[Toshi]

I considered the implications of my "warranty or bust" statement last page, and decided again that having a commute only car is a retarded idea. Even a nice e-bike setup would cost less than a year's EV lease payments barring some crazy Fiat 500e deal not available in Denver, and that's before the decidedly non-negligible tax and registration are accounted for. So back to the Chinese e-bike part table, only with a goal of cleanliness and sourcing as much from reputable shops (ebikes.ca, in particular).

In the interim I've read a ton about a few other options, namely the Crystalyte HS3540, BBS02, and the Lightning Rods mid drive. I ruled them out due to freewheel and cable routing issues, cadence sensor only integrated controller, and ugliness/overkill, respectively.

Therefore I went back, hacked out some choices (no more mid drive) and streamlined the MinUte plan down to a single, hopefully sane option:

[eliding table since it's always changing]

 

[Toshi]

Easter Egg Hunt yesterday as would befit my family-friendly neighborhood:

 

[Toshi]

SEV Ultimate. 400W mid drive with 36V pack, which would be meh except it's Bosch and is good for 28 mph reputedly. On sale at a Seattle shop at $3339 it'd be as much as my proposed MinUte build, a bit more after rack and fenders are sorted out. There's some value in a two year powertrain warranty but there's more value in 48V 40A if I do it myself again, I reckon.

 

[Toshi]

I wonder if this would feel like a truck. I kind of like the idea, but then again I kind of like the idea of Sprinter 4x4s, too:

$4,500. Yuba Spicy Curry. 48V 8.Ah of lithium powering a 350W Currie mid drive.

Would be good to cart kids around on, too, in theory:

 

[dan-o]

Get one of both!
One for play (self shuttle golden trails) the other for smugging around the 'hood, running kids about and grocery gettin'.

 

[Toshi]

Speaking of self-shuttling trails, this is highly relevant:

 

[Westy]

I considered the implications of my "warranty or bust" statement last page, and decided again that having a commute only car is a retarded idea. Even a nice e-bike setup would cost less than a year's EV lease payments barring some crazy Fiat 500e deal not available in Denver, and that's before the decidedly non-negligible tax and registration are accounted for. So back to the Chinese e-bike part table, only with a goal of cleanliness and sourcing as much from reputable shops (ebikes.ca, in particular).

In the interim I've read a ton about a few other options, namely the Crystalyte HS3540, BBS02, and the Lightning Rods mid drive. I ruled them out due to freewheel and cable routing issues, non-ISIS crank and integrated controller, and ugliness/overkill, respectively.

Therefore I went back, hacked out some choices (no more mid drive) and streamlined the MinUte plan down to a single, hopefully sane option:

Note 40A non-BAC controller, upsized triangle battery, Cycle Satiator, and pricing reflecting dual torque arms. I think this would be a good evolution of my original build back from when I lived in Seattle:

- practical base bike with fenders and storage
- rear cassette since freewheels really are horrid, ditto for ISIS BB
- PAS since that's the new thing and Justin Le likes it, noting that Euro-market e-bikes have always had PAS mandated. I hope this would let it feel less like a crappy motorcycle and more like a bike ridden by Superman
- more power to up cruising speed from mid-20s to around 30 mph--the second incarnation of the Seattle e-bike would cruise at 27 mph flat out with pedaling but felt more comfortable around 24-25 mph

The only thing I don't like about this plan is the frame bag for the battery, but if I want to pull 40A at 48V then the slicker downtube mounted pack that I had previously specced won't cut it, I believe. Besides being ugly it would also mandate that I haul it inside with me each day, although I might "solve" that issue by parking the whole damn thing inside my ground floor office. Said office is on the opposite wing of the hospital from my usual haunts but not needing to lock up and partially dismantle the bike would probably make it a wash in terms of time.

What the heck would a torque sensing BB be for?

 

[Toshi]

Three choices for control of the frankenstein electric motor on e-bikes:

1) Throttle a la motorcycle. Not satisfying since e-bikes are crappy motorcycles.

2) Cadence sensor with predetermined power output from electric bits. You pedal, it pushes. It's unaware of whether you're pedaling with no load in granny gear or stomping in a long gear, though. Not satisfying due to this flaw, exacerbated when one's cadence slows naturally while cresting a hill--assist disappears at this time due to the system being dumb.

3) Torque sensing, either through device at rear dropout, along chain path, or at bottom bracket. System multiplies the rider's input torque by a factor of 0-1000% (e.g., I put in 200W it puts out 2000W). I haven't ridden such a system, but I read that the experience is much nicer, akin to having the legs of Superman.

