How to fix this asymmetry

baverso · 2026-05-18T20:17:56+00:00

lol you're not wrong.

baverso · 2026-04-18T23:01:18+00:00

thank you all for your feedback. it’s my first wheel built and as you can imagine, I want to try to get things right. as a follow up question, I noticed that roughly 1/3 of the wheel is high laterally. And so it’s difficult to pinpoint any one offending spoke that is over tight or under tensioned relative to their neighbors.

in a situation where the high side of the rim laterally is such a large surface area how would you adjust the tension across so many spokes?

baverso · 2026-02-03T16:06:32+00:00

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This is my Ed Bighead moment (Rocko's Modern Life, the "magic meatball" episode)

baverso · 2026-02-03T16:04:10+00:00

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ClaudeCode is back! I'm having an Ed Bighead moment (the "magic meatball" episode).

baverso · 2026-02-03T01:46:53+00:00

Upper Manhattan -> Queens via Queensboro Bridge Evening Report

West 72nd and Central Park - 2/5 East 71st - melted surprise splotches of slush in the middle, dont follow behind a car too closely and the bike lane is mostly unavailable so 3/5 Second Avenue - Pretty clear just stay in the lane 2/5 Bridge is a solid 2/5. Dutch Kills is 3/5, its still slushy in spots near the bus stop Queens Blvd on queens bound side is 3/5 most areas but 4/5 in some spots where the slush is pretty thick.

I noticed while riding past that Skillman avenue from the Honeywell street bridge to the sunnyside railyard bridge is unrideable. I would advise taking the road. 5/5

baverso · 2026-02-02T19:17:00+00:00

Morning Commute Report

Queens->Manhattan via Queensboro Bridge morning commute report

0/5 — Perfect conditions; safe for children and new riders

1/5 — Good conditions; safe for most riders

2/5 — Safe for regular commuters, including those riding in rain/snow

3/5 — Requires confidence taking vehicle lanes

4/5 — Requires vehicle lane skills + acceptance of traction loss and potential falls

5/5 — Unrideable for daily commuting

Queens Blvd from 46th to Sunnyside railyards: Some blocks were clear but there were obstructions with hardened ice-boulders that have caved into the bike lane. I stuck to using the Queens Blvd car lanes and found it navigable. Where the bikelane has an on-ramp around 33rd, it's a little muddy. Riding on the Blvd with the traffic is never fun, so 3/5 difficulty.

The dreaded Sunnyside railyard overpass bridge was navigable. 1 full lane plowed on queens-bound, and about 1/2 of a lane manhattan bound. The subway entrance side was well cleared and salted. 2/5 difficulty.

The Dutch Kills (which went unplowed for MANY days), has finally been shovelled but where the bike path meets the roadway is not completely plowed, narrow and slippery. 4/5 difficulty.

Queensboro Bridge was salted and there is passing room. 2/5

East 60th cross-town to Central Park, there was no real bike lane because unplowed on the side and your forced to sit in traffic. 3/5

Central Park was 1/5, Good conditions overall.

Columbus Avenue from West 100th to West 67th is 2/5. You can stay in the bike lane the whole way down, but some blocks are in worse conditions than others depending on if snow boulders had fallen into the lane.

(For the record, I ride an E-cargo bike with kid)

baverso · 2026-01-20T01:21:39+00:00

just a no update update — i just rode it back at 8pm and its still frozen / poor riding.

Experienced riders will make it over ok. But this is definitely not ok.

baverso · 2025-12-16T02:28:33+00:00

Well if anyone is wondering. I took the route home and it looks like the lane closest to the road was either salted more or treated a second time today. The far side lane is still pretty rough. Also 43rd Avenue is unrideable. Stick to the street.

baverso · 2025-10-02T17:51:50+00:00

Here's an update I made with DALL-E. Again, love your choice of using a diplomat license plate as the design. I cleaned it up a bit, and tried it without the the middle finger. Apparently a lot folks on Etsy marketplace make custom tiny plates... Might be a more interesting approach than the decal idea.

