@1, good thinking with the hastag spam for developing interest groups.

#bicycle #foldingbike #recumbent #food #handspinning #sewing #knitting

Does the #search feature work across instances, or only on this instance?

@1 Thanks! My own experimenting seems to confirm that.

@Latkes - I'm informed that hashtag searches work across the whole federation.

@1 That would be a Content Warning (the cw button)

@1 Yep!

Last Friday we got a case of bananas. We now have lots of fruit leather, three jars of dried bananas, and about 1/4 case of bananas. Next: some kind of shelf stable banana bread? #food #bananas #dehydrator

Anyone tried making a shelf-stable dehydrated banana bread/biscuit/whatever? #bananas #food #dehydrator

@Talyaa if we save some, I may eventually rehydrate them for banana bread. But probably we'll just eat them, because they taste like candy.

Following everyone else who has used the #bicycle or #bicycles tags. All three of you!

Ah! A search for "bike" reveals a few more people. #bike #bikes #bicycle #bicycles #cyclists (oh hey, I should try that one too)

@Nerdfest The tool you want is a "Crank Puller" (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CrankExtractor4.jpg). It screws into those threads on the inside of the crank arm, and then you turn the handle (or on cheaper/compact models use a wrench to turn the central bolt-like part) and it presses against the spindle and eventually pops the crank off. Do make sure to thread the puller ALL THE WAY into the threads on the inside of the crank or it will strip out.

@ianames I'm late here, but... while mid-drives have a gearing advantage for hills, hub motors can (though most don't) have the benefit of regenerative braking. I have the GRIN All-Axle hub motor on a DIY cargo recumbent delta trike and it has saved me so many brake pads. I only use mechanical brakes in a panic stop or to kill the last little bit of momentum when coasting to a stop. I can set a speed limit and just relax on a long descent instead of white-knuckling the brakes. On hilly terrain it sometimes recovers 20% of power from regen. Also, it doesn't cause any extra chain wear and provides fully redundant power and brake systems. I occasionally take it up a few miles of 10-20% grade, so it can handle a bit of steepness. Er... I didn't set out to write such a glowing endorsement, but it turns out I have thoughts on this subject. I hear mid-drives are good too! I have considered switching to mid because they're usually lighter for a given torque.

@ianames I am in California, which is a lot closer to Grin Tech (they are in Vancouver). I order directly from them; they are small enough that I don't think they work with many retailers. They do a lot of international shipping, though: https://ebikes.ca/shop/support/shipping.html

After a year of wearing out my first pair of DIY bike tire sandals, I recently made a pair of shoes from old bike tires that I am pretty pleased with! I put some notes online (https://www.darinwick.com/tire-shoes.html) but still need a better way to remove the knobs from the tires - cutting them off with scissors or a knife takes a long time! Any suggestions?

@michelle Fantastic book! Felt like a bit of a slow start to me, but absolutely worth it.

I learned about the #carryshitolympics tag today and am posting an old photo to celebrate! It looks like I probably towed that kayak at least 15 miles (round trip) that day. (This is not the longest rig I have ridden - that would be the time we pulled a 16 foot canoe behind a recumbent tandem.)

@CathyTuttle Cool! I used to work at the GoByBike bicycle valet and it was a really fun job. Glad to see they are branching out!

@derwinmcgeary I wince/cringe when I can tell my bicycle needs some kind of maintenance. Sometimes it is anticipation of the problem I am exacerbating... and other times it just feels wrong and uncomfortable, which is maybe more what you mean?

I have been riding my #homebuilt #solar electric #trike for over a year now, so it is probably time to write something about it on the internet. What questions/topics do y'all think I ought to cover?

#bicycle #ebike #biketouring #recumbent

@pqqq Haven't watched any of them yet, but I just came across this video ranking several: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iQCANJY-VE

(At first I thought you were looking for books, in which case I can personally recommend Under a Falling Star by Jae. She has also edited a few holiday anthologies.)

@ClH2OArs

Oh, wow! I meant to check the publication dates and then forgot.

I am glad Witchmark got me thinking of Baker Thief, because I remembered to ask my local library for more of your books. (-: Folks writing #ace and/or #genderfluid characters have my attention and appreciation!

@clpolk

I wondered if you were a transportation cyclist, but didn't want to assume. It felt like a level of detail that would come from reflection on personal experience. Anyway, thank you for the lovely depiction of cycling! I was so happy reading it. I described the book to my partner (also a bike person) and then told her you were a cyclist and she said "it shows."

re: automobiles are evil: I guess I picked up on that a little. The discomfort of mages traveling in aether-powered cars mostly had me thinking of carsickness. It's a different mechanism, but I ride in cars so rarely that I find it viscerally unpleasant. Maybe the cars-are-evil clues would be more apparent to people who don't already associate cars with discomfort. (-: Tying it in to cars-as-conspicuous-consumption was a nice touch.

Ok, going to read more of Stormsong now! (Global warming concerns mentioned in a fantasy novel? Yes!)

@clpolk

I have heard good things about https://search.marginalia.nu/. They say "Where this search engine really shines is finding small, old and obscure websites about some given topic"

@sonyah

Trikes are great for carrying stuff! My partner and I both ride cargo trikes as our primary vehicles. (-:

Obligatory PSA from your friendly internet bike mechanic: Most bicycles sold by big box stores like Walmart are poorly assembled with low-quality components. They are not built to last, and when they do break down they are usually difficult to repair. It's often better to get a quality secondhand bike and have it tuned up by a reputable shop. Depending on where you are, you may be able to find good trikes on Craigslist, at a community bike shop (https://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/Community_Bicycle_Organizations), or similar. (End PSA)

Oh, and if you do ever want a shorter bike (not trike), check out folding bikes. The seat usually adjusts much shorter than a regular bike. There are some really nice folding bikes!

@kidagreen@mastodon.lol

That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston

They appear in Soulstar by C. L. Polk (third book in the Kingston Cycle) but are not a major focus.

@JeanTangerine@sfba.social

Congratulations!

Are you looking for suggestions for an ebike (or a type of ebike) to get? If so, what is your use case? Will you be hauling groceries? Hauling bigger stuff? Taking it on transit? Carrying it up stairs? How much assist do you want - just enough for the big hills, or enough to keep you going faster everywhere? How far do you want to ride between charges?

Definitely look into cycling safety training if you do not have experience riding for transportation. If you don't have a friend who can help you with this, the League of American Bicyclists trains and certifies instructors. Odds are good you can find an LAB-certified class most places in the US. Check with city & county transportation departments, local bike advocacy groups, and public libraries for bike maps of your region. The best bike route is often not obvious or direct. )-: Local bike organizations (advocacy groups or community bikes shops: https://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/Community_Bicycle_Organizations) are a good place to make cycling friends!

If your main reason for going electric is to climb a single big hill, a low-power mid-drive system with a small battery and a throttle could be perfect: Ride it like a normal bike 90% of the time, and use the throttle on the hill. Some systems also allow you to use both throttle and pedal assist (that's what I have). Most also have a speed limit that you may be able to customize - I usually keep mine at ~16mph because I consider that a safe & reasonable top speed for cycling. With the pedal-assist on a low setting, I often don't even go that fast.

Anyway, I hope you find an ebike you enjoy!

@sinituulia Any chance you can ID the fabric of my partner's favorite skirt? We have tried a variety of other wool fabrics attempting to replicate it, but most are coarser-weave and less durable.

@dariohudon I believe the Rotary Unsmartphone is going to be sold as a kit: https://skysedge.com/unsmartphones/RUSP/index.html I am hoping she will get around to posting the parts list, etc. one of these days - right now there is some rough info in the FAQ.

@Annalee Wow! Thank you for sharing. This is so much fun to see and is just the inspiration I need, since I have several vest/waistcoat projects in the to-sew pile.

@sinituulia Thank you! I realized this evening I could probably also figure it out with measuring and math and research... and it seems to be around 7oz/yd² (220g/m²) and 25-30tpi (10-12 threads per cm) in both directions, which I guess means a threadcount of 50-60? So I think "light" is correct, but the suiting I see all has a threadcount of 100 or more. Now I just have to figure out what that's called and where to buy it. (-: We mostly use whatever secondhand/discarded fabric we can pick up. Trying to buy new fabric with specific properties is a learning experience.

Anyway, thank you! Your post reminded me of this project that has been on the back burner for a while, and it's good to make progress on it again.

What pattern would you embroider around these stains to make them look more intentional?

They're on the upper left sleeve of a hoodie made from a very pleasant woven linen/cotton blend. Right now my best idea is a generic outline or starburst pattern, but there must be something more creative! (USB plug for scale)

@clew I like the beetles idea! Could probably do flowers as well.

I should probably have though more about orientation when taking that photo. My wrist is to the left & my shoulder is to the right. The small dot is pretty much centered in the bend of my left elbow and the larger dot is a little toward the outside of the elbow. The other, fainter splashes of color also lie on a ring around the elbow, so I might be able to do something with that.

Also tempted to try turning the large & small dots into the wheels of a pennyfarthing bicycle, but the sizes & distance between them are the wrong ratio.

@sarah Thank you so much!

Most of the time my relationship to the website is "ugh I need to update it more" and it's a nice change to hear an internet stranger say that it is cool. (-:

Mastodon has been good for the website - there is more incentive to post when I have somewhere to share the posts. It feels less like shouting into the void. Currently working on one about solar power for ebikes.

@FabOnABike@mastodon.lol There are some groups via a.gup.pe like @fedibikes and @mastobikes; I see a lot of posts in what I think is German on those groups, but I think you can filter your home feed by language.

For hashtags, #bicycle and #bike both get used often. I personally enjoy #carryshitolympics.

My partner and I snagged @bicycle back when this whole thing was much newer and we occasionally boost & post relevant things there.

@sarah Nice! I have so many questions. Do you ride deltas, then? When you say grid-beam, are you thinking N55/XYZcargo-style or one of the industrial systems like T-slot? What sort of solar panels are you planning to use?

Hey, in just two years I have achieved iron-age-level shoe technology with modern materials! (-: I am actually pretty pleased to learn that; thanks for sharing. What kinds of shoes do you make?

@sarah Oh, that grid beam! I had seen that and forgotten about it. I was thinking of N55 XYZ Spaceframe http://www.n55.dk/MANUALS/SPACEFRAMEVEHICLES/spaceframevehicles.html, which I now realize looks very much like a derivative of gridbeam. I would love to see your build & process!

Looked up shoe photos, iron age ghillies look really neat!

@sarah We have been using a 170 watt SunPower flexible panel for each trike. When it's not too cloudy, that is a pretty reasonable amount of power for me and maybe not quite enough for my partner - I go lighter on the assist b/c I am more willing to mess with the controls and my knees are in better shape. I think I average a bit less than 15Wh/mi? It seems like the maximum output voltage is *almost* low enough to give the MPPT charger room to boost the voltage to the 36V batteries' lowest voltage but not quite, because when the batteries are completely dead I have to bypass the charger to get them jump-started. I suspect that would not be an issue with these panels feeding 52 or 48V batteries. (I could be wrong about why it requires the jump-start thing, though, it is just a guess.) So the panels are pretty good electrically!

Physically, the flex panels are a nuisance to design for. They are meant to be mounted on the solid surface of a campervan or boat, not on a frame. I build wooden frames with slight curvature for ours, sacrificing a little bit of optimal sun exposure to get a better stiffness-to-weight ratio. I have also seen people use coroplast or aluminum sheets with holes drilled out to back the panels. My ideal panel would be something like the LightLeaf (lightleafsolar.com/) panels that are stiff but weigh about the same as flex panels. They are pricey, though! I don't currently know of anyone else making a stiff lightweight panel except really dedicated DIYers - most stiff panels seem to be the heavy glass-fronted ones for stationary use.

@sarah Soldering & electronics is nice to know. I still remember a lot of misc bits from getting my Ham license but about the only parts I use for solar ebike stuff are Ohm's law and the power equation (power=voltage*current). All our ebike stuff uses crimp connectors, so the only soldering I do on them is occasional custom lights and accessories like wiring in a USB charging port.

@kidagreen@mastodon.lol I kept skipping this series because the descriptions sounded a little too violent for my taste and... it was, but it was absolutely worth it for El's 'militant decency'. Thank you for the recommendation!

@sarah Oh, cool! Snowshoe-style trailers sound like a fantastic idea. Are there photos?

I think the only concern there is that the more the panels flex, the more likely they are to wind up with tiny fractures in the cells that will reduce their efficiency. Mark Havran (currently going around the world on a solar recumbent he has been building for 15 years and which looks like something a professional design company would create) lectured me on the subject when we ran into him biking through LA. Apparently he knows a few people who have run into that problem with insufficiently-supported panels - some to the point that they had to order new panels mid-tour. Ours have a little flex and seem to be doing ok, but I worry about it sometimes.

I love the concept of intentional flexibility in bike design generally, though! I have spent a lot of time contemplating tensegrity structures, but snowshoes are a new one to me. Going to have to think about that more.

@nerdybutcute@mastodon.lol Sounds like everyone needs a #toollibrary

@rose_alibi I am the same; it can be a real problem! Someone in our neighborhood set up a little free craft box (like a little free library but for craft supplies) and it has been pretty helpful. BuyNothing (https://buynothingproject.org/) has also worked well because (at least where I used to live) there was a culture of people saying what they planned to use the thing for in their request. A a SCRAP store (https://scrapcreativereuse.org/) or similar is great too if you can get to one.

@VE2UWY @mediaarchaeologylab Reduce your skin resistance by 10% to click and 15% to scroll. "I'm too stressed to scroll through more political news right now, but if I breathe deeply for a minute maybe I can click over to cute animal pictures."

@MLE_online @North When I joined in 2017 it seemed like people thumbing their noses at twitter? Apparently there was some notable controversy over the twitter checkmarks around that time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_verification#Controversy

@amateurradioinclusivitypledge Thanks for the reminder! I think I managed to get EchoLink set up properly on the computer; hopefully I'll be able to join tonight.

(I feel odd about connecting via the computer when I have a functional HT, but I didn't find any active EchoLink repeaters near me and it looks like the PrideNet IRLP node is down? https://status.irlp.net/index.php?nodeid=9550)

@brian_gettler Yes! Places like this are an amazing resource.

For people NOT in Toronto, there are similar organizations in a lot of other places. The most comprehensive list I know of is: https://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/Community_Bicycle_Organizations

@knittingsquirrel

TriSled posts some neat custom recumbent, cargo, and adaptive bike builds on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@TriSled) and their blog (http://trisled.com.au/blog/)

Looks like the Bikeyface webcomic is no longer updated, but it is a good read (http://bikeyface.com/)

I occasionally post videos about unusual bikes on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn9DkGHAT2ydUSZNK1LCw3w/)

I have been co-organizing the Bike!Bike! Everywhere! online conference for a couple of years now and we post videos of most workshops to https://archive.org/details/@bikebikeeverywhere Not all of them are interesting to the general public, but here are a few highlights:

Wheelchair Maintenance Workshop: https://archive.org/details/bbe-2021.15-en

RADS - a queer feminist collective in Vienna: https://archive.org/details/bbe-2021.23-en

Creative Reuse in the bike shop: https://archive.org/details/video1862297921

What to do about Built-to-Fail Budget bicycles: https://archive.org/details/BBE2021.18
(and a followup the next year: https://archive.org/details/2022.16-en)

Bici Fanzine & Playas Ride - a grassroots feminist advocacy initiative in Tijuana: https://archive.org/details/2022.7-en

There are Spanish-language recordings available for most workshops as well.

