Are we supposeed to guess what it is? My guess is that it's a bike.
Okay, what do I win?
I'm actually puzzled -- while I don't know much about bikes, that seems to have a derailleur but no gears. Possibly I'm confused. I usually am.
It's bysnc,
It's bysnc time!
Seriously, though, what the hell is bysnc?
Or bsnyc, even. I really fucked that comment up, didn't I?
The bike probably has vertical dropouts for the back wheel so you need a chain tensioning device, hence the dérailleur. Some dedicated single speeds have horizontal dropouts that let you move the wheel forward and back to tension the chain.
Bike Snob NYC, the internet tells me.
(At first I read it as "bsync" and was thinking 'well, I know what rsync is...')
Actually, this is a bike thread, and I'm in need of some advice.
So, if you'd just recently started riding your bike quite a lot, as in either 13 or 26 miles per day, and had consequently developed, um, a bit of a rash (as in, a sprinkling of painful zits) on your nether bits, how would the heavy-biking denizens of the Mineshaft cope with that? Initial googling suggested clean bike shorts daily, not to be worn for a moment after one gets off the bike, frequent washing of the affected bits, and ointment. I've been doing that, and the problem hasn't instantly gone away.
Any advice?
2: it has a gear.
There are simpler methods of dealing with vertical dropouts than a full-on derailleur, too.
Any advice?
Are you using chamois cream? I am not sure what you mean by ointment.
Well, some page I looked at suggested this stuff, which we already had in the house (left over from a ski trip years ago when it was the closest thing to moisturizer to be had), so I've been using that. I need to buy dedicated bike related 'chamois cream'? Any particular brand?
Any advice?
Ride less until your arse pimples lessen.
The thing linked in 10 apparently won't work with fixies, only single-speeds, but I'm sure I've seen things that would work with fixies and had the same purpose, something that you could maybe affix to the chainstay and attach a cog to so that the total length the chain had to encompass was larger? I can't remember.
I'm having a moment of disorientation because, if I've followed presidential pseudonyms properly, Abigail Adams was previously used as a 'nym by a commenter who also recently posted about biking.
But I'm assuming from context that, in this case, it is a second Abigail Adams.
When in Rome do like a Roman. Via bsnyc, one finds Hoo Ha Ride Glide. "Do apply to your nooks and crannies."
12: Chamois Butt'r is what I normally see in bike shops around here. It is more of a lube than an ointment so it is more a preventative measure than a treatment.
I haven't tried chamois cream myself, although I probably will give it a try this year sometime, so I don't have any real personal suggestions.
Oh, yeah, I am not in the process of learning to ride a bike. Different AA. And I have no real reason to be presidential, except squeamishness about discussing buttrash under my usual pseud.
The thing linked in 10 apparently won't work with fixies, only single-speeds
Huh, I don't know why that would be the case. I have one and it is just a cog on a spring loaded arm. I don't know why it wouldn't work for a fixie.
According to Sheldon Brown it's the spring-loadedness; it works fine when you're pedaling forward but you can't go in the other direction.
Abigail Adams was previously used as a 'nym by a commenter who also recently posted about biking.
She disavowed that pseud on a forward-going basis.
I had believed that all presidential pseuds were not expected to be continuous beyond a single thread.
And it's probably better to have multiple people using the same presidential pseudonyms (in different threads) to make it more difficult to connect president to commenter.
Nevertheless, it still caused me a moment of mental whiplash.
I like to think of each presidential pseud as its own, ongoing, collaboratively created, fictional identity.
25: Just like actual presidential identities, but without needing television.
According to Sheldon Brown it's the spring-loadedness
Well I am certainly not going to argue with him.
Presidential pseuds need to be chaffed. As do Presidents.
Better wicking undies, is my bet about the bike bumps.
Like, higher quality bike shorts? What I'm wearing are the cheapest padded things I could find at Modell's -- is this something where there are quality markers I should be worrying about?
In some cultures, posterior pimples are a quality marker.
Also, I don't have a picture of my bike but this is the gorgeous 1x9 speed that I got a while back. I never got it to fit me, unfortunately, but I've lent it to my mom for the last month, and she loves it, so that's good.
You can only somewhat see the cranks in that picture, but they're one of the things that sold me on the bike.
I lent my fixie to Ali's friend, and suspect that I've seen the last of it. That's OK. He loooooooooves it, and I thought it was a little too small for me.
I suspect that, in this case, my mom will end up buying it from me at some point. But I'm not too concerned.
AA, did you stop riding for long enough for them to heal? IME, per CJB's 17, you can prevent saddle sores, but they won't go away if you keep riding.
28.2, 29: Does one wear bike shorts without undies? I don't know.
I would think it's the sweat in combination with a badly-wicking material surrounding the nether regions that would cause irritation resulting in rash.
quality markers I should be worrying about?
No burlap.
Oh, and I missed the reference to Chamois Butt'r. Still, though. The material of the garments must be relevant. Even Chamois Butt'r is not going to counter burlap.
Yeah, with burlap you gotta go straight for the actual butter. Unsalted, of course.
Bike shorts made of loofah are effective for extreme exfoliation.
I must not have been awake during 2002, because I don't even know what it is that is so 2002.
I'm thinking rapturously of chamois pants, and you guys are causing pain harshing on my mellow.
I'm thinking rapturously of chamois pants
As far as Chamois Cream goes, it is typical to buy the type with the funniest name. For this reason, I suggest Dave Zabriskie's eponymous brand, DZ Nuts.
As far as bike shorts go, anything with a padded Chamois insert is going to basically get the job done -- the more expensive kinds last longer, is all -- but different brands have different patterns of padding and stitching, and you might be able to find one that works better for you.