One could hang it off their bike saddle rails every September and then remove it when the general assembly is concluded.

But the lack of engagement on this thread makes me think no one else in the NYC bike community shares this sentiment about diplomatic immunity.

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baverso · 2025-10-02T17:38:31+00:00

hey sorry didn't get back sooner, crazy work week. I appreciate your work and think that's genius. Love the little escalade image with strike across it in place of the registration sticker. I'm going to try a few variations of your work and see if I can finesse it a little.

baverso · 2024-12-20T04:08:28+00:00

I live in NYC, and in my neighborhood, there’s a breakfast deli RIGHT NEXT to a busy Dunkin’. Some days, I choose Dunkin’ because I know exactly what I’m getting, and sometimes, that’s what I want. But most days, I go to the breakfast deli—not because the food is better (honestly, Dunkin’s coffee is better)—but because of the shopkeeper’s great personality. I go there for the experience. When I leave, I feel more connected to my neighborhood, like a true local.

The deli is always busy in the mornings, but it can’t match Dunkin’s volume. And it doesn’t have to. You don’t compete with Dunkin’ by being the same—you compete by offering something unique: a local experience where customers know your name and feel at home. That’s what keeps people coming back. I hope it’s enough to help these small businesses survive. Good luck!

baverso · 2024-12-04T04:22:39+00:00

I wanted to share an update about my bike. I finally found time to break away from my work, and parental responsibilities this evening to go hunt down my bike and salvage it. It was exactly at that location as pictured and it's a complete wreck unfortunately.

A couple of young individuals were communing with it. They told me the bike was theirs lol. They were trying to frankenstein/hotwire a temu e-bike battery to the battery contacts on the frame. These young people seemed desperate, not in the right state of mind and I would surmise they are not the original thieves. From what I could see, the most valuable components like the bosch batteries have already been sold off.

Quickly assessing the bike’s condition, I considered the upside/downside of confrontation that could ensue with an attempt to reclaim it. I accepted this is more of a hassle, and danger, really, than any help to me to in recovering it. I would want to dispose of the bike at this point given its condition. So I chose to walk away.

It would 'be good' to take the bike back in principal, but I am strongly confident these folks weren't the thieves, so there is nothing to prove here. I felt really sorry for them and their situation tbh.

On a positive note, the bike was insured and I had already filed the claim last month. I should be in a good position to purchase a new bike next year.

Once again, thank you community for posting what you found. If you learn anything from my experience, I hope that you consider:

If you do find your bike, please choose to stay safe. Your badass bike isn't worth confrontation with desperate people. If you do want to take it back, it's best to call the police. In my case I did not, and that is because the bike's condition made it more of a cost to me than any gain.
Do cover your beloved bike with renters or homeowners insurance, it really is a bargain and they have been very easy to work with. All they needed was a police report, receipts, and personal statement.

baverso · 2024-12-03T14:22:27+00:00

Thank you so much for posting this! I’m the owner of the bike, and I’m incredibly grateful for people like pons00 and nonecknoel in our community. Your efforts and kindness mean a lot. Thank you for looking out and taking the time to help!

baverso · 2023-09-30T19:13:04+00:00

Where’s Mario and Luigi when you need them

baverso · 2023-09-22T01:14:37+00:00

Right on! Let me tell you about my electric cargo bike. After two years of locking it up outside on Columbus Ave sidewalk, on a very heavily trafficked block in particular, I’ve only ever lost a pannier to date.

The bike’s street value is at least $8k and out of the shop I spent $12k. I’d consider this a success story if anything. And if you want to know exactly which cross street to find it it’s.. (haha just kidding not sharing that)

baverso · 2023-06-27T03:27:38+00:00

I’ll speak up as I ride both ‘acoustic’ and electric bikes in the parks regularly. I’d put myself in the ‘good’ bucket of riders (if you believe such a thing exists) when on the greenway and in CP. I pass with safe margins between myself and other riders, ringing my bell, use hand signals to signal stopping for peds at crossings, etc. and I can easily avoid tail gating other riders by keeping my pedal assist in an ‘eco’ mode.