@sabogato Same and same. I can keep up with my home feed now, but it feels too much like being in a bubble.

Yesterday I learned that it is possible to hide boosts from specific people, but haven't yet worked up the enthusiasm to go through all my follows and evaluate who is boosting things I want to see but not boosting so many things I can't keep up.

@asha@mastodon.lol My default is a heavy calf-length wool half-circle skirt over pants/leggings, and if it is cold enough a long coat tailored to imply that I have a waist.

@sabogato A separate feed for boosts would be perfect!

Seems like the main Mastodon dev team is slow to implement feature requests, but I am going to file an issue with the glitch-soc fork since that is what my instance uses and they may be quicker to implement new features.

@sabogato Feature requested https://github.com/glitch-soc/mastodon/issues/2075

@amateurradioinclusivitypledge @salad_bar_breath There are private mail receiving/forwarding/scanning services that allow many recipients at the same address. I have used physicaladdress.com and it looks like they offer "unlimited recipients."

@aBirdieOnaWire @rooster @HannahSometimes@ohai.social

"They quietly sit and take in the conversation."

That's me! Generally in life (see also: social anxiety) and specifically in that I have a lot of gender stuff to figure out and following along with conversations about it is helpful right now.

@kidagreen@mastodon.lol The Steerswoman books by Rosemary Kirstein.

@kidagreen@mastodon.lol Also, now I'm starting This is How You Lose the Time War, because the last time you recommended something that was on my to-be-read list (Scholomance) it was excellent. (-:

24 hours ago: I did a crown braid! it worked! I was even able to weave the ends back in so it holds together without pins or elastic!

2 minutes ago: Time to unbraid, just gotta find the ends... um... where did they go?

I'm sure I'll be able to undo this eventually.

@uxmark Glad someone has written about this; thanks for the link!

"every bike event involved alcohol" / “'I stopped drinking, and the phone stopped ringing'”

I don't drink*. I once dropped out of a local advocacy group because it only ever met in bars. I haven't connected with a lot of bike people who could have been friends because every time they socialized it was at a bar, or at the shop with beers.

In the Community Bike Shop and Bike Advocacy worlds I still hear people talking about bringing beers to volunteer board meetings like it is totally fine and normal. (Right! Unless one of your volunteers doesn't feel comfortable around alcohol and/or drunk people. Oh, you would stop the beer-at-meetings thing if they told you? Ok... but consider that they might not feel comfortable opening up and telling you all about that, especially when they routinely see you with a beer in your bottle cage. Also, recreational drugs and nonprofit administration are maybe not a wining combination.)

I get pretty frustrated about this sometimes.

* https://mastodon.social/@katrinbretscher/109338712958281369

@hack 👍​ I was just using a multitool on a sewing project last night myself!

The clips are clever; I am going to try to remember that...

What is the material?

@billyjoebowers @jeremy_ai@masto.ai Bike lanes on side streets help with safety, but most of my destinations are on the main streets so wayfinding is a constant challenge if I don't know the area well. Which cross-street is closest to the store? Does it have a safe crossing to the side of the street the store is on? Will this bikeway continue to run parallel to the main street I am following, or will it suddenly end and dump me into a deathtrap of an intersection with no warning? Does it connect to another bikeway eventually? (Saw a lot of this in PDX)

My partner and I put full-size orange&reflective "slow moving vehicle" triangles on the backs of our recumbent trikes before our last long trip, and those seem to make a difference. Not that we should need them! Cars, car-centric infrastructure, and the mindset that prioritizes car convenience over everything else is the problem. But the triangles seem to trigger a "slow down" response in some drivers instead of the common "ugh, a bike, zoom past it" response.
#BikeNite

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai @billyjoebowers Recent post w/ link to study confirming that no, a line of paint really doesn't work: https://mastodon.online/@BrentToderian/109657035149986032
#BikeNite

@civicDetroitDan Oh, that's a neat program!

I found it interesting that the org's advocacy and communications director said that "bike-powering Christmas tree removal helps the city tackle important sustainability goals like cutting down car emissions."

I usually think of it the other way around - sustainability goals help us tackle problems like car-centric design and under-investment in transit and bike infrastructure. His framing is probably a lot more relatable for non-cyclists, though!

I will have to remember that for future advocacy communications. (-:

@salad_bar_breath Nice! What might the petition outline & research list look like?

I don't know much about the best way to structure a petition, but a little brainstorming for the research list:
- Sources to cite on how much doxxing harms people and how much it is a deterrent to people wanting to join things that will share their public info
- Sources to cite on why allowing people to use a preferred name is beneficial and people are more likely to join things if they can use their preferred name
- Quotes from ARRL (and other voices commonly understood to speak for ham radio) saying they value inclusivity and want to make the hobby accessible to more people
- Something about how involving a more diverse population increases technical innovation (somebody must have studied this in other fields, right?) and technical innovation is one of the purposes ham radio is supposed to serve

I guess I am assuming that the basic argument of the petition is "Hey FCC, you should do these things. They are consistent with your stated goals for ham radio and lots of hams agree that they will benefit the hobby. Hams, you should sign this petition because these things will be good for the hobby and for you as an individual ham, and for all those cool people out there who might want to become hams." Does that sound right?

I figure if we can break it down into smaller tasks, we can split them up among everyone who is interested?

Er, should something like this go in the git repo somewhere?

@salad_bar_breath Excellent. I just made a pull request with the same basic content as that post but organized a bit differently. Everything in () needs research/citations. I do not expect to have time to work on it more this weekend; hopefully other folks will pitch in.

I do plan to be on the net tonight, yes! Looking forward to it.

@faithisleaping Cute! Looks pretty well-constructed, too. I may be experiencing some bag envy.

@rooster YES.

Related and slightly stranger tip: My partner and I got a pet around the time we started encountering more nonbinary people in our social groups, and we used they/them pronouns for the pet. We adapted to using they/them REAL fast, and when we got the pet's pronouns wrong it was no big deal. Plus it is a low-consequence way to introduce nonbinary pronouns to other people and gently pressure them to practice.

Now that I'm considering different pronouns for myself IRL I am very glad we already laid some of that groundwork with our friends and family.

@benjancewicz "How much public space we've surrendered to cars (Swedish artist Karl Jilg)"

#alt4u - Drawing of the intersection of two city streets. The buildings and sidewalks are normal, but instead of the streets where cars would drive there are deep cement-sided chasms. People walk alongside them and someone is crossing the gulf on a wood-plank bridge at the corner. In the foreground, a child runs close to the edge of the dropoff while a parent holds their hand. In the background several people wait near the edge for a light to turn so they can cross another plank bridge.

@rune I will be watching this for other suggestions!

For now... digs through ereader

• That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston is steampunkish alt-history, kinda tense at times but a quick read and positive overall and very queer
• The Heartbreak Bakery by A. R. Capetta is a sweet YA novel about baking magic and trying to save the local queer coffeeshop
• The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley is Regency?-era historical fiction with a lot of adventure hijinx and a genderfluid protagonist (part of a series, but I read it before the prequels and it was fine as a standalone)

...plus a ton of sapphic romance/romcom, but I don't even know which to recommend, except that my favorite authors for lighter ones right now are Jae, Meryl Wilsner, and Ashley Herring Blake.

@rune Most welcome! I enjoy telling people about the books I like. (-:

Just requested from the library those two romcoms you mentioned and noticed they are both fake dating... To anyone who wants more of that, I recommend Jae's Just for Show and The Roommate Arrangement (preferably in that order because they share some characters) and Adiba Jaigirdar's YA novel Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating.

@Kleen Ugh, lap-puddles. And generally puddles anywhere there's a fold in the raincoat. And then it soaks through the zipper and starts dripping...

We got really into wool outer layers when we lived in PDX. (thick coarse army surplus wool pants and old overcoats, not fancy thin stuff) They eventually soak through if it pours on you long enough, but at least they stay warm.

@cedar Darn Tough (the wool socks with a warranty!). I try to keep an eye out for better-quality work/hiking boots at thrifts stores & in free piles, they are usually a mix of leather and canvas and can be waxed.

#origami horse project is successful! I am a bit pleased to discover that I can still fold kinda complex designs, but most of the credit belongs to the amazingly well-thought-out pattern/instructions ("Horse" by Hideo Komatsu). So many times I braced myself for a challenging fold only to discover that it was thoroughly pre-creased and fell right into place. (Blue horse was practice, black is final)

@pixelpaperyarn Wow, that was brilliant! Talk about taking advantage of the digital medium...

Perfect timing (hah!) too, since I was halfway through the book when I saw this recommendation.

@rooster Yesterday I jokingly said to myself "I'm KonMari-ing my gender." The epiphany came later: That is precisely what I'm doing - embracing the parts that I enjoy and letting the rest go.

@ohmrun@mastodon.social Electrical tape might work in a pinch. Double-layer masking tape does too. Narrow duct/gorilla tape is the best I have found, though - pretty much equal to proper rim tape. Good luck with the wheel build!

#SonomaCounty has apparently decided (again) that walking/biking through a small tent city is more dangerous than walking/biking on a high-traffic 35mph road, so they closed one of our major off-street paths. Anyone have actual statistics comparing the two? Because I owe my county Supervisors a letter, and I'd like to give it some punch.

#homelessness #bicycle #cycling #urbanism #housingforall #SantaRosa #SantaRosaCA #JoeRodotaTrail

Because I know I can pull together citations for "a 35mph road with worn-out paint on the bike lane is really dangerous" and also "trying to clear encampments is costly and ineffective and above all REALLY HARMFUL to people who need support." Got those two arguments pretty well covered.

But I am relying entirely on gut feeling and personal experience for "walking through a tent city is not particularly dangerous," and I would like to preempt the rampant NIMBYism and fear-of-homelessness around here.

@lioracle Of course! It's like how ~15% of all "Dead End" and "No Outlet" signs are missing the second sign underneath that says "for cars".

@benfulton Thanks! It's a good start, at least.

@lioracle Oh, I wish! (I was thinking specifically of "dead end" streets that connect to paths or have bike/ped cut-throughs to other streets. I've seen a lot of those in some cities, but relatively few where I live right now. *sigh*)

@errbufferoverfl Sounds like a good book!

Further inspiration, if needed: have you seen the Department of Unauthorized Forestry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvtqKMxZ95s)?

@bike Oh... it took a few readings to parse what you were saying. You mean I've shifted your idea of what a "complex" bike looks like so much that this one looks perfectly ordinary? Because I guess I can take credit for that. (-:
@davewalker

#generfluid / #trans #sewing project: I am attempting to draft a vest pattern per the Keystone Jacket and Dress Cutter (a women's tailoring guide from the late 1800s). Made it a little past the halfway point and there are two problems: First, I think my underarm measurement is wrong. Second, I don't have sufficient bust/waist differential to justify the darts.

The Keystone guide is on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/keystonejacketdr00heck

Inspiration for this project, perhaps unsurprisingly, came from a Bernadette Banner video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THzNFKwrIOM

Options for going forward:
1) Continue the vest as-is. Combine the two darts into one, and hope the underarm measurement works out.
2) Re-measure and plan to pad the bust (even more than it would be padded by the pockets I'm going to put there).
3) Divert from this project and work on something corset-ish instead so I actually have a bust/waist differential to work with.

Ok, time to call it a night but I got back to roughly where I was before with a more reasonable under-arm measurement this time and I think I can add enough in the bust to justify darts.

Also just noticed about the basic Keystone pattern: Collar dimensions are apparently proportional to the bust measurement. Why?

@clew Yeah, I get that it should be proportional to something, I just expected it to be proportional to a measurement of the neck or shoulders. I guess maybe this is good enough as a rough starting point, though.

@ellie @JohnnyCiocca I have only cycled in below-freezing weather a few times, but when I did it was with pogies and light gloves. They worked surprisingly well.

#bicycle people: We are starting a weekly Language Exchange for the bike community to learn from each other and build bilingual skills. You are invited!

Practice English or Spanish and help other learners in a friendly atmosphere. Participants speak half the time in English and half in Spanish. Beginners welcome.

Wednesdays
@ 4pm Pacific / 5pm Mountain / 6pm Central / 7pm Eastern / 9pm Chile

Sign up: https://forms.gle/CmPeahjASHGmVdvF7

#bike #bicycle #english #spanish #ingles #español #cycling #bici #bicicleta #ciclismo #biketooter #bikecollective #bikecollectives #mastobikes

(en español: https://octodon.social/@kg6gfq/109746320038868495)

#ciclistas - Estamos iniciando un Intercambio de Idiomas semanal para la communidad ciclista con ganas de aprender unxs de otrxs y mejorar nuestra competencia bilingüe. ¡Te invitamos!

Practique inglés o español y ayude a lxs demás que están aprendiendo en un ambiente amable. Lxs participantes hablan la mitad del tiempo en inglés y la otra en español. Están bienvenidxs lxs principiantes.

Miercoles
@ 4pm Pacific / 5pm Mountain / 6pm Central / 7pm Eastern / 9pm Chile

Inscríbete: https://forms.gle/CmPeahjASHGmVdvF7

#bike #bicycle #english #spanish #ingles #español #cycling #bici #bicicleta #ciclismo #biketooter #bikecollective #bikecollectives #mastobikes

(English post: https://octodon.social/@kg6gfq/109746316489761366)

#genderfluid moments: Wearing baggy shorts, but bringing a skirt & leggings. Just in case.

@alpinejoe Yes to all of the above.

Also, the cars mostly just say "HOOONK!" and "vrooom." Homeless folks (like other path users) are much more likely to say "Hey, cool bike!" or even just "'sup." It is so much more pleasant.

@angry_hagfish Sounds like a good deal to me... I got a secondhand wheel several years ago from a yarn & spinning shop for $50 US, but it needed a number of small repairs. Never did spin much with it and never got it 100% fixed, but it was fun!

@angry_hagfish Congratulations! You have won today's award for "Best Secondhand Find." Your prize has already been delivered, we hope you enjoy it! (-:

Really, though, that's so neat! Glad it worked out well.

#generfluid / #trans #sewing project continues: Got the Keystone-based vest pattern transferred to fabric and sewn together. It fits pretty well! Next steps will probably be figuring out the collar and attaching a zipper.

I didn't pay any attention to the stripes on the fabric when laying out the pattern, hence the noticeable asymmetry on the back. (-:

@alienghic @glightly @JasonAller GRIN Tech also has some good articles in the "Learn" section of their website (https://ebikes.ca/learn.html) and they are pretty friendly about customer support. If there's a possibility you might buy anything from them you could probably email and ask for advice.

I learned a lot of basic electronics studying for a #hamradio license. Some of the study guides can be pretty test-oriented, but I bet a few of them have good basic electronics sections. Maybe a more recent licensee can recommend something specific?

If you're thinking about solar for e-bike charging, Mark Havran has the best guide I know of and covers the electrical aspects in some detail: https://solare.bike/technical-stuff/ (does assume some basic electronics knowledge)

Patched a bunch of old tubes today, and this was my favorite puncture. X marks the spot!

