Posts by Patrick King7

You’re moving, you’re driving well. Seriously, you've got skills.

Keith Ward said:I've got the drive, just don't have the cash for high-end gear right now (it's temporary) and I'm no saint... amen. I want to see how far I can push myself over the next couple of years. I'm not naturally competitive, but once I'm on the bike, everything changes. I have this constant need to be first. I can't stand riding behind anyone. I find myself racing buses—they don't stop often enough, so they're too fast for me—even streetcars, basically anything moving on the road. I'm light, maybe 155-160 lbs at 5'8", and I can hold my own. Obviously, that's nowhere near professional cycling, but at 26, this sudden urge to go all out started hitting me... I feel like Anthony Hopkins in "World's fastest Indian" the moment I sit on the saddle...! I live for that aggressive riding posture, those athletic lines on the frame... it feels like I'm being pushed to warp 6 🙂. It puts a smile on my face. 😍😍 😍

That’s really the core of it. You sit on the bike, you think you're going to cruise along slowly, and then a few seconds later—wooosssssshhhhhhhhhhhh (that's the wind)😁 That's how I ride. Honestly, lately, my bike spends more time at the repair shop than on the pavement. The wear and tear is getting real. I need to hit the jackpot somehow🤔

Keith Ward said:I switched up my diet a few months before I quit smoking. Weight stayed about the same, though I’ve still got maybe 5 pounds of fat left to burn off 🙂..
It feels like the benefits are finally starting to kick in now. The worst part was the irritability from withdrawal, but I didn't find a fix in food—I found it in push-ups, squats, pull-ups, and you guessed it... cycling😁.
Look, I'm no saint, so don't get the wrong idea! If I have a drink, I might light one up. But it's not a whole pack, just two or three for the hell of it. A craving is a craving. People claim you can't function that way, but I haven't had any issues. What really changed was my mindset. That’s hitting harder than any physical change right now. I feel strong and healthy 😁😁😁!

🙂
Not happening. A little bit of drinking is fine, but if you go overboard => 🙂
And as for smoking, there's really no point in even discussing it

Keith Ward said:🙂 thanks! I've overhauled my diet quite a bit, and actually quit smoking four months ago. ... I know it looks like I'm just patching holes, but I'm trying to do this right.

Nice. Keep at it. I've heard you start feeling the benefits of quitting smoking in just a few days. That's huge.
Any weight change yet? Or did the diet change keep things steady?

You’re done! And I don't mean just washed up—I mean you're ancient. Actually, looking closer, you're practically prehistoric. Maybe more like a fossil, or some kind of single-celled organism drifting through space. 😉

Calling you "washed up" is an understatement. Just stay on the grill. At this rate, you might actually find some stamina in six months, and if you're lucky, maybe a little extra by next year...

I suspect silentpanther15 is stalling by playing games with formulas, though I can't pin down which specific model he's using. Honestly, I think he might have even been pitching them to someone else.

That’s a long story. Feels like 28 years ago, maybe a few days more. I inherited a tricycle with a bucket from my brother after he scored some Soviet-made red bike with fat tires. Back then, we didn't have paved roads, so much like Operation Desert Storm, I ended up losing most of my baby teeth because of it. Anyway, that trike had a bucket where I’d scoop up gravel from the road and dump it all in one spot. Eventually, me plus the sand just broke the thing. My brother got a Pony, and I took over the red beast, Made in USA. It was actually fast—well, I pedaled fast. Basically indestructible; those tires wouldn't puncture. I remember patching them up today, thinking back to that prehistoric tubeless solution with a tear in my eye. I rode it until I eventually swapped for my brother's Pony, though I have no clue what he was riding. Around 1989, I finally got an MTB. An 18-speed Flying Tigers, built solid, with an SR suntourov rear derailleur. That derailleur is still sitting in my garage today. That was the first bike I used for what it was actually meant for. I took it everywhere—through the Potomac River, mud, wet sand, crushed stone... I rode through water and never lubed anything except the chain. Eventually, everything seized up, but that derailleur kept working. After that iron Chinese wonder (which I rode for about 6215 miles), I bought my current TREK, and we've hit a few more 13673 miles different terrains since then. The story keeps going, hopefully...

