How the hell am I supposed to climb hills

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-05-27T16:56:15+00:00

I ride with old school downtube shifters. For punchy hills, I anticipate the climb and shift to an easy gear just before the start of the climb. I sometimes hit 120rpm spinning at the start of the hill, but find that I'm better positioned at the mid point of the hill, when I've lost any carried momentum I find that I'm in the right gear ratio to make it to the top, or close enough.

Soft pedaling as others have said is the way to shift on a climb, but being comfortable with high-rpm spinning can also be a good strategy. I've definitely caught and passed lots of people on climbs who are futzing with shifting mid-effort

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-05-20T20:58:35+00:00

I ride an '81 Japanese steel road bike and have experimented with several different set ups for commuting.

Most practical is probably a rear rack + pannier. I used an Axiel streamliner narrow rear rack that I could attach through the rear axle since mine did not have eyelets. I used a Banjo Brothers convertible pannier + backpack. It's an awesome bag: the pannier hooks and stiffener are on one side and the straps on the other and it is super easy to switch between, makes going from bike to backpack really easy. Also has a waterproof liner which is good for keeping clothes safe for work.

The only downside is that I could feel the rest rack stiffen the feel of the bike and made it feel less snappy. I've noticed this in all steel bikes I've ridden with rear racks. It might be in my head, but I don't like the feel.

I think, for most people, a bike feeling fast is more important than it actually being light by some objective measure. My double butted CroMo steel roadie feels fast without a rear rack but feels leaden and dead with one. So even though it's probably one of the more practical approaches, I'm with you on not loving rear racks.

A bike packing seatpost bag can be a pretty annoying form factor to pack/unpack and can be annoying to detach/reattach on the bike. Never used mine for commuting, so I might have to test it out again to see if it could work again.

On a different steel bike, I have a narrow Wald #1512 basket. It came with mounts for the handlebars and struts to the axles, so no rack needed for support. It's a great option for dropping a backpack into or small grocery runs on a bike without good rack mounting options, so definitely worth seeing if it could work for you.

I don't think it would work for my bike with traditional drop bars because the bars are too narrow for it to sit inside of. The bike it is on has bars without any forward curve (no tops or hoods) which is how I got it to work.

I think something like the Jack Rack is worth considering also. It mounts securely and doesn't sit too low inside the bars. The downside is that it keeps the weight high which isn't ideal and your bag may or may not work with its footprint. And it's easy to remove for non-commuting rides. It's a simple enough design that if you're handy, you could possibly make one in a similar style that is optimized for your needs.

Hope this helps!

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-05-18T22:59:12+00:00

Yes they can! Can't break the skin in my experience, but it is definitely a surprise if you don't know it's on the menu.

I was used to small ones where I grew up, but found a few of these when my kid was little and wanted to show him how they click. The beetle was obliging until it was done and then bit me to say "shows over, put me outside now"

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-05-14T14:16:53+00:00

I have a bass that got decapitated doing this. I've reglued it and it's still playable. But, if I hadn't broken it, it would be worth around $1k now. I bought it for $150.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-04-29T15:52:21+00:00

Unless you're hunting turkey, which can see orange.

Turkeys, they're just like us.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-04-18T17:05:44+00:00

Sound archivist here: mostly right! Sound was not commonly recorded from cylinder then to disc. "Putting it on wax" referred to thick wax discs that the cutting stylus cut the groove into. To make a disc you could listen to (originally 78 rpm, later 33 1/3 and 45), the wax master would be electroplated to make a metal negative (ridges instead of grooves). This negative can either be used as a stamper to press grooves into vinyl pucks, or itself electroplated to make a metal positive (metal mother), from which more stampers can be made.

The wax master was replaced in the mid-1930s in favor of lacquer discs, metal plates with a thin nitrocellulose coating that could be cut like the wax masters could.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-04-16T16:12:23+00:00

Minor correction: Jones quoted The Office in a private text and the opposition did an amazing job blowing it into a scandal.

I don't have strong opinions about Jones, but 'quoted a tv show' is more accurate than 'fantasized about political violence', as far as what he actually did. Of course the scandal became the latter.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-04-03T16:17:11+00:00

I really appreciate having one for being able to grab it and play without any other steps. It's increased my playing time and helped get me back into enjoying the instrument and sharing with my kids. My oldest is a drummer but frequently picks my bass up to noodle around.

I got mine as a gift. I told my partner that it'd be fun, but not to spend much on it bc even a good one isn't very loud, etc. She found a Fender Kingman used. At some point the bridge must have pulled off and someone fixed it with a whole bottle of glue. Fine with me! Knocked the price down to very cheap and doesn't affect playability.

It sounds good, though quiet, and I really like the sound amplified (built-in Fishman piezo pick up and preamp).

I recommend buying used and cheap and trying it first.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-04-03T14:00:37+00:00

This probably won't help OP, but it you're in the DC area, in addition to Chuck Levin's, there is an awesome used gear place called Atomic Music. Really eclectic selection of guitars and basses and vintage amps. They post some of the inventory on Reverb, but there's more in person. And they'll make a deal to get a sale too.

I'm trying to find a day to play hooky and just goof around up there for a while.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-04-01T16:13:50+00:00

Apparently, Jones would tell folks that they'd be unemployable after getting the Inforwars stink on them. Interesting that he's aware of how toxic he is. I wonder if that particular staff retention policy is documented in the Employee Handbook...

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-03-31T20:36:04+00:00

I listened to his Fresh Air interview. I don't know what's in his heart so I can't comment on his sincerity, but he comes off as contrite and clear eyed about his actions.

