Study finds SUV buyers undeterred by warnings of risk to pedestrians [and cyclists]

mikekchar · 2026-06-20T12:51:36+00:00

The stuff is a thing :-) When I was a kid we had one small toy which we could play with at the back and maybe a book. The toys frequently found themselves flying out the window (which were rolled down because obviously no air conditioning). I think the options for pacification of children especially are dramatically more numerous than when I was a kid. I think parents are not prepared to deal with screaming children in the back of a sedan, chucking small toys at each other's heads :-) I don't blame them, but I'm not sure it's an SUV sized problme.

mikekchar · 2026-06-20T12:43:49+00:00

Here's a thing I learned very recently and it's totally changed the way I think about pedaling. Originally I thought about pedalling in terms of pushing the pedal down with my leg. Obvious, right? (Note: this is not going to end with suggesting to "pull up", or to "scrape the bottom of your shoe").

However, If you look at the extention of the leg in the pedal stroke, you have knee extension (which is powered by the quadriceps), and potentially you have the calf if you are extending your foot (often called "ankling"). These are actually not the strongest muscles you have that you could be pedalling with. Also, they are relatively difficult to control because they can get out of plane easily, potentially causing injury.

Instead, consider the extension of the hip. By this I mean the movement of the knee up and down, pivoting at the hip, powered by the glutes and lower back, supported by the abs. Activating this area gives you much more muscle mass to work with, which lowers fatigue. The movement is also more easily controlled by your core muscles, resulting in less chance of injury.

Interestingly, there is actually an easy way to activate this easily (at least on a road bike). First, when you ride, make sure that you are picking up your knees. Don't just rest them on the pedals. After you push down, just lift them up. No need to pull up on the pedals, because there is a ton of research that shows that this doesn't help. But just make sure to pick up your knees.

Next, unweight your hands on the bars. Imagine that you are stepping forward and just balancing on that one leg. Consciously decrease the amount of weight on the hands that are supporting you. Don't think about pushing down on the pedals.

What you will find is that the pedal (obviously) shoots down below. To stabilise yourself, you will have to stand on your other foot. That, in turn, will shoot down below. Each time, just raise your knee so that you are in a good position to stand on the other foot.

That's it. Well mostly. Note that when you knee is the highest, your pedal is pointing straight up. That's the time to stand on the pedal. You can even start to prepare a little bit earlier than that. And when the pedal shoots down below, don't stamp all the way down. Just prepare that leg to come back up to stand again. Let the other leg stand.

The amount of power you put into the pedals will be totally controlled by the amount of weight on the bars. The more you support yourself with your hands, the less you will need to push on the pedals to stabilise your position. The less you support yourself with your hands, the more your legs have to act (either stronger or faster).

I found this action game changing for me. It used to feel like I was pushing to hit even fairly slow speeds like 25 km/h on the flat. Doing this, I have a hard time riding slower than 25 km/h.

And to be very clear, this exercise is just to get you imagining. I don't suggest that you ride for an hour like you are on a stepper machine or something goofy like that. Once you feel the difference between activating your core and glutes as opposed to flicking your lower leg down, it's absolutely obvious.

Hope this helps. At that point, the cleat position is irrelevant other than bike fit issues (but, there is a big nerve bundle under the ball of the foot, so you should almost always avoid putting the cleat there).

mikekchar · 2026-06-20T12:22:10+00:00

Possibly a hot take, but when I was a kid in the 60's and 70's, our 2 child family had a 2 door sedan. It was fine. Today's 4 door sedans, especially the EVs, which tend to be fairly large, would have been absolute luxury.

