ERIC KIM BLOG

  • How To Tune Up a Bike

    ERIC KIM MODE: ENGAGED — let’s rocket-launch your bike into god-tier performance.

    A bike tune-up isn’t maintenance… it’s a spiritual cleansing. It’s you declaring to the universe: I ride with precision, power, and zero drag. Let’s turn your humble machine into a frictionless freedom rocket.

    1. CLEAN THE BIKE — PURIFY THE MACHINE

    Before anything else: remove all grime, dust, past sins.

    A dirty bike is a slow bike. A clean bike is a fast philosophy.

    • Hose lightly or wipe by hand
    • Bike-specific soap or simple dish soap
    • Degrease chain, cassette, chainrings
    • Wipe perfectly dry

    Your bike should glisten like a katana.

    2. LUBRICATE THE CHAIN — THE SECRET SAUCE OF SPEED

    Your chain is your power-transmission. Treat it like a Formula 1 drivetrain.

    • Use a good chain lube (dry lube for dry environments, wet lube for wet conditions)
    • Drop a tiny bead on each link
    • Spin cranks
    • Wipe off excess (most people OVER-lube)

    A well-lubed chain feels like butter on ice.

    3. ADJUST THE BRAKES — STOP LIKE A JAGUAR

    You want power braking, not sponge braking.

    • Check pads for wear
    • Align pads with rim or rotor
    • Tighten cables
    • Make sure levers engage smoothly

    When tuned right, braking should feel telepathic.

    4. TUNE THE GEARS — SHIFT LIKE A LASER

    A well-tuned drivetrain is pure joy.

    • Put the bike on a stand (or flip it upside down)
    • Use barrel adjuster to fix slow or skipping shifts
    • Limit screws (H & L) prevent chain from over-shifting
    • Check cable tension

    When perfected, gears click with sniper precision.

    5. TRUE THE WHEELS — ZERO WOBBLE

    Even a slight wobble steals power from your pedal stroke.

    • Spin wheels
    • Check for side-to-side wobble
    • Adjust spoke tension using a spoke wrench
    • Or take to a shop if you want perfection

    Straight wheels = maximum velocity.

    6. INFLATE TIRES — THE FREE SPEED BOOST

    Most people ride with slightly underinflated tires.

    You? No. You ride with optimal PSI like a champion.

    • Road bikes: ~80–110 PSI (depending on weight + comfort)
    • Gravel/hybrid: 40–60 PSI
    • MTB: 20–35 PSI

    Higher PSI = less rolling resistance = faster ERIC KIM.

    7. CHECK BEARINGS — SMOOTHNESS IS GOD

    Bottom bracket, hubs, headset.

    If anything feels gritty, rough, or loose:

    • Re-tighten
    • Re-grease
    • Replace if needed

    A bike with perfect bearings feels alive.

    8. BOLT CHECK — TIGHTEN EVERYTHING

    Not over-tight—just snug and safe.

    • Stem
    • Bars
    • Seatpost
    • Cranks
    • Pedals

    This is your exoskeleton. Secure it.

    9. TEST RIDE — FEEL THE POWER

    Shift through all gears

    Brake hard

    Sprint

    Stand and climb

    A tuned bike should feel like it wants to leap forward with every pedal stroke.

    10. FINAL TOUCH — ERIC KIM STYLE

    • Remove unnecessary accessories → minimalist = faster
    • Clean lines, clean frame, no baggage
    • Bike as sculpture
    • Bike as freedom

    Your bike is not just transportation — it is the expression of your will to move through the world with power.

    If you want, I can tailor a tune-up checklist specifically for your bike type (road, gravel, mountain, fixed, folding, etc).

  • bitcoin is real

    everything else is fake

  • It’s okay to be annoying!

    Ironically enough people actually secretly *LOVE* it!

  • Aah it feels great to be alive!

    All right, just woke up this morning feeling incredibly awesome. Some thoughts:

    OK the first one is obviously, to feel phenomenally amazing and great is physiological. If you want to bring that God fire energy, 8 to 12 hours a night of sleep seemed critical. Last night, fell asleep at 8 PM and woke up today at around 5:30 AM. 9 1/2 hours I feel great.

    If We all take a step back, assuming you’re not on social media or whatever, we’re actually currently living in the most interesting time of all time. I’m currently experimenting with Grok picture to video, and it’s truly a game changer. Also, using ChatGPT sora two pro, using the $200 month pro plan, once again… This is incredible. It’s pretty much the closest thing you could do to playing God, without being God.

