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AntonioGG

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Everything posted by AntonioGG

  1. Did you see any cool EVs? 😄 seriously, thanks for the report! It’s on my list of places to visit but I’ll probably avoid crowds…and you know who, please don’t litter this thread with that stuff. I just made myself laugh, hope others got a good chuckle too.
  2. @Pimpjuice Cheaper than what I have listed.
  3. I own stock on green tech of a bunch of different types and it's done well by me but not Tesla. My wife has 10 shares TSLA remaining (and we did very well buying/selling with the huge swings). BTW, though PEC makes it an easy no-deal on on-site solar for me, they have a community solar program you can buy into. I have that, and I try to charge our cars during the day mainly. I personally hate Tesla the company, and I hate a lot of things about my car (I wanted zero luxury, all go like my MS3, manual seats, no power hatch, no heated wheel/seats, etc., no buttons, no hatchback, etc.) My wife's IDF4 is actually pretty nice in a lot of respects. We'll see how it does long term. My son's Leaf is a hard to beat car for city driving. One cool thing about Nissan is their packs are in sets of 8-cells, so if you get a bad cell, the dealer can replace the 8-pack and not the battery pack. But really the power/drivetrains on EVs have proven very reliable in all sorts of platforms, just like on some hybrids. Several people here at work love their Chevy Volt (series-electric plug-in hybrid). Sad they stopped making them b/c that was on my list. I considered the Bolt but there's a reason those are dirt cheap for very new cars. They're strictly a city vehicle. I really wanted a PVHEV Maverick. That would have been perfect, and I told the dealer if they tell me they're making one in the next year (before my MS3 died) I'd buy one. The F150 as a full houase battery back-up was super attractive, until I found out the system to make this happen would be $18k, and then you'd have to sign up for some Ford BS subscription. F that. Your worry about repair expense as a consideration is valid, but sometimes the most expensive repairs may be b/c the repairs are rare. Back in the mid90's, my ex was convinced to buy a 1991 4-cyl Mustang b/c the parts were cheaper for it instead of a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. Wanna guess how much trouble that 'stang was? It sucked. EVERY-F%#ING-SENSOR.... My 1996 Acura Integra GSR was passed onto its next driver at 106k miles with the only failure being the plastic radiator tank at >90k miles. The AC still had the original charge on it (good ol' Nippon Denso stuff!). The engine still purred and loved to hit 7800 on the regular. You're 100% right in looking at Toyota for reliability btw. My logical car choice would have been a Prius PHEV...but I'm a self-respecting car guy 🙂 I watch Real Engineering too especially now that it's on Nebula with Berm Peak and Practical Engineering as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gCXv0XTOi0&list=PL2ir4svMoaYj48N0VWoic25P9LaU2wlbA&index=23
  4. Oh, one more thing. Being green and keeping things for a while sometimes goes against financial or life best interests. I tracked my MS3’s expenses throughout its 15 years with me. All repairs, maintenance, gas, fluids, etc. most big repairs done by me. I averaged $300 a month for the life of it including interest (low interest paid off in 2.5 years) opportunity cost, etc for something that I drove 8k miles a year or so on average and mostly sat around for 23.5 hours per day. Incidentally, what broke me—from the car repair enthusiast perspective—as changing the clutch on that car: turbo FWD with big transaxle and specialized components with no lift…it was a 2 weekend nightmare. The $1700 quote sounded pretty good when I was in the middle of it.
  5. @ATXZJ 100% agree The greenest car there is, is the one you didn’t buy…I bought my EV when my 15yo Mazdaspeed3 (loved that car!) started having major issues. At the time it just so happened Tesla was shipping cars and not bending you over like Ford and Toyota were doing. I was also sick of ICE and their problems. As an engineer, I know reliability is increased when I reduce the number of parts. Also, I’m still a car guy and one hit of dual motor crack pipe and it’s impossible to go back to anything else. Call that my selfish treat when I try to sacrifice in a lot of other areas. I am not trading this car in 3 years. I’m in it for the long run just like all my previous cars. Similarly to cars, the greenest human is the one that wasn’t born. No arguing the greenest car for the average Texan is a PHEV. For other places (geo or hydro) it’s an EV. A gas F150 is greener than a Hummer EV. You are halfway there in finding facts. Keep digging and crunch the numbers yourself don’t just believe your sources. For example I agree with you for me with PEC it doesn’t make sense to buy my own solar panels, but that’s because the system is rigged. They pay at 5.3 cents/kWh while I buy at 9.3 and they pay me the same 5.3 cents even if they are buying from dirty carbon peaker plants at $1500/kWh. In Texas solar would make a lot of sense in the summer because it’s locally generated and locally used and reduces peak demand from dirty coal plants. It’s also not necessary to worry about storage either because most people will be using more than hey produce when it is more needed. I have had thoughts to run for the PEC board to change this rigged system. It would make much more sense to encourage distributed solar and buying at 9.3c/kWh You’re a car guy so you must know the Engineering Explained channel. He has a lot of factual content with whiteboard calculations. I encourage you to watch his videos on all kinds of automotive subjects. As to the earth’s climate cycles and regurgitation of George Carlin’s “the earth will shake us off like a bunch of fleas” yeah fine but global climate destabilization and the push to fight the tipping point is about saving humans not the earth in a geologic scale. to bring this thread back on point, e-bikes are good. I am definitely considering one for commuting.