#bike #repair

@smellsofbikes A little tube for a big 'bent!

@smellsofbikes The one in front is a FlevoTrike but it's pretty heavily modded in this photo. Since then we moved the solar roof to a trailer (it was too top-heavy) and switched back to the smaller stock trunk. The one in back is entirely DIY; it is my attempt to improve on the Flevo design, though it uses Python Lowracer steering geometry.

The steering/tilting is really fun once you get the hang of it. There are two pivot points in the frame. One allows everything forward of the seat (that is, the front wheel & cranks) to swing side-to-side for steering, so you steer with your legs. The other allows the seat and everything forward of it to tilt (handlebars do not tilt, so you have control of the tilting and can hold yourself upright when stopped). Tilting is great for high-speed turns, and also for riding on crowned&cambered roads - you can stay upright even when the surface under you is slanted.

@dr_a @jasonw22 @loriemerson I can confirm that this occurs in volunteer settings as well; hence the need for Volunteer Responsibility Amnesty Day (created by @brainwane).

@dr_a It is! I'm not yet very good at celebrating it. 😅​

"The recycle bin has turned into a puzzle game and needs to be taken out before someone loses."

@ansate Please tag me too!

Tuvimos nuestrx primer intercambio de idiomas para la comunidad ciclista hoy, y ¡nos divertimos mucho! Hablamos de nuestxs bicis favoritas, viajes en bici, y como es montar en bici en los lugares donde vivimos. Ivonne (https://www.instagram.com/bizi_fanzine__rol_por_playas/) nos informó sobre el Foro Mundial de la Bicicleta y la rodada pre-Foro en Tijuana que ocurrirá el 5 de Febrero. Espero que más personas llegarán para el intercambio el miercoles que viene a las [4pm Pacific / 5pm Mountain / 6pm Central / 7pm Eastern / 9pm Chile].

Inscríbete: https://forms.gle/63WbicKbC82du3uV6
o simplemente únete con nosotrxs en Zoom el miercoles: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85675444594?pwd=VzhGdWt6NnQwREk3Q3QvTytSbnpmZz09

#bike #bicycle #english #spanish #ingles #español #cycling #bici #bicicleta #ciclismo #biketooter #bikecollective #bikecollectives #mastobikes

We had our first bicycle community language exchange today, and we had a lot of fun! We talked about our favorite bikes, bike trips we've taken, and what it is like to ride in the places where we live. Ivonne (https://www.instagram.com/bizi_fanzine__rol_por_playas/) updated us on the World Bike Forum and the pre-Forum ride in Tijuana that's happening Feb. 5. I hope more people will come for next Wednesday's language exchange at [4pm Pacific / 5pm Mountain / 6pm Central / 7pm Eastern / 9pm Chile].

Sign up: https://forms.gle/63WbicKbC82du3uV6
or just join us on Zoom on Wednesday: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85675444594?pwd=VzhGdWt6NnQwREk3Q3QvTytSbnpmZz09

#bike #bicycle #english #spanish #ingles #español #cycling #bici #bicicleta #ciclismo #biketooter #bikecollective #bikecollectives #mastobikes

@faithisleaping @Impossible_PhD @assumptionprime Oof. Thanks for the links. I'll just go ponder some of that...

@sous_mon_masque Congratulations!

@astranoir If you know anyone with a dog/cat that sheds heavily, I hear "cheingora" and "chatgora" are very warm, though they may be difficult to spin unless blended with something longer-staple and/or grippier. Maybe with cotton or linen? I have only spun very short samples of it myself.

@asha@mastodon.lol That's pretty much where I am at right now. I'm AMAB but my internal sense of gender seems to range from feminine to agender.

On agender days I feel like it's all a bit much and I ought to just get on with life - I've done just fine that way for 30+ years. On feminine days the idea of social and hormonal transition sounds like something that would bring me so much joy, how could I not go through with it?

It's hard for me, too, to know whether the agender days are driven by actually feeling differently about gender or by imposter syndrome ("I don't have that much dysphoria") and fear of the social consequences.

A few days ago I started tracking my feelings about gender identity in a nightly journal entry in the hope of having some perspective, since I have a hard time connecting with the emotional state re:gender I was in on a previous day.

I'll second Symptoms of Being Human as an excellent book, though I had difficulty relating to it because the main character has way more apparent dysphoria than I do. I know it gets linked a lot and is more general, but https://genderdysphoria.fyi/ was immensely helpful for me to read.

@TechNews Glad to see they linked to something about Mark Havran at the bottom of the article. His "Technical Stuff" page (https://solare.bike/technical-stuff/) is the best resource I know of for anyone wanting to DIY their own solar e-bike.

@Impossible_PhD An hour ago I would have said Fern, after my paternal grandmother, was the runner up and I just preferred April by such a wide margin. I would have added it as a middle name and, following a tradition started by my grandfather "H. Ward Wick" who hated his first name, gone by "D. April Ward Wick", which is a pretty amusing set of initials!

Then my partner woke up from a nap and said "I realized while I was dreaming that the problem with April is it sounds so similar to my own name that it's one of the two other names I have learned to respond to because people sometimes call me by it. Not that you can't be April if you want, but keep that in mind."

Back to the drawing board...

@Impossible_PhD Ha! Yes, my partner is very supportive will cope just fine if that's the way it ends up. Still going to spend some time considering other names though! (-:

@Fawn@ohai.social I skipped car ownership and went directly from a Learner's Permit to cycling for transportation. No regrets, but some... caveats, maybe. Is that a perspective you'd be interested in hearing more on?

@Fawn@ohai.social 🎉 Congratulations! 🚲

I hope you enjoy car-freedom. (-:

(I've tried and failed twice now to write a proper reply in the carfree-regrets thread. Maybe that in itself says something...)

@pixelpaperyarn I have had good experiences with buttondown.email; their pricing doesn't quite fit your specifications but they offer good discounts if you have nonprofit status.

The password for our building's wifi got changed and I made a point of not saving the new one. Downside: less interacting with all you wonderful internet people. Upside: getting more stuff done IRL. (-:

@DrTCombs The bodyshaming aspect of that kind of comment is something I hadn't considered before, and you are spot on. Thanks for pointing it out. Yet another way transportation advocacy can improve at intersectionality.

@Fawn@ohai.social I am not Deaf but was researching this recently. The two things I took note of were:

- William Vicars's https://asluniversity.com/ (lessons are available online for free, but are also intended for use as a curriculum for people teaching courses)
- https://www.queerasl.com/ (intended for queer folks and allies)

Both seemed well-recommended and I believe both are run by Deaf folks. Looking forward to seeing other recommendations!

@imdat@tau-ceti.space @Terra@chaosfem.tw @faithisleaping I would happily be awkwardly silent with you all in-person, same as I usually am here! (-:

@angry_hagfish I've been getting that one a lot lately.

@sabogato I've been wondering about that. I think depends on which fork of Mastodon your instance uses. Do you have the little dropdown below the compose box that lets you choose "Plain text", "HTML", or "Markdown"? For me it's between the post privacy dropdown and the CW button.

Maybe I can link to more information...

@KC1PRD Or at least allow people to specify the name that is listed, because not everyone wants to be referred to by their legally recognized name.

@salad_bar_breath started a github repo to do some collaborative drafting of a petition to the FCC on this subject (https://github.com/rynyday/ryn-ham-wrld/tree/fcc_petition).

I started outlining some arguments (https://github.com/rynyday/ryn-ham-wrld/pull/1/files) a while back.

Anyone else want to pitch in?

@Impossible_PhD Oh, that was fantastic. I laughed and I cried (but less than at your other posts, as is perhaps desirable for academia). And now I feel like I have a new perspective on comics. Than you for sharing it!

@ian_tk I used to work at Pedal Bike Tours. Don't know what they're like these days, but it was a pretty good shop back then.

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai Ooh, tough to pick just one. A few top candidates:
- Chickens (in bucket panniers)
- Multiple sheet cakes (bikes@work trailer)
- 16 foot canoe towed behind a 10 foot recumbent tandem (bikes@work trailer again)
- several large windows and a french door

Best I've seen was probably the leader of the PaddlePalooza ride in PDX who wedged a small sailboat into his cargo trike.
#BikeNite

@cedar It would be cute enough just being a tiny basket, but it also has tiny cat ears!

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai It actually went quite well! They settle down pretty well once they're in a dark, enclosed space.

@UrbanistMom @getalifemike Yes. I ride a heavy cargo trike and mostly use pedal-assist, but throttle is really helpful for intersections and short hills where I don't want to turn up the assist and immediately have to turn it down again.

Regulators in the US seem to think my trike is therefore less safe on shared paths than a throttle-less #ebike with a 20mph assist limit... while I keep my assist limited to 16mph and regenerative braking actively prevents me from going much faster.

@stgm possible places to donate: https://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/Community_Bicycle_Organizations#Victoria

Partner: What are you #knitting?
Me: Finally finishing up these leg warmers I started making for you a year or two ago.
Partner: Great! When you're done we can go for that walk we were talking about and I can wear them.
Me: Umm... It's probably going to take an hour or two to finish.
Partner: Ok.
Me: *stares*
Partner: *stares*
Me: *knits furiously*

(I'm not complaining: I got a couple hours of cozy knitting and now my DPNs are free for another project.)

#solar #ebike systems are pretty great, but may not be suitable for all weather conditions.

@KJ7OMO Web transceiver doesn't think I have a microphone. I'll try to troubleshoot, but I think that might be it for me for tonight. (-: Thanks & 73!

@KJ7OMO Still no dice with the microphone. Maybe next time!

@KJ7OMO Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be asking the browser for mic permissions. Maybe I'll try a different browser.

@miriamrobern Thanks for the knitted knockers link! For some reason falsies have never appealed to me, but apparently turning it into a DIY project makes it something fun I can work on.

@sparkledragon5@chaosfem.tw That's about where I'm at. The tension between wanting it and being scared of it can get really tough.

I'm sitting here wearing a skirt and feeling so pleased about it while fretting over imposter syndrome and the logistics of being trans in this world and... just being so afraid that it will somehow not work out. That I don't have "enough" dysphoria to justify it. (I know, that's nonsense.) That I won't actually like it. That I won't be able to cope with being trans.

And then I re-read genderdysphoria.fyi, or posts by transfem folks here, and remember that yes, so much of that sounds like me, and yes, presenting and being read as feminine feels right. And it's still hard!

Anyway... Hi! Me too. I hope you get to a place that feels right for you. Faith is spot on - if a woman is who you want to be, then you can be a woman.

@faithisleaping I had been wondering why it was easier for me to identify with "girl" than with "woman" and I think that's part of it. Maybe also because I've been identifying as feminine for less than a year, and people generally have to do that for a lot longer before they get called a "woman." Maybe also because "girl" is a diminutive; it doesn't feel like such a big, unreachable thing. Just talked to my partner about this, and about discomfort re: calling adult women "girls" because it is a diminutive and... oof. Complicated territory.

Oh yeah, I spent several years identifying (quietly) as genderfluid. It... was what I needed at the time, I think, to be able to explore my gender identity more and figure some things out.

@jenf Any episode with Jett Reno is my favorite episode.

@wavesculptor I have a Grin hub with regen on my cargo trike and it is SO VERY worth it. Ordinary things like being able to enable a speed limit and not white-knuckle the brakes going down long hills, but also... Today one of my brake levers snapped off in an odd situation, and I made the trip home with a single brake lever that controlled both a drum brake and the regen. Between those two, I had plenty of braking power. Regen provides a redundant system for braking, and redundancy can be very worthwhile!

@wavesculptor Yep, relied heavily on Justin's analysis of data from that Sun Trip when designing our solar trikes.

I have long wanted to do a boat-commute; shopping by kayak sounds so cool!

I have several regen controls, a couple of them only available in the latest alpha firmware from Grin:
- Speed limiting to ~16mph
- Brake levers trigger low-level regen that can be increased with the throttle
- Clicking the assist level to below zero engages regen, with several steps available
- Backpedal regen - turn the pedals back far enough and regen engages, keep turning for stronger regen. It's like a high-tech coaster brake.

I wish someone would build a proportional-regen brake lever.

Here's a photo of my trike from a recent trip, taken during one of the few sunny breaks in a 70-mile day that was otherwise characterized by lots of rain and snow. (-:

Yesterday I called a few places from a list of local trans-affirming therapists. Today one called back and basically said "I can't take your insurance yet, but if you want I will email your name and phone # to a bunch of other therapists and maybe one of them will call you." Apparently that is a thing this group of therapists does.

It was just so nice to experience a segment of the healthcare system where people are proactive about connecting patients with affordable care, even in the face of misanthropic bureaucracy.

@yonabee@eldritch.cafe @Patrickstewart I just got off a zoom call where we spent the last 30 minutes chatting with someone who studies bicycle community groups (advocacy & DIY repair, mostly) about this. How it can intersect with socioeconomic class - scaling a little grassroots org into a big upper-class lobbying group. Also how it can leach the fun from things, when a small passion project can lose vitality or a sense of community as it grows.

@crankyfacedknitter Oh, that's wonderful.

@smellsofbikes @attoparsec In our old neighborhood I would occasionally see someone zooming by on a scooter with a dog harnessed in beside it. At first I thought it was an electric scooter, but no... it was designed to be a dog-powered scooter. (That dog looked so, so happy.)

#BikeBus for Adults: A pilot project in Los Angeles is coordinating groups of bike commuters to ride together for safety in numbers. https://cibic.bike/

The safety and mentorship aspect is such a good idea... and it just sounds like fun! I really hope this grows to include more locations.

(Learned about it from an acquaintance in Buenos Aires, apparently they're doing it there as well, though I don't see info online.)

#bike #bicycle #biketooter #lax #buenosaires

@AlwaysAutumn Can you get things secondhand? About half my current fem wardrobe came from a recent $2 sale at the local thrift store. If I outgrow them, it's not a big loss.

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai @piecemama

I hated driving practice - never felt like I could safely operate the car (https://xkcd.com/1990/ sums it up nicely). Then I went to Davis, California for university... where there are more bikes than humans, and bicycle modeshare is dramatically higher than anywhere else in the US. Davis was a very effective demonstration that you can live car-free, and it has been one of the basic premises for all my life-planning since then.

#BikeNite

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai I ride this cargo trike, my partner rides something similar, and we have a Bikes@Work trailer - 8' long and rated for 300lbs.

People on Craigslist say "must have pickup truck." So far, we've managed to prove them all wrong.

#BikeNite

@ascentale I don't have any personal experience with this or with school Bike Buses, but it definitely seems like there would be some overlap in functionality.

@faithisleaping Ooh, that's very cute. I would almost certainly feel dysphoric trying to wear it as-is, but with a slightly higher neckline... I'm gonna bookmark this for when the pile of sewing projects is a little smaller.

@emily Wow. I already thought the Travoy was a clever trailer design, but I did not realize its full capacity! That's impressive.

I never cared much about Daylight Savings until I started coordinating international events that span multiple time zones, where some of them observe DST and others don't, and still others observe it on different days. 😩

#DaylightSavingsTime #StopChangingTheTime

@pixouls I have a Boox and really like it (though I get the impression Onyx doesn't have much regard for user privacy,which... ugh). Libby works fine but I avoid using it because the Boox reader app is so much smoother. It's also a nice lightweight android tablet with a battery that lasts all week and excellent stylus support.

