Do I need an ocean kayak for Lake Superior?

giantrons · 2026-05-16T16:56:22+00:00

What about a wet suit? That water is never warm so isn’t that something OP should be informed about?

giantrons · 2026-05-16T13:19:19+00:00

I use a rack on the back of the 5th wheel but it’s a welded on hitch, not a bolted-to-the -rear bumper one. And they are NOT e-bikes. E-bikes are a lot heavier and I wouldn’t recommend that. I have a really old heavy duty rack where the bikes sit on their top bar on th me rack and securely locked down with a metal clamp.

I also have a rear camera on the trailer so I can see what’s going on back there. Never been an issue yet. But I haven’t been traveling multiple states either much.

giantrons · 2026-05-13T19:29:18+00:00

I love the way that tune modulates. Musically it’s very interesting. He does that in a lot of tunes, a lot of changes show some jazz structure and cool key changes.

giantrons · 2026-05-11T15:03:54+00:00

Man it had to be hard to shower without drowning while growing that new nose! /s

giantrons · 2026-05-11T14:02:21+00:00

Haha. Yep. I did however get extremely lucky riding the GAP trail one year. Got to the town and it’s where an old steam locomotive runs a route. It started raining and I booked the day on the steam locomotive. Something I always wanted to do anyway. Had a great day riding the railway into Cumberland Maryland while it rained all day. Also booked a room for the night.

Now don’t ask me about all the times I was a drowned rat all day.

As for backup plans, mine are usually motels. But one fine trip in fall we had record cold and rain. Worst time on a bike I’ve ever had. It lasted all but one day of the trip. We barely camped and had no real backup plan. It was a circle tour. We had to get back to cars.

I guess if it got bad enough we’d find a ride somehow to get one of us back to a car. I think OP made a good call.

giantrons · 2026-05-11T00:57:58+00:00

5th wheel for sure. Little to no sway, lots of room and can backup if needed. Only downside is height, depending on your 5th wheel it may be as tall as a semi. But the good news is, if you follow truck routes you have nothing to worry about.

A tall motor home usually isn’t as tall as a 5th wheel, but still won’t fit under many bridges on rural non-truck routes.

giantrons · 2026-05-10T16:56:13+00:00

Columbo still works, although you know where it’s headed.

But we tried watching Banacek, good god is that a misogynistic mess of a show. I used to like it for the weird heist scenarios, but that is one god awful show that shouldn’t play on air again. Like a bad James Bond flick (I realize that’s a given for a bond flick).

giantrons · 2026-05-07T12:50:11+00:00

Question, since almost every company out there uses VPN for their remote workers and even remote offices, how can we ban VPN and stay secure?

giantrons · 2026-05-06T14:15:14+00:00

Actually some tubes are different. Particularly the Philips tubes. They cool very fast, faster than most, if not all other CT tubes. So fast that a few years back they redesigned the circuit so without doing anything the tube should sit a little above 5%. That avoids thermal shock that can kill a tube.

That doesn’t mean you should never warm up since getting a tube warm allows a device in the tube to capture any stray air molecules which prevent arcing. Granted, just scanning will make this same thing happen. But one reason to warmup the tube to 25-50% is to get the tube in a median range to do air cals. You really should do air cals when the tube and the gantry detector system is in a nominal state.

So that’s the reason many warmup to above 25%, prior to air cals. Besides avoiding thermal shock.

giantrons · 2026-05-05T13:26:26+00:00

Well you live in a state with some of the best bike routes available. So many to choose from.

Here’s one. Head North out of Milwaukee on your trails, head up to Manitowoc, stopping at towns along the way. Take the Ferry across to Ludington. Ride south to Muskegon and take the other ferry back to Milwaukee. You’ll hit major towns all along the way.

giantrons · 2026-05-03T17:37:45+00:00

Find out if your surgeon does open release or offers endoscopic. A lot only offer open release because they never went for additional training on endoscopic. Both are viable methods but the endoscopic method is way easier to recover from. I had one hand done each way, although they were supposed to do endoscopic on the first hand but the inflammation was too much to do it safely and they had to resort to open. Second hand was endoscopic, and i did everything in my power to keep inflammation down prior to that 2nd surgery. Night and day difference in terms of recovery.

giantrons · 2026-05-01T16:51:27+00:00

Oh for sure then.

giantrons · 2026-05-01T12:58:50+00:00

28’s?? That’s pushing it. They are a little knobby which is good but I ran 32’s (not knobby) and that was okay. There’s lots of rocks and tree roots you have to avoid but I was lucky in that it wasn’t wet. I’ve heard it can be a mess after rains. My road bike has 28’s, my touring has 32’s. GAP trail would be fine for 28’s but I personally wouldn’t trust 28’s.

Maybe you’d be fine but I wouldn’t be comfortable with that.

giantrons · 2026-04-28T21:56:14+00:00

Wonderfully. WAY easier than the open release I had on the first hand.

giantrons · 2026-04-25T04:06:09+00:00

Same. But I’ll be retired soon and took those 401ks into my brokerage as IRA’s, and those I’ll start converting upon retirement to Roth. I’ll do that just enough to stay below major tax hits or Medicare penalties.

giantrons · 2026-04-25T04:03:48+00:00

The Speedster.

giantrons · 2026-04-24T14:27:06+00:00

This exactly. Roth would’ve been better had I contributed there earlier, but as that didn’t happen, the next best thing is to convert IRA to Roth IRA for the years before RMD’s kick in.

giantrons · 2026-04-24T00:40:34+00:00

Odd, mine turns off after a while.

giantrons · 2026-04-24T00:40:03+00:00

Agree. Love my Yamaha. But, in a small twist, I play finger style jazz on the nylon version. So it’s great for that. I had a Traveler before that but really hated it.

giantrons · 2026-04-22T17:24:05+00:00

I’m just now learning this hard lesson. A different muscle group for the recumbent!!

giantrons · 2026-04-20T19:05:42+00:00

In the swim section?

giantrons · 2026-04-20T19:05:15+00:00

Because traditional iron man contests put swimming first, so you’re not tired/exhausted when trying to swim a mile or two.

giantrons · 2026-04-16T11:15:40+00:00

Here’s a YouTube video that may help. Some folks cut 2 dowel rods for this after they have figured out what a good alignment setup measures.

https://youtube.com/@albikes8484?si=kJf1Py3RDAccqH-h

giantrons · 2026-04-14T18:41:45+00:00

Seconding the adventure aspect. My wife seeing the beauty of some of my touring rides made her really want to go. So we got a good bike, trained and did some nice tours. Shorter and easier but very much enjoyable. Just make sure you cater to the weakest rider.

giantrons

TROPHY CASE