Check it before you wax/rewax not because it changes measurement but you could have do it for nothing.
I use some drip on wax and only positive is clean components not some longevity of chain and other parts.
If you want to reuse it - look if it is plated scrape it with knife if if it reveals another layer of metal.
It looks like it is chrome plated material-copper-nickel-chrome and you scrubbed first 2 layers.
It looks nice, but second hand device with technology that is only few generations old. I would only now consider buying it new.
There are few, but I have to admit that the rail line is like island in the see of fields.
And some argue that there aren't any "natural" environment left after 1000 years of human activity here. (Even researchers say that very few places that wasn't touched are left)
When you look at the snake picture, you can clearly see the rocky railway embankment which attracts all kinds of lizards and snakes.
I never saw more snakes on single road then on these ones.
What you describe is world wide problem.
We don't have much black people here (it is more curiosity than "the shit" you refer to) but there are some other groups like Roma people and recently Ukrainians, that gets to be the political punch bag.
And yes I know some people from these groups. I am pretty open minded and I see homelessness, excluded communities and stuff like that mostly as social or information problem.
Main issue for me would be hitting them, I had few close calls recently.
They apparently love the hot stones along the road so I saw them several times there. But seeing one stretched nearly the whole width of the road was unexpected.
We have 5 species of snakes 1 is poisonous but nothing dangerous. This one is probably what I saw totally harmless but can be up to 140 cm long.
I don't like to kill anything with my bike even slugs which are everywhere after rain are PITA to clean from frame and tires.
Yeah I have an option to park it inside my workplace. So it is big plus that I don't have to worry about it most of the time.
My first thought was that it is a stick, but then I saw that it's moving.
Niche of political points.
It is mainly "we can do it too" project now. There are lots of subcontractors, jobs and research put in to it but it won't be price competitive any time soon. It is similar to SLS programe.
I absolutely think that it is possible to build solid bike at that price point. Unfortunately all I see here are bikes that use really cheap parts so anything usable starts at 500€.
I can get really nice second hand bike from bike shop near me at this price you can get usable bike under 100€ maybe even 50€. He goes through everything, repairs it and sell them.
Like 190€ new? I see the garbage that is sold at this price new and don't see any point in these bikes.
On the other hand second hand bikes at this price point are pretty solid (if you know where to look for them).
Edit: like sold here
Just a rundown what is wrong on it:
If you want to know how the trip went look in to [email protected]
So few weeks ago my friend told me that he and 2 of his friends are planning trip to Slovenia. I was interested because I could get week off and ride with them.
Then I learned more about the trip, these guys didn't know what are they doing- first they planned to go there and back in a week ~170 km / day (I told them that it isn't possible), then they planned to take some trains along the route (they didn't checked if they take bikes...). Then I just told them that they are doing it for the first time so don't complicate it - start from home and see where you can go and adjust the route on the road.
So we started from Brno with plan to get to Břeclav, join EV13 and ride south to Hungary border and then go west to Graz.
At the start I saw for the first time all our bikes - my bike on which I have ~6000km, my friend with borrowed older mountain bike properly maintained, one pretty new mountain bike but small 26' wheels (the guy is taller than me) without rack so he had backpack, short guy with 29' new mountain bike and guy who "planned" this trip on really old road bike with flat bars (standard frame from 80's that was made in all sorts of bikes).
They didn't have some gear and reserve inner tubes... so first stop was local decathlon.
I planned the route for the first day so we had all possible terrain, good thing I did that because the old 80's bike got bent back wheel, I was like ok fortunately I have tool for centering wheels on my multitool but unfortunately I never done it. I was able to get it to not touch the frame (yes it was that bad) but discovered that the bike was in worse shape than I anticipated - bent rear V brake, totally cooked drive train, bad wheels...
So for the second time we scratch route and wanted to go to Bratislava. We started the second day on Austrian side of EV 13 and we intended to take ferry half way to Slovakian side of Morava river. Unfortunately because high winds and higher levels of water ferry didn't operate.
Scratched route again, we ended up on campsite in Petronell-Carnuntum. But before we get there we had to center the wheel again. At the time I was little bit pissed and I didn't wanted to ride somewhere where isn't train connection so he can get home if the bike falls apart. We agreed to go to Vienna and see where to go from there.
At the campsite there was French family with 4 kids bike touring. I chatted with them and they started in France 2 months ago and will probably end in Budapest.
On the third day everything was without a hiccup, we got to Vienna, pitched tents and got to look around there. The guy with 29' mountain bike which was too big for him went home because of back pain (surprise!). And I snatched this pick of the camp area (it is bad but you can clearly see that nearly every tent has bike next to it).
Some of us wanted to go home early so from week trip it became 4 day trip. We get on EV 9 back to Břeclav.
I took some photos for eco minded people:
And some for the the petrol heads:
5 km before Břeclav I fell, I will be all right but I will have to find somewhere these condoms to repair my leavers.
All in all I would categorize this trip as a experience, not bad. I was able to test some gear, new bags that I bought because I have borrowed ones and my friend needed them back, that it is possible to use alcohol stove...
This "sauna" weather isn't the best for bikepacking, I had to take breaks pretty often. There is cherry season so you always find "reason" to stop for some "snack".
More context here: https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/112599667433388378
Just little off topic, but I had to look in to it few months ago and there are bunch of shitty resellers that sell individual codes.
It looks like good deal but when you need to put it on more than 10 unique products then it is better to register as manufacturer. The basic tear is ~40€/year and you can create 5000 codes.
And yes at least in EU they are managed by one company that then allocate them to countrys.
Edit: I refer to EAN specifically, shops usually requires them.