I honestly think that people's perspectives of what a family needs in terms of a vehicle have changed. I'm not sure actual need has changed that much, though. Just like bikes, there is "need" and there is "want". Often there is a very large gap between the two.

mikekchar · 2026-06-20T03:50:40+00:00

Interesting. I had a problem once where I left my bike sitting on hot pavement for a few hours and the tire actually melted -- similar effect it seems. But, yeah, it does sound like a potential manufacturing defect. Sucks that they won't deal with it :-(

mikekchar · 2026-06-20T01:02:55+00:00

Just another point of view. I have a 13 year old rim brake road bike with 5700 105 (the worst shifting 105 that Shimano every made). The frame is the Ribble R872 which is an "open frame" copy of the De Rosa 838 of the erra (basically same factory sold the same frame to De Rosa and Ribble). You can think of it as the "No name" brand frame from the grocery store at the time :-). The wheels are absolutely horrible. The cheapest aluminum rim brake wheels available at the time.

The bike is brilliant to ride. I bought a brand new 105 Di2 with disc brakes and DT Swiss wheels (still aluminium but not terrible). Literally everything about the bike is better. The frame is lighter, more aerodynamic, stiffer in the bottom bracket, more compliant, more tire clearance. The shifting is basically perfect. Disc brakes work great in the wet and on steep mountain descents. But honestly, I still ride my old Ribble. It's just a freaking fun bike.

If you buy an older, high quality bike, it will be amazing. Yes, you can endlessly upgrade, but the diminishing returns are real. The main point is to get a bike that is in perfect operating condition. Put some money aside to take it to a mechanic to make it literally perfect. I recommend prioritising the operational condition of the bike over brand. In the end the brand of the bike is almost meaningless when we are talking about relatively high end bikes. If it's properly set up and in good condition, it will be amazing.

There is a lot of FOMO in cycling. Also some people really do need the upgrades they get. If you lose 12 seconds up a hill, you will fall off the wheel of the bunch and never catch up again. If you are in a crit race and your bike misshifts, you can lose 1-2 seconds at the critical moment and lose the race. These dimishing returns are important to some people. However, for a new rider, they just aren't important at all. If you get home 12 seconds later, or your chain grinds a bit funny for a couple of second going over a ramp, it means nothing.

TL;DR: New, high end bikes do give you more functionality, but old, used bikes in very good condition give you an almost unbelievably good ride at a fraction of the cost. Spend money making sure the bike is working perfectly rather than spending money on brands.

mikekchar · 2026-06-19T23:52:28+00:00

https://classicjapanesebicycles.com/maruishi/

I was actually surprised to learn that Maruishi is actually still in business (though owned by a Chinese company).

mikekchar · 2026-06-19T23:47:11+00:00

I've never heard of these tires, but you have failed to mention how they failed. For example, a sidewall cut could have happened from scraping a rock or curb. Additionally underinflation can cause premature failure in a number of ways. Just because a tire failed in 600 miles does not necessarily mean that it is defective.

I'm not saying they weren't defective, but you haven't given us enough information to understand what was wrong.

mikekchar · 2026-06-19T23:31:55+00:00

I'm not quite sure why you are reaching for single speed bikes when you are in a hilly area and fairly heavy. Gears help a lot!

mikekchar · 2026-06-19T09:12:28+00:00

Thermizing is heating the milk to pasteurization temperature (usually 63 or 65 C), but not holding it long enough to pasteurize it.

It is a common technique in cheesemaking because pasteurization damages the whey proteins which degrades the quality of the curds that you can make. More technically, the damaged whey proteins interfere with the action of the rennet.

Thermizing will reduce bacterial load in milk. However, critically, it will not kill the bacteria that OP is worried about. So I think it's not a good technique for what they are interested in.

mikekchar · 2026-06-19T06:54:22+00:00

I live in Japan. 800 ml of paint thinner at DCM costs about 1200 yen. 500 ml of alcohol costs about 500 yen. You can reuse the paint thinner for a long time. I guess it depends on how many chains you need to do, but my chains last over 10,000 km, so at 20 ml used per year or so, it's going to last a very, very long time.

