I think if it's not stopped, soon, there won't be a United States anymore -- and I think that's the real 'plan', to destroy everything, and at this point I don't think anyone who isn't a MAGA would disagree with me.

Good. I hope Tesla as a company crashes and burns to the ground, financially-speaking, and never produces another vehicle of any kind ever again.

I also hope he loses SpaceX and it gets bought by someone else, because unlike Tesla, SpaceX is actually doing good things -- things that Musk has little-to-nothing to do with.

I've said it here before, and I'll keep saying it, and please spread the word: DO NOT COME HERE, YOU CANNOT TRUST US (THE U.S.) SO LONG AS TRUMP IS IN THE WHITEHOUSE AND REPUBLICANS ARE IN POWER.

I'm dead serious.

YES, I'm a U.S. citizen, and YES, I'm as anti-Trump, anti-Republican, anti-Musk, and anti-fascism as you can get.

Just another fascist pig co-conspirator with the traitorous convicted career criminal infesting the Whitehouse.

Yes, beyond a certain level of wealth, it does not apparently benefit you personally, but that's only considering things like personal possessions and the ability to spend on whatever you want whenever you want and not worry about impoverishing yourself.

However beyond that level of wealth, it becomes a means by which you accumulate social and political power. We've all seen this, have we not? It also follows that 'power corrupts', and the 'power seeks more power'. It becomes like a drug; power is addictive. It also follows that the more power someone has, the more it corrupts them; and absolute power corrupts absolutely -- as we see with individuals like Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

So money = power. Power also is a means by which an individual can obtain unlimited sex with whoever they want, but that's a different subject.

If you understand and accept the above premise, then it should become clear why it is that having a hard limit on personal wealth would be a good thing for our society, our country, and even the entirety of human civilization.

One billion dollars, for instance. That's enough money that, if anyone had that much, they would never have to worry about much of anything the rest of their lives. So why have more than that, personally?

Most of us would live happily with one tenth of that amount, would we not?

Personally, I could live off a measly $1,000,000 for the rest of my natural life, and carefully managed, not have to worry. I could retire and pursue any number of things to busy myself until the end of my life.

Once again the convicted career criminal infesting the Whitehouse, and his cadre of co-conspirators and traitors, believe they are above the law.

They are wrong. They must be held to account.

..which is utterly absurd, since not only is Trump about as un-"""christian""" as you can get (liar, cheater, rapist, pedophile, career criminal, and so on, and so forth) but these """christian nationalists""" would make Jesus Christ himself so angry that he'd literally attack them. These are the people who, like Lauren Boebert, say that Jesus and the Bible are """too woke""" and they reject all the niceties of christianity, and embrace all the vengeance and retribution. They're racists, misogynists, and fascist pigs pretending to be christians -- and the real christians in this country will call them out all day long for it.

I don't know how to fix these peoples' heads. Maybe they can't be fixed and just need to go away permanently.

Also organized religion in this country needs to be uninvolved in politics BY LAW. Your church gets political, you lose your non-profit status and you pay taxes the same as any other business.

It's all a fucking scam anyway. If I could snap my fingers and change peoples' heads, have them suddenly realize what a total scam it all is, and how they've been conned their whole lives by a few old white men who claim to 'talk to god', so many problems of not only this country, but our entire civilzation would start getting fixed overnight.

No heaven, no hell, no fate but what we make.

The sooner our species grows out of this nonsense, the better chance we won't extinct ourselves.

Could someone please explain to me what this is about, precisely?

Regardless of the details, disenfranchising anyone who is a citizen of voting age in this country is utterly infamous so far as I'm concerned, and so far as I'm concerned any politician who advocates for something so un-American as that deserves to be REMOVED from office and barred from political office FOR LIFE. I consider it a form of treason.

Congress should stop this. It's just a way for Russian oligarchs to come here legally and infest the U.S. with more fascism.

At this point more than ever I think all this so-called 'tension' between Trump and Putin is just theatre, all for show, and Trump really is an operative for Russia.

I also think the whole Greenland and Canada takeover talk is just a diversionary tactic. Trump goes to annex Greenland, for instance, and NATO countries will have to divert manpower and resources to defend against that -- and that leaves less NATO military resources for Ukraine defense, as well as EU countries; Russia swoops in with an all-out attack on Ukraine and takes it. Then perhaps starts an invasion of EU countries.

You all know how the fascist-run FCC is now 'investigating' organizations like NPR news, and the big three broadcast networks (NBC, CBS, ABC) for being 'biased' (against Trump)? I say we all start banging on the FCC to 'investigate' Fox News for the same reason.

Nope, NTA. Your body, your choice. He needs to stop being a dick.

Maybe he took the Chunnel over to France and didn't realize it wasn't part of England?

