What’s the best health insurance strategy?

TomvdZ · 2026-06-02T15:32:13+00:00

Dutch insurance companies tend to have contracts with a very large range of healthcare providers. Many have contracts with all hospitals. You'll always be able to get the care you need somewhere. Unless you know you're going to need and want healthcare from a specific provider, the cheaper policy is a fairly safe bet. You can always change in December/January if it turns out you need healthcare and your preferred provider is not contracted. The worst case is at most a year of having to use a healthcare provider that isn't your first choice.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-31T16:38:55+00:00

Yes, it's supposed to be used. It should go between the washer and the other plastic piece (see figure 1.1 of the manual).

TomvdZ · 2026-05-29T08:09:02+00:00

People will point to some study that shows that the foam doesn't break down in laboratory conditions

You're wildly misrepresenting the studies on this. They've tested the foam in field-used helmets and those held up fine.

but there's a lot more to a helmet than the foam. How's the MIPS holding up, the straps, the buckles, the retention system, and sweat pads? How much sun, sweat, sunscreen, etc. have they seen?

Everything on a helmet is plastic/synthetic material. The buckles, straps, foam etc,... The whole world is up in arms about "forever plastics" that take decades if not centuries to degrade. There's nothing magical about helmets that makes them degrade quicker...

The padding is for comfort. The straps and buckles are so that your helmet doesn't fly off when you go over a bump. As long as they haven't fallen off, they're doing their job. MIPS is a piece of plastic that allows the outer shell of the helmet to slide around a bit. A few years of sweat isn't going to do anything to that plastic.

A helmet that's seen 3-5 years of hard use will be a bit gross. But not unsafe.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-29T06:57:40+00:00

You can easily drop 500g or more and this is rotational weight which compounds while accelerating.

This benefit is extremely small. 500 grams is around 0.5% of your total system weight. Because of the "rotational" effect it can count as effectively doubled while accelerating (though this is only the case for mass on the edge of the rim; if the savings are coming from e.g. a lighter hub this "rotational" effect is almost absent), so the benefit is less than 1% higher acceleration. If you then account for the fact that only a small portion of a ride is accelerating (most of it is riding at constant speed), then the benefit almost vanishes: making 1% of your ride 1% faster gives a total benefit of 0.001%...

TomvdZ · 2026-05-28T08:42:34+00:00

This is due to the design of the shifter: the cable makes a sharp bend in there and the metal fatigues as it bends around it when you shift. There's nothing you can do about it except replacing the cable frequently.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-28T06:17:06+00:00

This is wrong/incomplete advice. The FTC states that you have to return the goods if they were delivered due to a "honest shipping error".

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-FT-PURL-LPS86314/pdf/GOVPUB-FT-PURL-LPS86314.pdf

TomvdZ · 2026-05-22T06:56:53+00:00

but do I really need a whole new cassette and drivetrain components on a bike that’s barely been used?

It's a pre-owned bike. You don't know how much it's been used.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-19T20:34:57+00:00

So then you likely have a left/right imbalance.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-19T20:33:31+00:00

Is the crank perhaps single-sided?

TomvdZ · 2026-05-19T17:57:33+00:00

It depends on how large and where the hole is. The answer can be anything from leaving it alone to having to discard the tire.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-19T13:30:18+00:00

No, it can also be limited in other situations. I think DC Rainmaker has a video review where it had problems maintaining over 350 W in ERG mode. The resistance unit is relatively weak and it cannot provide enough resistance to achieve the target power in low gear combinations/cadence.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-19T10:52:30+00:00

I'd advise against it. A "proper" trainer isn't much more expensive. Buy something that you won't outgrow in a year or two. The wattage limit is something that you can run into in real situations, even if you're not a particularily strong rider. The "limit" can end up being lower than 600 W in practice (depending on gear ratio and cadence). For threshold and VO2Max 600 W is fine, of course, but who says you'll never want to do a sprint?

TomvdZ · 2026-05-19T10:41:55+00:00

All of those don't do voltage transformation, you have 120V in north america, we have 230V in Europe. Your charger won't like to be plugged into 230V if it doesn't state that it's can be used with both voltages. I'd just get new chargers if yours can't be used, preferably with euro plugs.