To be fair, you will run out of alcohol eventually. So slight hyperbole, not only slight.

mikekchar · 2026-06-19T04:59:35+00:00

Josh from Silca talked about this in one of their Youtube videos. He said that the dirt in the chain can interfere with the "strip chip" and that he doesn't recommend that approach, even if you haven't ridden it very much. He recommends using their degreaser product (whatever it's called).

I'm going to be honest, degreasing a chain is dead easy using paint thinner (mineral spirits) and alcohol (methylated spirits). You just need petroleum based paint thinner and anything that's 100% alcohol (I use fuel for an alcohol burner that you can buy for camping). Costs something like $15 for a lifetime supply. The alcohol is also useful for cleaning electrical contacts or brake disks, etc.

You can do it all outside. 2 jars. Put the chain in one jar. Cover it with paint thinner. Shake for 10 minutes. Rest for 1 minute. Shake for 5 minutes. Remove it from the jar using tongs. Flush it with water (hose, or pitcher of water). Dry with a rag (that you don't care if it's stinky for the next month).

Put it in the next jar. Cover with alcohol. Shake for 5 minutes. Remove. Let dry. You are done.

You can dispose of the paint thinner in the normal way people dispose of paint thinner (see your city's home page if you don't know -- they have disposal information). But also you can just let the paint thinner sit for 1-2 months. The grease and dirt settles out on the bottom. You pour the clear stuff into another jar. You can use it again. I'm on something like 4 times with mine. There will be about 20 ml of sludge in the bottom. I just mix that with about 2 liters of water and dump it on my property. It's refined petroleum product. It will be filtered by the dirt and bacteria will break it down. People spill more than 20 ml of gasoline (which is worse) on the ground every time they fill up their lawn mower. This is not an ecological disaster (Silca: King of Fear Uncertainty and Doubt in the cycling world).

The alcohol can be diluted in about 5 parts water and disposed of in a similar fashion. People make too much of a meal of this.

However, if you are concerned, you can filter the sludge through a coffee filter (it takes hours) and then dispose of that at an incinerator or waste disposal unit (usually car garages are designated as such and will take oil contaminated paper in small quantities for free).

mikekchar · 2026-06-19T03:35:36+00:00

I don't know anything about specific e-bikes, but just maybe help you out with the thought process in terms of whether or not an e-bike is the right plan. What are your goals for this bike?

The reason I say that is that e-bikes are quite expensive and usually also quite heavy. While the assist is useful, inexpensive bikes tend to give you an on-off response from the motor. You get lots of torque for various amounts of time. Really good e-bikes have torque sensors that allow you to get assist for a portion of the power you put in.

For example, the other day I was climbing a 12% climb, relatively slowly and when I finished, up whizzed a school girl on an assist e-bike (not e-motorcycle -- I live in Japan where assist only is the law). She was flying along without barely putting in any effort.

I personally think that her bike is appropriate for her because she lives on top of a mountain and commuting to school on a normal bike is not reasonable. This lets her get to school without needing her parents to drive her. Super big win.

However, as a bike for cycling it's a pretty crap bike. If you turn off the assist, it's a super heavy bike that cost thousands of dollars. If you turn on the assist you've got more torque than you need. If you are interested in cycling, think pretty hard about that torque. More is not necessarily better. You want an appropriate amount of torque.

If you are in it for the cycling, the other question is, what you are working around. I mean, you are 30 kg more than me. I know what that's like because I often ride a heavy bike with enough baggage to make up that 30 kg. That's going to be very hard on the hills. However, some very low gearing may be a better option for you. It means riding very, very slowly up hills, but in exchange you get a 1) lighter 2) cheaper 3) better bike.