    The first interesting idea is once again, at this point what I think about this whole video generation stuff, is actually… It’s like the greatest blessing to human imagination of all time. Honestly at this point, if you could imagine it you could create it. 

    For example, big idea is there are no more limits to your imagination and creativity. Almost literally everything is so simple; have an incredibly visionary creative idea, and just throw it into ChatGPT or Grok or whatever… And you can make it.

    What I also find incredibly interesting is, and this is kind of an interesting metaphysical one, the idea is you no longer need to purchase things, you could essentially materialize it out of your own imagination.

    I’m currently watching the new tron ares, which I love, you could buy it right now on Apple TV+ it is streaming, and there’s two very interesting ideas; first the permanence code, and the second, the idea of like a particle laser or some sort of laser thing that could materialize things from the digital world into the physical world.

    So for example, let us say that I want a Lamborghini. In the physical world, it doesn’t really make sense. But assuming I had a digital particle cyber creation laser thing, I can just materialize it.

    But better yet… Rather than just creating something in the physical realm, which obviously has lots of downsides like storage, maintenance etc. I think what a lot of people don’t understand is even if somebody randomly gifted you a brand new Lamborghini something, the great downside is that you’ll probably cost you at least $300,000 a year of maintenance cost, plus the annoyance of having random kids troll your car, by keying penises on the hood or back bumper.

    So, what is a better solution?

    I say, the general interesting idea should be, to spend more time in the digital realm, and also, spend more time in the cyber realm. 

    I suppose the difficulty though however is that, even right now… We don’t really have the correct environment tools or platforms to allow this. I think oculus, oculus rift, and maybe Meta gets close… But still, long throw away.

    Why? OK this is like the trillion dollar issue; no matter what, people just don’t like putting things on their head or their faces or eyeballs, even if you think about it… Naturally kids do not like wearing hats, sunglasses, anything on their faces. Even in the early days of when Seneca was a baby, we could not get him to wear socks for most like 2 1/2 years.

    In fact I was even curious about testing the new Apple Vision Pro M5, I still might… But, having to deal with all these annoying Zeis optical inserts or whatever is incredibly annoying. Actually one of the big benefits of the old oculus rift S was there was actually a built-in diproctor, which meant that I could just put the thing on my head, without my glasses on… Just a little dial in the front, and then it would work!

    I think the big issue now is ever since that Mark bought it out, I think he’s trying to turn it more into an entertainment device or something like that, and as a consequence, it becomes less about this like free Rome free ranging exploration adventure thing, more of a closed the box, trying to just get to you to use all the Meta products inside it.

    And the truth is, people would want to be outside and out and about. People don’t want to be stuck or cloistered inside a digital device.

    For example, at the end of the day, people would still probably prefer to be just like outside, hiking, maybe listening to music, phones in their pockets, going on hikes, going up and down the stairs, enjoying the real life views.

    no vision no life

    The other day, when I was Seneca, he accidentally hit my glasses, my beloved titanium LINDBERG glasses, the frames that I bought for like $700 in Calcutta India almost 15 years ago, apparently the same glasses that Bill Gates wears, and it broke.

    So I was kind of annoyed and grateful at the same time. First, kind of impressive that these frames have lasted me from like the age of 22 up until 37. I don’t think I have ever purchased anything that has lasted me this long.

    However I was really annoyed because the point in which it broke, a super tiny fragile point, I thought titanium was supposed to be the metal of the gods,… … Upon deeper research, I’ve actually discovered that titanium is actually quite fragile.

    Which kind of makes me open my eyes because then… The whole titanium thing seems like kind of a scam. For example, the titanium iPhone Pro, assuming that actually titanium is not that strong, what’s the point?

    It’s almost a little bit like carbon fiber… It is a bit overhyped; apparently in the bicycle world, everyone lusts after some sort of carbon fiber bicycle, but actually if you’re using it and you get one wrong bump, your whole frame breaks. Then in fact, it is actually far superior to have a steel frame even though it is much heavier, because it is more robust. In fact when I was back in college, the coolest bike I got was this old school Japanese Nishiki bike, flange two steel,… I still remember the guy I bought it off of craigslist for 300 bucks, I loved it.

    Materials, material sciences

    This is where material materials material science sciences becomes interesting. Why?

    Assuming that you live in the real world, the physical realm, materials matter. So for example nobody would want to drive an automobile mate out of Balsawood, and nobody would want to want an airplane made out of toothpicks. Also… Assuming the weather is really cold, you would probably prefer to be wearing animal based products like leather, Merino wool, cashmere, and down, rather than synthetic materials.