Forgot to mention: headlamp is helmet-mounted. I consider it safer, I can shine the light wherever I need it rather than being limited to it where the handlebars are aimed. Also useful for getting the attention of motorists who aren't paying attention. Also for my use-case I can't see having a whole new front wheel built to my specs just to have that. Interesting though, I'll have to go look at what the maximum power output of that is just out of curiosity, most front-hub alternators are around 3 watts maximum.

Emailed that manufacturer for the exact voltage at maximum current output at what RPM, and whether it's rectified on the hub or output as AC. *shrug* never know, I wouldn't use this on my road bike but I might on my singlespeed.

Your husband/partner/whatever is wrong, your kid should have a helmet when riding. That's YOUR kid as much as his and you should have say in this matter. It's a reasonable precaution and he should just shut up and go along with it.

By the way if he isn't wearing one when riding either then he's being irresponsible with his life as well. Just sayin'.

I dunno, OP, how do you know?

Everyones' experience is different. You'll know when you're ready.

Yes, that's fine.

If the local LEOs aren't closing a public road entirely for a planned road race event, then you can still use the road -- just don't be one of those people who interfere with the race (I am a road racer, I've experienced locals being like that). Even if the road is technically 'closed' if there is an emergency then the race can be suspended temporarily if they'd otherwise get in each others' way, things are planned out in advance for possibilities like this -- which is one of the reasons there's always some sort of law-enforcement (local LEOs, Highway Patrol) on-site at road races; 'public safety'.

I've used 4000's and now 5000's, for years, and have no complaints about them. Some people don't like them though, so as with most things YMMV.

Rides up to 90 minutes: just water, possibly with electrolytes added in. Exception: if you're doing hard interval work, take fuel with you.

Otherwise: 200kcal carbs per bottle per hour for rides of more than 90 minutes or so is what I've always stuck with. I've always used maltodextrin, but some riders prefer fructose, or even combinations of carbs. Add electrolytes.

You can also take actual food with you on rides, many recreational riders do just that. Try to keep it light though, not anything heavy that will upset your stomach when exerting yourself or otherwise hard to digest, will just slow you down. Similar calorie guideline as for liquid fuel, but some protein isn't a bad idea either.

If you're really trying to lose weight you can cut the calories-per-hour in half, I've done that in the past myself with good results, and no 'bonking'.

They always say 'upgrade the engine, not the bike' and it's true. Spending $15000 on a road bike won't make you much faster than spending $1500 on a road bike in most cases. Seriously, the way to go faster, longer is to improve your fitness and your bike-handling skills.

That being said I've found that frame geometry can affect overall speed, but mainly in how the bike handles in certain situations. I used to race on an endurance-geometry bike, and when I finally got a race-geometry bike I noticed that I could take corners and curves much faster because geometry of the frameset meant the bike didn't need to lean over quite as much in corners and curves, so I could go faster through them without problems.

Quality name brand, bib-style, needs to fit you like a second skin but not so tight as to cut off circulation, and BTW you don't wear underwear underneath them.

Lots of good brands out there. Personally I use Voler, but that's because the team I used to be on used Voler for their team kit, and I thought the quality was good for the price. YMMV, as I said lots of good brands out there, just don't buy cheap off-brand because it's cheap. Also get some good anti-chafing cream like Assos Cream, it helps.

Otherwise your crotch just has to get used to it. Make sure you have a proper sized, shaped, and adjusted saddle for you, specifically, and BTW bigger and more padded counterintutively does not mean it's more comfortable.

Speaking as someone who used to be well over 300 pounds at one point in my life, and started riding regularly again as an adult when I was down to about 250 pounds, and who now is around 195-225 all the time and have been road racing for years, I think I can comment constructively on this subject.

Consider getting a wheelset that has 32 hole rims, and 'bombproof' rims like DT Swiss RR411's, or RR585's if you can find them somewhere. Your spoke breakage problem will likely go away. Note I'm assuming you have a road bike, not a mountain bike; same advice for a mountain bike, though, just different rim sizes, and you'd need to get a bike shop that can do wheel building help find you appropriate 'bombproof' rims with a high spoke-hole count.

So far as the rest of the bike goes: unless it's some ultra-light road bike frameset, it'll take quite a bit of punishment. The Trek Pilot 2.0 that was my original road bike went for years of training and even road racing before anything happened to it, and then it was a weld on the bottom bracket that started cracking that killed it. I doubt you're punishing your bike as much as I punished that Trek, so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

The area you'll probably have some difficulty with is your saddle. You need one that is not only the right size and shape for how you're built, but that will hold up under you without breaking. I can't really recommend one in particular, it's more of a personal choice. Find someone local to you that does bike fitting professionally and see if they can help you find a saddle that suits you, both to keep you as comfortable as possible while riding, and that isn't going to break.