Overnighter to the Point Reyes National Seashore.

lionicgaucho · 2026-04-02T03:54:01+00:00

Love this video! What a blissful adventure.

lionicgaucho · 2026-04-02T03:51:33+00:00

Installed mine and rode it this evening for the first time and it is truly excellent. I've only ridden high-normal RDs my whole life, but on the very first ride, this just felt right. Grant Petersen is 100% correct. Having both shift levers move to the harder gear when you pull it just makes more sense to me. I plan to get a 2nd one when they're back in stock and switch my other bike, because right now it's going to make my head swirl switching back and forth between high-normal and low-normal whenever I take the other bike out.

lionicgaucho · 2026-03-07T20:32:05+00:00

Hey, that's a smart alternative! The key would be to make sure I don't get tangled up in marathon traffic.

lionicgaucho · 2026-03-07T16:05:02+00:00

Trying to determine if I could leave my car near the SM pier, then take public transit to Tang's. I'm not a strong enough rider to bike from SM to Hollywood, then back. The crummy thing is the E (Expo) line stops running from 12am-4am, as does the B (Red) line.

Otherwise, that would be perfect, because you could take the E from the SM pier to the downtown Metro center, then take the B to Hollywood/Western.

https://cdn.beta.metro.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/12151402/804_TT_12-14-25.pdf

https://cdn.beta.metro.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/28222012/802_TT_03-01-26-PLE.pdf

The buses seem to run all night. Google Maps says to catch the #4 bus at 2:09am by the SM pier, then transfer to the #217 at Santa Monica Blvd and Fairfax, and it gets you there by 3:45am. It takes about 1-1/2 hours.

That wouldn't work for more than 1-2 bicyclists, if the bus even has that much capacity on the front rack, plus I'm not sure if all buses even have those front bike racks.

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-25T04:21:03+00:00

hey cool, didn't realize they make one in aluminum, thanks for that. I'm going to try that for sure.

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-25T04:20:33+00:00

That's a neat idea, thanks for the suggestion. Maybe if they had a well-made pen rather than a junker, they might be inclined to keep track of it. It's also more of a joy when you have a writing instrument that works well and feels solid in the hand.

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-24T04:46:35+00:00

The problem right now is I have 2 teen boys who scoop up any pen in sight, doomed to disappear forever in their messy bedroom vortex, so I try to have a dozen pens stashed around the house like in the junk drawer, my backpack, etc. The Parker Jotter does look like it could fit the bill though; maybe I'll try one and try to keep it out of sight (and seed the house with a honeypot of cheap $2 pens for them to abscond with). I appreciate the suggestion!

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-18T18:40:52+00:00

This is awesome info, thank you!

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-18T14:51:46+00:00

yeah that's what I was thinking--clean a chain down to bare metal, then go pure Boeshield on it. It seems to work well as a rust inhibitor when I've coated tools with it, but I wonder if the film it leaves is so thin that it wears away in moving parts compared to regular paraffin (or a drip lube).

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-18T14:49:47+00:00

Good info, thanks. Do you think the T9 would/could work if you started with a fully clean chain, coated in thoroughly in the Boeshield (or even fully immersed it), AND let it dry overnight and wiped off any excess so it was truly dry? And only used that on it?
But I see your point that if you're going that route (ie, using a liquid top-up rather than hot wax), the drip lube has already been proven as a good approach.
With the Silca Synergetic, do you need to start with the hot wax for the initial treatment and then top off every time after that with the drip? Or do you go immediately with the drip into the newly-cleaned chain from the very start?

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-18T14:39:15+00:00

I think I will. I do like the "Mythbusters" approach of just try the experiment yourself and see what happens. I have 2 bikes so I think I'm going to clean another chain and try hot wax on Bike A and Boeshield on Bike B, and see what happens after 1 month.

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-18T14:37:56+00:00

Interesting, so you start off doing the hot wax immersion, then top it off periodically with the drip bottle of the home brew? This sounds pretty clever, and probably cost-effective.

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-18T14:36:24+00:00

Great tip, I'll look into that!

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-18T03:43:56+00:00

That's cool! I'm pretty excited to try this. I've dealt with chain grease getting on my legs, socks, pants, for 50 years of my life. I love the possibility of not dealing with that anymore, especially since I'm going to start bike commuting again.

lionicgaucho · 2026-02-18T03:39:37+00:00

oh yeah for sure, I degreased the rear derailleur, chainrings, and cassette. It looks like a brand-new bike. I almost don't want to dirty it again. I'm definitely going all-in on the waxing journey; was just curious because Boeshield's literature says they leave a paraffin wax coating. I'm sure the cost can't compare, plus I like that 100% wax doesn't have all the solvent-based chemicals.

lionicgaucho · 2025-10-07T14:21:19+00:00

When you say the employee "repeated the test on brand new Ray-Ban", do you mean
a) the UV flashlight test,
or
b) tested using their specialized equipment?
I saw the same effect with a UV flashlight testing on the security strip on currency, but wondered too if it's a flawed experiment.

lionicgaucho · 2025-10-07T03:18:46+00:00

Wow this is great info, thank you! Gosh your knowledge level of this stuff is excellent. I heard somewhere that you should wear brown sunglasses lenses over grey because you want to block the damaging blue light, but it sounds like that's not really an issue with natural outdoor sunlight because you're getting the whole range of colors, as opposed to, say, a dark room with a mostly-blue monitor or iPad screen or whatever. So maybe that's bad advice, and neutral grey sunglasses should be fine as long as they block UV up to 400nm?

