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#261
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AG: I never tried this myself, but it ought to work
On Sun, 12 Jul 2015 20:45:53 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote: On Sun, 12 Jul 2015 19:12:10 +0700, John B. Slocomb wrote: Way back when, they used to make a two roller "wringer" for those who did the laundry by hand. Two rubber rollers in a frame with a hand crank to turn the rollers and a clamp sort of thing to attach it to the wash tub. Just the thing, if they still make them :-) $195.00 from Dynajet $159,99 from Lehman $115.00 from Etsy $140.00 from Woodward Crossings $149.00 "from 2 stores" $165.33 from Shopzeon But there isn't room in my closet-size laundry room -- not to mention no tub to clamp it to. Swimming pools used to have free-standing hand-cranked wringers to dry bathing suits before you went home. I believe that the water just dripped onto the floor, which was designed for dripping-wet people. If I recall correctly there was a grid-like mat to accommodate people who hadn't taken their shoes off yet. Strange, You know. Hand wringers used to be for "po folks" that couldn't afford an electric washing machine. It looks that they have moved up-market more than a little. Perhaps they have been classified as "retro" and thus have become more valiable :-) -- cheers, John B. |
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#262
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AG: Grease on your hands
Yay, rah! Today, in preparation for embroidery class, I cleaned out my other little bag of stuff -- the one I carry in my purse. Lo and behold, it contained a lip-salve box with Eucerine already in it. Needlework emergencies seldom leave me with black grease on my hands, so I moved it to the emergency kit on the bike. And I hope that I never need it. I still plan to go to the craftsy-waftsy department at Walmart -- if only because I've realized that I can leave our car there and ride my bike to Etna Green. Pity there isn't much else within fifteen miles of that parking lot, but even *one* entirely-new ride is a big deal. -- joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ The above message is a Usenet post. I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site. |
#263
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AG: Roadside repairs
Make an unshakeable habit of putting the valve cap in your pocket whenever you inflate a tire. If you forget to put it back on, at least you'll have it with you, and small parts in your pocket never get bumped off the tube'n'tool tote and roll into a ditch. The muffin-tin trick is quite acceptable when you are taking something apart in the comfort of your own workshop, but if you don't have a table to set it on, a container of loose parts is sooner or later gonna get kicked. -- joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ The above message is a Usenet post. I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site. |
#264
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AG: Keys: too tired to write -- I've been riding
I'm too tired to write tonight, so I'll just natter a bit.
Last Wednesday, I drove to a grocery store and went for a ride for the first time since we moved here in 2001. I was surprised to realize that that meant that I had to carry both my bike keys and my car keys. Made it hard to get at the sunscreen etc. that I carry in the same pocket. Not to mention that I always got out the wrong set of keys first. I think that back when buying groceries in a distant town was a weekly event, I carried all my keys on one ring. But since then we've bought a vehicle that has a radio transmitter among its keys, and the house key and folding scissors accompanying my bike key have been joined by nail clippers, two knives, a six-foot tape measure, and eight frequent-customer cards. To think that once upon a time the bike key was the only key, and I had a blue key made so it would look nice on a chain around my neck. I've worn out two locks since then. That was long before I started keeping a safety pin on my key ring. That started when my car keys fell out of my pocket while I was trying to take a nap on a very narrow bench in the warming bus during a night fire. Luckily, my spouse had brought his keys, and the boys found my keys when they cleaned the bus. A while after we moved, I noticed that what I'd thought was a key to the house didn't open any door in the house. But the key had to be to something important. I carried it for years, and finally realized that it was a very important key indeed. It was the key to a firehouse seven hundred miles away, which is no longer a firehouse. I wonder whether there is still a kitchen on the second floor. Just a few weeks ago, I went to the bead shop and bought a package of brass "lobster-claw clasps". Now all the tools on my key ring are detachable. -- joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ The above message is a Usenet post. I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site. |
#265
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AG: Safety Equipment for Bicycles