The Open Book looks cool! I'm excited that there seems to be more going on with eink recently.

@pixouls Yeah. I think I've read about people installing 3rd-party apps that allow fine control of IP traffic to prevent them from "phoning home", but I haven't tried it myself.

The handwriting & drawing functionality is phenomenal, though most 3rd party apps have very limited support for it, e.g. they rarely recognize pressure input or the eraser. The builtin notes app is great, and you can make it auto-export to PDF or connect it to MS OneNote for sync. I think they may have some support in Evernote, too? I just keep all my notes on the Boox and back up PDF copies occasionally via USB or SyncThing.

It is simultaneously an amazing piece of tech and disappointingly limited in terms of interoperability. 🙁​

Oh, and 3rd party apps often require some tweaking of the eink settings so you can see the buttons if they don't have adequate color-contrast when converted to greyscale.

@SRLevine May I ask what you use for a non-smart phone? We've found fewer and fewer options as older networks are shut down.

@SRLevine Ah, ok. I really like the idea ofthe Lightphone, but can't justify spending 2-3x what an old ios or android device costs. Thanks!

Thank you, @TheLetterTen, for the excellent jokes. We were low on motivation this afternoon, so I read a bunch of them to my partner and it was just the thing. (-:

@AlwaysAutumn My partner and I both say yes. My partner wants me to add that she recommends fabric headbands, not plastic ones - apparently the plastic ones hurt.

I usually wear barrettes and a braid; I think multiple hair retention methods is pretty common.

@faithisleaping As one of my oldest friends said when I came out to her, "girl clothes are just more fun."

That is some cool fabric, very well tailored, and it looks fantastic!

Walked by a basket of sidewalk chalk this afternoon and my partner stopped to draw three hearts - one pink, one white, one blue. :heart_trans:​

@MLE_online I feel your pain - we just harvested (probably) the last avocados from the tree next to our building and will have to make a bunch of guac in a few days when they ripen. No other choice. 😞 😁

(Ok, I inflicted some avocados on the neighbors, too - share the burden, right?)

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai I rode a Python Lowracer recumbent, which has a very strange steering geometry - took me several months to learn how to ride it, the only person I met who could stay on for more than a few meters was a unicyclist. Rarely locked it, and nobody stole it. #BikeNite

@The_Bard_sRc @faithisleaping My current glasses are kinda-fem (red acrylic frames) from when I was still at "a little genderfluid, I guess." Now I'm really looking forward to getting a new pair in a few months. I remember ruling out a bunch because they were too fem for my comfort zone at the time, but now... maybe not so much.

The current ones do apparently read as feminine, though - my mom cited them as a reason she wasn't too surprised when I came out to my parents.

@taedryn I guess I'll say 20s, but it was a long, slow slide.

I have identified as different/weird for about as long as I can remember and have vague memories of teen and possibly pre-teen gender-swap daydreams, I think? Started growing out hair and occasionally wearing skirts around age 20, but... "No, it isn't a kilt. No, I'm not crossdressing. Gendered clothing is silly and I'll wear skirts if I want to."

Started identifying as genderfluid in my mid-to-late 20s, but "wasn't really trans because I didn't have dysphoria." Finally read genderdysphoria.fyi a couple months ago (early 30s) and, well... hoping to have an endo appointment scheduled by the end of this week. (-:

Anyway, I think the space between those last two paragraphs - somewhere in my 20s - is when I really started wishing for the magic gender-swap button.

@markchandler@mstdn.social 😆

We get a lot of people looking at our big solar cargo trikes and asking "How far are you traveling?"

We've taken a few long trips, but most often the answer is "to the grocery store."

@robotdiver I usually listen to music.

@twistylittlepassages Thank you! My partner and I made the vest/skirt combo several years ago and it continues to be one of my favorite outfits.

I really like pockets. I have a whole pile of vests & jackets with similar four-pocket layouts.

@taedryn We get 2222 characters and 8 poll options here on octodon (glitch-soc fork of Mastodon). I don't know that it's "very trans" but our admin is... nonbinary, I believe? and pretty adamant about being trans-friendly, anti-racist, etc. It's a larger, older, instance and a little quirky, but it has been fine for me so far and I'm not aware of major defederations. I think registration is closed, but I believe I can generate invite links if somebody wants one.

@glightly Cool! My first thought on seeing this was, "When I lived in Davis, that was just 'Larry's place'." and sure enough... Larry Fisher is one of the co-founders. He used to talk about establishing something more formal, so I'm glad to see it's getting off the ground!

@hack Nice! I've been thinking about adding a dedicated mask pocket to some of my vests, instead of cramming it in wherever it fits or putting it in a bag.

@glightly Yeah, there are so many odd little community resources that get underutilized because they're informal word-of-mouth things.

At that time (10+ years ago) it was an informal "most of the dumpster divers and co-op people are acquainted with each other and Larry's the one with the most storage space" sort of thing; I was vaguely connected to that community via the bike collective.

I don't know what the path was from there to Community Mercantile, but I'm glad it'll be more generally accessible.

@smellsofbikes Can I recommend starting with a bike or trike and building upon it until it becomes unmissable?

@smellsofbikes Ah, yeah. You have to look extremely un-bike-like to get that kind of benefit.

My partner and I have had pretty good success with our cargo trikes in this regard. I think in part because they don't look at all like conventional bikes from behind. Partly also having the best ANSI-rated slow moving vehicle triangles we can get on the back - my partner's theory is that the triangles make people think "slow" not "bike", and so they slow down instead of initiating pass-the-bicycle protocols.

We don't have the mass of an NEV and we're narrow enough to fit down a bike path, but... the back of my cargo box is 2' wide and the solar roof is 3' wide, and I think it's enough that most drivers register it as "not bike" and behave accordingly when passing. (Doesn't work on everyone, of course. *sigh*)

That effect might be reduced by repeat exposure on a commute route, I guess.

I hope you find something that works for you.

@wren@chaosfem.tw I'll second that. (says someone who recently told her parents, "Oh, and I'm starting to use a new name & pronouns. Bye, see you next week!")

@wren@chaosfem.tw Ok, I *had* told them several weeks before that I was questioning my gender and considering names.

I'm kinda enjoying the hypothetical scenario in which it was a complete surprise, though.

@AlwaysAutumn Late to the thread, I guess, but... doing surprisingly well. I'm exhausted, but in the satisfying way that comes from cycling all day, and I am about to go sleep anyway. Also positive: Spent all day very intentionally in boymode, and it unexpectedly knocked my imposter syndrome down a notch.

@MLE_online This sounds like the setup for a heist and/or hidden treasure storyline.

@dantheshive Oh, hey! One of my favorite webcomic people is posting on Mastodon! Hello!

https://fedi.tips/ is a pretty good how-to if you want one.

Anyway, welcome! 👋

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai #BikeNite - Saddle sores? Oh yeah, I remember those... from back in the days before I rode a recumbent!

@toady Rocket.chat? It's self-hostable FOSS that's similar to Slack... which is basically Discord wearing business attire. (I haven't used it beyond a brief test, though.)

I'm in a similar situation and curious about other answers...

@faithisleaping I'm making a note of this, because I'm still very much at the "it's a desire" stage and cannot imagine feeling like it's a need. Now I'm really curious to know how me-in-a-few-years feels. Thanks for the perspective.

@b0rk Docker has one, but I haven't used it (yet) https://www.docker.com/play-with-docker/

@Brodyberg Sadly, yes. I haven't seen any recently, but for several months I was picking them up around the neighborhood here and recycling them.

Wanted: A #weather site where I can enter multiple cities and get detailed ≥10-day forecasts for all of them, stacked vertically. It would be quite nice for planning around the movement of storms during medium-length #bike trips, without having to pull up three different tabs of forecasts and cross-reference them.

@uep Thanks! Windy.com is pretty nice, and I use it sometimes, mostly for air quality & wind. I hadn't seen the meteogram, that looks like it could be useful. It doesn't show multiple locations over multiple days at the same time, though, which is what I'd really like. I find watching the map while scrubbing back and forth through the time slider on windy more difficult to process than just looking at data for several locations and mentally interpolating.

The ideal interface would be a 3D chart, I suppose, but that may be a bit much to ask. (-:

@alfajet I have a kickstand made by Ursus that looks like it would fit, if the measurements match. Seems like a useful search term might be "2 bolt direct mount kickstand".

If all else fails, you could make an adapter to fit a standard kickstand by drilling holes in some thick aluminum angle stock - that's how the kickstand on my FlevoTrike is attached.

@SRLevine Nice find!

And yes... I have acquired a whole lot of mismatched gloves over the years, several bike lights, and assorted other things.

My partner sometimes points out wrenches or bolts or what-have-you and I pass them up because they're car tools/parts that aren't useful for bicycles. (As opposed to car tools/parts that *are* useful for bicycles, which I compulsively acquire and hoard.)

@hollie @valthonis Yeah. I tried to find other things worth watching on there after catching up on Picard a few weeks ago... and wound up re-watching Discovery. 🤷

@Apiary @rose_alibi Oh, hey! My maternal grandmother sometimes referred to "the whole fam-damily".

I have carried on her tradition of saying I'm "filled to my gillyfeathers" when I am very full, and now my partner uses it sometimes.

@angry_hagfish Oooh, what kind of loom are you going to build?

@angry_hagfish Cool! That sounds like so much fun. I hope it goes well!

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai #BikeNite Dream bicycle? I've tried a few times now, and it turns out there's always things I want to improve in the next iteration. The current wishlist is:
1) Semi-recumbent (reclined enough to be comfy, but not so much that it makes wearing a skirt impractical)
2) Front wheel drive / moving bottom bracket (so I can steer with my feet)
3) Tilting trike with active tilt control
4) Full suspension
5) Hand- and foot-powered (I think handcycling is the only way I'll ever build significant upper body strength)
6) Folds to a compact size
7) Able to carry a lot of cargo
8) E-assist and solar charging system
9) Ideally, the e-assist would be removable, geared, clutchless, and independent of the human-power drivetrain.

I currently have a recumbent with 2, 3, 7, and 8 .

A previous build had 2, almost 4, and 6. (And it was a tilting trike, but without proper active tilt control, just a tilt-lock that never worked very well.)

Pretty sure I can do most of this, but 3 & 5 are difficult to combine, as are 6 & 7, and I know theoretically how to do 9 but don't know how to source the motor and controller.

Why yes, I am considering going back to school for engineering so I can build more interesting bikes, why do you ask? (-:

@IPEdmonton Nice! The Dutch make some really excellent bikes.

Walking home from the tool library this morning a driver nearly cut me off in the crosswalk, but stopped... probably when they saw I was carrying a digging bar (six feet of solid steel with a big chisel tip on the end) over my shoulder.

@AnnaUK Ha! Reminds me of people saying "do a wheelie!" when I'm riding a recumbent.

@The_Bard_sRc Is it me? That sounds like something I might do.

(My partner would be looking over my shoulder and saying the color doesn't matter that much and I should just go with it. She and I are very different sewists.)

@The_Bard_sRc Oh, yeah, that would make a difference.

May I ask what the costume is?

@hollie Thanks! It really is. (-:

@nerdybutcute 🎵 I'm changing my name to Chrysler... 🎵 ?

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8uo6cfG4J8)

@JoscelynTransient "Before we wore off the rack, fashion was designed to create the silhouette"

Can I add a note that this includes padding?

I used to feel significant dysphoria seeing my flat chest in most feminine-styled shirts/blouses. Last month I made a pair of Knitted Knockers (https://www.knittedknockers.org/) based on a recommendation from @miriamrobern, and that dysphoria instantly turned into euphoria.

@salad_bar_breath
5. Hides most of the stubble/shadow that I'd otherwise feel dysphoric about.

Went to pick up a popcorn popper off craigslist yesterday.

The bike path we normally take in that direction was closed. (because the county apparently thinks it's *dangerous* to have homeless folks camping next to the bike path. you think that's dangerous? no, county parks department, pickup trucks are dangerous. so are housing shortages and encampment sweeps. argh. ok, getting back on topic.)

The second-best bike path (requires a bit more riding on major roads to connect with anywhere useful) was closed for maintenance.

Instead, we took the unpaved path that parallels the second-best path on the other side of the creek.

This is how critical public infrastructure *should* work: multiple levels of redundancy.

If only more bike, transit, and pedestrian infrastructure *did* work like that...

@salad_bar_breath What's the emoji for aww-I'm-touched-and-feeling-awkward-about-it? I'm usually around, just quiet most of the time. (-:

@salad_bar_breath Hah! Ok. :blobhaj_heartslove:​ (I'm about 2 decades behind the curve on emoji; maybe I'll get caught up someday.)

Probably not going to be on the net this weekend... I'll be out of town visiting a friend*, but I might try to check in if the timing works out and I can hit a repeater with IRLP or something.

* that is to say, camping in a tent in friend's back yard, because... *points at top of thread*

@sjs Bucket panniers. There are several ways to make them, but this tutorial is pretty good: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=1841

- waterproof
- capacious
- won't sag or squish things
- the tops of the buckets provide a big flat area where you can pile oversized items & strap them down
- upcycling!
- the hardware is remarkably cheap & can be reused on new buckets when the old ones eventually fail

I'm going to visit Davis this weekend!

Friday: Ride 100+ miles down to the bay and then back up to Davis on the solar trike.

Saturday & Sunday: Visit w/ an old friend and maybe drop in for a shift at the Davis Bike Collective.*

Monday: Ride 100+ miles home.

I'm considering bringing a second battery just in case I don't get enough solar to beat the headwind that's forecast for the second leg of the return trip. It'll be overkill (2kWh of battery + a 170W solar panel, when I usually draw less than 15Wh/mile) but carrying just a single battery might leave me a little short.

I am SO EXCITED!

* and spend lots of time wearing an N95 mask, of course

@TicklishHoneyBee Ooh, that's clever!

Looks like you're doing solar ebike charging too?

@dr_a When I lived in PDX, I got tired of worn-out plastic-y rain pants and switched to secondhand wool pants from an army surplus-ish store. They repel light rain, and even when soaked are still reasonably warm.

@TicklishHoneyBee Neat! I don't think I've seen it done that way before, with separate batteries in the trailer. (I charge the bike battery directly from solar.) How is it working out for you?

I love the tarp lean-to and all the integrated accessories! All of my lights and device chargers have been haphazard add-ons.

Is that a 100W solar panel?

I'm off like a herd of turtles!

*pedalpedalpedalpedal*

Made it to Davis last night after riding 139 miles in 14 hours. I didn't even need the backup battery!

Maybe in a day or three I'll post some highlights from the trip and get back to chatting with the fediverse; this afternoon I'm going to go see if they'll still let me volunteer at the Bike Collective after being gone for 10 years. (-:

@salad_bar_breath Forgot to bring the radio out&about with me and missed the net... maybe next week.

@Impossible_PhD I would hope that someone in the publishing process could connect you with a good sensitivity reader?

If not, I was going to suggest checking other authors' acknowledgements or asking bookstodon for recommendations. But then I told my partner what I was typing about and she said "There's a database for that!" and it looks like it is probably https://www.writingdiversely.com/directory

Also, I very much want to read this book when it comes out!