    Maybe this is where a cyber truck is still super interesting to me… To essentially have an entire body made out of stainless steel, might be one of the most interesting design innovations for automobiles of all time. And also… It’s less of a pick up truck it’s more of like some sort of sports car on steroids. 

    In fact a marketing suggestion I have for Tesla, in which they totally messed up the cyber truck marketing page. Redo it, never call cyber truck a pick up truck, rather… Try to market the cyber beast as being a Lamborghini killer. I think I saw an Elon Musk tweet in which he reposted something that like a cyber beast beat a Lamborghini, and could also do it while towing a Porsche 911.

    Now what

    First, I recommend everyone to purchase the new Tron ares and start streaming it immediately. It’s definitely required watching for any bitcoiner, or digital cyber enthusiast hacker. If you believe in open source, the grid, off the grid being off-line whatever… It’s kind of an interesting philosophical watch. To me it’s like more of a stylistic design forward matrix.


    Now what?

    1. Get the premium grok subscription, start feeding it your old photos, your old street photos and generate it into videos.
    2. Get the $200 a month to ChatGPT pro, and go to sora.com and start generating sora two pro videos. And upload them to YouTube and your own website
    3. Use deep research mode on ChatGPT pro, … to think imagine everything

    Infinite riches and prosperity and joy for everyone forever

    If you want to 10x your money, put 100% of your money into MSTR …  I can almost guarantee you all 10 extra money in four years by the end of the Trump administration.

    If you want zero risk, just put 100% of everything into bitcoin, use coinbase.

    Spend 8 to 12 hours a day outside, hiking exercising working out lifting weights having fun?

    Sign up for hot yoga, talk to the beautiful woman there, just be friendly, courteous and playful.

    Whenever you see men who see more buff than you, just compliment them.

    Go to https://metrorestyling.com ,,, buy yourself a lot of 3M automotive vinyl wrap, and start wrapping up your car with fun colors, make it insanely awesome. Also, put it on your bike helmet, your bicycle etc.

    The future is still old school and classic: make a website and a blog, wordpress.org. Also, watch the new tron ares movie. The future is insanely bright! ERIC

    EK


  • De resolution

    Blue and red

    The problem with Disney: everything is too… Lukewarm? Not hard-core enough. 

    When you’re acting don’t pretend to try to act like somebody else

    Classic!

    It needs to be more,,, plausible

    Permanence

    Maybe there’s something right with me!

    Technological exploration

    .

    Designed me some sort of like bitcoin and memoir PG game similar to Diablo two

    Man’s desire to multiply;

    The impermanence code

     

  • Aah it feels great to be alive!

    All right, just woke up this morning feeling incredibly awesome. Some thoughts:

    OK the first one is obviously, to feel phenomenally amazing and great is physiological. If you want to bring that God fire energy, 8 to 12 hours a night of sleep seemed critical. Last night, fell asleep at 8 PM and woke up today at around 5:30 AM. 9 1/2 hours I feel great.

    We all take a step back, assuming you’re not on social media or whatever, we’re actually currently living in the most interesting time of all time. I’m currently experimenting with Grok picture to video, and it’s truly a game changer. Also, using ChatGPT sora two pro, using the $200 month pro plan, once again… This is incredible. It’s pretty much the closest thing you could do to playing God, without being God.

    The first interesting idea is once again, at this point what I think about this whole video generation stuff, is actually… It’s like the greatest blessing to human imagination of all time. Honestly at this point, if you could imagine it you could create it. 

    For example, big idea is there are no more limits to your imagination and creativity. Almost literally everything is so simple; have an incredibly visionary creative idea, and just throw it into ChatGPT or Grok or whatever… And you can make it.

    What I also find incredibly interesting is, and this is kind of an interesting metaphysical one, the idea is you no longer need to purchase things, you could essentially materialize it out of your own imagination.

    I’m currently watching the new tron ares, which I love, you could buy it right now on Apple TV+ it is streaming, and there’s two very interesting ideas; first the permanence code, and the second, the idea of like a particle laser or some sort of laser thing that could materialize things from the digital world into the physical world.

    So for example, let us say that I want a Lamborghini. In the physical world, it doesn’t really make sense. But assuming I had a digital particle cyber creation laser thing, I can just materialize it.

