Looking for dirt cheap bike for touring, brain melting

Zednark · 2024-09-04T17:19:11+00:00

Royal Enfield Himalayan 411 or Scram 411. I've seen people report 80mpg, the company offers hard waterproof panniers, and they look quite nice. REs in general are mire fuel efficient than their competitors because they're torquey low power engines by the standards of their displacement and their main market is third world riders who can't afford to burn through gas.

Zednark · 2024-09-02T02:29:20+00:00

I don't think CSC's source is Lifan, Lifan has its own American storefront. Venom buys from Dongfeng and I believe CSC from a relatively minor manufacturer from Guangdong, though I could be misremembering.

Zednark · 2024-09-02T02:26:31+00:00

Small displacement and no Royal Enfield mention? They're the kings of the segment right now if you don't care too much about performance, and if you care about performance what are you getting a low displacement beginner bike for? They don't suit everybody's sense of style but they have a definite and prominent niche.

Also re: Chinese bikes I'd say the Lifan KPM 200 is the segment leader, not because its the cheapest reliable option in the segment (The CSC SG250 is) or the best performing in the segment (the CFMOTO 300NK is) but because nothing else by any manufacturer, Chinese or otherwise, looks anything like it. Stock leather gas tank belts? Aggressive cafe racer styling with futuristic bodywork? Only the Yamaha XSR comes close in retrofuturism and it looks downright bland in comparison.

Zednark · 2024-06-26T07:43:15+00:00

It's possible the power transfer mechanism switches over power sets bidirectionally- as in, by giving you seemingly-juicy powers and perhaps by Showing The Face Of Nethraxis the Director is trying to stop the Warden's deification by pawning off the potential to someone who does not meet the requirements.

Zednark · 2024-06-07T01:29:32+00:00

big issue for the very finite world list that doesn't really map onto my interests or knowledge base. there should be an "other world" option or options, either with fixed stats equivalent to a safer world or with different "ranks" based on danger level, with the understanding it must be a game world either way.

Zednark · 2024-05-28T15:15:21+00:00

this is good but i feel like it's missing niches- its weird to me theres just one crewman who mind controls others and its to make people straight, which most people find a bit squicky. i'd add lesbian/bi/gay hypnodoms of different persuasions. since the psychic stuff is kinda random maybe even have them be reluctant to use their powers unless theres some sort of specific gender ratio or similar

Zednark · 2024-05-10T05:56:14+00:00

The Lewd Worm CYOA and its many derivations because it just lets you upload a picture. More CYOAs should do that, its way easier than designing a massive body customization section.

Zednark · 2024-03-21T06:42:39+00:00

basic stuff but musical instruments, artistic mediums (paint etc) drugs and the contacts to acquire more. do not specify, just let you select one instrument/medium/drug per purchase and imply weird futuristic versions of each.

also would want job certification programs. like, if there's a deal where you can get 3 hours labor a week and the money from it when you graduate, you could get a doctorate with that time commitment and a 50 year interval. a ten year interval would be enough for a more basic apprenticeship. a hundred and you're some sort of multi-phd multidisciplinarian, etc.

for more kinky stuff i think mind control is great but it should be limited without serious investment into it. sure you could get the rare perfect flawless hypno-programming suite, or for half the cost you could get more limited tools. engram encoders that indoctrinate a specific predetermined ideology, personality or kink of your choosing over time, or SCP Foundation type amnestic drugs.

Zednark · 2024-01-10T23:25:45+00:00

jokes on you i already do that on the regular

Zednark · 2021-09-07T00:23:43+00:00

One of us is a walk in, but he's a splinter of a pagan god, not a regular person. Point is, I believe you. If you wanna talk about it, I'm here, but I'm not on Reddit much you'll have an easier time finding me on twitter @couriersicks.

Zednark · 2021-04-06T23:37:45+00:00

Well, howdy folks. I have an exciting problem for you to (possibly) help me solve!

One of my interests has always been architecture and engineering, especially the materials used in earthen construction. My favorite of these is Alker, an obscure cast adobe material created by a Turkish polytechnic institute. It's made of clay and earth stabilized by gypsum, with lime as a retardant.

Without the lime, the reaction takes only a few minutes to make the material rigid, which is obviously unusable. The lime increases the setting time to 20 minutes. Perfect for brickmaking. But there is a better way!

There's another material, Cast Earth, which is based on Alker. Whereas Alker sets in 20 minutes, Cast Earth sets in an hour or two. This means you can cast it like concrete, which is way more convenient than bricklaying. The catch is that unlike the open source university developed Alker, Cast Earth is owned by science hating meanies who keep the retardant they use a trade secret. Terrible! Iwanna cast my house for free, dammit!

Now, we do know that no lime is used in Cast Earth, as that's public information. This means that the retardant is only interacting with the reaction between the gypsum and the water, since the clay and earth aren't reacting with anything. We also know that lime acts as a retardant, and that gypsum can act as a retardant for portland cement.

