Winter Sucks
- Thread starter PedalUma
- Start date
PedalUma
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Petaluma, CA
Actually I am my own worst critic. Now I see that if I ran the black battery discharge wire to the right it would have vanished against the black chainring. I learn best from making mistakes. I did three rides today, an AM, a mid-day, and and an afternoon test ride in the hills with the owner of that Yuba, for a total of about 32 miles. The guy loves it. His wife will do 90% of her in town arends with it and the kids, getting rid of the second car, saving money and having health fun. It is faster than a car in town because of bike separated paths that do not have car traffic or lights. And no searching for parking and walking from parking. I needed a long sleeve denim shirt and a t-shirt to ride today. August can be cold here as the fog rolls in.
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"
Me too. I can work on a bike for hours/days and be fine with it. Then take a pic and I suddenly notice all sorts of little things that I'd like to change or do differently.
Love that long tail cargo bike. For me without kids I prefer a cargo trailer that I can hitch up or remove whenever I want. This way 75% of my riding is on a regular ebike (so a bit more nimble than a cargo bike), and the trailer only comes along when I need it (then not so nimble). Plus it's a less expensive setup.
Final thought on this really cold weekend. I now know what the low end of the lubrication specs actually mean. This morning at -25C (-13F) the grease is thick ... really thick and so much so that it's tough getting going from a stop for a couple of minutes until the motor warms up a bit. I've never experienced that in such an obvious manner.
stompandgo
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
The hype on the Cape is real now. A bunch of gas stations are out of gas. We went out for dinner last night, and so did everybody else. Store shelves are thinning out. Our town police department is talking about snow totals and drifts not seen here in years, advising everyone to stay off the roads from late today into Monday.
Ho hum. I've got a couple of days worth of gas for the generator. Our heat, hot water, and cooking are fueled by natural gas. The snowblower is ready to go. We have plenty of food.
I'll call in the morning to see if they want me to come into work or not.
Ho hum. I've got a couple of days worth of gas for the generator. Our heat, hot water, and cooking are fueled by natural gas. The snowblower is ready to go. We have plenty of food.
I'll call in the morning to see if they want me to come into work or not.
6zfshdb
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Northeast Pennsylvania
I'm due east of you in PA and it's pretty much the same around here. We've had bigger storms with far less media hype than this one. I guess it's because of the size and the number of people affected that makes this one noteworthy.
We've survived storms with twice the snowfall predicted for this one and take the usual precautions. Well stocked with food, generator gas, TP, etc...etc. The only difference this time around is the new whole house diesel generator. I got tired of going out in the cold to start the portables and sprung for this one. I installed it in the back of the barn with a thru wall exhaust so it can be serviced without getting cold or wet. It can be started from the house and uses fuel oil from our 1000 gal furnace storage tank.
If things get really bad, I may have to get one of these for the e-bike:
Chargeride
Well-Known Member
Looks sturdy
stompandgo
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
It's definitely serious down south. Emergency response will be prioritized down there. They have over an inch of ice and it's still accumulating. The only place that icing is expected in MA is here on the Cape. We will see.
When we lived in Central MA, we had some blockbuster storms. In one week we got 36" of snow followed by 30" of snow a few days later. The local power substation blew up and they had to truck in transformers in from out of the area. We lost power for four days. I didn't have a generator then, but a couple of our neighbors did. We kept our perishables in the fridge and outside in coolers in the snow. We would have community dinners where a few of us would pull food out of the freezer and cook on the grill or inside if they could. In our last home in western MA, I put in an outdoor weatherproof outlet, and a 10 circuit transfer switch that would run the basics, especially the 220V well pump. I brought the generator here, but the wiring is going to have to be cobbled together. Natural gas backup generators are a big business down here. I'm not ready to go there yet.
Gionnirocket
Well-Known Unidentified Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Y. O.
My Generator is portable but what I did do is convert it to bi_fuel so now I can swap it out with my bbq and run it on natural gas. Since doing so 7 or so years ago I haven't needed it and in +30yrs living here I've only used the generator twice. I figured spending money on the conversion was a pretty good insurance policy that I won't need to use itI'm due east of you in PA and it's pretty much the same around here. We've had bigger storms with far less media hype than this one. I guess it's because of the size and the number of people affected that makes this one noteworthy.
