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Any time I hear "we have to compete with china, and bring manufacturing jobs back here", I just get ill. You can't compete with slave labor and zero regard for environmental contamination unless you raise prices significantly. Americans don't have the disposable income or desire for that. That's also never gonna happen with an economy based on consumer spending that has us continually filling landfills with last year's purchases. Doom mode off

Fun fact...Nelo was the mechanic at Euro-Sport for many years. When Euro-Sport closed, Nelo opened up his own shop in north Austin. When I began visiting Austin around 95', I was a big GT Bicycles fan. I have the tramp stamp to prove it! But I would always seek out the GT dealers and hang out there. Euro-Sport sold GT and that was my shop once I moved to Austin after college. Freewhee ling was across the street and a very well known shop. I frequented there a bit too. Back then there was a big group roll-out from Freewheeling that headed down to the Austin Tuesday Nighter Bandit Road Race. The whole thing was quite an event. Later, CJB

Nah, that's communism! If the top 1% of wage earners don't make enough money to buy a boat big enough to fit the previous year's boat inside it, the terrorists win.

There was also Euro-Sport Cycles. Very close by but across the street. Not finding much info about it.I remember around 1994 drooling over a Burgundy Gary Fisher Montare frameset that matched my Mustang GT. A year or so later turns out an acquaintance had bought it and was selling it, I ended up with it after all. I just brought it to Yellow Bike recently. https://www.austinchronicle.com/locations/euro-sport-cycles-44864/

The fence at Brushy that was torn down last week was permanently fixed today. GreenMTBrider and I moved the fence further back between two trees so it’s a pinch point, there’s no way around it unless you start chopping branches. The posts are cemented into the ground. I re-vegetated the trail by planting grasses and cactus, then placing rocks. You can’t tell it was once a trail. I also blocked the trail beyond the fence with brush, rocks, and cactus.

Yes, I think it was Discovery at 702W 24th street. 4 bike shops within walking distance in West Campus. How many were there at the same time? I am pretty sure Ozone, Freewheeling, and Discovery were all there and may have visited them all when shopping for my bike. I don't remember Euro-Sport though.

Rechargeable batteries should NEVER be thrown in the trash. there are still a lot of problems with mining and manufacturing but at least keep that crap out of the groundwater. Recycling locations are always easy to find for that kind of stuff.

This is truly a question for learning purposes and not a jab at either side of the energy extremes and brought to mind by the previous landfill comment. Are the massive amounts of batteries that are currently required for electric cars recyclable or are we going to have the same problem we’re having with old smart phones 5-10 years down the line?

It would be much easier and cheaper to bring things back into the US if the CEO's of these corporations didn't need to pay themselves 7 figure salaries.

Cabin fever is starting to really set in, and thinking about months tong temps in the 90s ahead, got me searching a bit. Stumbled on this resort in east central AZ with trails that look to be a cross between the sandia and angel fire resorts. Weather shows temps in the 80s in july & aug, can be reached in a days drive, has lift access and looks affordable. This might just scratch our travel/gravity itch without overextending our comfort zone too much during coronageddon. Any experiences with this resort? https://www.sunriseskipark.com/ https://www.trailforks.com/region/sunrise-ski-park-9337/?activitytype=1&z=14.8&lat=33.96171&lon=-109.56921

Beware. Down by the creek. Looks like a beaver dam collapse.

Plastic is not a thing. It's many, many different things. Recycling them is tougher than we think. Plastics are not our future. Doom mode deserved for this for sure.

Charlie was the owner's name, just came to me. He briefly changed the name of the shop when he bought it away from Discovery before closing the shop for good eventually. Most of his customers were UT students but he'd have a few MTBs in stock from time to time.

Well to be fair, I think this was the hey-day of mountain biking. The sport was simply exploding and there was probably enough business to go around. After all MTB became and olympic sport in 1996. -CJB

Any battery should be kept out of the trash. The plain alkalines can also be recycled. Now if we could do something about plastic...

Weird! I have the opposite problem. I don't use Zwift but I use TrainerRoad on my iPhone 11 and my ability to listen to my phone through earbuds is very spotty. I also guessed having the trainer + HRM was too much. If you go to config-->bluetooth look for your earbuds, click on the "i" and disconnect. They are probably auto-pairing.