Setting up my electrical system with universal connectors (powerpole-type) is real handy... except when I accidentally plug my laptop (20v) into the ebike battery (40v) for the second time and fry it properly.

So (1) I'm using the dinky old tablet with cracks covering 1/4 of the screen until next week and (2) I need to make the connectors for different voltages non-compatible. Right now I think I might just slot a third plastic connector-housing thingy in between the two actual connectors for lower-voltage lines. Seems like a waste of the plastic thingies, except I've messed up enough crimps by now that I might have sufficient spares.

@W1CDN Oh, I think that would work! Thanks.

@Impossible_PhD Oof, yeah. It'd be nice if the right thing to do wasn't also more expensive and logistically challenging.

I hope things go well with the partial submission!

@TheLetterTen Are you feeling amped about becoming a member?

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai I've got a cargo bike and a trailer and an e-assist for heavy loads and long distances, but no trans-oceanic solution that I like.

"Learn to sail" has been on the to-do list for a while now, but I don't really want to own a boat and I think it's hard to find crew gigs for a couple with a dog, so that's still kinda uncertain. Seems like some of the up-and-coming sail cargo companies are offering passenger berths, so that could be cool!

#BikeNite

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai Toolkit. I wouldn't get far without it, some days. (-:

Possible new contender just came in the mail, though: A Sena pi helmet intercom, which should make it possible for Partner and I to ride together without shouting "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" back and forth over traffic noise all the time.

#BikeNite

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai I think I've said this during #BikeNite before, but... Davis, California.

I went back for a visit recently and re-discovered how nice it is to ride through a city that doesn't feel like a hostile maze. You can just turn wherever and... maybe it isn't the absolute best street to ride on, but it's almost never terrifying or extremely dangerous. (yikes, now that I've written it out it seems like such a low bar, but still...) They have cut-throughs that make bike and pedestrian routes MORE direct than car routes, instead of forcing you to zig-zag all over the place like you do in other "bike-friendly" cities like PDX.

Plus Davis has a critical mass - I think it's the only city in the USA with a bike commute modeshare over 10%, and the behavior of other road users reflects that they expect to see cyclists on the road, and that many of them do ride bikes at least some of the time.

Davis is where I originally went car-free, and it continues to remind me that safe, fun, comfortable urban cycling is 100% possible if we collectively put in the effort.

#DavisCA

@DuncanWatson@calckey.social 🚲 Hello! 🚲

@DuncanWatson@calckey.social Yep! And I see a velo in your profile header - what model is that?

Transition: Because my sewing/tailoring projects weren't complicated enough yet.

On second thought... I've been attempting to imply curves that didn't exist for years now. It might be easier when I have actual curves to work with.

@TheLetterTen A couple of skirts my partner and I made years ago - one in soft, slightly felted purple wool that's very cozy and one in navy blue wool that looks a little more formal. They're both half-circle skirts that fall to mid-calf and have belt-like closures where I can attach a multitool holster. They're comfy and rain-resistant and swish very nicely and are some of the feminine-coded clothes that I've had the longest.

@ascentale You're on the right track with system design - most solar ebikers I know of use >100W of panel and MPPT converters.

Mark Havran has been developing solar ebike systems for over a decade now and I think his website is probably the best resource I know of: https://solare.bike/technical-stuff/

I've been riding a solar ebike for over a year, and what you propose sounds entirely doable if it's sunny enough. My partner and I rode to the Mexican border and back last summer, and the only time we had serious difficulty maintaining a charge was between Monterey and San Francisco. Otherwise, it worked pretty well: we were riding heavy cargo trikes, often ~40 miles/day for several consecutive days, with 1kWh batteries and 150W solar panels.

I'd say touring in areas where you don't have access to external power is probably the only good application for a solar ebike right now. xkcd got it right with this flow chart: https://xkcd.com/1924/. Your situation sounds like an edge case - you would probably be fine with two spare batteries, which are a lot easier to carry around, but solar would work too. Or you could do a combined approach: a spare battery to bump your range to 40 miles and a folding solar panel to recharge at your destination.

Actually mounting the solar panel is a challenge that has been solved in a bunch of interesting ways and you can find examples online, but some preliminary advice: If you can get your hands on a lightweight rigid panel (e.g. LightLeaf) it should be pretty straightforward. I also met someone who had a cheaper-looking rigid 100W panel that seemed to use coroplast backing. We went with flex panels because they're pretty light and way cheaper per watt than LightLeaf, but then sacrificed some weight (and put in a lot of time+effort) building a frame to support them. It's important to give them enough support that they aren't constantly bending/wobbling. Mounting a panel on a trailer is usually easier from a construction standpoint and easier to leave at home when you aren't using it... but then you have to wrangle a loaded cargo bike with a trailer when parking, navigating tight spots, etc. and you have increased weight and rolling resistance.

@ascentale I can go on about this all day; let me know if you have any more specific questions. (-:

@bikemonterey
(1) I can't imagine anyone who has spent much time in Davis not talking about it when asked about bikes!

(2) I am so glad to hear about a bike organization doing intentional outreach to unhoused folks. I've seen too many bike advocacy groups ignore them or even treat them as a problem, and it is both disappointing and infuriating. I hope you can keep up the good work and serve as an example to other orgs!

@ascentale @PedalHoppy Preliminary review of Sena helmet intercom after ~25 miles: They're... pretty ok?

They attached to our helmets without much trouble, though our bulky multi-impact-rated helmets don't have as much strap length as the roadie helmets Sena probably designed them for and it was a bit tricky to get them positioned right in front of our ears.

Noise filtering is excellent - it cuts out almost all car, wind, etc. sound from the mic - but I think it attenuates voice a little too.

Volume control doesn't have much granularity, so it can be tricky to find the sweet spot between "I can't hear you over the traffic" and "ow, my ears!" But at least now we can do the "sorry, I couldn't hear you over that truck, say it again?" routine at normal speaking volume instead of shouting 'till we're hoarse. Plus we can keep talking from two blocks apart, so I don't have to constantly tailgate my partner to stay in hearing range.

UX isn't great - all functions are accessed by pressing the two buttons in different combinations and durations, or you can pair with a phone app and get some of the controls that way.

They pair with a phone as a standard bluetooth headset so you can use them for navigation or music, too. One good bit of UX (haven't tested yet, but read about it) is that intercom interrupts music, and I think navigation or a phone call interrupts both, so you aren't hearing several things at once.

I really like that they don't cover the ears. It makes conversation harder to hear over the other noise, but means I can still hear cars, bike bells, etc..

The one odd downside I didn't expect is that now we have no privacy - no chance of e.g. muttering or humming under your breath without the other person hearing.

Overall, I like them and think they'll be worthwhile for us... but they are definitely not perfect.

@WataruTenkawa@vivaldi.net Oof. Sadly, it's the opposite in the US - people were and continue to be incredibly resistant to masking, but helmets are generally worn even where they aren't required.

I'm leery of that comparison between masks and helmets though.
Mask: protects everyone in my vicinity
Helmet: protects me

I wear a helmet, always, and recommend it to others... but I don't like to see people judged for not wearing them.

@ellie That's fantastic!

I love the "This street is open for play!" signage. My partner has been raging* against "road closed" signs for years on the grounds that you aren't *closing* the road, you're *opening* it to all the non-car uses.

My favorite quote: "20% fewer kids are driven to school when the program is active, with more kids walking and biking"

(Now they just need to expand the hours and the radius until the entire city is like this 24/7.)

*my partner saw this and said "It's not really raging it's more... having conversations with street signs. Ok, maybe a little raging."

@WataruTenkawa@vivaldi.net Ah, ok. Yeah, I'd put texting while cycling firmly in the "danger to others" category.

@ascentale I'm maybe the wrong person to ask about this. My trike's steering geometry is unusual enough that most people couldn't ride away without crashing every few meters. It's heavy enough that you couldn't get it into a truck without a ramp or several people lifting. I mostly ride with my partner, and usually one of us stays near the trikes. Result: we hardly ever use our locks.

It's easy enough to lock the trike with attached solar panel to a regular bike rack. Someone could probably steal the panel off of it, but nobody has tried yet. A lot of people still don't realize that it *is* a solar panel, since it's mounted as a roof on a recumbent, and I think many people who recognize it don't understand the value of it.

My partner's trailer is harder to lock. We carried a cable for it at one point, but I don't think we ever used it. I find it's generally a nuisance to lock a trailer & bike combo.

Longer-term storage is tough because a cargo trike with a solar panel on it is huge and heavy... I'm lucky to have access to a shed for locking up at night.

@jeremy_ai@masto.ai @ascentale We had some success with small stuff when we lived in PDX - calling the city to request repainting in several places, encouraging businesses to request bike racks from the city, etc.

@hack Congratulations!

My voice is still far from being consistently heard as feminine, but I'm similarly looking forward to eventually being able to voice a bunch of different characters when reading aloud.

@PedalHoppy @jeremy_ai@masto.ai Sailbikes and sailtrikes exist! Only practical in a limited set of circumstances, but I can confirm that when the wind is right they are REALLY FUN.

@risingphoenix One of these days I'll organize & de-duplicate all the old files and consolidate them onto a single backup drive... one of these days.

@glightly @SRLevine Yeesh. I think 10+ yrs ago Davis Bicycles asked the League to add another level above platinum so Davis would have a goal to aim for instead of resting on its laurels. Doesn't seem like that ever happened.

Davis (both the city and the university) has better bike infrastructure and culture than anywhere else I know of in the US and it's both inspiring (we could do this everywhere!) and extremely disappointing (seriously, this is the best we've got?).

@glightly Well, that's appalling.

Disappointed but not surprised that LAB is unwilling to re-evaluate UCD sooner. Glad to hear they're at least willing to listen for the future.

@TheLetterTen Yep. Also the sequel, "Recursion: I'm still not ignoring you, I'm just overwhelmed by worry that you might think I was ignoring you when in fact I was just overwhelmed."

@arielkroon If you want to go the DIY conversion route, Grin Tech (https://ebikes.ca/) is based in Vancouver BC. They ship pretty much everywhere and are one of the best sources I know of for high-quality conversion kits (as long as a hub motor works for you; they don't do mid-drive).

They're strictly DIY kits, so you'd have to either install it yourself or find someone else willing to do it, but the folks at Grin have always been really helpful and supportive when I've had questions and issues, and they publish a bunch of resources on their website and on YouTube.

@pixouls Ooh, is it one of the old eink nooks? I used those for a while because they were the only cheap andriod eink devices.

Can anyone recommend something in between BaseRow/AirTable and "build a webapp from scratch"?

I'm looking for something that will provide a visual interface for storing, querying, and generating reports from a large dataset that's friendly to non-coders. The best thing I can come up with right now is MediaWiki with the Cargo or SemanticMediaWiki plugins and PageForms, but it seems like overkill to build a DB interface on top of a wiki.

#software #data

@pixouls Oh, the GlowLight! I had the previous version w/o a frontlight. They worked pretty well when I could find apps that were compatible with their very old version of android. The only other issue was stuff getting into the little gap around the screen that hides the... light sensors, I think? and causing it to register phantom touch events.

@wendypalmer I see why you'd want the second in most situations... but as a potential reader, I apparently find the first description far more compelling.

"What are we working on?"

"Finding a good Kanban or to-do system so we can stop asking 'What are we doing' all the time, I think."

@rune ahahaha. Been there, failed to do that. I suspect you are a more capable coder than I am, though. I hope you come up with something that works for you!

@SRLevine @Zumbador It's just like riding a bike... but with the capacity to carry so much more stuff!

Really, any halfway-decently-designed trailer is almost unnoticeable when riding. The ability to just toss stuff in (or pile & strap big stuff on) can be a game-changer for transporting things by bike, especially if you do a lot of Freecycle/Craigslist/BuyNothing pickups or live somewhere with a strong culture of free piles.

@psiie My understanding is that many of the identities/labels on the ace spectrum can be in addition to an orientation, if that suits you. Like, I'd say I'm a grey-ace lesbian.

I think someone who is demi and whose attraction doesn't have any relation to sex/gender might say they're demi and bi (or demi and pan) or might just say "demi," though some people would probably assume the latter means demi and straight because heteronormativity.

Also - Welcome to the ace spectrum! I find it really helpful to have descriptors for sexuality beyond just orientation; I hope it's similarly helpful for you.

@Impossible_PhD @AnCuRuadh @psiie @Dani I was just about to say that this looks like a solid starting point for a transfem bingo card.

@YouShallNotPass @lithisto My people!

*unfolds awl blade; picks dirt from under fingernails*

@cargot_robbie @SRLevine You can also fill a bucket or small tub with water. Or fill up the sink. You can't get a whole tube into the water at once, but you can do it in sections.

(I'm about out of patches myself - time to get another 100-pack from Rema and find somewhere that'll sell me an oversize tube of vulcanizing glue. (Seriously, patch kit manufacturers, why do you think I need dozens of tiny plastic boxes and little rectangles of sandpaper?))

@pixouls Oh... yeah, I think so.

@Dani Congratulations! Hope you had a good hike! (-:

@quietbrooke That's a significant amount of lumber! You'd BETTER follow through with a thread about it, now that you've piqued everyone's curiosity. (-:

Just sitting around in the park, trying to make sense of the Docker config for the Canasta distribution of MediaWiki so I can maybe fix these database connection errors...

@lispi314 Well, there's https://bunnyscience.dozuki.com/Guide/Bunny+Science%E2%84%A2+PAPR/4

I considered it a while back, but it seemed too fiddly for daily use when out-and-about. Might be able to adapt some the design to work with a cheaper passive full-face mask, though?

@Dani Internal dividers? Nice! I like the style, and also that the strap looks like it might be long enough to wear cross-body.

Excellent repur(se)posing.

@AlwaysAutumn Just a guess, but I suspect it's got something to do with the way you're always being friendly and supportive and kind to people? (-:

@sparkledragon5@chaosfem.tw It's so nice when it does that!

Lately I've felt like the gender wires in my brain are loose and they connect or disconnect at random, and... yeah. It's more fun when they connect with "girl" than when they don't.

I'm not yet very far into Planning Perfect by Haley Neil, but I love that the protagonist describes herself as "on the ace spectrum" instead of something more specific or defined.

There are so many ways to be ace, and even the dozens of lesser-known microlabels don't cover them all.

Nothing against characters who are more definite about their sexuality - I just like finding narratives that try to navigate these kinds of gray areas.

#asexual #bookreview

@zebulonmysterioso My partner wears over-sunglasses from a brand called Cocoons. I've had good experiences with prescription photochromic lenses (the ones that get dark in the sun).

@dr2chase Wow, really? I think we had at least one volunteer when we did this with a vintage Schwinn stationary bike.

Also: Bikes@Work trailers are great! Is that a skate wheel or something on the back corner?

@psiie Ooh, good term.

My partner alternates between appreciating that I have this skill (when we have to make the place look tidy fast) and hating it (later, when the pile of stuff turns up somewhere less visible). I kind of agree with her.

@YouShallNotPass @psiie I had a consult & sample session recently and the pain wasn't bad, but I know it varies from person to person. I guess a full session is probably worse than a quick sample, too?

I tried to focus on the faint lemon-y zing licked-a-battery flavor that you get sometimes when they apply current, which I find oddly pleasant.

The time commitment and the days of not shaving are what I worry about most. I'd probably wind up just wearing a mask or scarf for a year or two and it'd be fine, but... laser is sounding increasingly promising.