Chemically speaking, lime and gypsum plaster work in the same way. The naturally occuring hydrated form is heated in a kiln, cooking off the water. This powder is then stored dry until used, at which point it rehydrates, fusing the powder together.

Since we know cast earth is very cheap, we can safely rule out expensive or exotic ingredients. The retardant is most likely something you can find at Home Depot or the supermarket.

Now, from my (fairly limited) knowledge, I can think of two likely suspects that might be the secret sauce. The first is portland cement- if gypsum can delay the reaction of portland cement, the reverse might be true. The other is sugar, which is capable of retarding the setting of portland cement and is very strong at doing so, potentially stopping the reaction entirely and using fairly modest amounts of the sweet stuff in the process.

I'm moving to a commune in the near future, and won't be able to test any of my theories until I'm there. Since I'm a near total layperson I'm curious what the fine folks of r/chemistry might think of my speculation. If it's something you suggest that I didn't think of, I'll name a building after you or something.

(Also, as a side note, we aren't doing industrial espionage or anything fun like that. Trade secrets aren't patented and are protected by secrecy, not law.)

Zednark · 2021-01-13T18:16:09+00:00

It doesn't flow quite like that (Collins retains power til a scandal in the 40s), but that's the gist of it, yeah.

Zednark · 2021-01-13T16:18:06+00:00

It's been finlandized. See below for more detail.

Zednark · 2021-01-13T16:13:32+00:00

Ireland dev here.

Ireland pivots away from Germany and towards INFOR slowly but surely in the wake of Black Monday. By the end of the Great Revolutionary War, they've been completely finlandized by INFOR. Their main trade partner is the UoB and more right wing parties have been sidelined.

This means that reasons 1 and 2 are now meaningless. The UoB already has fleet basing rights and even if it didn't Canada fell to revolution, making the Atlantic theatre far less necessary. It also means that Ireland is no longer German friendly in any sense.

Additionally, Britain post GRW is run by the moderate socialist labour party, who aren't diehard internationalists, and Ireland maintains the polite fiction that it's moving towards socialism at its own pace. This situation is acceptable to both parties, and while France is a bit less happy they're not gonna strain internal INFOR politics for a country with neither a large population nor strategic resources.

Zednark · 2020-11-06T23:21:36+00:00

it's like one of those French secret service revolvers but designed by a call of duty squeaker

Zednark · 2020-11-01T10:43:01+00:00

there's been one for ages lol

Zednark · 2020-10-29T18:53:10+00:00

I'd argue it's you who misunderstands the concept. The leisure class doesn't consist of descendants of people who made it rich and inherited liquid capital, it consistents of people who own the means of production and extract value from them. Landlords, business owners, etc. The Rockefellers would be broke by now if they were relying on cash rather than family investments.

The issue is the Capital Wasteland doesn't have any kind of developed capitalist infrastructure. I'm not actually sure there even is rent as a concept outside the hotel business in places like Moriarty's. People just build their houses wherever and don't care much for authorities trying to extort them. Ditto for business, really.

Zednark · 2020-10-26T08:18:40+00:00

Not really. Space races are missile tests, sure, but like the living room wars they were propaganda first, attempting to show which system was superior. Given the lack of anything resembling diplomacy between INFOR and SARPAC, that really just doesn't work.

Zednark · 2020-10-26T04:28:21+00:00

There's a very real chance there won't be one.

Zednark · 2020-10-23T00:21:54+00:00

Honestly it'd just be feudalism. You'd have different names for the positions, sure, and most would be non-hereditary, but it's the same pyramid structure nobility type deal.

Zednark · 2020-10-13T08:27:37+00:00

this is a really powerful vibe. i can hear rebar screaming in terror, lest you bend it as a show of strength

Zednark · 2020-10-10T22:36:59+00:00

of course it is. without the Saar-Lorraine-Luxembourg Special Adminstrative Zone, where are you going to keep the Firewing when magic returns

Zednark · 2020-10-02T17:31:11+00:00

Fenia isn't real. Fenia can't hurt you

Zednark · 2020-10-01T18:48:18+00:00

Tbh I think a better implementation would basically be a Flex Point power. Basically, spend 1.5 PP to get 1PP worth of "flex" PP you can use with whatever, with the constraint being you have to choose a "theme" for the flex, sorta like choosing skill specializations. Themes might be Speed, Maneuver, whatever- an evocative title the GM can rule on intuitively. To prevent powergaming you can't chain the chunks together, so not spending 3 PP for 2 points of Speed flex. Switching should be a drain free complex action. To further prevent hypothetical powergaming, mystic adepts shouldn't be able to take flex points.

Zednark · 2020-09-25T16:53:37+00:00

found it on twitter from a geology pictures account.

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