George Clark19 said:So I’ll be scrolling through the news, right? And I see some headline about a kid passing away, and my brain just goes—okay, fine, but what am I supposed to do with that? Tomorrow it’ll be someone else, and the day after that, it'll be another one... I mean, that’s just how the world works, I guess. Life is just a constant cycle of this stuff, isn't it?

And then I start feeling like a total jerk because I figure a "good" person—you know, one of those genuinely empathetic types—would probably be sitting there thinking about how absolutely devastating and heartbreaking it all is, whereas I'm just kind of staring at the screen like, "Well, there it is."

Nicole Miller5 said:Fair question. Honestly, I’m chronically short on empathy myself. When a situation calls for it, I just fake it. I put on the right expression, toss out a few standard phrases, and call it a day. It actually feels better than genuinely feeling someone else's misery.

I might just say: lucky you.
I’m a highly emotional guy. When my buddy’s dad passed away, I was at the funeral sobbing almost as hard as he was. It was brutal. Afterward, the secondhand embarrassment was overwhelming. Just a total disaster. Picture this: a six-foot-five man, just breaking down and weeping. It felt awful. And it isn't just funerals. When my dog died, I spent two straight days crying.

Man, that’s a mess. If you hadn't mentioned the pain and stinging, I might have thought it was like that one case where someone overdid it on the beets and ended up with dyed urine. But this? You really need to see a doctor.

Steven Cooper3 said:I could sit here and cry about it.😉

The real issue in America isn't that we lack things—like bike lanes—it's that the laws exist but nobody actually enforces them. You see a cop cruise right past a car parked halfway on a green strip and half on a bike lane without pulling them over. It shouldn't matter if it's traffic enforcement or not.
On the flip side, cyclists need to step up too. You can't have someone pedaling down a busy street at 9 PM without any lights, just staring at their phone.(Saw that happen yesterday).

And then you'll hear someone claim they weren't visible! 😂

Zachary Wilson30 said:In Columbus, they carry lights on their bikes. Harder to dodge those guys, sure, but drivers, motorcyclists, or pedestrians aren't the real threat here.😁

You think they have the same gear we use when we're putting in the miles? They should be tested!

Kevin Rivera41 said:Either way, hit me up once you land. I’m genuinely curious to hear how the whole thing went down. 🙂

There are plenty of cheap cameras out there that shoot in Full HD nowadays. Maybe something from Toshiba Amillo or similar. We could just have someone set one up for him. Even if everything goes south, a memory card should be tough enough to survive a crash. Think of it as a "black box"—only this one would actually be black. That way, if we have to locate the "vehicle" after the worst happens, we’ll at least have a record of what happened and how. At least then he can say he died for science.
If he ends up in pieces... well, fine. For all that effort and the constant fear, he might as well get to keep the "black box."

jadehound5 said:I'm with you on that—weight is everything. 👍
But where am I supposed to find all this stuff? I have zero clue where to pick up Carbon or magnesium specifically for modeling purposes. 🤷 😕 If you have a lead, let me know.
So, the plan is a V-shaped frame for the kite. Classic.
And obviously, the frame needs fabric, which is another thing I'll need to track down... 🙄

Later, I'll just run the math on the lift capacity per square meter of fabric.
I need enough coverage for about 80kg. (My bicycle [10kg] + me [60kg🙂] + whatever payload we talked about, like a backpack [5-10kg]—maybe more if the pack gets heavy! 😂))

Alright, that's the gist. Time to build it.

You can't just buy Carbon off the shelf; sure, you can, but it's pointless because carbon fiber is custom-molded in specialized shops. You might be better off going primitive (and heavier). Maybe an aluminum skeleton reinforced with fiberglass!

Should work. As for the fabric, most options suck. You’d need a high-strength nylon that stays thin enough to keep the mass down.

