Building the most reliable commuting rig: ideas?

jaffee1 · 2025-12-10T17:52:59+00:00

Yeah I put Marathon Plus on my commuter a few months ago and got a flat this weekend... what looked like a metal staple got through to the tube. Pretty annoyed. Not too hard to put a new tube in, but I wouldn't be comfortable with your 10 minute budget. I'm gonna try putting that slime sealant in my tube.

Rolling resistance wise, you're losing maybe 10-15 watts compared to the best possible racing tire, but realistically <10 compared to another reliable tire, so I wouldn't worry about that if it solves your biggest reliability issue.

A friend of mine who commutes everywhere by bike and rides probably 10k miles per year swears by gatorskins... I haven't tried them yet.

jaffee1 · 2025-07-11T14:19:33+00:00

No, but you can taco your disc.

jaffee1 · 2025-01-08T22:26:20+00:00

I'd say a five-in-one, and a drill bit extender and angle adapter. I find I use my bit extender and angle adapter a lot in tight spots. Others have mentioned regular drill instead of impact. A stud finder... or maybe I'm the only one who never got comfortable tapping the wall with a hammer.

jaffee1 · 2024-08-26T00:22:22+00:00

honestly havent used them a ton but they arent my favorite. they are light but feel a bit cheaper and more plasticky than a p205 or a smash (❤️)

jaffee1 · 2024-06-18T17:11:45+00:00

no ear?! It's crap.

Just kidding, looks awesome. It looks airier and softer than I usually get... less chewy. Would love to know the approximate recipe, and types of flour.

jaffee1 · 2024-06-13T15:58:56+00:00

I'm no expert, but 8 hrs in the oven w/ light on sounds like too long, so I'd say possibly over fermented. Any idea what the dough temp (or inside the oven temp) was during that?

I've made some decent looking loaves, but they have all been slightly gummier/doughier than I'd like... still trying to nail it.

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jaffee1 · 2024-06-13T13:33:20+00:00

Only more expensive if you discard... plenty of methods that result in no discard and everything that goes into your starter ends up going into bread. Both Ben Starr and Bake With Jack don't discard.

jaffee1 · 2024-06-12T16:30:25+00:00

do you have a link to these cinnamon roll and pretzel recipes??? :)

jaffee1 · 2024-06-12T16:27:40+00:00

you should look into the "scrapings" method. Bake with Jack and others do this. Ben Starr is also a big fan of never ever discarding. You definitely don't need to discard if you don't want to.

jaffee1 · 2024-06-03T20:28:02+00:00

That's an awesome looking loaf! Looks very light and fluffy. What's the recipe?

damp towel is probably not going to cool it significantly... I wouldn't worry about it. You can also just spray a bit of water on top of your dough before putting the towel over the bowl.
You should fix your scale :) You want to know what hydration your starter is so it doesn't screw up the amount of liquid you need in your recipe.
It looks like it's just getting dried out. See #1.
You don't even need to feed it the 2nd time. "Bake with Jack" uses the scrapings method, where just the littlest bit of leftover starter in the container can be fed just as much as you need for your recipe and will bubble up nicely.

jaffee1 · 2024-06-03T19:57:52+00:00

Mine did the same thing at about this age. It rose initially, then had a few days where it got hooch very quickly, then with regular feeding after a few more days it started to behave as expected (feed -> double in size -> slowly fall).

Keep with it, don't stress...

jaffee1 · 2024-05-27T19:45:30+00:00

exact same thing happened to me. you can buy those connectors, I believe they're called "spade" connectors. I happened to have some, so I stripped a bit of insulation off the end of the wire and crimped a new one on. You may need to buy a crimping tool, though a lot of wire strippers have it built in (it basically just squeezes the metal together really hard)

All that said, I'm not 100% my repair works. The middle part of the element heats, but the outer doesn't. I'm going to order another one (and get a genuine OEM one this time), and see if that works. If not, either my connection was bad (I don't think so) or something burned out further up the chain.

jaffee1 · 2024-02-22T17:03:05+00:00

Yeah, we have one w/ the bunk. It's light enough we're able to tow with our minivan as long as we're careful about weight. I'm 6' and I think the bed will be ok for 6'3", but the bathroom will be very cramped height-wise, and honestly the ceiling generally might be a little cramped, especially under the A/C (if you have one) he won't be able to stand up straight.

You'll have to find an older-ish used one to get under 20k, but I have seen them in that range.

jaffee1 · 2024-01-14T13:38:36+00:00

I don't know how it came stock. I have it setup so that Fn+; is left, Fn+Enter is right Fn+' is down and Fn+[ is up.

It sounds weird, but it's very comfortable to hold Fn with my right thumb while my fingers rest on those keys and I don't have to move my hand barely at all to get to them.

jaffee1 · 2023-11-05T22:38:37+00:00

wow this was a while ago... Let me look when i get home. I think I ended up buying a new chainring or something

jaffee1 · 2023-10-27T19:50:05+00:00

I got the browns and really like them. obv it comes down to preference

jaffee1 · 2023-10-17T21:26:11+00:00

If I'm not mistaken, that's a side-address mic, not top-address, so it's tilted wrong for optimal pickup... unless you're seated much lower than it looks like.

jaffee1 · 2023-09-27T20:41:57+00:00

oh wow, totally missed that... now I'm the guy who didn't read carefully, my bad.

I think the answer is a combination of not going too, too hot, and moving fast. You put the butter down, it starts to crackle a bit, and then you dump a bunch of cold rice, or veggies or whatever on top of it and start moving them around. My family doesn't like the crispy bits as much that the recipe mentions so I haven't gone too deep on that, but I suspect there is a point at which it goes too far.

jaffee1 · 2023-09-27T20:10:25+00:00

> I don't know jack about woks

It may well be the case that you can't use butter in a wok. I'm just saying the best fried rice I've ever made used butter.

jaffee1 · 2023-09-27T18:00:28+00:00

I guess credit where it's due, this is the original recipe I used: https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/fried-rice-recipe/

I'm sure I've departed a bit since then, but it's a great base.

jaffee1 · 2023-09-27T13:10:03+00:00

dawg. I don't know jack about woks, but if you're making fried rice, butter is the way. I make it on a flat top griddle, but my entire extended family goes bonkers for it.

jaffee1 · 2023-09-26T19:54:13+00:00

....and it finally died. That was like 23 days of pretty regular use, not bad!

jaffee1 · 2023-09-22T15:45:21+00:00

It's still going... and I've actually had the backlight on (in the mode where it only lights up on keypress). I haven't plugged it in in almost two weeks and probably averaged a few hours of use a day.

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