 

[Westy]

Three choices for control of the frankenstein electric motor on e-bikes:

3) Torque sensing, either through device at rear dropout, along chain path, or at bottom bracket. System multiplies the rider's input torque by a factor of 0-1000% (e.g., I put in 200W it puts out 2000W). I haven't ridden such a system, but I read that the experience is much nicer, akin to having the legs of Superman.

That is kind of cool. But I still think e-bikes are dumb.

 

[Toshi]

I listed lots of stuff on eBay today. The weather is warming up and my urge to clean out my garage is strong:

1) 2" receiver hitch (Eco Hitch from Torklift) that fits 2013-2015 Nissan LEAF: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111644466358?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

2) 203 mm Shimano XT Centerlock Ice Tech brake rotor: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111644467658?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

3) Shimano XT 2 ring front derailleur: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111644463807?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

4) Shimano SM-BB70 bottom bracket, which works with XT Hollowtech II cranks: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111644439743?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

5) Nuvo bicycle centerstand: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111644464892?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

[Toshi]

So on my old e-bike I ended up with a 48 tooth chainring driving a 16 tooth cog on a Nexus 7 hub. Top gear on a Nexus 7 is 1.545 per sheldonbrown.com. Sheldonbrown.com also has their awesome gear-inch calculator, which yields 105 gear-inches in the top gear, or 25 mph at a cadence of 80 rpm, in other words. That jives mentally with my experience with the thing.

[speculation about what I'd need for a sane cadence @ 35 mph deleted since I won't be going 35 mph]

 

[Toshi]

Hmph. Stepping back from the brink and spending more time in ebikes.ca's motor simulator it looks like I must have plugged in 72V systems to see these 2 kW power levels and 35+ mph ratings. At 48V it looks like 29 mph is more realistic, which means that 25A controllers and batteries might cut it after all:

This is actually good because it gets away from the crazy big chainring world, and it allows for the cheaper, lockable-to-frame battery option from em3ev that can still pump out 25A. A 48t or 50t chainring would do it, and Black Spire makes DH rings for 104 mm BCD cranks up to 50t. Problem solved.

 

[Toshi]

Background for this spate of posts on gear ratios:

Stealth Fighter.

Looks pretty awesome, eh? 3.5 kW, has the battery mounting and securing system down pat, has good suspension to cruise along off-road...

The downside is that it has all of two speeds: single chain with two speed planetary crankset.

There is no way pedaling that thing would be useful. As I've written before, I don't want an electric motorcycle that one can sneak onto bike paths via a technicality. I want something that will multiply my own feeble efforts to get myself to work quicker, even if that means giving up big suspension and perhaps taking the road after all.

I just noticed that the Stealth frame designers dealt with the chain growth issue by making it a unified rear triangle design. That's hilarious(ly bad):

 

[Toshi]

Winning:

 

[Toshi]

http://electricbikereport.com/raleigh-misceo-ie-shimano-steps-review-1/

Mmm. One thing that that really bugged me about my old e-bike was the ugliness inherent in cables splayed everywhere.

This Raleigh Misceo iE (20 mph, 250W continuous) would certainly address that and ticks a lot of other good boxes: 700c x 40 mm tires, carbon fork, electronically shifted internally geared hub (!) that can shift down automatically when one stops. Perhaps enough speed is enough. I should test ride one.

First application of Shimano's mid drive in the US, and I trust them infinitely more than Chinese vendors to not fuck up the implementation. Is it worth the tradeoff of not being able to run supra-legal power? Perhaps, perhaps.

 

[Westy]

Saw this and thought it would be perfect for you. Just add some flags on fiberglass poles. Electric pedal car.

 

[Toshi]

That's funny that you bring that up. My uncle, when not raving about tea party this and that, was actually going to invest in that company and seek to become a local rep. I told him to not waste his money. The market for those things has to be infinitesimal. Part of the draw of being on a bike is not sitting in a lane with cars. Something that size would buy me the experience of a terrible car.

 

[Toshi]

This is pretty sweet. I'm not sure why one wouldn't just buy (or better yet, rent) a bigger RV in the first place, though. It's not like a Eurovan VW Transporter is going to be a city runabout anyway...

 

[Toshi]

Saw this and thought it would be perfect for you. Just add some flags on fiberglass poles. Electric pedal car.