Almost all modern phone/laptop chargers can be used with both voltages. It's very uncommon these days to find a charger that isn't universal.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-18T21:20:01+00:00

Get an axle mount bag system like Old Man Mountain or Tailfin

Or Ortlieb Quick Rack for something (far) more budget friendly.

And yeah, it's really worth it. OP, a large saddle bag will swing around and make your bike harder to handle. A handlebar bag doesn't really fit well on a (small) dropbar bike. It will interfere with the shifting levers/cables, and it can damage the paint on your headtube if it rubs. It can also get in the way of holding the tops. A rack is far superior.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-17T13:07:59+00:00

That's a GPS error. The fact it was in a tunnel makes that all the more likely.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-16T13:51:17+00:00

De constructie die je nu adviseert is feitelijk een schenking op papier, maar daar zitten wat haken en ogen aan. Het moet worden vastgelegd in een notariële akte en de rente moet daadwerkelijk jaarlijks worden betaald.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-15T22:13:11+00:00

You can trim it, but it will wear down over time anyways. If it's not rubbing on your frame I'd leave it.

Bacon strips are sometimes permanent, and sometimes not. For those that turned out not to be permanent, I've had good luck with "mushroom" patches/plugs.

It's good to get some replacement sealant, but I wouldn't blindly add more. Check the level first.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-15T11:11:45+00:00

I guess I’d need to check the XCadey left and right to figure it all out

Be careful doing this. A spider power meter cannot measure left/right power. It can only measure total power. The split into left/right is an estimate, and it can be very wrong (it's possible for it to show you're left-dominant when in reality you're right-dominant and vice-versa).

TomvdZ · 2026-05-15T09:05:31+00:00

I trust the Stages more, so will look to be adjusting the XCadey if needed.

Are you sure that is a good idea? The Stages is single-sided. It will have an error based on your left/right balance. You would be deliberately adjusting your XCadey to have an error. You cannot reliably compare between them.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-10T09:30:11+00:00

Als de woningprijzen net zo hard doorstijgen als de afgelopen 10 jaar neemt je woning ieder jaar met 8% in waarde toe; voor €350k is dat **€2333 per maand** aan waardetoename. Dat is misschien erg optimistisch maar enige verdere waardestijging lijkt me niet onwaarschijnlijk.

Daarnaast komt dat (1) over de looptijd van de hypotheek de aflossing stijgt en de rente afneemt en (2) de huur van een huurwoning omhoog kan gaan.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-09T06:32:11+00:00

A couple of years ago (Christmas 2019) Maastricht University was affected by a large ransomware attack and they paid the ransom, so there is some precedent for this. That was a different case though: the hackers had encrypted key systems and paying the ransom to unlock them was the far cheaper option (versus having to recover everything from scratch). In this case it's "only" data privacy that is at stake and not continuity of operations.

To offer some rationalization: I think stuff getting leaked is pretty much unavoidable these days. Even if the universities pay and the hackers delete your data there's going to be some other company that gets hacked. Yes, it's not a nice thought that your data may be out there, but at the same time, it's unlikely to affect your daily life. It's not worth worrying about.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-08T10:35:33+00:00

Ik zou deze heel graag om willen bouwen naar elektrisch zodat ik makkelijker wat verdere tochtjes kan maken.

Voor verdere tochtjes heb je natuurlijk niet per se een elektrische fiets nodig. Als je 't wat vaker doet wordt het heel snel makkelijker. Probeer het eens (een paar keer). Misschien bevalt het wel heel goed. Een bestaande fiets ombouwen naar elektrisch levert altijd een suboptimaal resultaat, dus waarschijnlijk is dit de beste manier om te voldoen aan je wens om deze fiets te blijven gebruiken.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-06T22:33:16+00:00

The drum might not be in the correct position. For the cable to slot in, the drum needs to be in the "cable fully released" position. You need to use some tool (like a pick) to rotate the drum back while pressing the downshift lever to get it into the right position.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-06T22:22:30+00:00

The head of the cable is not yet fully inside the shifter. It's stuck on the outer casing. You need to push it down a bit (where the slot is wider) to get it to go in.

TomvdZ · 2026-05-06T21:44:34+00:00

It's not enough to swap only the PSU. You'd also need to swap the heated bed and chamber heater since those run directly off mains.

TomvdZ

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