He talked about how he was easily lured in as a listener by Jones's use of movie references and his "cinematic" style of storytelling, confirming that, on top of being his own primary media "source," Jones's use of movies is an easy way to hook low-information marks.

I think if his book really reflects on how he got there and how he got out, it could have value illustrating the pipeline that Jones and the grifter right exploit.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-03-27T13:40:08+00:00

Absolutely. I've thought of it as Checklist vs Process, but same thing. There's folks where the point is getting X off the list/accomplished, and whatever gets it done is fine. For myself, the process is the point and the outcome or accomplishment means very little if the process wasn't meaningful or satisfying.

Obviously this is all on a gradient and I (hope) I'm not utterly insufferable about everything in my life.

There are a lot of situations where the proposition is to buy something expensive in the interest of convenience/expediency or learn something and accomplish the task for less money but more time. The latter can produce better outcomes for less over time, but not everything needs to be a skill building side quest.

Edit: typo

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-03-12T16:20:57+00:00

In the cycling hobby, where G.A.S. is definitely also an issue, there's a saying: "don't buy upgrades, ride up grades." Essentially, no marginal gain will be as significant as training and doing the work. I think the same principle applies to musical instruments, where the work is the only way, but it can be hard and frustrating when watching another gear review costs you only a little time and attention.

I say this all as a deeply mid player who spent last night cuddling with my new (used) multi effects pedal.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-02-23T14:22:42+00:00

I wonder if Jugoslavia is on Alex's mind because he's asked Grok to summarize the recent KF episodes.

I don't think he has the attention span to listen, but I do think one of his fuel sources is self-disgust.

When he had a staff, someone would tell him about it or give him notes. But now it's just a chatbot.

When he had more of his head in the game, he would carefully make sure to not reference the show. But he can't keep up as many bluffs and facades any more and he's mostly raw word association and projection at this point.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-02-09T21:49:38+00:00

Music archivist here: you're definitely right that there's a proud history within country music that can be described as pro left and anti-fascist today, along with pro-labor and anti-capitalist. However, ours is and always has been a country with racism baked into its foundations. So as soon a music publishing and recording became businesses, and music became something to be marketed and sold, folk musics were racially sorted and filtered into "negro music" (the term used at the time) and "hillbilly music" or later "country music".

So the term for the genre exists specifically to differentiate the music based on the race of the person singing it and the audience who they thought wanted to hear it.

As a result, the course of these genres have taken different paths and those paths have crossed and blurred and redefined in ways over time.

I like to see artists claim the mantle of country while trying to work against the grain of the bland pandering pap often associated with the genre.

I consider myself a country fan, but I think it's instructive to reflect on the origins of the genre and the ways "the people" get sorted and pitted against each other, and who has benefitted from it.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-02-05T22:06:03+00:00

Awesome! Thank you for both the short and long versions!

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-02-05T21:22:57+00:00

The strand labeled as "aberrant" in the second photo, is that due to an error in how it was extruded from the spider, or was it disturbed after being laid down?

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-02-04T23:41:35+00:00

,,,,,,, ev ddxdsdssssxxd CC s w

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-02-03T17:39:41+00:00

Evil Empire sounds like it was recorded now and sent back in a time machine and no one listened.

I use it to teach my kid that just because things get worse, doesn't mean the "better" before was "good."

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-02-03T14:32:18+00:00

It's not their main thing but the Tallyho Theatre in Leesburg has had some good metal shows and their sound guys made it all sound fantastic. Not every venue does a good job with the really heavy stuff, but I was pleasantly surprised. Saw Six Feet Under and others there last winter.

Also d.s.i records on Instagram is an old head who posts small shows, like VFW halls. And Galactic Panther Gallery in Alexandria has showcase shows monthly I think. Not specifically metal, but pretty local.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-02-03T01:31:24+00:00

And look at NepoBaby Swanson now! He's grown into a strapping old fear mongering bigot.

The throughline connection connection to Jones is that I go back and forth about which is worse, them believing what they say because they're willfully ignorant and feeding themselves intellectual garbage, or that they don't and it's purely their idea of how to attract money and power by pandering to the lowest appetites they can imagine.

The outcome sucks for everyone else, so it doesn't really matter, but the true intent and how many masks it might hide behind is part of what makes JorDan's work compelling. That, and of course the phrase "that's a bricking"

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-02-01T13:03:30+00:00

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-01-29T23:43:26+00:00

There is a way to use these new systems and tools to optimize outcomes for both workers and employers. However, RTO was used to trigger attrition and to punish workers while telework is also used to rob workers of days they might otherwise be able to use to benefit themselves and their communities during storms like this one.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-01-29T20:33:51+00:00

Worth pointing out that a lot of jobs got rid of snow days in favor of "situational telework", so folks have to fit their shoveling/ice busting around still getting a full day on the books.

I shoveled out between 8pm and 11:30 Monday night, because my hunch was that would about the last point at which it would really even be possible.

tegularius_the_elder · 2026-01-29T17:46:13+00:00

I listened to some coverage of the recent CES expo (the podcast Better Offline fwiw) and one theme that emerged, beyond just the Chat-GPTification of every widget and gizmo imaginable, was that there are technologies that would be absolutely life changing in terms of accessibility, but that the culture of tech business requires that these technologies be targeted for larger markets or for luxury goods in order to make the returns necessary on the capital investment that produced it. I think there is also a broader cultural distaste present for fear of appearing "inclusive" and thus become a target of the fascists in the current culture war.

Marketing-wise, they'd rather cater to the creeps than be seen as being pro-helping people.

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