  6. You guys are silly arguing over whose industry has a better/worse record of pollution. All industry is horrible. Nuclear has a bad history too (Uranium tailings superfund site in Moab leaching into the CO river for example, all the nasty mines with colorful pools around Leadville and surrounding areas, etc.) but any mining (for any metal), any extraction, and any production has horrible records period. Plastic industry uses oil AND produces tons of waste. Electronics industry also produces tons of waste. Humans are the worst though. Individually we suck for our own convenience. As far as EVs being practical, our family has 3 (different vendors), and we share a single level 2 charger with no issues. We have also done long trips (I'd only pick 1 of the 3 for long trips, maybe 2). I've had it add 1hr per 500 miles, and that's if I compare to my youthful self cannonball style minimal stops (fuel stops = bathroom stops = snack stops (diet coke and snickers, minimizing fluid and food intake). The real life is that with a wife and a dog and/or kids, you are stopping way more often than the 400miles most fuel tanks will give you. The Huracan is a bad example btw, with 21.1 gallon tank 18mpg EPA legal speeds (forget it if you're going cannonball speeds). Using ABRP I calculate 50.5 hours NYC to LA for the EV including stops. The Huracan will take 42 hours at legal speeds + 8 fuel stops (calculating 1.1 gallon reserve so real 20gal capacity which is generous...) at 10min each (per your numbers) for 43.33 hours. So over 2800 miles the EV adds 7 hours in cannonball mode. for 2800 miles and essentially 2 days driving Our driving is 95% city, so it seems silly to burden my choice of cars with something that may happen 5 times a year (for myself, those that are doing the van life or the traveling life of course will need fuel vehicles). Did you know that the most efficient/quick method of long travel on an EV requires short and frequent stops to get the highest rate of charge (up to 1400mi/hr). Most non/anti-EV people think you must completely discharge the battery then fully charge it to continue. The last 20% of charge takes too long, so you end to operate 20-80% which is fairly fast charging. Micro-fusion reactors may be the interim answer if we can solve the mining and disposal issue. Fussion would be the ultimate answer.
  7. Good for Flat Rock!
  8. We need to find the right Jazz for you! (I took jazz appreciation in college b/c rock appreciation was full (meets fine arts requirements for engineering LOL!).
  9. I hate the automatic ones at the dr office, especially the wrist ones. Get a basic pressure cuff (make sure the cuff is the right size for you...I've never seen anyone switch out the cuffs for different size people/arms. Get a basic stethoscope. Getting something nicer means better comfort. Some are downright painful for your ears. Measure same time of day in same conditions (i.e. after you drink your morning water/meds, before coffee, etc.) Best if someone else does it but I've taken my own BP. Cuff on your bicep at heart level, arm, shoulder, hand relaxed. With the slow heartbeat of athletic people, slower pressure release will give you more accuracy in detecting the Korotkoff sounds.
  10. Head to the side. I’m a stomach sleeper too.
  11. Those bikes are all over the place here and they use bike paths, but it doesn't bother me. It's one less car on the road and I don't think any of those people would pedal anyway. Same with people using golf carts in my hood to pick-up their kids from school. It's an EV and takes up less room, weighs less, and doesn't hit as hard as a 6000lbs suburban.
  12. https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/cedar-choppers-once-ruled-texas-hill-country/ I made quick work of the 3-body problem series. I loved it. I'm on the 4th book of the Hyperion series which is also very good.
  13. You would have thought Cowboys fans had drank it all to drown their sorrows.
  14. Yes, It will be interesting to see how much tech they leave for that race. I don't think anything is worse than anything at Pace Bend IMO.
  15. I believe the day pass is $15. Yes I saw a bunch of stuff that led me to believe you had to buy $20 annual + $15 day pass but that’s definitely not right.
  16. I'm now a 2024 member of the Abilene bike club. It's only $15 more than a single day fee. This is on public land but it's administered by the club, and the bike shop Bike Town graciously handle the applications, fees, and such. The trail is fun. I did just under 14 miles riding everything. It has a 3 mile beginner loop (windy on flat ground) which is a good warm-up. The 2nd 3 miles are maybe a bit more advanced but still tame with a little more fun stuff. The rest of it has very techy rock gardens, climbs and descents. I was running on 4 hours of sleep and 4 hours driving, so the punchy stuff really took a lot out of me, and toward the end I played it safe and walked some of the stuff. Probably not worth a trip, but it's on the way to Palo Duro and right off I-20 if you're heading in other directions. No bathrooms or water at the trailhead, but an awning, smoker/grill and picnic tables. The bike shop is across town unfortunately but it is Abilene so it's not too bad. They have a filtered bottle filler there.
  17. We have a college visit and was thinking of taking my bike. Any comments/tips are welcome.
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