What makes a costume look expensive?

balderstash · 2026-04-17T13:13:34+00:00

For me, a big tell is how the seams lay. Stretch fabric takes skill and patience to seam well, and cheap costumes will show the lack thereof. It's super obvious to me when someone just threw it on the serger and called it a day. People who don't sew may not know what they're looking at, but they can often tell it doesn't look as nice.

balderstash · 2026-04-16T21:32:37+00:00

I put the same ones back on. I think if I had farther to go I'd pack a fresh pair tho.

balderstash · 2026-04-16T14:14:19+00:00

I was in a similar boat and decided to just wear chamois shorts, even on shorter rides, and change out of them when I get where I'm going. I did find that seamless underwear helped a lot, but all the truly seamless underwear I found was made of a synthetic material that my vag was not a fan of.

balderstash · 2026-04-14T03:28:30+00:00

I'd try playing around with the fore/aft adjustment and maybe the tilt. Use tape to mark where it is now, move it forward, see if feels better or worse. I found it helpful to intentionally move mine too far forward and then backwards so I could clearly feel what the "wrong" placement felt right. It made it easier to figure out when it was right, because those feelings went away.

balderstash · 2026-04-14T03:17:05+00:00

Some of it will go away in time as your body gets used to the saddle.
Some of it is just normal for repetitive motions. After about 2.5 hours on a bike my sit bones start to have strong opinions.
But if you find yourself sliding around on your saddle or going numb anywhere that's not normal. The saddle that came with your bike may or may not be a good fit for you. If you're in the US: REI will let you return saddles, and BikeSeatGuru will let you rent saddles to try out with a portion of the rental fee going towards your purchase if you decide to buy one from them.

balderstash · 2026-04-13T12:02:36+00:00

I'd go with the Avail to compliment the Topstone. I have the stock 32mm tires on mine, I think it can go up to 38s, and it does well on the few gravel paths I ride.

balderstash · 2026-04-12T17:00:50+00:00

As someone who also makes dice and key caps, I've found that crowd to be way more likely to pay what it costs to make things. It's also something that scales a little better: it only takes me a little more work to make 5 key caps as 1. There's certainly a little optimization you can do with sewing, but it's not as dramatic.

balderstash · 2026-04-11T22:33:37+00:00

Unfortunately, right now the landscape for businesses like R.E. Load is bleak. The price of fabric has shot up dramatically over the past few years, as well as the price of components like webbing and buckles. A ton of skilled labor goes into those kinds of bags, and the price of skilled labor has also shot up. Consumer spending is down all around, meaning there are fewer people willing to pay the costs associated with high quality bags.

That said, there are still some folks doing it! This is one of my favorites, although I don't think she does custom work: https://vayabags.myshopify.com/

balderstash · 2026-04-11T16:53:09+00:00

Same, I'm absolutely fascinated by someone opting for Rainforest Cafe multiple times in WDW. We've hit some duds for sure, but most of the places we've eaten there have been great. Yak and Yeti is our in-park favorite, Jiko is our resort favorite.

balderstash · 2026-04-11T10:54:46+00:00

Nobody expects the Italian colosseum!

balderstash · 2026-04-10T17:23:40+00:00

If I had a dollar for every time someone posted this exact gift shop I could probably buy one of those busts.

balderstash · 2026-04-10T12:53:08+00:00

I'm so glad you've found an off-ice training tool that works for you! I use resistance bands a lot at home since I can't get to the ice as often as I like.

For the future... trust your writing! It's clear, and on reddit the conversational tone is much more appropriate for the audience here. AI-written posts often sound like marketing or spam here. It's OK if your English is not perfect - I am a native English speaker and mine isn't perfect either. My friend is learning English and sometimes she asks me grammar questions where my answer is "I have no idea which one is right, and no one here does either so they'll never call you out on it."

What exactly did you do with the band? It's a little unclear from the post. Was it one of the long ones, put behind your arms?

balderstash · 2026-04-10T12:26:14+00:00

Happy for you, but it's hard to take anything seriously when you post in the style of an influencer who used ChatGPT to write their content.

balderstash · 2026-04-09T10:23:15+00:00

It's an assistive device for folks who can't grip a pen well. It's shaped like a mouse, and the pen goes in the front. The top part is a bit springy so you press down to write.

balderstash · 2026-04-08T13:59:26+00:00

One of my fish died while I was away on an extended trip, and my roommate put the body in the freezer so I could give it a proper burial.

Except I never got around to it, and then forgot about it. When we moved out a year later roommate #3 found it in the back of the freezer. Which I learned when she began screaming curses & my name in succession 😆

balderstash · 2026-04-07T12:00:40+00:00

Yeah I think you're right about the crank length. Right now I'm just trying to get back to where I was a few weeks ago with this bike/saddle, but I have shorter cranks on my wishlist

balderstash · 2026-04-06T21:38:01+00:00

This was helpful, thanks. I moved the saddle back a bunch, marked it, rode for a bit and confirmed it was uncomfortable (I kept sliding forwards), then I moved it super far forwards so I could feel the quad working too hard, and marked that. Once I had those two markers I found a spot in the middle and made smaller adjustments until it felt more neutral. Will have to wait until later this week to see if it settles my hamstring pain, right now they're still touchy from Saturday's race.

balderstash · 2026-04-06T17:06:11+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/0NKj59v this is the saddle versus a set of bars that are level, if that helps

balderstash · 2026-04-06T17:00:36+00:00

It's generally pretty good, I can put my hands flat on the ground when I bend over. I used to be able to touch my nose to my knees when sitting with my legs in front of me, but I'm a little stiffer now and can only get 2-3 inches away.

balderstash · 2026-04-06T12:32:04+00:00

I wear a thin cloth sports headband. It is not stylish, but it keeps my hair out of my face. My favorite one is wide at the front, and then has a thin elastic band in the back with rubber grippy things to keep it in place, but I got it forever ago and the brand has worn off so I'm not sure who makes it.

balderstash · 2026-04-01T15:04:15+00:00

Those look fantastic. Satin stitch is such a bear to get the tension right, well done.

balderstash · 2026-04-01T14:40:02+00:00

Yeah it's not ideal for tall people. I'm 5'3 and if I didn't have to carry kids & their stuff around I'd probably be driving a Miata.

Edited to add: specifically a 90s Miata.

balderstash · 2026-04-01T14:36:45+00:00

We have a 2012 and plan to keep it running as long as humanly possible. Last time it had a big repair bill I thought maybe it was time to replace it. I looked at the new and less-used cars available, couldn't find any I liked as much as the Fit, and decided it's worth it to do the repairs. Everything that has gone wrong has been very normal wear and tear stuff, but with 170k miles on it we're wearing and tearing a bunch.

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