We've survived storms with twice the snowfall predicted for this one and take the usual precautions. Well stocked with food, generator gas, TP, etc...etc. The only difference this time around is the new whole house diesel generator. I got tired of going out in the cold to start the portables and sprung for this one. I installed it in the back of the barn with a thru wall exhaust so it can be serviced without getting cold or wet. It can be started from the house and uses fuel oil from our 1000 gal furnace storage tank.
View attachment 205052
If things get really bad, I may have to get one of these for the e-bike:
View attachment 205053
. My situation with this storm is that I'll be on my own taking care of mom as I probably won't see an aide for a few days. It's a 24 hr job so it can become taxing at times. But I've handled it alone before and am hands on even when I have help so it's nothing that I can't handle. With her just getting over a viral cold and now developing a UTI, she's pretty weak... I just hope the dementia doesn't decide to be out of control in this period as well.
stompandgo
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
Best to you and your Mom.
We south eastern Virginians dodged the brunt of the storm. We got dusted with snow last night, this morning its raining BUT its supposed to drop into the low 20's tonight. If its nasty Monday with ice I'll just call in for work. Best thing out of this is my wife cooked in case we got trapped in the house. She says I "Made her lazy." because I'd rather just eat out for convenience. She is a great cook though!
All you in the path of this storm stay safe and dry. If you do something dumb, like me, and try to take your ebike out in the snow don't fall and bust your butt, like me.
All you in the path of this storm stay safe and dry. If you do something dumb, like me, and try to take your ebike out in the snow don't fall and bust your butt, like me.
Jeremy McCreary
Bought it anyway
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
Hope everyone stays safe. This huge storm from New England to New Mexico may test the wisdom of the recent deep cuts to FEMA.
Indeed. When you connect with folks online between the outages and just the extra time dealing with everything can take them away for quite a while.
I was in a similar situation as Gionni back in the late 20 teens. My mother required care 4-6hrs a day and a few big winter storms delayed the home care folks a few times. It's very stressful. One item that caught us out was the hospital bed and it's need for power (manual movement of the bed was a pain).
That's when I invested in a smaller (4000w) gas gen and a through wall connection. My house is heated electrically and has a wood burning fireplace as a secondary heat source ... and we very rarely lost power. The gen keeps the fireplace fans going, lights on, TV and router powered and with some load balancing (plugging and unplugging) the microwave, kettle, fridge and freezer. Any serious cooking or hot water for cleaning is on the BBQ (although right now with the serious cold I doubt I'd do much unless power was out for multiple days).
Two days of serious cold and our snow day is Monday (only a dry 6" is forecast) ... none of which should be a big deal.
I was in a similar situation as Gionni back in the late 20 teens. My mother required care 4-6hrs a day and a few big winter storms delayed the home care folks a few times. It's very stressful. One item that caught us out was the hospital bed and it's need for power (manual movement of the bed was a pain).
That's when I invested in a smaller (4000w) gas gen and a through wall connection. My house is heated electrically and has a wood burning fireplace as a secondary heat source ... and we very rarely lost power. The gen keeps the fireplace fans going, lights on, TV and router powered and with some load balancing (plugging and unplugging) the microwave, kettle, fridge and freezer. Any serious cooking or hot water for cleaning is on the BBQ (although right now with the serious cold I doubt I'd do much unless power was out for multiple days).
Two days of serious cold and our snow day is Monday (only a dry 6" is forecast) ... none of which should be a big deal.
RunForTheHills
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
It's likely that people with no power still have some Internet access on their mobile devices. I live in the mountains where I have to use a network extender to get a signal on my phone, so that wouldn't be the case for me. And we get power outages here at least a dozen times a year. I bought a whole house generator 25 years ago. It runs on natural gas. I have definitely gotten my money's worth out of it, but it is on its last legs and I will probably have to replace it soon. I also have UPS' on all the electronics I care about in the house. It takes about a minute for the automatic transfer switch to start the generator and switch over.
Chargeride
Well-Known Member
I had to turn the heating on today because it was a bit chilly in my tshirt and boxer shorts.
We all feel the pain.
We all feel the pain.
fooferdoggie
Well-Known Member
22 degrees this morning but the wind calmed down should get the 46 so fine to ride.
kevinmccune
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
still in the teens the "glaze' will keep it from drifting.
kevinmccune
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
bamboo will survive! wish they would make "paper" bags from that stuff,bamboo cloth is very nice.
kevinmccune
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
Double Amen!
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