Jalopnik reviewed it today:

http://jalopnik.com/the-elf-electric-pedal-mobile-what-happens-when-your-b-1698963677

I'm still trying to figure out the target market... if not me, who would buy such a thing?

 

[Toshi]

Regarding the Jalopnik article's attempt at rationalizing the cost based on it being made in the USA, I'll be damned if that isn't a hub motor (mounted as a mid drive) wound by Chinese workers. I'll also be damned if the company is still in business in 3 years to provide warranty support.

/me is a pessimist

 

[Toshi]

I was actually thinking that I could plan out a clean sheet e-bike based off of tire choice. Gazzaloddis, trials bike tires (little 16 x 3" rear meats all around?), moped tires, something odd…

Riffing off of this:

1) Felt makes a very pricey LEBOWSKe fat bike with nice Bosch mid drive: http://www.feltbicycles.com/USA/2015/Bikes/electric/Mountain/LEBOWSKe-10.aspx

2) An outfit called iGO, no doubt a rebrander of Taiwanese or Chinese built bikes, is coming out with aluminum and carbon variants of their own electric fatbike: http://igofatbike.com/en/ . This signals to me that it's hitting mainstream, in the sense of mainstream being Alibaba.

Both iGO and this other outfit I read about today, Tempo, are using a new to me mid drive, MPF, which is supposedly Austrian or German engineered depending on what company's text you trust. Note emphasis on engineered: still built in China, no doubt.

Anyway, it seems equivalent on paper to the Bosch and Shimano units: 20 mph max assist, pedal sensor only (no throttle), torque/cadence/speed sensors to dole out the power, 36V lithium.

If these iGO e-fat bikes are reasonably priced ($3-4k? Felt is $5.8k iirc, yowch) then they could make for an amusing commuter with the tires at about 20 psi. I'd definitely hit up the gravel and dirt trail with it... Rack mounting would either require hose clamps for a rear rack or replacing the front fork with a Surly jobber with rack eyelets, which in turn might involve rebuilding the wheel around a new front hub. Still, could be amusing.

 

[Toshi]

An outfit called iGO, no doubt a rebrander of Taiwanese or Chinese built bikes, is coming out with aluminum and carbon variants of their own electric fatbike: http://igofatbike.com/en/ . This signals to me that it's hitting mainstream, in the sense of mainstream being Alibaba.



Both iGO and this other outfit I read about today, Tempo, are using a new to me mid drive, MPF, which is supposedly Austrian or German engineered depending on what company's text you trust. Note emphasis on engineered: still built in China, no doubt.

More proof that this bike is a generic design being pushed by some huge nameless Asian factory:

IZIP E3 Sumo: http://electricbikereview.com/izip/e3-sumo/

It looks awfully similar to that iGO. Bottom bracket area looks a bit different and perhaps the chainstays are a bit longer. Still no rack or fender bosses. I guess they claim the mid drive is from a different outfit, TranzX in this case, and I grant that all geared mid drives look somewhat similar.

Pluses are the Sumo name, heh, 1x10 drivetrain, pedal assist up to 28 mph (yes! 48V, too, but still with 350W nominal power so not some crazy powerhouse), and a pretty reasonable price of $3650.

With a 38 x 11t tallest gear stock that works out to 22.6 mph at 80 rpm cadence per Sheldon Brown's gear inch calculator. That looks like a 104 mm BCD crankset, though, so swapping out to 48t up front would solve that nicely. Hmm.


Update with info obtained today from Currie Technologies: 150 mm front hub spacing (!), 190 mm rear (!! fat bikes are weird beasts), 104 mm BCD on the cranks as I guessed. 150 mm hub spacing would make life better except that it's still QR! All other 150 mm fat bike front wheels/forks, including the Surly Ice Cream Truck, seem to be 15 mm through axle to fit the Rock Shox Bluto. Gah. Too many fat bike spacing standards!

 

[Toshi]

If I did go for a fat bike it looks like I'd be covered rack-wise:

http://www.blackburndesign.com/racks/outpost-fat-bike-rack.html

That rack has included via-QR skewer lower and seatstay clamp upper mounting options. This is just as well since it seems that eyelets for racks on fat bikes are often mounted halfway up the seatstays, which leads to really ungainly super tall racks:

Edit: Old Man Mountain has fat bike racks, too. The challenge with these mounted-with-QR options will be finding a long enough skewer! I think I would have to resort to raiding the Home Depot aisles for threaded rod and nuts, and hacksaw off the excess.

