Search results

I'm aiming for not much over a pound. Right now I'm at 5.6 oz for the LEDs/heatsink/optics, and 10.2 oz for the cells. I've yet to make an enclosure for the cells or a mounting system, but hopefully that won't add more than a few ounces. I always have the option of going 4 18650 cells to cut...

6 Cree XPGs running at up to one amp, powered by 4 26650 DeWalt cells, for a headlight. I'll likely use a red Rebel for a tail flasher. I'll probably start a thread over at CPF once I'm done building the headlight. My existing bike light (~150 lumens) really isn't cutting it, either. I...

I put in about $500 in parts a few years back (mostly upgrading to a 10-speed drive train plus new wheels/airless tires). These parts still have plenty of life left in them. Because of that, I'm going to strip all the rust off the frame this winter, see if I can get the broken chainstay...

Yeah, that happened to me once. At least you can still ride when the crank breaks, albeit not very comfortably. A broken chain is what really sucks. I broke a front fork also one time, thankfully not at speed. I guess this is as good a place as any to mention it-I snagged this beauty on eBay...

Lack of catenary. Most of the world's busier railways electrify to avoid the inefficiencies/extra complexity associated with using diesel locomotives. A diesel locomotive on average might last 15 years in service. It's not uncommon for electrics to run 40 or 50 years.

No news to me-I've already gone faster than light on my bike. ;-)

Yeah, that would work. In fact, you probably wouldn't even need fins on the inside. Just forcing air at a few m/sec would increase heat dissipation by a factor of 4 to 5, meaning the candle would be good for ~10 watts of LED power, ~7 watts of waste heat, and 900-1000 lumens (those are roughly...

Yes, it's on a dimmer. In fact, the reason I chose that particular ballast is so it could work with a standard triac dimmer. And yes, the yellow covers really do look that bad in person. The original incandescent lights were nearly that bad-dim and very yellow. I could have matched the...

According to the ballast data sheet, there is protection with auto recovery against over voltage, over current, over temperature, and short-circuit. It looks like failure due to overheating shouldn't be an issue at all.

It's marked 90°C maximum case temperature on the ballast label. You're getting about 21-22°C rise above ambient, so you should probably be OK up to attic temperatures of around 65°C. The hottest I've ever measured our attic was around 60°C. Our attic is uninsulated, we have a dark colored...

I completed the chandelier in my mom's bedroom. This chandelier formerly used 25 watt candelabra bulbs and was a consistent source of complaint about both light quality and quantity. Also, despite not being used often, light bulbs frequently blew out. There was room to put the ballast under...

To dissipate the heat from the LEDs. The copper tube provides enough surface area to dissipate ~2.5 watts of heat without becoming overly warm. I'm even thinking of putting vertical fins on the copper tubes for the chandelier in my dining room because of the required light output. The plain...

The spectra of LEDs are continuous, not spiky like fluorescent spectra. To me anyway if you have an LED and CFL with a similar CRI, the LED generally makes colors look better. CRI isn't a particularly good predictor of which light source people will prefer. There's an ongoing discussion about...

To update this thread I've completed the project. We decided to simplify it, doing away with the flickering LED idea. I made 10 "candles" from 1.125" copper pipe as follows: Here are all the parts needed for one candle: This ring is a spacer needed because the copper cap is a little to...

Mine is also. Looking at me though, a lot of people take me for 170 instead of 190 to 195. Muscle weighs more than fat, and I have a lot of it in my legs from 33 years of riding. I fit in 34" pants just fine.

Happy Birthday, Dave! :b-day: :beer: Congrats on the weight loss! Maybe I need to get the flu for a few weeks.

Getting back to the subways, here's why the system was shut down.

Will and Doug, sorry to hear about what happened to you. I've been there as far as basement flooding goes. In 2006 we had about 2 inches of water when the sewer pipe clogged. This time we only had minor flooding in a few rooms. Over the years I've fixed any foundation cracks from outside...

The reason is basically that the tunnels will flood and stall trains mid-station. In short, the system will shut down, whether voluntarily or through mother nature. A controlled shutdown makes it easier to restart the system after the storm. The equipment is being stored in locations where it...

Heavy downpours now, not much wind yet. The worst of it is going to hit tomorrow afternoon. We might get another foot of rain on top of an existing near record amount of rain for August. No flooding yet downstairs. Only minor flooding when we had about 8 inches in 24 hours 2 weeks ago. The...

Funniest prank ever

Keyboards aren't too bad. It's pressing and/or pushing motions which kill me. That being said, I couldn't deal with keyboards or mice on an occupational basis (i.e. 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year). Notice also that I occasionally take breaks from this place. Guess why? Copy and paste...

Don't feel bad. I remember the one in 1976.

The buildings here would mostly fare better in a hurricane than the "matchstick" houses I see in places like Florida. The problem is a lot of infrastructure here is underground, so a major hurricane would be an unprecedented disaster. If the subways get flooded, we're talking about rebuilding...

It's often not an unwillingness but an inability. Back when I finished college relocation wasn't an option. I had no money to move, no money to buy the auto I would have needed just about anywhere I did move, and to top it off I couldn't deal emotionally with being thousands of miles from...

NYC and other urban areas have high costs of living simply because nationally there is a shortage of urban housing (and a glut of suburban/exurban housing). More people want to live in cities than there is housing, so that drives the cost up. Every person who might leave NYC of out disgust has...