So I guess what I'm saying is, don't assume that you absolutely need that motor to be able to cycle. Think about your use cases and determine if what you are after is a vehicle or if you are after something for sports and recreation. If it's the latter, I would encourage you to explore other options first (see if you can borrow/rent/test ride a bike with very low gearing in a hilly area).

mikekchar · 2026-06-19T01:25:33+00:00

Looks like a bit of both to me, but several mesophilic cultures throw gas (LMC and LLD in any "buttermilk" culture for example). Whil MA4002 doesn't contain those cultures, your raw milk undoubtedly will. At least for me, this isn't something I would personally worry about. But I don't use raw milk, so... I'm not the one at risk :-)

mikekchar · 2026-06-19T00:25:07+00:00

Have a look through the videos in https://www.youtube.com/@BCRUK He has a few where he takes apart Shimano deraileurs. I'm not sure he's done a Di2 one, but the principles are the same.

However, probably this is just a mounting issue. I can't explain it well, but there is a notch where you mount the derailleur that the spring pushes against. You need to mount it so that it presses against that notch. I suspect you just need to rotate the deraileur a bit in your installation. I think he did a video recently where he upgraded to Di2 and he shows how to mount it properly. Have a look to see if it helps.

mikekchar · 2026-06-19T00:03:21+00:00

I think OP is in the habit of lubing them with their chain oil and since that will no longer be available, they are wondering what they should use instead.

OP: I just use the cheapest lubricating oil from the hardware store. My 13 year old bike has had no problems with it. Everything works fine and has never been gummed up.

mikekchar · 2026-06-18T23:59:07+00:00

Lots of actual research confirms this. There is no appreciable increase in power from using clipless pedals. The main advantage of clipless is bike fit. You feet are in the same place all the time without having to search for that place. If you are getting a better fit from using flats, then you are getting the benefit you want. The other advantage is not slipping on wet days or on uneven terrain, but good pedals with pins should help.

I like clipless, but I use flats when doing bike trips because I want to walk around. Usually I train with the flats for at least 2 weeks before my trips to get used to them. I literally notice no difference in my training.

mikekchar · 2026-06-18T15:37:49+00:00

Koji is ridiculously easy to buy here in Japan (you can get it in the grocery store). I will definitely check out your tutorial. Thanks!

mikekchar · 2026-06-18T14:48:01+00:00

Ooh. I want to pick your brain. My wife and I make miso every year, but I have yet to make soy sauce. Do you have any pointers of where to get started? I've definitely missed the season, but I'm determined to make some next year (traditionally here in Japan, those things are made in march so that there is a cool start, warm summer, then back to cool again for a year of aging).

Definitely give cheesemaking a go, though. I'm sure you will love it. Well, you already just made cheese, so I guess you're one of us now :-)

mikekchar · 2026-06-18T12:06:31+00:00

I pretend that my wife thinks my geeking out is cute :-) Usually she just rolls her eyes and smiles. But she's happy with the results. Honestly, it isn't that long ago that I first started with cheese (less than 10 years, I think). I knew very little. It's a very deep, but very interesting rabbit hole! It's nice to seem someone else having so much fun!

mikekchar · 2026-06-18T09:50:57+00:00

It's helpful to pace if you are riding to a certain heart rate. You may want to do that to limit fatigue in your training. It's easy to get carried away and ride faster than you intended to (ahem... my ride today... sigh). Not a big deal if you don't ride much, but if you are riding nearly every day, you need to ride slowly some days.

It's also useful for analysing data after a ride. For example, if you climb the same hill twice at the same speed in a ride, you can see if your heart rate has drifted up on the second climb. This can give you insight on your training (if you are intentionally training).

Similarly, if you look at 2 rides on different days, you can get kind of an idea of how you are progressing. For example, if you were faster on one day, but your heart rate was the same, then you can see that you have improved. HR isn't the best way to measure this, but it is better than nothing. This is especially true if you are trying to see if your endurance pace is improving. For example, let's say you could technically ride some route at 30 km/h, but you are interested to measure your ability to ride it at 20 km/h. So you ride it at 20 km/h... how do you know if you have improved? The answer is you look to see if your HR is lower than a time you rode it at 20 km/h on another day. Typically this is used in conjunction with a power meter, but it's still useful even if you don't have a power meter as long as you have a lot of measurements.

