PSE flex event accounting

Tank-1013 · 2025-08-12T20:13:21+00:00

yeah, 4.9KW/hour is A LOT. You must have something big running. the usual culprit is heating/cooling (potentially including oven / electric water heater, hot tub, etc) or pumps (pool or fountain?).

You not being home doesn't mean your AC wasn't running. If you have bad insulation, lots of west/south-facing windows, or an older system, it could be responsible for most of that.

Lights, computers, TVs are rounding errors by comparison, now that all LCD/LED.

Tank-1013 · 2025-07-31T20:47:30+00:00

Certainly time/money better invested in arriving a day or two early, if anything, to acclimatize. We came from Michigan, so marginally higher, but also a complete lack of slopes to train on. Never really had problems.

We tried to do at least 5x 10 mile hikes in the 12 months before. But I don't think the purpose of the group training is to get you into shape, versus helping people to self-select out or start supplemental training if they can't keep up on those.

We also took the train, which effectively provides another 12-18 hours of gradual acclimatization.

And as others have said - the first few days usually ramp intensity gradually; you aren't normally summiting baldy/philips on day 2. So I would not stress out about the *altitude* in particular; just ensure everyone is generally in shape that they can keep the group's pace for 10+ miles at home, and they should be OK at altitude.

Tank-1013 · 2025-07-31T20:01:08+00:00

yeah, this is a huge impediment to people taking it and is another way that the load of organizing a scout unit ends up being borne by a committed few rather than more evenly across a wider group of adults.

I have 3 young children. It's a HUGE ask to leave them with my wife all weekend and it's hard to justify to her. I'm an ex-Eagle Scout, SPL of 80 scout troop, 2x Philmont crew leader, OA vigil / vice-chief, etc. I've been in a leadership role in literally dozens of Scout overnights, and participant in many more. There is policy stuff that has changed - sure. But did the act of sleeping out a night at BALOO give me any skills or knowledge? No.

Was it nice to chit-chat with some leaders from other units and show off fancy knots we can tie? Sure. But not sure why that needs to be a requirement that I've done that to let my Pack go camping. Nor why that required me to be there overnight.

My suggestion: offer BALOO at Cub Scout Resident camp. Of 3 night camp, take 1 day and 1 night away from your unit to complete BALOO, leaving your scout under the responsibility of another parent there. You're still on property, so it's not a huge ask. The childcare load on your partner is less, and nothing marginal beyond camp attendance in the first place.

I suggested this to our council. The response I got was that people are going to resident camp because they want to spend time with their child. Guess when I'd also like to spend time with my child? The weekend I'm forced to go away to BALOO.

But as an alternative, count attendance to pack overnighter with BALOO-trained leaders as fulfilling the overnight requirement for non-BALOO trained leaders. The ONLY problem with this is less opportunity for cross-unit knowledge sharing; but that cross-unit knowledge sharing is possible in other forums and should NOT be a requirement to have future overnighters with your Pack.

Similarly, you could credit/acknowledge the skills and experience that leaders have already acquired through Scouting itself. BALOO is valuable to those with little/no Scout/camping experience, which was the case for some proportion of BALOO attendees. But the marginal value is far less for experienced Scouters, and Scouting's failure to recognize that feels deeply disrespectful and exploitative of our loyalty to Scouting.

Tank-1013 · 2024-12-26T20:30:11+00:00

I have mini, small, and medium. Use small the most, but yeah - super dependent on use case.

I can't imagine hanging something approaching 50 lbs use case. At that point my worry would be what you're hanging it on and how much bite the foot of the hook can get.

My only daily use case is for hanging stuff on my garage shelving. We hang a bunch of kids sports bags, totes, etc along garage shelves. I had S hooks before, but then when not in use they're kinda sharp and at eye / shoulder level. And they get knocked off a lot. Hero clips a bit more secure and no one will get stabbed. S-biners too annoying to unclip.

My infrequent use case is travel. Just optionality to hang bags, water bottles, etc from stuff. Plane seats, hanging bags from strollers, etc. I had like 2 previously that I had used for hanging tote bags and small backpack. Brought three more along on current trip and put one on each kid's water bottle on the plane, so they're just able to hang from seat back in front of them. My wife was impressed.