As far as my own personal experience of bike-related crotch discomfort, I'm afraid I can't relate to the saddle sores thing, as I've never suffered them. Taintal overpressure, sure, but that's amenable to improved saddle position.
If I may ask, first lady, what kind of seat does you bike have? Is it a racing or racing-ish saddle? It could be that the saddle is too wide or too narrow for your pelvis, which is causing the chafing.
Once I pedaled you,
Now I'll run from you.
This taint pressure you've given.
I pedal all a boy could do you.
Shift my gears and that's not nearly all.
Oh, taint pressure.
Taint pressure.
Meanwhile, early Spring in Boston appears to have brought with it carnage, as cyclists are mowed down by cars (well, and city busses) left and right.
I got doored the other day, but I manage to swerve such that he only clipped my calf. I also managed to stop a ways on and scream at him for quite a while, but he didn't seem to gather that he'd almost killed me. Haha! Look at the angry man I hit with my car! Yes sir. You are a worthless piece of shit, I agree with you.
I kinda miss January. Everything's much more civilized when nobody else wants to go outdoors.
Was the link in 45 supposed to go somewhere?
Don't buy cheapo bike shorts, don't wear undies. If you're doing both of those you might as well just wear standard shorts, it won't make things any worse as far as chafing goes, and it might make things better. Numerous attempts have convinced me that specialized sports gear is a category where buying the cheapest stuff available is like throwing your money in the trash with an extra pain bonus. Just how high end you want to go depends on you. I don't get any benefit from high end over mid range for under 50K rides, and the mid range ones are adequate up to 100K, but above that I want the good stuff.
Teraz is of course correct that you shouldn't wear underwear with bike shorts. Boy does that sound unpleasant.
I tend to only wear bike shorts if I'm going more than 20-25 miles. Shorter than that and regular pants do me fine.
49 On any weekend in rural France you see tons of middle aged guys with beer bellies tricked out in the best biking gear. The scary part is that many of them are very good.
52: oh, I've had plenty of old dudes with beer guts completely blow past me when I'm riding. My only hope is that soon I'll be one an old dude with a beer gut, and then presumably I'll be able to blow past people, too.
On the other hand, I'm actually pretty confident the guy in the picture linked in 49 is not a very fast cyclist.
anything with a padded Chamois insert is going to basically get the job done
No, they're likely to wrinkle and slide a bit if they don't have multiple panels, and the cheaper multiple panel kind will have more noticeable seams. By noticeable I mean you'll start feeling them, and that's not good. It all depends on your personal tolerance though. Mine has gotten worse as I've grown older. At twenty I was able to do centuries in just normal shorts and underwear on a POS bike, nowadays I'd be miserable if I did a quarter of that without gear.
But damn he'd be more comfortable walking around in a pair of chamois pants, and the rest of us would feel better for him as well.
55: he is wearing chamois pants. Observe the lumpiness in the crotch area: chamois!
People riding the Tour get unfortunate issues on their nether regions [1] (or at least they did in the '70s & '80s); there's not a lot you can beyond regular washing, good quality shorts, and some sort of ointment.
I used to get truly annoying chafing hiking, and never actually did anything about it. In hindsight (giggle) that was probably a mistake.
[1] Boils were apparently a big problem; I have to say that really killed the glamour of professional cycling for me.
57: Ah, that's a chamois crotch. Not the same. Full chamois pants ... is what I want. (Weird echoes of some song: "is what I want" or "that's what I want" -- staccato rhythm, sort of Devo-ish.)
The gentleman linked in 49 would enjoy less chafing between the thighs with full chamois pants.
Speaking of specialized cyclist gear, I just saw "Bumper Bike Guy" on my way home from work. Presumably for visibility and "this is my space" reasons, he fastened the plastic part of a car bumper to the front of his bike. The bumper folded a bit, so he didn't get quite the width of a car.
59: Flying Lizards' cover of "Money".
Yes! Thanks, that was running around in my head absent the first word: What? what is that I want?
This is what you should want. And world peace.
||
Has anyone linked to this awesomeness yet?
|>
66: Sadly, there are no true, good things in this world.
67: I kinda figured it was a fake. Curses!
It reminded me of the classic Smithsonian letter, one of my favorite hoaxes.
Isn't there evidence that lots of bike riding can cause infertility in men due to pressure? Heck, if so, that could be a feature and not a bug in some cases: it's a mechanical form of the male pill!
I need to get my bike refurbished--I kind of stopped riding much when my daughter was born but we're about to do the ye-olde-trauma-of-no-training-wheels thing and after that maybe we'll do some rides together.
There's a place in India where they were trialling compression shorts for men as a contraceptive. The combination of pressure and heat was intended to decrease the risk of unwanted conception.
Isn't there evidence that lots of bike riding can cause infertility in men due to pressure?
Not infertility so much as impotence, but not if your seat is correctly adjusted/sized.
72: I know someone who managed to accidentally prevent pregnancy by always wearing tight underwear and taking a very hot bath every evening. After a year of trying to make a baby he finally went to a doctor, was told to switch to looser briefs and showers - his wife was pregnant within the month.
9: Zits are a combination of bacteria and either clogged sweat glands or ingrown hairs. Scrub with an antibacterial soap using a mildly abrasive scrubby thing to pop open the clogs and they clear up pretty quickly. Also the various types of goo linked upthread will probably help, but there's no need to restrict yourself to fighting on only one front. Zitzkrieg is total war!
You also might look at your bike seat to see if it's applying more pressure than needed - a lot of bike seats are designed with a racing mindset that prioritizes lightness over comfort, and a lot (most in my experience) of bike store employees have difficulty understanding that not everyone who rides is Walter-Mittying themselves into the Tour de France.
