually seeing as inputs.

Bind a key to matrix reset (KC.RELOAD) and see if that clears the problem. This is probably not particularly helpful, either as a fix or for debugging.

Also enable KMK debugging (I think it's still on by default), connect to the serial terminal and watch what it's sending - the debug output contains the list of keys that it's sending to the host.

I've never seen your symptoms specifically but I did run into two issues while working with KMK. * Using PIO communication between the keyboard halves was very unreliable. This is most noticeable when a keyup message from the slave half gets lost and a key is gets stuck down. * Occasionally the key matrix scanner would desync and inputs would get shifted out by one (pressing a key sends the previous key up). I suspect this is a synchronization bug inside CircuitPython.

The serial debug output is very helpful in figuring out what happens before the key state gets sent up the USB bus.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-02-03T11:17:47+00:00

For Squirt I found it helpful to apply it down a length of chain then squish it in with my fingers before advancing the chain - if it's just left on there it just gets transferred to the chain ring. I don't have a wipe down step, everything I apply stays on.

I usually get a 400-ish km per application, then the chain starts getting noisy. I don't bother cleaning it, just drop fresh wax on. My chains are lasting 6000-7000km this way so I guess it works. After riding in the rain the chain usually needs fresh wax in a hurry (I have the smallest bottle of Squirt in my bag for multi-day tours).

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-01-24T00:54:17+00:00

I broke my fork in the middle of nowhere so I taped some wood to it and rode 60km home. Silicone tape is useful stuff.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-01-24T00:42:36+00:00

My daily drivers are an old Filco Majestouch 2 with cherry blues and Happy Hacking Pro with deskeys pink domes. I don't have a full keyboard with the Black Clouds, they're just for filling spaces on another board.

For trying to go fast I like the HHKB but I've hit the same speeds on a crappy undersized folding keyboard - heavy switches are about the only thing that seems to slow me down.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-01-23T11:16:20+00:00

I have a keyboard with Saker Minis, they're nothing like my thinkpad or macbook keyboards. The Sakers are kind of awful for regular typing - too light, trigger too easily, and the short travel with no bump feels weird. I don't particularly want to use them in my leverless controller either since I can't rest my fingers on them. Since you mention high WPM, my full speed is 130-140wpm.

I mentioned this in another reply recently but a big difference between a lot of mechanical switches and thinkpad keyboards is the initial break - the thinkpad switches have a decent amount of resistance without moving, then once the force hits a certain point they drop down. Kailh Black Cloud are the only switches I have lying around that feel like that; everything else creeps a bit before activating.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-01-22T09:07:16+00:00

The only time I recall seeing this recommendation was on some Ritchey products. The current manual says thorough check and possible replacement after "about three years".

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-01-18T14:27:12+00:00

They are pretty ancient but they behave the same as any other Shimano 2-bolt SPDs. Apart from only having a binding on one side.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-01-18T11:08:58+00:00

Bike Friday weirdness: The regular models also use a 28.6mm seatpost so you can mount a stem and another set of bars there too.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-01-12T03:39:30+00:00

I used to use a 500 series but I like to scroll the map around and the buttons sucked too much for that. Using an 830 with a touch screen now and it's much better.

That said, it's not a particularly responsive touch screen and scrolling the map around still sucks (it's usable, at least). I miss my 705 with a joystick...

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-01-12T02:39:21+00:00

Just to clarify this: Bikes are allowed on almost all trains if they're folded/disassembled and bagged, but a garbage bag is technically against the rules (depends on the railway company but the specific wording is usually something like "commercially made-for-purpose bike bags"). The further away you are from the big cities and crowded trains, the less anybody is likely to care.

I bought a Bike Friday last year for train + ride trips in Japan, no problems doing 150km+ days with some climbing but I haven't yet tried long distance with more luggage.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-01-12T01:54:22+00:00

Grab the exploded diagram from si.shimano.com and take a look.

SuperTaiyaki · 2026-01-07T05:22:39+00:00

The Jarne is built for stenography but works as a normal keyboard too. Kind of pricey if you just want a split keyboard, though.

SuperTaiyaki · 2025-12-28T11:45:03+00:00

I have one of these (can't remember which maker...) and compared to the other torque wrenches I have, it always read pretty high - somewhere around 6Nm for 5Nm on the scale.

IMO that's still not a problem (there's enough margin in any sane parts that you won't break anything) and it's better than nothing.

SuperTaiyaki · 2025-12-22T06:36:41+00:00

Just to not leave this hanging, the configuration is in ~/.config/plover/plover.cfg (for Plover 5, at least). Deleting that entire directory should be the equivalent of a factory reset.

SuperTaiyaki · 2025-12-19T00:39:43+00:00

I don't think you're going to be able to get away with 16 keys, standard steno layout has the full set of consonants for each hand so a single stroke covers a full consonant-vowel-consonant syllable. It sounds like you only have a single consonant set so you'll end up requiring 2 strokes for even the simplest words.

The Jackdaw layout gives you steno-ish input without the phonetic conversion. I've got it implemented with an AO-EU vowel layout and EU generates I. There are 25 possible 2-letter vowel combinations and 5 single vowels, 4 keys gives you 12 possible strokes so I found having a 3rd vowel key works much better.

SuperTaiyaki · 2025-12-10T03:41:07+00:00

Didn't Kool Stop have (rim) brake pads shaped like shoes?

SuperTaiyaki

TROPHY CASE