Battery swapping is common practice in China. Far as I know, these swaps aren’t for huge capacity batteries, and moreso designed for smaller ones. Takes about as long as filling a sedan tank with fuel. We could have this technology, but there’s not really a push for it.
Right, I should’ve been more specific. I haven’t shipped for a bike in eons so I don’t know when they became common. Last I remember using everything was 3x7 or so.
Would be funny to use a single speed on a trail though.
Ah well I can see that kind of distance being an issue. While I’d say cold is a solvable problem with bar mitts and stuff, that time of day is certainly dark.
I don’t know your area of course, but maybe there’s an early morning commuter train or bus or something that could get you closer? For a time I rode to a station 20 minutes away, hopped on transit, then got off and rode another 15 minutes to get where I was going.
Maybe carpool? Though it might be unlikely any of your coworkers also live in your town.
I was surprised too. Went into a local shop and every single one of their mountain bikes, be it full suspension or otherwise, was 1x.
They said most of the time a chain gets spit off a ring, it’s the front, so people have been converting over to 1x to keep the chain on, and going to 10-12 on the back to make up for the lost range.
No idea if it’s bologna or marketing but it seems to be the new trend. I’m guessing it’s beneficial moreso in competitive circumstances, but the only time I spit my road bike chain out is when I shift under too much pressure. I don’t really do much trail riding on account of not having an appropriate ride, so I’m just going off what this one person said.
They look nice though without a front derailleur. Makes me want a fixie.
I was looking at mountain bikes recently and found out the new norm is 1x. Been ages since I rode a 3x, but going to 1x seems attractive if only to remove the shifter.
I too bike around town, on 25mm tires, and usually with a trailer though. Such a joy to get everything done under your own power. Obviously this isn’t the post to tout such ideas, but more people should be riding around the city.
Is a bicycle an option to get to work? I’m guessing there’s no bus option nearby or running early enough to be of use to you.
I use my bike to get around my entire city. I even built a cargo trailer for picking stuff up. It’s not the norm, but I get to places I need to be in roughly the same time I would had I driven.
Funny how a mistake in a single sentence earns vitriol on the entire comment.
Despite what I’d mistakenly wrote, I meant that to overcome inflation and see a return of double to quadruple your investment - which is what the comment starting this thread suggests as the outcome - you’d have to beat the market by around 10%.
Regardless, my point was more to do with whether someone with only $50 to spare a month is truly in a position to invest in anything or whether they might be better off saving it for a rainy day or something like that.
If someone has a few dollars to spare come month’s end, but has found themselves skipping the odd meal, that money would probably be better spent on a small grocery trip than putting it into an ETF that’ll take years to turn a profit.
Taking a step further, if the last thirty five years are any indication, that future $21k would be worth less than today’s $10k.
Besides, to overcome inflation, you’d need to average double digit returns on your investment every year for half a lifetime.
Like you say, it’s a tough decision if there’s anything that can provide you value now. Not to argue against savings, but expecting it to grow exponentially with no effort is folly.
Right - I wouldn’t benefit from such a thing either. The market exists in China probably due to the density of people living in apartment buildings without access to home based charging.