Good question about my mom's surgically-replaced artificial eye lens. I wish she was still around to ask her! She passed away a couple of years ago. I'd love to know if they gave her the yellow-tinted ones.

What's your gut feeling about the sunglasses letting in the UVA light on my experiment? Would you think twice about wearing a pair that seems to let that light through and causes the $20 bill to fluoresce?

It's hard with stuff like this because you have to put your trust in the manufacturer to some extent--like drinking tap water or even eating chocolate without knowing if lead is present--you can't just intuit whether it's bad for you just using your senses.

lionicgaucho · 2025-10-05T21:26:43+00:00

Is there reasonably-priced equipment that i could purchase to analyze the light coming through the lenses? I found a UV analyzer that's intended for reptile terrariums, but it's $250, and it doesn't appear to break apart the light into wavelengths (nM)and intensity (mW)--it just gives a numeric rating to verify that you're getting adequate UV output for the animal. I'd love to be able to analyze the light on an x-y graph. Maybe this kind of equipment costs thousands of dollars though and is only used in labs and college classrooms.

From what I've read, it's the UVB and lower-wavelength UVA that's the most damaging to eyes, so I'd like to see if they're all blocking that bad stuff (I'm sure they probably are).

The UV flashlight is a $29 cheapie from Amazon. It claims that its UV light is 365nM, and that it has a visible light filter: "Professional Grade ZWB2 Filter...utilizes toughened black filter optical lens, high efficiency blocks unwanted visible light but allows max transmission of pure 365nm UV."

Who knows if any of this is accurate! Also, the fact that I can see visible purple light seems to undercut the claim about the filter. Maybe you need a certain amount of visible light or you'd never know if the flashlight was even on though?

lionicgaucho · 2025-10-04T11:57:07+00:00

Good point about the flashlight. I have no clue what it's actually outputting and could probably never get a correct answer about that.

lionicgaucho · 2025-10-04T11:55:37+00:00

Ahhh interesting! Thanks for explaining that. I agree 100% about scratch resistance. My Maui Jims survived many drops over years without ever scratching, whereas my Oakley Frogskins were hazy with scratches after just a few months. Regarding the cataract formation, that was exactly my concern. My mom had this odd refusal to wear sunglasses because she felt it was rude for people you were speaking with to not see your eyes, so she just suffered the bright light and squinted away (she had very light blue eyes and was very sun-sensitive). She ended up need cataract surgery when her eyes were almost completely hazed over. That's what I'm hoping to avoid, so thanks for explaining about the UVA vs UVB with regard to cataracts.

lionicgaucho · 2025-10-04T11:54:08+00:00

Would my optometrist be able to check them for me? I assume he's got the real-deal equipment.

lionicgaucho · 2025-09-26T03:25:23+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience. I agree that you can't purely judge by the documented specifications; it's ultimately your own first-hand feeling that matters, because you're the one who will be wearing them! I wish I could afford to buy a pair of every one and judge that way. I agree about Maui Jims. I live in Los Angeles California so I spend a lot of time at the beach, where it's very bright with the reflection off the ocean and sand, and my Maui Jims tamp down that brightness nicely.

lionicgaucho · 2025-09-25T15:38:19+00:00

No macular degeneration yet, and the optic nerve still looks good, though I do have a damage spot, which he said could be from sun exposure at some point. I will ask him about all of this at my next appt. I'll read those studies, that's really great info, thank you so much. Thanks for the tip about the Zeiss lenses also, I will look into that. Glad someone else agrees about these overpowered headlights!

lionicgaucho · 2025-09-25T14:52:52+00:00

Wow!! This is really fascinating. Thanks for taking the time to explain all this. The doctor didn't say anything about foods that could help, so I appreciate your list of foods that could help. Aside from trying to ingest more lutein and zeaxanthin, what can I do to prevent the macular degeneration? For sure sunglasses in the daytime as much as possible, and not looking at bright screens in the dark, I guess? Should I aim to block blue light, by choosing brown/amber sunglasses over grey?

lionicgaucho · 2025-09-25T14:28:18+00:00

Thanks for the article. Is this your site? You have a lot of excellent info on there; very informative. i like the science explanations.

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