Front OMM Phat Sherpa: http://store.biketouringnews.com/old-man-mountain-phat-sherpa-front-rack/
Rear OMM Phat Sherpa: http://store.biketouringnews.com/old-man-mountain-phat-sherpa-rear-rack-for-pugsley/

 

[Toshi]

If I could build a huge ramp such that home to work and work to home were always downhill I'd rock these for my commute:

 

[Toshi]

The price of not having a (hellacious) commute:

Same builder as the one we plan on using (still not under contract!). Rough parity on square footage. 6x the land. 2x the garage. About the same price… That said, I would never commute from Castle Rock to Anschutz. My time is valuable, and time spent in a car in traffic is time wasted indeed.

 

[Toshi]

Nothing's signed yet, but we have an appointment tomorrow morning to go over the contract for the to be built house, at long, long last.



Tonight I get to peruse the contract in between musing about e-bikes. 118 pages long, that. Tellingly, the astute reader will notice that I haven't been posting much car-related junk lately, which is a good indicator that our current stable of cars is actually doing its job.

 

[Toshi]

I signed the contract to build our new house today, and ended up not checking the Zero Energy package box because the builder jacked the price of the package $10k in the last month. (Said contract turned out to be 137 pages all said and done, not 118 as per last post.)

Base, what we opted for:

- double pane windows
- 9.5" walls with R-38
- R-50 in attic
- tankless water heater
- 92%? efficiency gas furnace
- add-on ducted AC
- 2.5 kW of prepaid 20 year leased solar

What $35.5k extra would have bought us:

- 9.5 kW of solar but still prepaid 20 year lease, not owned
- slightly better U rating still double lane glass
- heat pump, so could skip the separate AC option. Air source, I'm pretty sure.
- slightly higher efficiency furnace
- slightly fancier thermostat

If it were $25k and included owned solar as I'd erroneously been told I would have bit. At that price it didn't seem worth it.

Overall I feel ok with it, but then again it hasn't sunk in yet.

 

[Toshi]

Baby Yuna snuggling in my neckbeard, as MMike puts it:

 

[Toshi]

A few months back I posted up some quotes I got for jumbo loan money from Citywide. I've gotten a few more quotes in the past day or two that may be of general interest. Exact numbers are for today's rates, so clearly not exactly what I'll get when I close, but are good for comparison and a general sense of the premium over conforming loans.

Background: 90% LTV total (if we close in December I can't hit 20% down), 30 year fixed jumbo loan in a county with a normal conforming limit, good credit score.

1) Three local brokers, with the upside that I'd get $3k towards closing from the builder if I used them. They don't do 90% LTV jumbo but will do a conforming loan to the $417k limit and a second HELOC or mortgage to get to 90% LTV.

They're offering 3.75-3.875% on the conforming loan with unspecified (higher) rate on the other part. The upside is no PMI on the conforming loan. 45-80 day rate lock.

2) HomeBridge, found via Costco Finance. They'll do 90% LTV jumbo outright.

3.875%, 3.894% APR. 45 day rate lock.

3) Wells Fargo. They, too, will do 90% LTV jumbo but are a stickler about having 6 months PITI in liquid funds at closing on top of the 10% down.

4.00% even, 4.042% APR. Upside is they will do a 90 day rate lock and a 60 day fee lock.

4) Bank of America. They will do 90% LTV jumbo outright for Doctor Loans. They'll even do 95% LTV up to $1M.

At 5% down, 3.75%, 3.771% APR, very slightly higher origination fees ($1700 vs. $1200 ballpark). Each extra 5% down lowers the rate 1/8%. No PMI since this is a doctor loan--baked into rate. BBVA is very similar albeit 1/8% higher.

They have a (for a price) option to lock in rate for up to 1 year (!) and for shorter intervals, with the chance to float down once.

I think that pretty much sums up the market. There are many others, of course, but between these one can see the general rate range and that the variation really is in rate lock periods. Since I'm doing new construction with close at least 8 months away I need to balance closing cost credits and the 2 mortgage setup with the local lenders versus dealing with mortgage insurance on the other, single loans.

 

[Toshi]

The Force is strong with this one:

http://www.feltbicycles.com/USA/2015/Bikes/electric/Mountain/OUTFITTER.aspx

Certainly has the rack situation handled…

 

[Toshi]

Kind of blending the above idea with that Kona Ute… someone has already made it!

http://www.designlogicbikes.com/products.html

Rear 170 mm dropouts. Hmm. Not sure which hub motor they slotted in there or if they resorted to custom fabrication. That could make an interesting/insane 72V 3 kW build: plenty of width for a wide stator and gears to make it usable.