*boils water to shave*
*gets distracted*

*re-boils water to shave*
*gets distracted*

*re-re-boils water to shave*

But on the bright side, the later in the day I shave, the less shadow I have in the evening!

@enobacon I use OsmAnd and set a bunch of intermediate destinations, which is slow to set up but usually works. Occasionally I use the "avoid this road" feature too, but it's hard to predict how that will pan out.

Finally got on #bookwyrm (kg6gfq@bookrastinating.com)! Now I'd like to follow some people... are YOU on bookwyrm?

And if so, what's your account there so I can follow you?

@alrs That's a nice-looking tandem!

@smellsofbikes I've ridden with independent pedaling (and quite liked it) but I'm having a hard time imagining how a mixer freewheel would work... Did each rider have independent shifters, or was it somehow automatic?

Me: *wants to write a supportive response to someone talking about a negative experience, because I know a positive interaction can help sometimes*

Also me: Is this supportive enough? Too intense? Will it actually be helpful? What if I change that word? No, it was better the other way. What if it actually makes them feel worse? Is it too long? Is it too short? I'll come back to this in a while and try again. *goes away, comes back* Maybe I should try humor? No, that could read as dismissive; I'll aim for sincerity. Ack, too sincere! A lot of people just send hug or heart emojis, I could try that... No, that's really not my style. Do I say something like "best wishes" or just try to acknowledge and commiserate? Do I really have anything worth saying here? *reads posts by people who seem to be better at this, seeking inspiration* Aaugh I have no idea.

*deletes the toot*

*writes a meta-toot about it*

*sigh*

@enobacon I was just talking to someone about this the other day.

My only sticking point with this is that it just says "bicycles" in stead of "bicycles, pedestrians, wheelchair users, skateboards, scooters, and other micromobility vehicles". I'd propose changing it to "for cars" (as in "Dead End For Cars") but then that's making it about the cars, and... argh.

Anyway, I like this! And I like #theDOTforgot, too. Nice hashtag. (-:

Wait... When you look at a book's page on #Bookwyrm, you can see peoples' reviews of it, but not their comments or quotes?

This seems like a flaw. I want to see everybody's favorite quotes!

*checks github*

Ah, somebody already opened an issue for this; looks like implementation is planned.

@calliope Oh gosh, I can't even imagine. Books have always been there for me, and it breaks my heart a little that they haven't been for you.

I started with the Hardy Boys and never stopped - kept reading everything in sight, shifting to mostly female protagonists "because I wanted to be a better feminist" (true, but...) and recently binge-reading sapphic romance novels "because I can't relate to being attracted to men" (true, but...) until one of those sapphic rom-coms finally got me to confront my gender.

I'm so glad to hear that you found books that speak to you again. I hope they keep quenching that thirst for a long time. 📚

The local Pride parade is setting up outside our window, and we'd like to (1) put out some extra n95 masks in case anyone needs them, and (2) put up some kind of #CovidIsNotOver sign that reads as positive and supportive and possibly humorous.

Any recommendations for what to say?

#covid19 #pandemic @plaguepoems #humor

@laurafry@artisan.chat I skimmed this, saw "warp" and "beamed" and briefly thought it was some kind of Star Trek weaving project.

@salad_bar_breath 🤨 This must be your trademark sarcasm, because I've seen a few of your selfies on here and they always look fantastic.

Also, do we need to call in the Trans Mafia here? https://www.tiktok.com/@danbish99/video/7214983164786183466

Or does past you have it covered? https://todon.nl/@salad_bar_breath/110503008497825334

@kaitlynethylia @deersyrup datastring = quipu, also?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu

@proactivebusybody They've been doing this at cyclists for a while now.

I think someone tried to do it to me once, but they got the timing wrong and it just sounded like they didn't know how to operate their truck.

@Bman Any number of wheels is excellent, so long as the vehicle weighs less than what it carries and isn't disproportionately life-threatening.

@capntransit Well, that's disappointing.

I guess I'd change "Full Closure" to "No Cars" and "Limited Local Access" to "Limited Car Access - Local Only". It isn't ideal because it's still a negative framing and makes things about cars, but it's at least accurate.

If we had a commonly-recongized term for "everything except cars" I'd flip the framing, but saying "Only bicycles, pedestrians, skaters, wheelchairs & powerchairs, scooters, and other micromobility devices" is way too much.

@AlwaysAutumn Oof, yeah. I've been doing that with all things medical because the local clinic is pretty good about using preferred names but I haven't quite figured out which departments/referrals/prescriptions are still going to be associated solely with my paperwork name.

@DelilahTech My partner's feminine-coded English name reads as masculine in Spanish. People occasionally used to think I was part of a gay male couple. Someday soon I expect they'll start assuming I'm a straight cis woman. 😆

@Bman @sigrithur We need a little mock-advertising campaign for plastic bollards.

* Easy to drive over!
* Looks like you're protecting vulnerable road users without providing any actual protection!
* Cheaper than real bollards AND lawsuits!

@ellie @salad_bar_breath I have been following this conversation with great interest and amusement, and as far as I can tell it hasn't even gotten to the originally intended freezerbag infodump yet.

It's not Friday but I'm going to tag this with #TransVoiceFriday anyway because I meant to do it yesterday and only just got around to it.

3 consecutive clips of me reading the first sentence of Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater. First clip is 4 months ago, second clip is 1 month ago, third clip is tonight. #TransVoice

@renegadejade@hachyderm.io Just checked the built-in reader app on my Onyx Boox and it does not seem to have highlighting as a TTS feature.

I suspect modern e-ink devices like the Boox could handle it with a 3rd-party app, but you'd still have the DRM issue. 😞

*turns off flashlight*

*drops flashlight*

Uh-oh, it's too dark to see where the flashlight fell.

*pulls second flashlight out of pocket*

(apparently there is a reason to carry multiple flashlights on one's person)

@robotfactory You're in PDX, right? You might want to check whether there's a tool library that covers your neighborhood instead of (or in addition to) getting tools from Harbor Freight. As of a few years ago they covered much of N, NE, and SE and people were talking about starting them on the westside too.

@jemal@jemal.contact @dr2chase I'd bet the wider BB will do the trick. If your current BB was loose or damaged I'd expect you to feel a clicking or shifting sensation as you alternated pedal strokes any time you were pedaling hard. That photo looks like really tight clearance between the crank and chainstay; I'm not surprised it's a problem. A small amount of flex is normal in bicycle frames, with the amount varying depending on the material and frame design. This BB and crank combination is likely just wrong for the frame. The increased clearance from a longer spindle should more than accommodate any increase in leverage. Though... what's the clearance like on the other side? Is it at least similar?

Also: Bike collectives are my favorite!

@suksisauvasekoitin @dr2chase @gerrymcgovern "172-cm-high washer-dryer tower weighing 145 kg"

Eh, I've hauled bigger and heavier things on a Bikes@Work trailer. It'd be slow and would have to be laid down flat, but it is doable. 😁​🚲

Lately when I see vanity license plates that use "HRT" as an abbreviation for "heart" I read them a differently than I used to.

Someone should make shirts or stickers that say something like "I :heart_trans:​HRT:heart_trans: myself."

@donaldball

The best helmet mirror I've used is the EVT SafeZone, by a huge margin. However...

I'm pretty sure constantly looking up and to the side exacerbated my astigmatism*, so I recommend handlebar mirrors now. I don't have a particular model to recommend, though.

* There's a definite correlation between getting the mirror and an increase in my astigmatism, the axis lines up, and I've read that looking to the side is at least a hypothesized risk factor for astigmatism.

@ingalls Do it!

I hauled a little apartment-size countertop dishwasher 50 miles by cargo trike a couple weeks ago. The people who posted it to Craigslist were... surprised. (-:

If you actually want to haul it but trailer price is an issue, I might be able to connect you with someone in PDX who could lend or rent you a Bikes@Work trailer. That said... If you can get a Bikes@Work trailer for yourself, it's absolutely worthwhile.

@categulario Linux command line, I assume? Someone in my timeline was posting about the "units" command recently and I think it will do something like that: https://linux.die.net/man/1/units

@Dani @faithisleaping That sounds similar to how I feel about makeup. Clothes and hair are fun, but I just don't have any interest in makeup.

Might be influenced by my partner never wearing makeup. Also I think my preferred gender presentation is a mix of "quite femme" and "tomboyish," and I get enough femme from clothing and hair.

@Dani @faithisleaping Oh, and I've been thinking lately about a sentence my partner picked up from a friend: "You're female, so anything about you and anything you do is, by definition, feminine."

Sometimes it helps. 🙂

@scrottie @dx I've DIYed the "cat ears" a few times for long descents. They helped me hear passing cars over the wind noise and also kept my ears a little warmer.

If your goal is to actually hear someone else, I wouldn't expect them to make much difference. We finally gave in and got helmet intercoms this year, and those do help if you can get past the hassle of managing a bluetooth device attached to your helmet.

@dx @scrottie Oh, it might be adequate for someone on the back of the same bike, especially if wind noise is the main issue.

My DIY solution was to wrap cheap knit gloves around my helmet straps, so you could test it that way.

@scrottie @dx We tried walkie-talkies and the audio quality was awful. I wish we could hush the cars! For now we're using Sena Pi intercoms, which are not perfect but they're a whole lot better than shouting.

@forteller Yeah, looks like an Otoscope with... are those dental exam mirror attachments as well? That's a nice kit!

What is the state of discourse on comparing the experiences of two marginalized groups?

It would be nice to read an overview of this conversation to date.

We're looking at similarities between the experience of trans folks and folks who walk/bike for transportation with the goal of building solidarity, but I know there's other takes on it, more along the lines of "everyone's experience of suffering/oppression is unique".

Particularly interested in any #academic writing on the topic, but blogs/articles/etc. are good too.

:boostRequest:​ I'd appreciate boosts, replies with tags that might be helpful, et cetera. Thanks!

#trans #academia #socialjustice #humanities #ethics

@VaylLarkinPoet Yes, we're very aware of that and will definitely take it into account & point it out in any resulting materials.

Thanks for the reminder, though! It's an area where the bike community at large has... a lot of room for improvement. 🙁​

@salad_bar_breath Well, the reasons we're doing this particular comparison are

(1) we saw a call for paper presentations for a conference session about gender and active transportation, and they were specifically encouraging applicants from outside academia, and

(2) being trans and being a cyclist/pedestrian are kind of the big things in my life right now (and the two areas where I'm notably non-normative / marginalized), and I can't help comparing them so I might as well do something with it, and maybe hopefully it could be the basis for increasing some understanding and empathy and solidarity.

@enobacon Are they raw & whole or in some immediately-edible form?

(I guess one could theoretically chomp on whole beets, but I would be disinclined to do so.)

@ascentale @glightly A6. Anything that assumes bikes have only 2 wheels that are centered about 50" apart, and are only a couple feet wide (and that only at the highest point).

Which didn't quite prevent us from taking a 10' long recumbent tandem on a ferry to San Francisco that one time, but it was a real pain getting it up and down the stairs.

Also the thing where cities put a little channel on the side of a stairway and acting like it's bike infrastructure. (Definitely can't shove a trike up that. Even 2-wheel recumbents have a low wide spot due to the seat and have to lean out at a really awkward angle so they don't bump the wall/handrail. Same with some cargo bikes, and even a conventional bike with wide panniers like the buckets I used to favor is challenging to fit on these things.)

"Walk your bike" zones don't make any sense when you ride a bike that's easier to control when riding than when walking, as is often the case for any recumbent with under-seat steering and the majority of recumbent trikes. I just ride through them slowly and cautiously.

I thing what I'd change for most of these is to require that anyone designing bike infrastructure ride around for a while on a variety of bikes and trikes so they account for that diversity in their designs.

#BikeNite

@glightly I was really excited to see the GoLo! I feel like it's the most innovative thing FlevoBike has produced since the original flevobike/trike and the early Alleweder velomobile designs. Didn't realize they were involved in designing the Armadillo; that's interesting.

@dx @enobacon I believe Eco Counter is one of the bigger providers of permanent counters (which is to say, they list 304 counters on their map of installations, including a few in PDX).

Sounds like they do use inductive loops to count wheels and they do a bunch of processing/analysis to determine what gets counted, but the details are unclear. You might be able to ask them... https://www.eco-counter.com/produits/cyclist/urban-zelt/

@glightly I saw these on a parked truck recently and was trying to figure out what kind of protective covers I could put on them that would make the most interesting statement. Maybe foam clown noses?

@ellie In which the person who gives the fewest fucks wins?

I wrote that as a jokey throwaway comment but I sat with it a little and it sounds like a pretty accurate description of the socioeconomic system prevalent in much of the world today which, like golf, wastes an inordinate amount of resources for the enjoyment of a small percentage of people, most of who are unreasonably weathy and don't appear to care much about others. Huh.

@emilyaviva You can follow @KJ7OMO for reminders about the weekly Pride Radio Group Net.

@faequeenapril Sounds like a fun trip!

I don't know what the route is like - will you be on paved or unpaved roads?

It might also help for bike recommendations to know what gear you're carrying - are you going with super-ultralight gear or more of a regular bike touring load?

I always recommend that people try recumbent bikes and that goes double for long trips. The difference in terms of comfort is incredible.

If you want to reach more people, you might want to add the BikeTooter tag; it seems like that's what the Mastodon bike community has converged on.

@faequeenapril Neat!

I don't know what price range you're considering, and that can dramatically impact your options. I'm not really qualified to comment on anything expensive or high-end; my focus is on bikes that are either pretty cheap or extremely weird. (-:

You can tour on anything, though. I've met people who traveled thousands of miles on department-store mountain bikes in such appalling condition I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. I've made some fairly long trips on old refurbished road and mountain bikes that cost a few hundred USD. I used to maintain a rental fleet that included a couple Jamis Auroras, which seemed like decent lowish-budget touring bikes at slightly under $1000, and I've known a lot of folks who swear by Surly models like the Trucker (~$2000 new). It keeps going up from there, but again that isn't my area of expertise.

There's the whole range of gravel bikes and bikepacking bikes now that... I don't really know much about them; someone else can chime in maybe. They seem to be lighter and more oriented towards off-road riding. The gear-carrying system is based less on racks and panniers and instead uses off-the-seat bags and giant handlebar bags and frame bags. I don't know how people manage with so little gear - I guess either you spend several hundred dollars on an ultralight/ultracompact tent or you make do with a tarp and a mosquito net.

If I were going on a long bike trip and not riding a recumbent (yikes, I've got saddle sores just thinking about it) I would probably go the refurbished MTB route: Take a good quality non-suspension mountain bike from the 80s/90s, overhaul it (or take it to a good shop for an overhaul), and fit it out with semi-slick tires like Schwalbe Marathon Pluses and whatever racks or other gear-carrying systems I wanted. It wouldn't be super-light, but it would be solid and reliable and suitable for on- and off-road use. To give my upper body some variety over the course of the day, I'd probably track down something like trekking/butterfly handlebars or the Jones H-bar, or get creative with clamp-on bar-ends.

Hopefully some of that is helpful! Happy to answer further questions if I can.

@ellie I believe Eco Counter is one of the main providers of permanent counters and they use induction loops, same as most intersections. https://www.eco-counter.com/produits/cyclist/urban-zelt/ (this is the second time I've linked to them from masto in a week?!)