    But better yet… Rather than just creating something in the physical realm, which obviously has lots of downsides like storage, maintenance etc. I think what a lot of people don’t understand is even if somebody randomly gifted you a brand new Lamborghini something, the great downside is that you’ll probably cost you at least $300,000 a year of maintenance cost, plus the annoyance of having random kids troll your car, by keying penises on the hood or back bumper.

    So, what is a better solution?

    I say, the general interesting idea should be, to spend more time in the digital realm, and also, spend more time in the cyber realm. 

    I suppose the difficulty though however is that, even right now… We don’t really have the correct environment tools or platforms to allow this. I think oculus, oculus rift, and maybe Meta gets close… But still, long throw away.

    Why? OK this is like the trillion dollar issue; no matter what, people just don’t like putting things on their head or their faces or eyeballs, even if you think about it… Naturally kids do not like wearing hats, sunglasses, anything on their faces. Even in the early days of when Seneca was a baby, we could not get him to wear socks for most like 2 1/2 years.

    In fact I was even curious about testing the new Apple Vision Pro M5, I still might… But, having to deal with all these annoying Zeis optical inserts or whatever is incredibly annoying. Actually one of the big benefits of the old oculus rift S was there was actually a built-in diproctor, which meant that I could just put the thing on my head, without my glasses on… Just a little dial in the front, and then it would work!

    I think the big issue now is ever since that Mark bought it out, I think he’s trying to turn it more into an entertainment device or something like that, and as a consequence, it becomes less about this like free Rome free ranging exploration adventure thing, more of a closed the box, trying to just get to you to use all the Meta products inside it.

    And the truth is, people would want to be outside and out and about. People don’t want to be stuck or cloistered inside a digital device.

    For example, at the end of the day, people would still probably prefer to be just like outside, hiking, maybe listening to music, phones in their pockets, going on hikes, going up and down the stairs, enjoying the real life views.

    no vision no life

    The other day, when I was Seneca, he accidentally hit my glasses, my beloved titanium LINDBERG glasses, the frames that I bought for like $700 in Calcutta India almost 15 years ago, apparently the same glasses that Bill Gates wears, and it broke.

    So I was kind of annoyed and grateful at the same time. First, kind of impressive that these frames have lasted me from like the age of 22 up until 37. I don’t think I have ever purchased anything that has lasted me this long.

    However I was really annoyed because the point in which it broke, a super tiny fragile point, I thought titanium was supposed to be the metal of the gods,… … Upon deeper research, I’ve actually discovered that titanium is actually quite fragile.

    Which kind of makes me open my eyes because then… The whole titanium thing seems like kind of a scam. For example, the titanium iPhone Pro, assuming that actually titanium is not that strong, what’s the point?

    It’s almost a little bit like carbon fiber… It is a bit overhyped; apparently in the bicycle world, everyone lusts after some sort of carbon fiber bicycle, but actually if you’re using it and you get one wrong bump, your whole frame breaks. Then in fact, it is actually far superior to have a steel frame even though it is much heavier, because it is more robust. In fact when I was back in college, the coolest bike I got was this old school Japanese Nishiki bike, flange two steel,… I still remember the guy I bought it off of craigslist for 300 bucks, I loved it.

    Materials, material sciences

    This is where material materials material science sciences becomes interesting. Why?

    Assuming that you live in the real world, the physical realm, materials matter. So for example nobody would want to drive an automobile mate out of Balsawood, and nobody would want to want an airplane made out of toothpicks. Also… Assuming the weather is really cold, you would probably prefer to be wearing animal based products like leather, Merino wool, cashmere, and down, rather than synthetic materials.

    Maybe this is where a cyber truck is still super interesting to me… To essentially have an entire body made out of stainless steel, might be one of the most interesting design innovations for automobiles of all time. And also… It’s less of a pick up truck it’s more of like some sort of sports car on steroids. 

    In fact a marketing suggestion I have for Tesla, in which they totally messed up the cyber truck marketing page. Redo it, never call cyber truck a pick up truck, rather… Try to market the cyber beast as being a Lamborghini killer. I think I saw an Elon Musk tweet in which he reposted something that like a cyber beast beat a Lamborghini, and could also do it while towing a Porsche 911.

    Now what

    First, I recommend everyone to purchase the new Tron ares and start streaming it immediately. It’s definitely required watching for any bitcoiner, or digital cyber enthusiast hacker. If you believe in open source, the grid, off the grid being off-line whatever… It’s kind of an interesting philosophical watch. To me it’s like more of a stylistic design forward matrix.