I agree with both of you. A lot of times when I've known poor people and talked about money, their idea to help their future was "play the lottery" or "pray". In short, they resorted to superstitious, magical thinking, instead of doing things more likely to actually work. And yes, we really...

A big reason why some of the population aren't worth enough to society to be self-sufficient is lack of decent education, plus growing up in a culture where education isn't valued. Fix that and you've solved 90% of the problem on the people side. The other 10% are mostly people who, through no...

Not 100% true. Like you, I'm definitely cool to government programs which redistribute wealth directly, but I realize that certain types of government spending can have huge impacts on the economy. Mainly, I'm referring here to infrastructure spending. Many types of infrastructure which are...

Well, you would absolutely hate NYC weather. You never really get used to it, either. The few rare dry days here only serve to remind me how miserable it is the rest of the time. I guess on positive side, higher humdity is beneficial during the colder months.

76°F was the highest in August so far, and 85°F in July? Probably low humidity also. Much better than the typical mid 80s to 90s, high humidity NYC summers. Last night I was soaking wet after riding in 76° temps. :( The humidity here is just relentless.

Here's an interesting article: Crumbling Infrastructure Symbolizes U.S. Economy I agree with the basic premise of the article-namely that economic recovery is impossible if our infrastructure continues to crumble. Sure, it's absolutely a good idea to cut the kinds of government spending which...

For what it's worth my brother is looking at dual suspension mountain bikes. Yes, I did mention to him he'll be sacrificing a few mph in return for comfort. He didn't really care all that much. Even back when he rode a lot, he used to leave the tires on his road bike at a lower pressure for a...

Efficiency also equals more speed for any given level of effort. In my neck of the woods I feel safer the closer I match my speed to prevailing auto traffic. If money were no object I would be riding a Quest velomobile which would let me more or less keep up with local auto traffic, except on...

That looks like a nice bike. I'm personally on the fence about carbon bikes, but that's mostly because of the third-world condition of the streets here. If you have smooth roads by you, a carbon bike should be just fine.

Wood looks interesting. Those frames are way out of my price range, unfortunately. A wood frame would be different though, that's for sure. I wonder what the maintenance requirements are? Also, how would they fare in humid places like NYC?

My thoughts as well. He mentions that "Job one for the 12 is to pare down some future promises that even a rich America can’t fulfill. Big money must be saved here." He probably doesn't wish to give any more money to government until he can be sure it will be spent responsibly. If you just...

I started a thread at CPF about it. In a nutshell, my ~25 year old Raleigh is starting to have rust issues, has had a broken rear chainstay for the last 12 years, and I'm just looking for a "lifetime" bike. Of the four common frame materials, here's my thoughts on each (cut and paste from the...

I noticed that myself. It seems the prices of all bike tires have doubled or more in the last year, including the airless tires I'm using. In 2008 I bought a pair for $60 shipped. Last I checked, I think the lowest price for the same tires was $108 per pair. Still a bargain though given that...

Yes indeed, that's the problem in a nutshell-RAID 0 which hits alternate sectors of the economy but has no inherent backup against catastrophy, and sometimes causes the entire economy to hang.

A sales tax in lieu of both corporate and personal income taxes gets around all the issues you mentioned. Anyway way you look at it, figuring out how much income tax a corporation owes is highly complex. It requires a huge expenditure of manpower. Even then, there is no "correct" number due...

This might interest you-SRM data for the 2011 Tour de France. You're actually getting into the same territory as these guys if your numbers are right. My limit for the ~500 watt range is about 30 seconds on a good day. I think my numbers would be higher if I could do something about lactic...

190 bpm? Let's see, the maximum HR is 220 minus your age, so you were right about at maximum. For my age it should be about 172 bpm. I've hit 165 on the recumbent cycling machine (and probably climbing hills on the road) but I try and keep the average for an hour under 150 bpm. I'm assuming...

This isn't giving disincentives to be successful. From where I stand, $10 million is a lot of money. All my idea would do is discourage those who have already been successful from accumulating more. To me it makes all the sense in the world once you've made your wealth to step aside and give...

Regarding the home mortgage deduction, this is a perfect example of social engineering of the tax code which has had a long term negative effect. Either eliminate the home mortgage deduction, or allow deducting rents also. As it is, the tax code skews finances in favor of home ownership. This...

I agree wholeheardly with the idea of an asset tax, although my version might not kick in until $10 million or so (and indexed for inflation annually once put into effect). The reason is threefold. One, it would bring in large amounts of money. Two, it would discourage hoarding assets. If...

The household equivalent of printing money out of thin air is claiming bankruptcy. Granted, it's now harder to do than in the past, but wiping out debt is functionally the same as making money out of thin air. And I don't necessarily agree that governments have to borrow. Governments could...

And to show how ass backwards the tax system is, I'm ironically in pretty much the same position now making about $6K a year from self-employment. Right now, I don't pay any income tax, but pay Social Security tax at the rate of 15.3%. That would be a huge hit for someone making so little but...

What's cool about GPS is looking at the logs after a ride. I just discovered a few days ago that I can make tours of my rides in Google Earth from GPS tracks. This lets anyone take a virtual bike ride over the same route I actually biked on, and at the same speeds (if replayed at 1x speed).

I've opted out of buying cars altogether. For what they cost to buy and operate, I don't consider the benefits all that worthwhile.