I remember someone in PDX 5+ years ago talking about developing little sensor packs for bike detection that didn't require permanent installation, but don't know if that went anywhere and I can't remember who the person was.

Also I want to know why you're asking about this!

@faequeenapril Oh, ok! You've already got it narrowed down pretty tight - two hybrids and a gravel bike? And they all look like decent bikes for the prices.

I will say that the last one may not have Shimano components, but it looks like most of the drivetrain is from Microshift and they seemed to have a pretty good reputation when I was working in shops 5+ yrs ago. So that's not necessarily a mark against it.

The people I knew who rode 650b wheelsets always used to have a harder time finding tires than people who rode 700s; don't know if that's still the case or if there's regional differences but it's something I would consider with the Raleigh.

It is hard to choose! None of them would be my first choice (they are neither secondhand nor weird) but they all look like good bikes. I get the impression that the quality and price both increase together so there isn't an obvious best deal, either.

Do you have an opportunity to test-ride any of them?

@SleepyCatten The main one for me was: You don't have to have some intense, innate sense that you're the wrong gender to be trans. You don't have to have clear negative feelings about your gender-assigned-at-birth. It is sufficient to just want to be a different gender. (At the very least, sufficient to merit some serious consideration.)

Also more information about the logistics of medical transition. I had never really thought about it in detail, but so far it's turning out to be a lot more doable than I expected. I know that's not the case for everyone, but I'm fortunate to be in a region where the medical establishment is not very gatekeep-y.

Also also: It's possible to be trans and genderfluid. I mostly had to figure out for myself that being genderfluid didn't necessarily exclude the possibility that transitioning might be worthwhile.

Genderdysphoria.fyi and trans folks on the fediverse covered the first two pretty well, though, so I owe the internet trans community a lot of gratitude. (-:

@brass75 @zombierustpunk Same. Posting takes significant effort for me. Replying takes a little less because at least I'm not starting something out of the blue. But a lot of the time I just read.

Trying to ⭐ more things lately as a way of quietly engaging, but sometimes I forget it's an option.

@whack @pmcnally I met another bike tourist once who had a full-size US flag on the back of his bike. I believe what he said was "If they don't care about running over a cyclist, they might care about running over the flag."

I'd suggest that there is potential overlap between hi-vis used in hunting, hi-vis used by flaggers, and hi-vis used by cyclists... but some articles have been making the rounds lately about drivers seeing cyclists who wear hi-vis as "less human" so that's maybe a toss-up.

@pqqq I like that idea.

My mom draws little flowers on her N95 masks. I'd like to do something similar but I am also very much not artsy.

I've seen some photos of geometric designs on respirators that looked cool; I could probably manage that...

@Lucia 😆

Solidarity!

@MLE_online @smellsofbikes I can't see much of it in the video, but I would bet this is not vintage since it has a quick-release.

I ❤️ dynohubs.

After decades of wearing nothing shorter than knee-length "mens" shorts, I have mixed feelings about wearing higher hemlines. It goes something like:

1. Sun and air on my legs! So nice!
2. Can people see up my shorts/skirt? tugs hem down a little
3. These are pretty cute. 🙂
4. Aaaaah I feel so exposed.
5. Start over at step 1.

I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually...

#trans

@aWildThorp Fiction or nonfiction?

If fiction, maybe some of Kim Stanley Robinson's books? Also I've seen Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore described as a solarpunk setting.

@nerdybutcute Oh, huh.

Umm... Thank you for providing my next journaling topic.

@wren@chaosfem.tw Cripes. 😟 I hope you get to rest soon.

@wren@chaosfem.tw 🎉 🎉 😴

PSA # 1: Don't leave trash/recycling cans in the bike lane. (Municipalities and trash companies, that includes you! Work with residents to find better solutions.)

PSA # 2: When riding a bicycle, don't try to kick or shove trash/recycling cans closer to the curb. Not even when riding a tricycle.

PSA # 3: Ow. Nothing serious, just a little scraped up. Still... Ow.

(I've done it successfully many times before, but my luck finally ran out.)

I was reading the archives of "I want to be a cute anime girl" on Webtoons by @AzulCrescent and repeatedly misread the text at the bottom of the page that says "Enjoying the series? Support the creator by becoming a patron."

I kept reading it as "...by becoming a woman"

Yup.

(Also, the comic is really sweet and adorable. How have I not read this before? It's going on the roster of webcomics I check regularly: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/i-want-to-be-a-cute-anime-girl/list?title_no=349416)

#trans #WebComic #WebComics

@susannah aaaagh that sounds so frustrating. It's great that you're trying, though!

@IzzyOmega Oh gosh, that hits rather close to home.

@ascentale @glightly A3. Favorite cycle was probably my old python midracer recumbent, which I built mostly at the UC Davis Craft Center - I think it was the third 'bent I built. It was slightly janky and a few of the welds failed and had to be repaired later, but I still remember rolling to a stop at home and just sitting on the bike in the driveway because it was so comfortable. I let it fall into disrepair for a while and it was stored with my parents when one of the big California fires swept through. All that was left afterwards was some bent and twisted tubing.

#BikeNite #recumbent

@glightly @ascentale Yes and no. It was disappointing, but by the time it burned I had built something new and didn't know if/when I might come back to it. My attitude toward my DIY bikes is mostly that they are an infinite succession of prototypes, with each one informing the next generations. (-:

@ascentale @bikenut@mastodon.social A5. I buy bike stuff (like most other stuff) secondhand wherever possible. My preference is usually to get things from Bike Collectives / Bike Kitchens / Community Bike Shops / whatever the local equivalent is. Partly because they often have good stuff at good prices, partly because I want to support bicycle reuse and bike repair education, and partly because I first learned to work on bikes at a collective and have been involved with them ever since.

I almost always donate bike stuff to the local collective if they want it. (They don't always want it. Keeping a community shop tidy, organized, and functional in the face of endless donations, many of which are cheap bikes not designed for repair, is a thankless task.)

I help maintain the big list of collectives here: https://bikecollectives.org/wiki/Community_Bicycle_Organizations

We're working on making it easier to browse/search/filter/edit the list; I'm hopeful that we'll have a significantly better interface later this year.

#BikeNite

@faithisleaping That's good to hear! I visited an electrologist who was strongly anti-laser, and then found out laser is what my insurance covers right now.

I was a little concerned after talking to that electrologist, but reading about your and others' experiences with laser has been reassuring.

@faithisleaping Thanks! I think that's the most helpful overview/comparison I've seen yet.

@AlwaysAutumn I'm going to say "yes" because if the answer is no, then I'm doing it wrong.

(Well, "hot" isn't quite my preferred adjective for myself, so I'm considering "cute" or "pretty" to be functionally equivalent for this purpose.)

@salad_bar_breath Wait, what's this about convection ovens?

@salad_bar_breath Oooh, now I remember seeing that.

*phew* I was afraid I'd missed out on an important part of Rayne lore.

@RoseRaven If you include books in "media"...

Have you seen the #ASpecToZ posts from @ClH2OArs? Plus it looks like https://www.aroacedatabase.com/ is up again.

When I've got some more time I might be able to recommend a few specific books that I like, but I think Claudie knows what's out there better than pretty much anyone else.

@glightly There used to be one landscaper who got the university to buy him a cargo trike and trailer instead of a gas vehicle. I wonder if he's still around?

@glightly @TheWarOnCars Yeah, that (like most things I know about Davis) is 10 years out of date.

I thought there would be something about it on DavisWiki, but found only the briefest mention. Might have been covered in the Enterprise or Aggie at some point... Ah, yeah. Mike Griffith. Here's an article that mentions him: https://www.davisenterprise.com/news/local/cool-davis-move-more-with-your-bike/

And here's a DavisWiki page with a few links (broken but available on archive.org): https://daviswiki.org/Human_Powered_Utility_Vehicle (Oh, and I used to volunteer at the bike collective with Jason Moore, who apparently worked with Griffith on the project.)

@RoseRaven Er... not sure what list you're referring to there.

(I wasn't sure if books would count for this because sometimes it seems like people use "media" to mean just tv and movies.)

Webcomics... I don't think any of the comics I regularly read have strong ace/demi rep. Some of the comics I read less frequently might qualify; I'll ponder that.

@audrinabell @wmbr

Listening to this now, it's fun!

Also, #BicycleMusic

@RoseRaven Oh, that makes sense. No worries! (-:

@aWildThorp I just added A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys to my to-read list when it showed up in my bookwyrm feed. It seems to be well reviewed and described as solarpunk.

https://bookrastinating.com/book/47216/s/a-half-built-garden

@psiie Congratulations! Glad it was not-awful.

Partner and I were talking about awkward positive responses yesterday, and how sometimes people seem really performative about explaining "no, really, I'm supportive and love trans people and hate transphobes" and it goes on and on and... eh.

It's better than the opposite, but often I'd rather hear a simple "awesome, congrats, let me know if you want me to do something besides switching name/pronouns."

@YouShallNotPass

@enobacon Nice! The panel support frame looks great.

I haven't yet collected info about my experiences with solar e-bikes anywhere, so here are links to a few of my old posts on the subject in case anyone is curious:

general thoughts on solar e-bikes: https://octodon.social/@kg6gfq/110339874308861974

photo of two solar e-trikes: https://octodon.social/@kg6gfq/109487681044058755

good photo & notes on regenerative braking: https://octodon.social/@kg6gfq/109944804447179277

me rambling about the solar charging system: https://octodon.social/@kg6gfq/109543526700140112

snow can be a problem: https://octodon.social/@kg6gfq/109928069138630428

re-configured to use the solar panel as a trunk lid instead of a roof: https://octodon.social/@kg6gfq/112652661081205892

not by me, but the best resource I know for solar ebike technical info: https://solare.bike/technical-stuff/

#solar #ebike #recumbent #trike #BikeTooter #SolarBike

...when someone else brushes the dog and then hands you the hair, so you feel compelled to finger-spin a few meters of chiengora.

@MLE_online Are you looking at front-loaders or longtails? Bakfietsen are pretty bulky, but in my experience longtails are mostly just long and they're easy to DIY given ~1.75 suitable frames.

@sous_mon_masque Aww, that's simultaneously sweet and unfortunate.

Also: Welcome to the adding-a-middle-name club! I recently got mine approved; now it's time to go update it everywhere.

I hope things go right for the next try!

@salad_bar_breath Aaaaaah! Go sleep so you can be comparatively well-rested for your appointment. I hope it goes well!

@njeanneburns@mspsocial.net Oh no! I hope you can get plenty of rest and it passes quickly, whatever it is.

(Also: Aaargh, dentists. The last one I went to was nominally "masks required" and yet they didn't do/say anything about the people making out in the corner of the waiting room. I'm not sure they had the air filters turned on either. *sigh*)

@YouShallNotPass If they try, they're gonna have to take mine too.

I dropped out of the CompSci program because (among other reasons) I was tired of doing all my homework in basement-level computer labs.

(It's ok, I've read genderdysphoria.fyi a few times now and I'm pretty confident "work in CompSci" is only a strong indicator, not a defining trait.​)

@ascentale @glightly A8. "I Got A Bicycle" by Coco Love Alcorn. I haven't found a really clear recording online; this is probably the best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApO491kOh_U

There's a sample of the proper recording on her website, complete with bike sounds: https://cocolovealcorn.com/track/1050555/i-got-a-bicycle

Also, this thread needs the #BicycleMusic tag!

#BikeNite

@sofia@toot.site @salad_bar_breath

me, scrolling further down my home feed: "Oh, that's what the mascara thing was about."

Also, the matching screennames are lovely. (maybe if I keep scrolling I'll learn what they're about)

@mnl @mekkaokereke I believe someone in PDX did an informal study of this several years back - went and sat at a few intersections and watched traffic. Her finding was that cyclists and drivers break a similar number of traffic laws, but they are different laws (e.g. cyclists rarely speed, but they roll through stops more often; drivers often speed but stop at intersections more consistently).

Drivers perceive cyclists as scofflaws because they are doing the *wrong* wrong things, not the wrong things that drivers consider normal and acceptable.

@mnl Oh, absolutely! Most "scofflaw" cyclist behavior is a reaction/adaptation to infrastructure and laws that aren't designed with cycling in mind.

...which is getting a little off the topic of the thread, but maybe I can bring it back around:

As others in the thread have pointed out, cycling - especially for transportation - is, for many otherwise privileged people, a rare experience. It's one of the only times they are non-normative, have their needs unheard and unacknowledged by society at large, find themselves on the receiving end of systemic inequality. It's different from being oppressed in any other way (every kind of oppression is unique in the details) but it is a point of reference that can help build understanding and solidarity. Cyclists aren't inherently inclined to care about others, but they do have a better basis for building empathy.

Someone who experiences the sort of casual disregard from government and society that a cyclist does, and who therefore has to break laws just to exist safely, is maybe a bit more likely than the average person to understand something like "a riot is the language of the unheard" (Martin Luther King Jr.).

(You can make an argument from the other side, too: Among the reasons I bike are concern about environmental impact and traffic fatalities. So people who care about other people may also be more disposed to care about bikes.)

Having said all that... I don't know how it compares to the general population, but I've seen a really stark and disappointing lack of intersectionality in bike advocacy. It's refreshing to hear someone say there's an overlap between biking and empathy, because I don't always see it on a day-to-day basis.

Ok, that got long and ramble-y, going to just post it now before I think of something else to add.

@mekkaokereke

@mnl @mekkaokereke My partner pointed out that it snowballs, too:

Maybe you start cycling, in part, because you care about people
...and that experience gives you a better understanding of what it is to be marginalized
...and then you care more about oppression
...so you look into it more and learn more about systemic inequality, which applies to bike advocacy AND other stuff
...et cetera.

@glightly I'll second that. I caught the tail end of recumbents being really unique. My partner had been riding a 'bent longer than I had, so I've heard more about it from her.

Now we have the solar trikes and are once again distinctive enough that lots of people get really excited about them.

(I mostly enjoy when people get excited about the trikes. Occasionally it gets old having people act like I'm a tourist attraction, or getting asked the same three questions every day, but I still respond positively.)

@glightly Oof.

There was a time when I might have been one of those dudes; I like to think I've learned at least a few things since then.

I feel like my mantra lately has been "bike advocacy has an intersectionality problem." I think I'm going to be repeating that for good long while...

@glightly Lack of COVID precautions.

Most of what I'd like to be doing re:climate right now is community-based. Community gardens, bike collectives, advocacy groups, repair cafes... the established ones in my area mostly went from "we are shut or not accepting volunteers during the pandemic" to "the pandemic is over, let's all do stuff together unmasked". I'm not confident about trying to start something new because either we require masking and deal with the associated pushback, or we don't and... nope, not doing that.

I don't want to get covid again and increase the risk of long-term effects, and I *really* don't want to be any more of a vector if I can avoid it. (Really, what ever happened to "my mask keeps you safe, your mask keeps me safe"?)

I think the most impactful things I could do involve working locally with groups of people - it's what I've done a lot in the past, I love doing it, and it seems to really make a difference. It just isn't a viable option right now.

@uxmark Wow, I am touched to be included on a recommendation list with a bunch of really awesome people!