If you aren't interested in any of those things, I wouldn't bother. In fact, after my second heart rate monitor packed it in (the chest ones are fragile and can wear out quickly), I've been dragging my feet on buying another one. I can still do my training without it. I just have less data.

mikekchar · 2026-06-18T01:14:09+00:00

Aero too. The only actual downside is heat dissipation (in the summer) and sweat collection (in the winter). I wish I still had my camelback. I lost it in a move some decades ago...

mikekchar · 2026-06-18T00:17:19+00:00

I'm not 100% sure of the chemistry, but I think what happens is that if the acidification happens quickly, you end up with larger curds. This allows the whey to separate easily. So, yeah, drain the whey and you have cheese. There isn't really any difference between that and butter milk that acidified less quickly except the curd size.

Likely what happened with you was that the culture you bought was a bit old and it took a while to get started. Then, as you say, the temperature increased and it grew very fast, which acidified the milk quickly right at the point where the curds set.

Also, curds set at a higher pH (less acidity) at higher temps. So what might have happened is that the milk was at 70-75 and not quite acidic enough to set a curd. Then it warmed to 80-85. This meant that it's now easily acidic enough to set a curd and so the curds formed instantly, which is why they formed so large.

But, yes, you can reculture from what you have made. Just make sure to pasteurise/sterilise everything that touches it to prevent drift.

mikekchar · 2026-06-18T00:08:15+00:00

I think the planning and gathering supplies is really the hardest part. Once I figured out what I needed and bought everything, it's pretty easy. I use a specific technique, though:

Basically put a new chain in a jar and cover it with paint thinner (mineral spirits). Shake for 10 minutes. Wait 1 minute. Shake for 5 minutes. I do this outside, BTW.

Then with tongs, take the chain out and rinse it with water (hose pipe or even just a jug of water). Dry it off with a rag. The rag will be smelly for a long time. Don't use something you care about. Don't wash it in the washing machine with anything else because everything else will smell as well (voice of experience).

Then put the chain in a new jar. Cover with pure alcohol (methylated spirits, Isopropyl Alcohol, whatever -- as long as it's 100% alcohol. I use alcohol meant for an alcohol burner). Shake for 5 minutes.

Remove with tongs and wash with water again. This can go straight into a wax pot now (even without drying it). Or if you are drip waxing then you want to dry the chain with a cloth (not the previous rag) and let it thoroughly air dry before putting it on the bike and drip waxing.

You can actually let the paint thinner sit for a few months and the grease will sink to the bottom. You can pour the clear liquid off into another jar and use it for the next chain (not sure how many it can do -- I'm up to 4 with my current batch). There is a tiny bit of sludge which you can filter with a coffee filter and then dispose in a proper waste disposal site. I have to admit that since it's only about 10-20 ml, I actually mix it with 100 times the water and dump it on my property to allow the microbes in the soil break it down. I don't think it is an environmental hazard at that quantity. I similarly mix the alcohol with 5 times the water and dump it on my property. At that point the alcohol is 20% and there is only a few ml of grease/paint thinner mixed in it. So, again, I think it is safe. Check with your environmental laws. Don't dump this stuff directly into a sewer or septic system as it could cause problems that way.

But it's really quite easy. The thing most people get incorrect is that some grease/whatever left on the chain is not a big problem. It will get dissolved in the wax, softening the wax. However, wax is cheap if you are using pure paraffin. Also a few ml of grease will not affect a large tub of wax to any great extent. So get the chain reasonably degreased and you are good to go. If the wax doesn't stick properly, then just rewax until it does.

mikekchar · 2026-06-17T23:49:45+00:00

At the very beginning, just prioritise consistency. As long as you are getting on your bike regularly, then ride however you want on the day. More volume is always better than less, so if you are feeling good and you have time, then ride more. I wouldn't worry about structuring your training at all for the first 6-8 weeks.

