Re: Suspension losses

On Mon, 13 Jan 2025 08:20:47 -0600, AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:

On 1/12/2025 8:05 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 1/12/2025 3:33 PM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:

Am Sat, 11 Jan 2025 19:46:50 -0500 schrieb Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>:
>

To me, a big advantage is the ability to _look_ at a
mechanical device
and _see_ what's wrong....

>

That, and the fact I can often affect a repair.

>
I prefer devices that don't need repair over their lifetime.

 
The weakness I see with that is the assumption that
"lifetime" is defined as "the amount of time it works." if
something stops working, its lifetime is over! Throw it out!
 
As I said, I hate the Kleenex ethic - "It's no good any
more, just throw it away."
 

Don't know.  We use devices like the blue one in the
following picture.
<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/
W%C3%A4rmflasche1.jpg>
and better isolating blankets. No electricity
necessary. :-)

>
:-) But you imply that _I'm_ the one insufficiently modern?

>
No. I doubt that "being modern" is a reasonable benchmark
or measure.
This cuts both ways. :-)
>

A few lights in our house are switched by set of 2 x 3
inexpensive
wireless sockets including two remote controls, that I
bought eleven
years ago. I've still to replace the batteries. Two of
the sockets are
still spares, I have a replacement cell for the remote
controls stored
which might live even longer. Standard type, used in
garage openers and
burglar alarms, too. Selecting a channel and paring one
of the four
buttons of a remote control with one or more of the
sockets is as easy
as pie, using a line of dip switches inside those
devices.  Quite
similar to pairing switches and derailleur on our bicyles.
>
While I avoid having essential functionality in my house
depend on
wireless connections, I enjoy having the option, for
certain use cases,
though.

>
Yuck.

>
You don't have a single remote control in your house? Not
even for the
TV? That's rare.

 
I've got more remotes than I want. The TV's power button and
channel changing buttons are not even visible. They're
hidden and practically un-labeled on the back edge of the
device, so a remote is necessary to even turn it on. I pump
the TV sound through our stereo amplifier, which has its own
remote (whose volume control seems to have stopped working),
the CD/DVD player has a separate remote, etc. etc. If we had
a friend house sit for us, I'd have to write a manual on how
to run the system.
 
A couple years ago we were given a Christmas gift of battery
powered LED "candles." The could change colors - by use of a
remote! Why should a candle need a remote?
 
Same for a ceiling fan. Ours change speed by use of a pull
chain. I'll never lose the pull chain. I would certainly
misplace a remote.
 

I still have a box of old, but still working IR remote
controls,
from devices that broke many years ago.  I collected these
to control
gadgets like this one
<https://www.mystrobl.de/Plone/basteleien/microcontroller/
ws2812/DSC_3564-DSC_3566_fused.JPG>
Can you guess what this blinkenlight does?

 
Nope.
 

Parts a an IR receiver, a PIC 12F1840 microcontroller, a
stripe of eight
RGB LED, and a remote control from a CD Player that broke
long before
2014, when I built that gadget.  The aforementioned $1.50
controller
(single quantity, digikey) does everything from IR
decoding to
controlling the LED stripe.
>
Somewhat later, I built something larger using a different
part (an
ESP8266) for illuminating the house bar of one of our
kids, using about
one meter of densely placed RGB LED, controlled via WIFI,
doing a whole
series of different colorful light effects. Extendable
with new effects
by uploading short LUA snippets, of course. :-) I was told
that it was
used again at a New Year's celebration, so obviously it is
still
working.

 
There's a part of me that wishes I had your skills and
knowledge. I occasionally dream up little electronic
projects that I lack the knowledge to design or build. I've
thought about educating myself, but soon realized there are
many other things I'd prefer to learn.
 

My wife still uses an almost as old bicycle for everyday
rides around
the corner.  Didn't have to strip and power coat it,
because it came
that way, when she bought it.
>
But like me, she is glad that I build two road bikes in
2023, using
wireless electronic shifting that you dislike so much.
Without, she
wouldn't have been able to do some of those very enjoyable
tours
throughout the region that we did in 2023 and in 2024.

 
Can you explain? It's hard for me to visualize a tour that
would _require_ electronic shifting. The vast majority of my
touring and riding miles have been done without even index
shifting.
 

>
That's very personal; some riders prefer fixed (although not
this morning. It's bitter cold with a wind here).
>
For riders with prior wrist/finger injuries, advancing
arthritis and/or general age related decrepitude, Ergo/STi
are difficult if not painful.  For most riders, they're
perfectly adequate. As are downtube friction shifters for
others.

My first external geared bicycles had friction shifters that I never
mastered to where I didn't have to check by looking or listening. I
don't remember which of my subsequent bicycle upgrades was the first
to use index shifting, but I know I know the Schwinn (I think it was a
Varsity) had it because I remember working on dialing it in. It wasn't
until the summer of '23 that I got the trigger shifters. It took a few
tries before I figured out to use them on my handlebar configuration,
they are a definite improvement in that am taking more care at
intersections by slowing and/or stopping.

--
C'est bon
Soloman