@spydergrrl
Do you follow @mediaarchaeologylab, @rose_alibi, and/or @loriemerson? They all tend to post interesting stuff about media and technology history that might be tangentially related to UX.

There are a lot of great people around who talk about cycling & bikes, but one of my favorites who comes to mind right now (and isn't already listed in this thread) is @glightly.

@scott I just started reading that and am currently LIVID. The Richmon-San Rafael bridge is the most direct* route for me to visit one of my oldest friends, or anyone/anything else in the East Bay or Sacramento Valley.

It sounds like the people to contact if I want to make noise about this are the Bay Area Council? Is anyone else doing advocacy around this?

(The freeway-shoulder route to the bridge is so unpleasant, I instead take a mile or so detour on a bumpy unpaved path to access it.)

* it's the "most direct" in the way that so many bike routes are - an 80-odd mile car trip, but the safe bike route is nearly 150 miles.

@scott I was reading the quotes from people in Richmond about pollution, etc. and going "ok, we need to make sure we address this from an intersectional perspective, it's no good to build bike infrastructure that has harmful knock-on effects for a historically Black neighborhood". Bike advocacy needs to do a better job of intersectionality, antiracism, etc.

And then I got to nearly the end of the article and found this tidbit:

"The time it takes to travel through the corridor grew by one minute. There was congestion before and there is congestion now,"

...but now I'm thinking that one minute multiplied by however many cars drive through there is really a lot of additional pollution.

Putting patches on a broken world is rarely easy, I guess.

@scott Oooh, got it. I have tabs open for MCBC, Rich City Rides, and RBPAC. (-:

None of them seem to be mentioning this on their websites yet, though.

@scott Right, emailing now. My usual inclination is to spend several hours researching and get burnt out; just sending an email is a much better tactic I think.

My favorite, if rather depressing, quote from the email I just wrote to a few advocacy groups:

"normal cyclist levels of fear"

(As opposed to "cyclist on a multi-lane highway levels of fear" or "cyclist on a busy, windy road with no shoulder where cars go 50mph levels of fear". And I consider myself fortunate to live in a place where there exists a "normal" that is better than either of those.)

@TicklishHoneyBee@strangeobject.space Not quite so dramatic as that, but... We had a guest with a service (albeit not guide) dog in training once, and he used my partner's glasses as a chew toy while she was taking a nap.

The glasses were relatively undamaged so it was fine. He was always trying so hard to be a Good Dog, but he was also still very much a puppy sometimes.

@ellie 🤣​

"Streaming media? No, no, I said SCREAMING media. You know, like *imitates fax machine noises*"

I just re-read Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater for the... fourth time. Or was it the fifth? I've lost count. Anyway...

I love Atwater's prose and humor.

I find the casual fluidity of the angels' gender presentation... aspirational? I think that's the sentiment I'm looking for. I'd like to live in a world where it's not a big deal that "Gadriel had opted to be a man today, in an attempt to shake up his thinking."

I appreciate that Atwater riffs on Good Omens by Gaiman & Pratchett, but scales it down from "save the world!" to "save these few people" because things don't have to be world-ending to be important.

More than anything, though, I like this book for what it says:

About love - "[...] love is something you do. Quite often, it's something you choose."

And about despair and hope - "But creation wasn't made just to despair, Wormwood. There's an awful lot that's still going to happen between now and that last, dreadful moment. There are small lives being lived, and small triumphs being had, and small people enjoying their favorite red velvet cupcakes. And all of those small things still have meaning, even if they someday have to end."

One of these days I'll write a proper review on BookWyrm and post a zillion quotes and then boost the best ones here, but I wanted to post something about it now when it's in my head.

#book #BookReview #quotes #GenderFluid

Just had a phone call where I needed to give the name "Darin" but decided to speak with my best feminine voice regardless.

The person on the other end misheard my name twice, first as "Carin" and then as "Erin".

I think it might be working.

@EnaWasHere Feeding people is an important and valuable role!

@suzisteffen I am far from an expert, but I get the impression "not dressing up" is a very Tig Notaro-ish thing to do.

Are there any WYSIWYG tools these days that generate clean, responsive, accessible HTML pages?

I just need a static landing page that looks good and a little distinctive.

#webdev #webdesign #question

@collinsworth Thanks for the suggestions! Unfortunately...

Webflow doesn't believe I'm human, no matter how many times I press and hold the button. Squarespace assumes that I want to sell something, and has very fixed notions about how the site should be structured.

Looks like either we'll build the page in Wordpress and then make a static copy, or we'll just do it in plain HTML/CSS.

*sigh*

Can anyone recommend Physical Therapists, other medical professionals, or... I don't know, maybe personal trainers who know how to work with patients who have hypermobility/hEDS/EDS?

And who will do virtual appointments or are located north of the #SFBA?

We're especially looking for someone to work through the Muldowney Protocol - we need someone who can help confirm that the exercises are being done correctly.

(requesting this on behalf of someone else, hence the "we")

#hypermobility #hypermobile #hEDS #EDS #ehlersdanlos

@quietbrooke Oooh, nice. I like the concept, and those particular phrases as well.

"My gender is a hundred hobbies, none of them mastered." Mine too.

@pws Grin Tech (https://ebikes.ca/product-info/grin-products/all-axle-hub-motor.html) makes front hub motors that fit axles up to 20mm, and they supply adapters for several standard axle sizes. They are big, heavy, expensive, and capable of high power, but you can set power limits when configuring the controller. Also, the company is very supportive of hobbyists working on odd DIY projects.

You might be able to get away with motorizing only one front wheel, but it depends on the steering geometry. If the steering geometry is not well-designed, you could end up with it pulling the steering to one side, in which case you would need a motor in each front wheel.

Reading your alt text... Those look like fairly ordinary drum brakes on the rear; not sure why they wouldn't be working. Possibly they need adjustment or re-cabling? It looks like those are the only brakes, which seems to me like a good case for not replacing them with rear hub motors (I don't think anybody makes a hub motor with a built-in drum brake) unless you're up for welding rim or disc brake mounts onto the frame. (It might be a good idea to add more brakes somehow regardless of the motor situation if you're going to ride that a lot; it looks heavy.)

@D5V3 @smellsofbikes I'm curious: Why would a front motor be easier than putting a mid-drive on the left? I don't have much personal experience with mid-drives, but if that's a standard bottom bracket shell I'd expect it to be fairly straightforward.

@SRLevine Oh, Grocery Outlet, my favorite source of foodstuffs of varying quality!

Maybe I'll start calling it "Grocery Roulette." It rhymes well enough, but it doesn't fit the meter of the standard marketing jingle that always gets stuck in my head. Gonna have to workshop this a bit...

@terraboop@tech.lgbt April is my birth month, and I like the association with spring/growth/rebirth (at least in the northern hemisphere). It's also the only name that really felt right, out of a whole long list that I considered.

I added it as a middle name because I don't really dislike the name my parents gave me, and there's a bit of a family tradition of going by one's middle name. Plus it makes paperwork easier while I get everything switched over, and I can boymode if I have to travel through really transphobic places.

Depending on how thorough you want to be, my initials spell "Aw", "Aww", or "Daww". It's a reminder to myself that I don't need to shy away from embracing stereotypically feminine traits like cuteness.

It was at the top of the shortlist for a while before we realized it's actually pretty similar to my partner's name, enough that people sometimes mis-hear her name as April. I spent a few weeks considering and searching for alternatives, but didn't connect with anything else. People (us included) do sometimes mix our names up, but we'll survive.

Later she remembered that several years ago, when I was first thinking that I might be genderfluid, we talked about feminine names for me and she suggested April. I think that's part of why I liked it so much. So she may jokingly gripe sometimes about how I "stole her name", but she can't complain too much because it was probably her fault to begin with. (-:

I had my voice therapy initial consult and they said that what I've been doing so far is fine and not damaging my vocal cords! Also now I can get training from an actual human in addition to youtube videos!

I asked them to teach me how to scream really loud & high-pitched for those "a driver didn't see you and is about to run you over" moments, and it sounds like that will be possible.

Also I had to ride 65 miles between 6pm and 9am to make it to the appointment, which was both fun and exhausting. Now I'm taking several days to get home b/c I had to unmask in a room with four doctors and it's probably fine but I want to make sure I'm not bringing home any viruses.

@DelilahTech Thank you for posting this. I've had Scatter on my ereader for a while and finally read it the other day because of your recommendation. Turns out I *really* enjoy Bragg's writing.

@D5V3 No worries! I'm transitioning in the feminine direction, which means my options for changing my voice are surgery (no thanks, not my cup of tea) or training. It's partly to shift pitch and maybe also adjust speech patterns, but most of what I'm working on right now is changing resonance. It's pretty interesting, and I'm hoping I can also leverage the training for fun stuff like doing better character voices when I read aloud.

Yeah... 65 miles at night in the winter would be a bit much even here in California. Not sure I'd want to try that in the UP! I get the impression winters there are serious business.

It wasn't that intense a ride, though. E-assist mostly just offsets the weight of riding a cargo trike full of camping gear, but sometimes I turn it up to flatten the hills or get some extra speed.

@DelilahTech Me too!

For a while I was posting on BookWyrm, but the interface is still not quite there and I've been neglecting it lately.

I like your JFR posts but I'm usually way too verbose to do something like that myself.

Anyone know the current best-practice timeline for testing after a possible COVID exposure?

Looks like CDC is now saying 5 days after. That sounds long to me; I thought incubation times were generally shorter than that with more recent variants.

I currently have 2 rapid antigen tests on hand and would like to use them in the most effective way. Could get more if needed.

(No particular reason to expect that I was exposed except that it was a higher-statistical-risk situation than I normally put myself in.)

#COVID19 #CovidIsNotOver #COVID

Ok, the People's CDC seems to agree about waiting 5 days. (https://peoplescdc.org/2023/06/14/testing/) If they agree with the official CDC, that gives me some confidence.

Other sources still welcome, though!

@inquiline@union.place Thanks, that's helpful!

@fae2535 Thank you! I had just remembered reading the throat swab suggestion elsewhere recently.

@wallacewords I remember seeing older students sitting at the major roundabouts on campus the first day of class, watching all the new folks try to figure it out.

People did learn roundabouts, but not in the easiest way!

@DelilahTech Oof. Not the way I'd want to develop succinctness.

Also: I finally got around to reading Transistor. I think it's the trans-est book I've ever read.

@psiie octodon.social has been pretty good for me (2222 characters; admin who does not tolerate any nonsense) but it's defederated from a few instances where other trans folks reside and so occasionally threads will get broken up b/c I can't see some of the posts.

I've been thinking about moving to blahaj.zone or another FireFish-type instance. Maybe someday I'll get around to it.

@Jeannho Right, yes, I phrased that poorly. The chart seemed to show maximum accuracy at the 5-day mark.

@YouShallNotPass @faithisleaping @psiie @quietbrooke It definitely does for me. A month or two ago my partner pointed out that I wasn't dodging or reacting awkwardly to affection the way I used to, and I said "Well, that's probably because I feel attractive now. ...oh, huh."

@rune This, but half the time instead of simply forgetting to reply I'll spend days avoiding it while fretting about the one part I'm not sure how to respond to.

@ceruleanarc :blobhaj_hugsmolhaj:​ 🥧

@pqqq Oh, Olivia Waite is good! It's been a while since I read those - pretty sure Hen Fever wasn't out yet. I liked the generally cozy feel and the way the stories connect to each other a bit, so you get to check back in on characters from other books. I think Hellion's Waltz may have been my favorite, but Celestial Mechanics was good too... I have a hard time ranking books.

I was never much of a romance fan until I started reading sapphic romance last year. It was one of the things that helped me figure out my gender - I relate way more to all these lesbian protagonists than I ever did to male romantic leads. Pretty sure I described my sexuality as "sapphic, to the extent that it's anything besides ace" a couple months before I considered that I might actually want to transition.

I've worried some about the risk of filling my mind with these idealized romances - especially at the rate I read them. I think, though, that the main thing I'm getting from them is a sort of concentrated substitute for actual human connection, which I've been lacking the last few years (guess why! 😷​).

For recommendations: My BookWyrm profile (https://bookrastinating.com/user/kg6gfq) is like 95% sapphic. I try to put all the sapphic books I read in a list: https://bookrastinating.com/list/335/s/sapphic-romance. Pretty much anything I've posted to there is good enough that I'd recommend it to other readers.

I have been reading and greatly enjoying Molly J. Bragg's books this week, but haven't gotten them up on Bookwyrm yet. (Well, I'm not really into Master of Puppets but the Hearts of Heroes series and Mail Order Bride were fantastic.)

I only started putting things on BookWyrm a few months ago, but I've been trying to backfill some of my older favorites.

If there are tropes/genres/stylistic things/etc. that you particularly like, I might be able to make specific recommendations. I like books and I like sharing them with people!

@Lizbon I'm curious which of the PDX tool libraries you're referring to - I staffed one of them for a year or so. That was a really fun job. (-:

@Lizbon Oh, ok. I was at the North Portland one. I heard good things about SEPTL, but I'm not sure I ever made it down there when they were open.

@pqqq "My sleep schedule's shot on account of the romance novels"

Whoops, sorry. Maybe I should have put a warning label on those recommendations.

@quietbrooke Steel-toed boots with a dress is an excellent look!

@pqqq Yay! That's great that you've got some covid-supportive and covid-cautious community.

Also I very much agree about thrifting post-transition.

@ascentale A7: We had a tandem recumbent for a while. I got it when my partner was away traveling, rode ~1000 miles solo to meet up, and then we rode home together. That was a fun trip!

It had been made by Vision (no longer in business) and was a cheaper introductory model as 'bent tandems go. Features included:
- independent pedaling (really nice!)
- passive suspension (a.k.a. low frame rigidity, which is a mixed blessing)
- not-so-stable steering geometry, which is the main reason we don't have it any more. Captaining required a mix of muscle-memory, strength, and quick reflexes.

Size/awkwardness was another issue - it was 10 feet long and had underseat steering, which made it hard to walk with.

It was tons of fun to ride, though. I took several other people on it as stokers with no problem. Hauled heavy loads both on the stoker seat (when it was unoccupied) and on trailers. Sometimes my stoker would read a book while riding.

Favorite saying about tandems: "It'll take your relationship wherever it's going... faster."

#BikeNite

@bridget Oooh, DS9 musical would be so good!

Quark solo, or Quark/Odo duet? I assume the Garak/Bashir duet is a foregone conclusion.

I really hope this becomes a Trek Tradition that continues in future series.

@TicklishHoneyBee@strangeobject.space 🎉​🎉​🎉

The comments don't stop! It's been over a year now and people still react like that to our solar trikes. Fortunately, they do tend to be mostly positive.

Congratulations on a successful test ride!

@FurryBeta @malcircuit Same.

And then someone says to me "Is it really something you want to do? Because if you really wanted to, you would be doing it, right?"

*sigh*

No, much to my dismay, that is not how it works.

@DelilahTech Congratulations!

Also: Dangit, Del, you're going to make me cry. All of that is so good to hear.

Sounds like an auspicious beginning. (-:

@DelilahTech Oh, right... my partner was negative amounts of surprised by the time I finally started to consider that I might be trans, but you and your wife get to do all the joint processing at once. I can see how that would be a lot.

Best wishes to both of you for the upcoming discussions.