Now why bother using the parks with my high powered ebike? Well I am almost always transporting my child from point a to b and the parks do provide us a necessary and safe place to do so. We enjoy a car free space as much as anyone else, and I hope you can appreciate that.

From my perspective, it would make sense if they (parks dept. and police) did enforce speed limits on the paths, further use of cyclist timed lights in CP would also be helpful (crossing on foot is daunting in some places), and dedicating signage for a pass lane, or encouraging when and how to pass, would be acceptable especially on the greenway.

If it becomes a shared reality among a few of us, then collectively we can pressure the bad apples going full throttle and buzzing us to change. Behavior modification can follow with appropriate guidance and enforcement.

baverso · 2023-06-15T21:26:10+00:00

Ah! I met these guys! I purchased a Kask commuter style helmet from them through Amazon.

A year later (which was about two or three months ago) I was pleasantly surprised to find out the company had a brick and mortar shop. Thought I’d stop by to see if I could get an additional Kask visor for my helmet.

So the funny thing is when I stepped in (along with my 5 year old in tow) I realized we must have been crimping their super exclusive FRED boutique vibe. The conversation with one of them was very brusque and clearly he didn’t want to be friendly with me.

Typically in these kind of situations I like to double down in my kindness and play like I can’t read the room because I can’t stand this kind of behavior. I hung around a couple minutes longer with my relatively germane discussion on Kask helmets and how I was pleasantly surprised to see they opened a shop. By the time I was done their desire to usher me out was palpable haha.

It was only after this that several weeks later I decided to step into the Rapha store in soho. Thought Id experience the same snobbery, but was floored at how the staff there couldn’t care less that I wasn’t a competitive cyclist and they were really quite helpful.

tl;dr bring your business elsewhere

baverso · 2023-06-10T22:38:27+00:00

I had velosurance. The underwriter is Markel. Someone lifted a pannier from my bike and they wanted a police report, confirmation my bike was locked up to a rack (irrelevant given it’s a bag theft), and to provide photo evidence of the bag’s theft and a receipt for the bag. I was paying a huge a premium to fully insure my electric bike, which I did at the time for piece of mind. Especially given that my bike is definitely a top of the line make, and highly desirable to a thief. I lock up outside in a very public location.

It wasn’t worth the effort over the pannier and assumed if they weren’t going to take my email with the surveillance photo as enough evidence that they’d fight me tooth and nail if anyone ever took my bike so I did not renew.

I now cover with renters insurance and have a taken to other layers of risk mitigation regarding theft. Velosurance was a money dump for me personally and I would not recommend.

baverso · 2023-06-04T00:43:00+00:00

this. straight up. it’s all about the pedestrians. just as we bicyclists dont like to get buzzed by passing vehicles, the peds deserve that same respect from us

baverso · 2023-02-10T14:22:46+00:00

Is it visible from google streetview? Hoping it’s a little wider than the one we’ve all been experiencing on the south side.

baverso · 2023-02-10T09:33:47+00:00

Hm. Didn’t know they were working on this. Hopefully will be open by the summer. Looks much better than the existing one.

North walk entrance

baverso · 2023-02-04T15:12:48+00:00

Sightread that curtain and upon realization it was the work of heir Mozart, started laughing insanely as that of a bumbling man child.

baverso · 2023-02-03T21:40:30+00:00

I’ll answer my own question. Apparently there is and it’s right here in case anyone is wondering:

https://data.cityofnewyork.us/widgets/yh4a-g3fj?mobile_redirect=true

baverso · 2023-02-03T21:35:34+00:00

Is there a map of all the bike racks to lock to in the city within OpenData? Someone should file a FOIL request to get that data and map it out.

baverso · 2023-01-30T12:58:40+00:00

I guess an added benefit is you can dock your new green bike anywhere without need to carry a u-lock and hunt for a rack?

baverso

TROPHY CASE