 

[Toshi]

Source: Welch, Bleck. Overdiagnosis in Cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 2010;102:605–613.

Sobering chart of the day. Modern medicine is great at diagnosing things. The rate of people actually dying from these things is generally flat.

This suggests that we are diagnosing (and thus treating) a large amount of things that clinically wouldn't have mattered anyway. It also suggests that the subset of people who would have died in 1975 lacking modern chemotherapy, imaging, and surgical techniques still are going to die in 2015.

(Context for this is that I'm trying to figure out a good idea for a prospective clinical trial in radiology. Idea #1 is to have active surveillance vs. surgery groups for papillary thyroid cancer < 2 cm, but I don't think that'll fly even if it ultimately may be a good idea.)

 

[Toshi]

I have a suspicion that these factory 350W fatbikes, mid drive or not, won't actually have enough oomph. Evidence, chart from a few posts back and ultimately from ebikes.ca's motor simulator:

See black line. This doesn't take into account my legs' contributions and the 150 kg combined weight is also high, but without pedaling it'd take over 350W to the ground just to maintain 20 mph on flat ground. As much as I dislike the prospect of cobbling together stuff and not having a warranty, I think the ebikes.ca option might be in order so as to add in more power.

This brings me back to this recent spate of posts about fat bikes. I like the idea of having some tire volume to absorb road chatter, and having more electrical power would certainly allow for these big wheels to keep on turnin', if you will. (I don't like full suspension bikes for this application because of ugliness, cost, and rack non-compatibility. 150 mm hub spacing would be much easier to work with than 170 or 190 mm as below, but that's not super relevant.)

The problems with fat bikes are dropout spacing and fender compatibility, noting that I hammered out the rack options above.

Dropout spacing could potentially be solved by running a meant-for-the-rear hub up front with a 135 mm spacing fork, a la Surly. I don't like this idea because a) I've done it before, b) potential traction issues, and c) it leads to really ugly long cable runs.

Fenders actually seem to be the bigger issue with fat bikes. They are kind of important for those who need to not have mud splatters up their back at work, and the most I could find are little ziptie pieces for one's seat, downtube, and fork crown that look terrible and probably wouldn't provide good coverage.

So is there a "half-fat" bike that I could use as a starting point that'd allow for tire volume while avoiding the hub spacing and fender issues? Well, there certainly is:

On prior pages I was excited about the Surly Ogre as it'd let me keep my (cheap in all senses) 29"er wheelset. The Ogre has a little brother in 26" guise, the Troll. I think the Surly Troll could work quite well. Let me illustrate with a few photos from others:

Rack and fender compatibility: check.

65 mm fat bike rim compatibility: check.

Half-fat nature confirmed. That's a Pugsley next to it.

Hmm. Fat rims, 2.5"+ meats, fenders, racks, and standard dropout spacing of 100/135 mm? That sounds like it'd be a good candidate for a rear hub motor, especially as ebikes.ca will even build one up with a 65 mm rim. Even with a new front wheel needed and allowing for new cranks (current 29er ones might be scavengable) the total build is in the ballpark of all the others.

Okay, enough time wasted on this. Back to academic stuffs.

 

[Toshi]

I like to stare at spreadsheets full of numbers both at work and in my spare time, yet I still find mortgage lenders' estimates of their closing costs to be barely comprehensible. It's as if part of their business model is to obscure their fees so as to dissuade consumers from comparing prices directly.

Examples:

One lender has the following fees with no equivalent on the other's estimate:

- branch processing fee
- conventional admin fee
- credit report monitoring fee
- final inspection fee
- plat drawing/survey
- loan closing fee
- settlement or closing fee

The other lender, in turn, has these fees with no equivalent on the first's estimate:

- tax service fee
- title-closing-escrow fee with both buyer and seller components
- title-title endorsement (yes, it's listed as that verbatim, "title-title endorsement")

There's also a "flood certification fee" on one that sounds a lot like "life of loan flood monitoring" but whose true meaning is unclear. Are these equivalent?!

Finally, these lenders used very different assumptions on how many days of interest are due at closing (1 vs 15 days, relatively small change) and how many months of property tax are due at closing (2 vs 11 months, decidedly not small change!)

Once I equalize the days of interest and property tax month assumptions, account for seller-paid title insurance (per my contract so the lenders have nothing to do with this) then the two quotes, seemingly $9k apart in net closing costs, turn out to be basically the same price taking into account the seller closing cost incentive for which only the local lender is eligible.