One day I rode my bike to the grocery. After I'd returned my cart, a man I passed on my way back to my bike said "I see that you are wearing a helmet. I wear a helmet too. Helmets are very important." I hear "helmets are important" a lot, but on a list of important bicycle safety equipment, helmets would come in no higher than twentieth. (1) First and foremost among safety equipment is correctly tightened nuts and bolts. A bike that falls apart while you are riding it can ruin your whole day. A number of second-place items, in the order that I happen to think of them: (2) Handlebars firmly connected to your front wheel, so that you can steer the bike. (3) Brakes: check that they are present, appropriate, properly adjusted, brake blocks not worn clear off. (4) Leather-palm gloves. Sooner or later, you are going to fall, and when you fall, you are hard-wired to put out your hand to save yourself. Even ordinary road grit embedded in your palm can make it difficult to continue, and Murphy guarantees that you'll land on the only piece of broken glass in ten miles. Glass will slice right through leather, but probably will be slowed enough to save your tendons. (Gloves should fit very tightly to prevent "glove stopped, hand didn't" abrasions.) Gloves also protect you from the handlebars. (5) At least two bottle cages. The first sign of dehydration is stupidity, and sometimes stupidity is fatal. (On a flatfoot/crank forward bike, one cage will suffice.) (6) Bottles. Empty cages don't help much. (7) Fresh water in the bottles. You must see to this before every ride, no matter how brief. Take the first sip as you are rolling out the driveway -- this sets the proper rhythm, and also notifies you that you forgot to clean the bottles while you can still go back and do something about it. (8) Properly-built wheels. You don't want to be stranded out in the boonies with a broken spoke. (9) Properly-mounted wheels. A wheel with a missing spacer can roll just fine until you stand up on the pedals to evade some danger. (10) Tires in good condition, properly mounted. *Usually* a failed tire is only an inconvenience but if an improperly-mounted front tire blows off the rim at a critical moment . . . (11) Spare tube, frame pump, and a tube-repair kit. Mostly just saves you annoyance, but can save you from a long walk if you flat where there is no taxi service. (12) Sound drivetrain: pedals, chainwheels, cranks, cogs, etc. You know that if a drivetrain fails, it's going to fail when you're pushing extra hard, and that's not likely to be a convenient time to lose power. Luckily, it's very rare for a correctly-installed chain to break. (Not impossible, though. You'd be amazed at how far a road bike can draisine up a hill even though one can use only one foot to propel it.) (13) Visible clothing -- *please* don't go out after dark dressed all in black. (14) Reflectors, white in front and red in back. Even if you don't plan to go out after dark, you might be delayed, and reflectors are a cheap back-up. Get real reflectors from an auto-parts store; special bike reflectors often reflect only in the middle third. Reflectors on the sides of a bicycle are purely symbolic. Reflectors work only when headlights are aimed directly at them. If you are side-on to a headlight beam and far enough away that the driver can do something about having seen you, you will be out of the headlight beam by the time he gets there. (15) A white light in front and a red light in back. If you want to be seen from the side after dark, or if you want a driver to know that he is about to pull out of a side road into your path, you *must* glow with your own light. It is also important that the lights be the correct colors so that other operators can tell which way you are going without waiting to watch you move. A yellow light can be seen from farther away, but you need a red light too -- and make sure the red light isn't a tight beam pointed straight back. A red light is most important when seen from the side, so make sure that it *can* be seen from the side. (16) Rear view mirror. Don't get one until *after* you've mastered the art of looking back. A mirror can't tell you when it's safe, but knowing when it's *not* safe is very valuable information. Well, the helmet sneaks in early -- a helmet is the most-convenient place to put a rear-view mirror. It also helps to distinguish you from a pedestrian in the minds of passing motorists, so I guess it sneaked in even earlier under "visible clothing". (17) A luggage rack, preferably fitted with panniers. This is particularly important on a child's bike: if you don't give a child a safe way to carry things, he's going to carry things anyway, probably in his hand, or tied to his handlebars where they interfere with steering. (18) -a dime- -a quarter- a cell phone. (19) and for close-up calls for help: if you can't scream real loud, carry a whistle. When you need help, scream (or whistle) in sets of three. "Did I hear something? Yes, I did. And it's coming from that direction." Three is the smallest number that can be equally spaced and therefore unmistakably a signal, so three is nearly always a feature of official distress calls. One yelp will be dismissed as children playing, two yelps are random noise, but three equally-spaced yelps, repeated over and over, mean Something Is Wrong. On an off-topic but related note: When you find someone lying on the ground, there are three steps to take: (1) Look around to make sure that whatever got him won't get you. (2) verify that he isn't just taking a nap. (3) shriek "help help help" as loud as you can. *Then* you can start to render first aid. (20) And yes, if you should happen to bump your head, it's probably a good idea to have a piece of foam over it -- even better if there's a stiff shell over the foam to spread the force over a wider area. The most-important part of a helmet is the chin strap: It doesn't matter how good the helmet is if it isn't on your head. Proper fit is also essential -- no chin strap can keep a loose helmet on your head, and if a helmet is too small, it won't be on your