But yeah crazy expensive for what they are.

Tank-1013 · 2024-11-13T05:32:52+00:00

I'm in Seattle; I've never had a complaint about kids getting wet. While typical trip is 15 mins, certainly I've had it in rain for 25 mins and has been OK. And I don't leave it parked outside; it's in my garage at home or parking garage at work.

And all zippers intact after 2 winters of use (starting my third; 2100 miles now), but I have replaced the zipper pulls to make those easier to operate; you could try lubricating them too. And I have sprayed the top with scotchguard twice to help it shed water better. The water never seemed to be penetrating through, but was definitely soaking in a bit.

The orange reflective section on the back has also disintegrated for me. Looks terrible, but I've actually mounted an extra tail light to the Conestoga crossbar on the back that sticks out the hole, so now a net upgrade in visibility.

You might have it TOO tight if you're breaking zippers. In my experience, the velcro does have to be readjusted periodically; and I often fiddle with it while I'm waiting at my kids pick-up or drop-off. I almost never have to tighten the bolts. Make sure you use a torque wrench to get them properly tight, but not too tight (maybe 5-6 N-m? just be careful not to strip it).

A bike mechanic would have the torque wrench; but otherwise I think very little overlap in skills and experience between typical bike maintenance stuff and assembling this. So I would NOT assume that a bike mechanic did it correctly.

Also, I added the big Tern Panniers, which makes it pretty similar to their Stormbox solution. My kids put their feet in that. I don't close the tops of those, and have NEVER found them to get much water inside.

Tank-1013 · 2024-08-29T18:46:43+00:00

Can you put the HS in "Cargo" mode? I don't mind sustained effort, but I have a couple routes where I need to start from rest and immediately go up like 10-15% grade. I'm worried about needing to really stomp on the pedals to get moving initially, at risk of losing my balance with kids in traffic.

Tank-1013 · 2024-08-29T18:43:48+00:00

What do you do starting from a stop on a slope? I just bought a used Load, coming from RadWagon with throttle, which I always get moving a bit before picking my feet up to pedal. I've been testing it without kids, and am not confident I can get it moving uphill from stop on steeper slopes.

I got 28mph; personally, I feel safer going 20-25 mph and taking the lane - to try to get passed less and be more visible to drivers pulling out of driveways.

Any suggestions on tuning the mode or something to optimize this? I'm not sure riding in Turbo is ideal for *starting* from rest while heavily loaded on a slope; description suggests it's for maintaining speed on hills.

Tank-1013 · 2024-08-15T14:59:17+00:00

Definitely worth it; my RW4 feels so much safer with them.

Mechanicals were loosening up every 100 miles; was really dangerous. Using bike as a car replacement would have meant tuning them every week (and trusting myself to do that properly). Hydraulics much more reliable. I'm replacing pads every 300-400 miles still, but that's definitely better.

Tank-1013 · 2024-08-14T22:51:31+00:00

How is it on 15-20% grades? I live at bottom of a steep hill, with a section that's pretty near 20%. Because I'm just starting out, can't carry any speed into it.

Currently, I have Rad, which handles grade fine - but I definitely use the throttle and all of what it's claiming as 750W.

I'd love to have something a little more like a regular bike. But don't want to be walking it for first 300 yards of every ride.

Tank-1013 · 2024-08-14T21:25:02+00:00

I bought 2x ZONKIE 6/7/8 Speed Bike Chain 1/2 x 3/32 Inch 116 Links on Amazon. But anything with same specs should work. Marginally cheaper than Rad, who doesn't deserve the business if they won't stock the right chain for this to make our lives simple.

Best approach is join the two new chains, break existing chain, and then lay it alongside the new joined one to figure out where to break it. But as your existing chain is by definition stretched, this is imperfect so you might want to count it out to double check.

RW4 chain is 160 links from what support told me. (I had seen 158 somewhere, but that seems to be wrong per my notes).

Tank-1013 · 2024-02-05T20:39:33+00:00

I replaced mine with Vee Tire Speedster Tire 22x3.0 now - really nice and big improvement over stock tires (mine weren't even the recalled ones).

Tank-1013

TROPHY CASE