This is a huge deal since lender A, a local outfit, is offering a conforming loan at the $417k limit fixed @ 3.75% along with a second lien for the balance to 90% LTV at a variable currently 5.24% rate. The second, Bank of America, is offering a single fixed rate loan for the full 90% LTV @ 3.625%. If closing costs are equal then I'd be insane not to pick the BoA product. (No mortgage insurance with either one, for the record.)

 

[Toshi]

Kind of blending the above idea with that Kona Ute… someone has already made it!

http://www.designlogicbikes.com/products.html

Rear 170 mm dropouts. Hmm. Not sure which hub motor they slotted in there or if they resorted to custom fabrication. That could make an interesting/insane 72V 3 kW build: plenty of width for a wide stator and gears to make it usable.

Moots has also done it, with a 29" (29 x 3.0") mid tail cargo bike:

Problems: Obscene cost, and retro triangle layout would prevent frame battery mounting. Still an interesting thought. The custom chainguard on the chainsaw (titanium, of course), is a nice touch:

Update: Some fat bike fenders for good measure:

Now that I dig a bit deeper it does seem that some people have the fat bike fender issue figured out:

That's a Planet Bikes Cascadia modified by cutting it down the middle and splicing in 3" of [pickyourmaterialhere].

MK Fenders makes wood fenders up to 135 mm width! http://mkfenders.com/options.html

Here's a Big O commercial fender:

I'd link to their site but they're down.

 

[Toshi]

http://harvardmagazine.com/2015/05/altering-course

Good summary of a book by a Harvard physics full professor basically back of napkining every energy question relevant. (Example: hydroelectric could only theoretically supply 7% of US energy needs even if every drop were transformed into power.) The distributed storage/demand smoothing bit is particularly relevant given Elon Musk's Powerwall announcement. That… on a tremendous scale… or an electric car in every garage hooked up as a buffer for the house's demands.

 

[Toshi]

Cross posted from my Google+ stream of consciousness:

One Millennial's Problem with The Auto Industry

I think I'm a millennial, as I was born in 1981. I've always loved cars, but now I come to embody the auto industry's problem going forward. What's this problem? In a nutshell, further refinements of their wares, inclusive of switching fuel types, don't address my transportation desires. I don't want a better car, in other words.

Ignoring our lease-end Nissan LEAF, my two driver household has a Toyota RAV4 EV and a Land Cruiser. What's amusing is that I'm actually not even the only Denverite who has these two particular vehicles! Between them we have the school run, the grocery run, the trips to rehearsals, and foul weather transit in town and the mountains down pat. Thanks to the electric RAV4 and our upcoming near-net zero energy house build, I even have carbon guilt checkmated.

Note that I didn't include my commute in the list of things that our vehicles do well. That's because competing with other drivers for parking, walking from the distant locations to where I actually work, and fighting ill-timed traffic lights and hordes of other drivers makes driving to work something I try to avoid whenever weather reasonably allows. It's not even because of distance: I deliberately live close to work. It's because of the limitations inherent to cars, namely their need for parking and wide lanes.

This brings me back to my original point. I don't want a Model S, a Ferrari, a Lexus, or anything else that won't address my frustrations with my commute. Sitting at the light in a nicer box is still sitting in a box. Motorcycles aren't the answer, either, as I don't live in California and can't lane split the traffic away.

Frankly, I am not sure the conventional (or unconventional, a la Tesla) car companies have anything to offer me short of an autonomous car that drives itself home without me and later picks me up at the front door of my workplace. Thus I will resort to bicycling around as I have done for many years. There are many small injustices in the life of a bicyclist, but at least parking and traffic congestion are not among them outside of, say, mainland China or Tokyo…

 

[Toshi]

Alternate commute route-fail. I doubled the length of my commute by trying to take an alternate route (going south from between mile markers 2 and 3 straight to work). I couldn't cross Fitzsimons Parkway as there's light rail construction along its whole length.

On the upside, the short segment in Sand Creek Park was very nice. The segment on the frontage road of I-225 abutting the trailer park wasn't: lots of yippy dogs there.

 

[Toshi]

My baby is now a month old + a few days:

More: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/+ToshiClark/albums/6150234359303964401

 

[Westy]

My baby is now a month old + a few days:

More: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/+ToshiClark/albums/6150234359303964401

With Mariko it was age(month) themed photos with appropriat number props. Now it is just a random photo around the right day. Ah, the second kid.