head in the first place -- a foam fascinator perched on top won't do any good, unless maybe it deflects a wrench somebody dropped while you were walking under a ladder. Then you must put the helmet on in such fashion that your brain is inside it -- too many "helmets" merely decorate the back of the head, leaving the most-important parts of the brain fully exposed. The brim of a helmet must be level when you are standing straight, and you should be able to see the brim by rolling your eyes up. Chin straps slip, so a child's helmet should be inspected at intervals to make sure it still sits on the head properly. Be aware that a child sometimes thinks it kewl to help a chin strap slip. If you use a helmet-mounted rear-view mirror, your helmet gets checked for proper alignment every time you look back. If you don't, put your helmet on in front of a mirror whenever one is handy -- shop windows frequently serve -- and roll your eyes up to look at the brim whenever it occurs to you that you haven't used a mirror recently. -- Joy Beeson joy beeson at comcast dot net |
#266
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AG: Safety Equipment for Bicycles
FWIW, I find eyeglass-mounted mirrors to be much superior to helmet
mounted ones. Positional stability is better, ease of attachment is greater, and of course it works with any (or no) hat. And as a little detail, I can even use it flat-water kayaking, to make sure my wife doesn't get too far behind in her boat. And isn't it interesting that helmets are still number one the minds of Americans in the "bike safety" category? Have you ever been complimented for obeying the rules of the road? For bicycling only when sober? For properly choosing your lane position? Probably not. But a funny hat intended to prevent the 0.6% of the brain injury fatalities in America that occur while cycling? Oh, gosh, that's very important. -- - Frank Krygowski |
#267
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AG: Safety Equipment for Bicycles
On Sun, 2 Aug 2015 11:43:05 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote: FWIW, I find eyeglass-mounted mirrors to be much superior to helmet mounted ones. Positional stability is better, ease of attachment is greater, and of course it works with any (or no) hat. And as a little detail, I can even use it flat-water kayaking, to make sure my wife doesn't get too far behind in her boat. And isn't it interesting that helmets are still number one the minds of Americans in the "bike safety" category? Have you ever been complimented for obeying the rules of the road? For bicycling only when sober? For properly choosing your lane position? Probably not. But a funny hat intended to prevent the 0.6% of the brain injury fatalities in America that occur while cycling? Oh, gosh, that's very important. Out of curiosity do you wear glasses? I ask as I tried a helmet mounted mirror to see whether I wanted to use one and it almost drove me crazy. I wear bifocals and the mirror was "above level", if that is the right description, and when I looked at it, it was through the upper, "long range" part of my glasses. Couldn't see anything but a blur. tipping my head back to use the lower part of my glasses didn't work either as, of course, when I tipped my head back the mirror went up too :-) -- cheers, John B. |
#268
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AG: Safety Equipment for Bicycles
Frank Krygowski wrote in news:mpldnc$kp7$1@dont-
email.me: FWIW, I find eyeglass-mounted mirrors to be much superior to helmet mounted ones. Positional stability is better, ease of attachment is greater, and of course it works with any (or no) hat. And as a little detail, I can even use it flat-water kayaking, to make sure my wife doesn't get too far behind in her boat. I haven't yet found a satisfactory mirror, period. I face optical challenges similar to those John B. mentions. And isn't it interesting that helmets are still number one the minds of Americans in the "bike safety" category? Have you ever been complimented for obeying the rules of the road? Yes. For bicycling only when sober? No, but it hasn't come up. For properly choosing your lane position? Probably not. Actually, yes. But a funny hat intended to prevent the 0.6% of the brain injury fatalities in America that occur while cycling? Oh, gosh, that's very important. Over the past 10 years I have been struck twice by vehicles, come unstuck three times, and been thrown when a gap between two gratings grabbed my front wheel. On the one occasion that necessitated a visit to an emergency room, I was asked if I had been wearing a helmet--I had; they collect that data for epidemiology and offer no judgement. On the two occasions when my head did impact the ground, my helmet prevented injury. I feel ill-equipped when I am astride a bicycle and helmetless. YMMV. No one has yet complimented me for wearing a helmet, only for wearing a blinking light on it so I am more visible. But then, I am nearly 59 and not looking for compliments. Full disclosu I spent over 25 years in the army and got paid to wear a steel helmet, so I find this styrofoam headgear they flog to us cyclists is not much of an imposition. -- Andrew Chaplin SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO (If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.) |
#269
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AG: Safety Equipment for Bicycles