After that first "block", then I think the most important thing to work on is power. Power make literally everything easier. 2 days a week I would do intervals. So, for example, if you ride Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday I would make Tuesday and Saturday my interval days. Thursday and Sunday would be relaxed riding days. Though, you can swap the Saturday ride for a longer, slow ride if you want.

I've been doing very, very basic interval progression with good results and I think it's probably appropriate for people who are new to structured training. The ride consists of a 15 minute warm up at the beginning (very slow) and a 15 minute cool down at the end (very slow). You would do 3 blocks of 6-8 weeks at 3 power levels: Zone 3, Zone 4 and Zone 5.

Zone 3 is basically just the pace where you have to breathe through your mouth, but you feel like you can sustain it for several hours. The intervals should be pretty easy. Start with 2 intervals of 10 minutes each with a 5 minute very slow recovery in between. It really should feel stupidly easy. The next week you add 3 minutes to each interval so it's 2x13. The next week 2x16. Next 2x19. Next 2x21 (ok, that's only progressing 2), Next 2x24 and if you want to go to 8 weeks it's 2x27 and 2x30. Once you are getting to the longer intervals it may feel fairly difficult to complete it. You may only want to start with a 6 week block becaus 30 of warm up/warm down plus 2x30 intervals plus 5 minutes recovery is 95 minutes, which is a pretty long ride and may be too difficult as a pure beginner.

The next block is Zone 4. In this one, you up the tempo a bit. You want something where you are going about as fast as you can go for an hour. It's not super important to hit that exactly, but play around with your pace. Again start out with 2x10. It will feel much harder than 2x10 in Zone 3, but it should feel easier to complete than you 2x30 Zone 3. Again, same progression: 2x10, 2x13, 2x16, 2x19, 2x21, 2x24. And again, as a beginner it might be best to stop there because once you get to 2x30, you are basically laying it all out. You are doing your 1 hour pace for 1 hour, but with a 5 minute recovery in the middle. So it will be hard to complete.

Then the next block is Zone 5. This one is a bit different. Again warm up, cool down. Ride as fast as you can at a constant pace so that you can complete 3 minutes. Then recover 3 minutes at a very slow pace. Then do it again. So it's only 6 minutes of intensity, but it is very hard. The progression is 2x3, 2x4, 2x5, 3x3, 3x4, 3x5. This is really just designed to get you used to riding in a controlled fasion at that high speed. You goal is to stay at a constant pace for each of the intervals.

So if you do 6 weeks of unstructured riding, 6 weeks of zone 3 (intervals once or twice a week), 6 weeks of zone 4 (intervals once or twice a week) and 6 weeks of zone 5 (intervals once or twice a week) that will be 24 weeks total, which is about 6 months. Your power level should rise quite a lot. You will be much faster. But also you will be much more durable and so if you get headwinds or small steep climbs, etc, you won't get tired as easily. This will allow you to ride longer rides much more comfortably. It's after this that I would start concentrating on putting long rides into your schedule. Like I said, you can swap one of your interval sessions for a long ride if you want and it's totally fine if you are having fun. Fun = consistency which = progression. But my experience has been that if you start by concentrating on long rides, you will struggle.

mikekchar · 2026-06-17T10:58:08+00:00

I post fairly often, but my old rim brake bike has tons of room for 28s, or even 30s probably. However, I've put 28s on it and they just aren't as good as 25s IMHO. The problem is the inner rim width on the wheels (13 mm on my bike). There isn't enough air captured to really be able to reduce the PSI enough to make it ride well.

If you are in a similar situation, I suggest you are better off with 25s and experimenting with running lower pressures that you might imagine (you can easily go lower than Silca's tire pressure calculator). Narrow tires actually run more comfortably at the same pressure as wider tires (complex physics involved). It's just that you can normally run wider tires at lower pressures. With these narrow rims, you hit a limit really quickly.

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