Sunday, July 22, 2018

Troy Lee Design D3 helmet sizing

The D3 XL and 2XL helmets have the same size shell. The 2XL has thinner 15mm cheek pads and a 10mm liner, while the XL has 20mm cheek pads and a 15mm liner.

Cheek pad sizes:
XS: 30mm
SM: 25mm
MD: 20mm
LG: 15mm
XL: 20mm
2XL: 15mm

In addition, there are apparently two different type of cheek pads sold as D3 cheek pads. I'm not sure why there are two, but the bottom one in the picture is what fits current (as of 2018) D3 helmets, while the top one fits much looser and leaves velcro exposed in the helmet.


Top: Aftermarket cheek pad
Bottom: Stock cheek pad

Monday, July 2, 2018

Burton Channel screws

It takes 8 turns to thread a screw to the bottom of a Burton Channel insert. When mounting bindings, count your turns to insure you don't thread it past the bottom of the inert and into the Channel itself.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Ride binding mounting discs

After the old Preston system, but before going to the current micro-disc, Ride had four different types of toothed mounting discs. All of them adjusted angle in 3 degree increments.

This is the standard Ride disc. It's standard 4x4 and Burton 3D compatible. There is an un-pictured variation which doesn't have the threaded hole in the center to attach a disc cover.




This is the Ride Shift disc. The slots in the disc are offset by 3mm, allowing for some fine tuning of stance width, setback, or centering. I've found them to be very useful on Burton 3D boards since those don't allow much adjustment to begin with. These are very rare.




This is the Ride convertible disc designed to adapt Ride bindings to Burton Channel system. The disc is thicker and heavier than standard Ride discs and is very beefy. I suspect Ride wasn't sure what kind of stress the Channel would place on the disc, so they just massively over-engineered it to be safe. Even though the disc has a threaded hole for a disc cover, the disc it thick enough that a Ride disc cover won't actually fit. The kits also came with beefy mounting screws with very tall heads that protrude significantly above the disc surface. The center slots provide easy viewing of the stance markings on Channel boards. These can still be found from time to time, but are become more rare.




These discs were used shortly after Ride moved Preston discs to toothed discs. They're 4x4 and Burton 3D compatible. They're made of thinner aluminum and have a smaller toothed area than the later discs. In some cases these offer more stance options than Ride Shift discs, and sometimes the Shift discs offer more. Neither will offer as many options as the standard 4x4 mounting pattern. They are not compatible with disc covers. These are very rare.



For reference, this is the current Ride micro-disc. It's compatible with both 4x4 and Burton's Channel, but is not compatible with the older Burton 3D pattern.


Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Steroid multi-day taper pack risks

I was prescribed a 4mg methylprednisolone multi-day taper (MTP) pack to help deal with an injured back. However, in research I found doctors had taken advantage of anonymized electronic medical records, and found taking a single MTP increases the chances of osteonecrosis by approximately 1 in 2,000. If a second MTP is taken the chances increase to approximately 1 in 600. While the chances are very small, the consequences are rather catastrophic.

https://www.healio.com/orthopedics/journals/ortho/2014-7-37-7/%7Ba23b234a-a94f-4173-8bb6-9abad2b69aa7%7D/osteonecrosis-following-short-term-low-dose-oral-corticosteroids-a-population-based-study-of-24-million-patients

However, there is research which suggest vitamin E can help prevent osteonecrosis when taking steroids. Since there's no downside to taking vitamin E, I took it daily both before and after the MTP, and took close to the maximum dose while taking the MTP.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214031X14002575

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Amitriptyline and Cough

One of my children was given a very low dose of amitriptyline many years ago for migraine. While it did help the migraines, it also caused a cough that interfered with proper sleep and some other activities. Since we had no explanation for it, and cough is listed in the drug-reference materials as a possible side effects, along with about 50 others, we stopped the drug before a major medical evaluation. In a few days, the cough was gone, and came back when the drug was restarted. Of course, we discontinued it, and the cough was gone with it.

Years later I talked with an older gentleman who told me about a bad cough he had been fighting for a year. He had numerous medical tests done, and was scheduled for a repeat bronchoscopy in the following week. I also have found out that he started a low-dose amitriptyline a year ago for a mild neuropathy. I shared our experience with him. He stopped the drug, and called me a few weeks later, profusely thanking me for clearing up his cough and saving him from further medical tests.