On 8/3/2015 7:58 AM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Sun, 2 Aug 2015 11:43:05 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote: FWIW, I find eyeglass-mounted mirrors to be much superior to helmet mounted ones. Positional stability is better, ease of attachment is greater, and of course it works with any (or no) hat. And as a little detail, I can even use it flat-water kayaking, to make sure my wife doesn't get too far behind in her boat. And isn't it interesting that helmets are still number one the minds of Americans in the "bike safety" category? Have you ever been complimented for obeying the rules of the road? For bicycling only when sober? For properly choosing your lane position? Probably not. But a funny hat intended to prevent the 0.6% of the brain injury fatalities in America that occur while cycling? Oh, gosh, that's very important. Out of curiosity do you wear glasses? I ask as I tried a helmet mounted mirror to see whether I wanted to use one and it almost drove me crazy. I wear bifocals and the mirror was "above level", if that is the right description, and when I looked at it, it was through the upper, "long range" part of my glasses. Couldn't see anything but a blur. tipping my head back to use the lower part of my glasses didn't work either as, of course, when I tipped my head back the mirror went up too :-) Yes, I do wear glasses, which is one of the reasons I like glasses-mounted mirrors. Instead of standard bifocals, mine are "blended" bifocals. I don't understand your problem, though. I position my mirror so it's visible through the top left corner of the glasses lens. That's in the "distant focused" portion, so it works perfectly for viewing the image of a car or other cyclist who's a long distance away. Remember, you're not focusing on the mirror itself, but on the image in the distance. If the mirror were visible only through the "close focus" portion of the bifocals, there would be a problem; but that's not the case. -- - Frank Krygowski |
#270
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AG: Safety Equipment for Bicycles
On 8/3/2015 9:47 AM, Andrew Chaplin wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote in news:mpldnc$kp7$1@dont- email.me: FWIW, I find eyeglass-mounted mirrors to be much superior to helmet mounted ones. Positional stability is better, ease of attachment is greater, and of course it works with any (or no) hat. And as a little detail, I can even use it flat-water kayaking, to make sure my wife doesn't get too far behind in her boat. I haven't yet found a satisfactory mirror, period. I face optical challenges similar to those John B. mentions. And isn't it interesting that helmets are still number one the minds of Americans in the "bike safety" category? Have you ever been complimented for obeying the rules of the road? Yes. For bicycling only when sober? No, but it hasn't come up. For properly choosing your lane position? Probably not. Actually, yes. But surely you'll agree that helmets are the number one thing commented on. It's slacking off just a bit in recent years, but "Always wear a helmet" is still very commonly the first item in lists of bike safety advice. Sometimes it's the only item. But a funny hat intended to prevent the 0.6% of the brain injury fatalities in America that occur while cycling? Oh, gosh, that's very important. Over the past 10 years I have been struck twice by vehicles, come unstuck three times, and been thrown when a gap between two gratings grabbed my front wheel. Wow. Over the past 40+ years, I've had only two on-road falls, both at very slow speed. I've never been hit by a car. On the one occasion that necessitated a visit to an emergency room, I was asked if I had been wearing a helmet--I had; they collect that data for epidemiology and offer no judgement. On the two occasions when my head did impact the ground, my helmet prevented injury. I feel ill-equipped when I am astride a bicycle and helmetless. YMMV. It does vary, and it's interesting. The sentiment you describe is common in America (and I suppose, in Australia and parts of Canada). Those are the places where the helmet marketing and propaganda have been heaviest. Those are also the places where riding a bike is considered a fringe activity, which allows portraying it as very hazardous. OTOH, in most of Europe, helmets are mostly confined to the "go fast" riders, and only since the UCI was persuaded (or incentivized?) to mandate them for races. On all other continents, they're vanishingly rare, and almost nobody feels "ill equipped" without one. Marketing works, I guess. No one has yet complimented me for wearing a helmet, only for wearing a blinking light on it so I am more visible. But then, I am nearly 59 and not looking for compliments. Oh, you're just a little kid! ;-) Actually, one of the incidents that triggered my re-examining of helmet culture was a compliment, sort of. I'd ridden my bike to the bank, just as I do to most other "utility" destinations. Having finished my business there, I was putting the funny hat back on, when a woman exiting the bank looked at me with scorn and said "Well, at _least_ you're wearing a helmet." The intended message was that riding a bike was crazy and dangerous. That was one of the incidents that got me wondering where this "Danger! Danger!" nonsense comes from. That triggered years of examination of data. I learned a lot. Full disclosu I spent over 25 years in the army and got paid to wear a steel helmet, so I find this styrofoam headgear they flog to us cyclists is not much of an imposition. I tend to judge based on data. I wonder why it's promoted for an activity with such small risk, and ignored for other common activities with higher risks and/or higher potential societal benefit. -- - Frank Krygowski |
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