Nostr notes by dr2chase

I need to pick up a repaired snowblower tomorrow, and drop some ...

2026-03-10T02:33:45Z

I need to pick up a repaired snowblower tomorrow, and drop some stuff (gifts, taxes) off at the post office. By bike, as one does. Pick up the snowblower first, so I can park the bike+loaded trailer outside the post office, people need to see that it's possible (easy, even). I seem to have sorted the electrical problem on the e-bike, which is nice.
#CarryShitOlympics #Because

Nowadays almost all the cargo bikes are e-bikes, I look at some ...

2026-03-08T19:03:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…dp7p
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Nowadays almost all the cargo bikes are e-bikes, I look at some of them, it's not just e-assist, but e-shifting, automatic shifting, bluetooth, etc, etc, blah-blah-blah, is all this stuff designed for 20 Boston winters? Experience with the US bike industry suggests haha, no, what sort of weirdo are you to ride a bike in *weather*?

Dammit to hell, transportation, not toys. Maybe nobody else can tolerate the weather, maybe nobody else can do on-the-road fixes, but I can. I expect a tough bike.

and used my little bottle of 91% isopropyl to rinse every places ...

2026-03-08T19:00:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…0zpg
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and used my little bottle of 91% isopropyl to rinse every places where dirt and slime was visible, no change. Then I looked at this one thing where one wire entered, and 4 emerged, including the three I had stubbed off. For grins, I sprayed alcohol onto there, then used the bottle (vertically) to spray air in to move the alcohol out.

And the problem cleared. So, great, I solved the problem, but dammit to heck, why is this potential failure there?

and because I ride year-round, I rode it in the winter. I have it ...

2026-03-08T18:45:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…gh46
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and because I ride year-round, I rode it in the winter. I have it configured as minimally as I can -- type 1 crank input only, no throttle, no brake cutouts, and the connectors for those covered in silicone (after an episode in the rain where the throttle input just started to go-go-go, very exciting!).

Over the weekend, the display started telling me "err 04", which the internet says means "bad throttle input". BUT THERE IS NO THROTTLE. I carefully fiddled all the connectors and cleaned them

dabbled in homemade lighting because when I started (1) LEDs were ...

2026-03-08T18:42:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…a5k4
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dabbled in homemade lighting because when I started (1) LEDs were not as good and (2) I had less money and (3) I did not appreciate how much money I could spend saving money. But I designed lights that worked in several ways, and finally settle on a design that has more drag, but is utterly durable, will function immersed in water, etc. Latest iteration tolerates intermittent wire breaks, which is another failure mode.

Last I year I got an e-bike upgrade for one of my bikes,

I wish to rant about #bike technology. My rant may not generalize ...

2026-03-08T18:39:36Z

I wish to rant about #bike technology. My rant may not generalize to anyone else, but I've patiently read other people's rants, this one is mine. I've been riding a #cargobike to work and errands since 2006, year round, accumulating 10s of thousands of miles in the process. I expect my bikes to be reliable, and as part of that, when they break, for most failures, I have the tools and ability to repair them. And of course I bike in all sorts of weather. Over the years I have also sometimes

guessing, the emissions come from parts of the maser that are ...

2025-12-27T13:14:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…ln7a
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guessing, the emissions come from parts of the maser that are spinning so fast (and the spin axis is perpendicular-ish to our line of sight) that they are red/blue shifted from their neutral values?

From this weekend, a cargo bike demo ...

2025-09-24T02:34:19Z

From this weekend, a cargo bike demo

I have minor quibbles, I wish that handlebars were more ...

2025-08-16T15:43:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…ax3x
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I have minor quibbles, I wish that handlebars were more North-Road-y (better for hands, near as I can tell) and do the tires really need those knobs and at that size how many choices will I get, but overall nice. Tempting to look for an IGH upgrade but it's not a cargo bike, so, eh. Would it fit a trailer, though?

by the numbers, the Xafari looks like a surprisingly good choice.

2025-08-16T15:34:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…ymc7
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by the numbers, the Xafari looks like a surprisingly good choice.

I'm actually fine with that intersection, there's an ...

2025-07-29T19:07:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…re6c
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I'm actually fine with that intersection, there's an itty-bitty triangle that I aim for where I can wait for traffic to clear. But:

https://vimeo.com/1105448505?share=copy#t=0

What's wrong with this picture? ...

2025-07-29T12:42:10Z

What's wrong with this picture?

I saw no mention of its range, which I expect is tiny, because ...

2025-01-17T22:15:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…r75e
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I saw no mention of its range, which I expect is tiny, because super capacitors are not energy dense.

ohai.social is pretty good I think, goldilocks-sized, and here is ...

2025-01-06T05:43:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…lytn
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ohai.social is pretty good I think, goldilocks-sized, and here is an invite code. Phanpy is a good app/agent for viewing.

https://ohai.social/invite/TjdQth6u

I didn't clobber Yo-Yo Ma in a crosswalk.

2024-10-19T18:43:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…farz
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I didn't clobber Yo-Yo Ma in a crosswalk.

My opinion on this is influenced by growing up in Florida, where ...

2024-09-23T22:03:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…atuw
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My opinion on this is influenced by growing up in Florida, where people pay a premium to live on barrier islands, and seem utterly uninterested in how a thing called "Hurricane Pass" got its name and whether that has any relevance to the stability of the land under their home, and neither the person selling the home/land nor the local government seem particularly interested in bringing it to their attention. (My grandfather lived nearby when it happened.)

Caveat Emptor!

pretty sure that most of the "responsible" parties are ...

2024-09-23T19:12:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…nufd
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pretty sure that most of the "responsible" parties are long gone. Some developer decided they wanted to build there, some official decided to allow it, and that was decades ago. After that, it was just houses on the housing market, presumed safe and habitable. It sure can't be fixed in place; a "fix" involves spending enough money to put those people in other houses somewhere else.

but is that what it was? The default explanation is ...

2024-09-23T17:29:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…427v
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but is that what it was? The default explanation is "racism".

Recently, I realized that US housing policy is "cheap ...

2024-09-14T15:09:11Z

Recently, I realized that US housing policy is "cheap gasoline".

this fails when we are sitting in the same room. All the messages ...

2024-09-11T15:50:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…e8h8
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this fails when we are sitting in the same room. All the messages that are supposed to be SMS to my phone, end up as messages on my laptop.

Apple messages figured out that it can reach me by iMessage at an ...

2024-09-11T15:38:17Z

Apple messages figured out that it can reach me by iMessage at an Apple account so now when my wife sends me SMS haha no she doesn't. Bit of a shame Android phones don't get iMessage. "It just works."

From week before last, my contribution to #CarryShitOlympics. I ...

2024-09-08T20:34:49Z

From week before last, my contribution to #CarryShitOlympics. I did in fact move a child into a Boston apartment on the worst moving day of the year (September 1), by staging 4 loads earlier in the week into empty space at work, then all four the last 1.8 miles on moving day. Here's two of those loads, and bike+trailer parking that worked much better than I had expected.