Here is some info on lift (check the aerodynamics section further down; fluids are higher up). We can dive into that once we decide whether to actually build the bicycle submarine (or sub, doesn't have to stay in the ocean).

jadehound5 said:I’ve read some Alan Ford myself. Solid stories.
Mostly, yeah. It’s just like an airplane propeller, only mounted horizontally on the back of the bicycle.
The wings definitely need more surface area. I’m with you there. If the bike itself is sitting around 18 lbs and then you factor in the weight of the wing structure... would we be looking at a 2.5-meter span per side? That puts the total wingspan at about 5 meters. 😁

My bicycle weighs in at 32 pounds. I’m about 187, so we’re looking at a total package of roughly 220. That doesn't even account for the frame itself or extra gear like a backpack. Maybe ten meters would cut it, provided the wingspan stretched across the entire bike—maybe even wider. To get off the ground, you'd need a high-flow propeller, probably at least five feet in diameter with three blades, spinning fast enough to lift and then transition into a glider effect. You'd be looking at a full Carbon frame, Carbon components, and everything else made of titanium or magnesium just to stand a chance.

Hmm. If you design the propeller like a helicopter, there’s zero room left for wings. If you go the airplane route, you need enough velocity to generate lift under those wings, otherwise, the whole concept of flight falls apart. Plus, the wing would have to be massive just to keep the bicycle airborne at low speeds—otherwise, you’re looking at a freefall scenario. And gravity doesn't play around. The extra weight from the build would be a killer; you'd need retractable wings just to make it work. Sure, anything is theoretically possible, but it wouldn't hold up in reality. As far as I know, only one inventor in New York has even come close to pulling this off, and even then, it was only partial success. I think his name is Griffin.

Look, I don't know how much I actually messed up the setup, but if you end up getting that front shifter, then the rear gear count won't even matter—even if you managed to squeeze 14 speeds out of there instead of just 7. Just grab it. If it works perfectly, great. If it doesn't, at least you gave it a shot.

So you're reading the Bible? Not a bad habit. I’ve gone through it twice myself. Honestly though, from my experience, just looking for answers there hasn't really yielded much for me yet—you type in a search and things pop up, sure, but it's not always what you're after. I am a believer, though. I still make it to church.

Take advantage of the situation. He’s had his fun, getting what he wanted whenever the mood struck, but now that you're about to graduate college, he's suddenly terrified of commitment. It looks like he just wanted a casual fling all along. Call me cynical, but that's how it plays out. Some guys say "I love you" when they really just mean "I want to hook up."

Donna Wood52 said:Look, I’m just not photogenic. So what if I’m being dishonest about it? It's not a crime.

And besides—what are you actually going to do with a photo of me? Develop a sudden distaste for my existence or something? 😁
I certainly am not about to dump my personal info and a picture of my face right here in front of everyone. If you're so eager to see it, why don't you go ahead and post yours first? ☕

I’ve thought about doing it plenty of times, but not yet. When I finally post a photo, I’ll be 100% naked—just strategically covered by some props, obviously. Send me a DM! I promise I'll delete the message immediately and won't even save the file.
Photogenic? Who actually is? Heidi, Claudia...

Donna Wood52 said:I have a boyfriend, sure, but I don't feel a thing for him. My actual obsession is doctors—they're the only ones who tell me I'm hot
and they never insult me. One of them actually told me I have beautiful, thick black hair and a great ass. 🙂

Then dump the guy and find yourself a doctor. Why stay with someone you feel nothing for? It's a dead end. Go ahead, post a photo so we can give you an honest rating!

Since I haven’t managed to pick up a girl since yesterday, why don't you just hook me up with her number? Honestly, I don't care if I have nothing to brag about.

What makes you think you've got nothing going for you? You think you don't look good? Why? Everyone has something worth something; you just have to dig deep enough to find it. Besides, if I recall correctly, you said you're doing fine financially—that's one less thing to worry about. You even have a boyfriend; clearly, there's something about you he loves.