I bought my first Gary Fisher HiFi 29er at that shop in the same track as the Shell station. The owner was a great guy but I can't remember his name off the top of my head. At one point, it was cobranded with the bike shop on Anderson near Alamo (Discovery, maybe?). I remember he also did home inspections and lived near my house and near Patterson Park.

Are you sure it was a beaver?

Pretty dang sure Eurosport was on the south side. Definitely smaller.

The one I bought my bike from was definitely on the North side of 24th street, and I remember it being smaller.

I would have been making that ride about 90-93. On a bike that looked like this- bought that bike at some shop on S Lamar/ S 1st, no idea why I picked that shop but they were good people. I rode that bike through college, my move to Dallas and for my early commutes from Allandale to Highland Mall. When I moved out to Steiner I got started back into MTB shape on that bike before getting a Haro Hardtail from Sun and Ski. The Mrs convinced me to give that bike to my nephew who either sold it for "beer" money or had it stolen. Sucks that frame is just awesome looking- would love to have it back. Used Freewheeling when I first lived on Campus to buy bike stuff- bought a campy hat from them that I still have around here somewhere.

Not good yet but we will get there. https://recellcenter.org Lead Acid is highly recycled and I think the volume will force the same for Lithium Ion There are also researchers working on alternatives to Li ion, and even sticking with Li-ion but replacing the cobalt which is one of the problematic metals https://news.utexas.edu/2020/07/14/new-cobalt-free-lithium-ion-battery-reduces-costs-without-sacrificing-performance/ This dude rocks: https://www.me.utexas.edu/people/faculty-directory/goodenough Finally, there's re-use of car packs. Even though they're spent for car use, some are finding a second life on the grid to be used for storage. This is needed with more and more solar and wind out there. It's a bit dated now but still exciting to watch the ongoing research on Nova and features Dr. Goodenough https://www.pbs.org/video/nova-search-super-battery/

Yeah, that was probably Freewheeling, they were awesome, but there was another shop within a couple blocks. Bought my first real MTB at FW back in the late 90's.

Tried a ride last night starting at 1/4 but soon bailed. Wasnt good. Puddles and sticky mud on the tires.. Didn't bother elsewhere Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Hang Jowl is the area he is talking about. The other off camber steep stuff is just past the end of Gandolf. You can ride HJ all day with your SS no problem. The other section no way , heck even with gears its tough. I think that part is called Balrog.. another LOTR reference. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

stuff that comes back or is already here will be built by robots. electronics will be almost impossible or very expensive to move for high volume stuff due to the supply chain. things are changing though. we will see.

I firmly support making the effort/changes required to bring more things back to the US. People would have to be OK with prices going up. Maybe buy things that last longer than a couple years. The higher cost initially can be offset by not replacing as often. Unfortunately, bringing manufacturing of silicon (CPU,s etc.) on shore would be EXPENSIVE. I just don't see that happening very soon.

Makes sense...

What he said. Got a lot of rain this morning so it was sloppy most of the day. I did walk over to 1/4 about 20 minutes ago and it was starting to look okay, so I’m hoping tomorrow morning is GTG for most trails.

Back in my UT Days on my day off I would ride from 45th and Guadulupe, pick up the shoal creek trail to town lake, cross over ride the hiking trail use the Railroad Tunnel to get to Barton Springs then to the GB entrance. Ride out to HOL. On good days jump in a swimming hole to cool off and turn around. Would swing by the Barton Springs BSS on way back fill up with water, then hit Delaware Subs on 38th and get home eat and recover.

Tempting as it was, I decided to leave it be. Hope it was water based

Looks like it came prelubed🤣

Most social media is just social poisoning. The anonymity brings out the worst in people. We would never be aggressive the way that people are today when we were younger. If you were talking shit about someone when we were younger you could count on them showing up at your doorstep or work or even better catch you out with your friends and make an example of you. We can't do that anymore but I feel sometimes it needs to happen.

The Tarahumara run ultras (and do very well) with homemade sandals using tires as the bottom part. I highly recommend everyone read Born to Run. It's a great read even if you don't run at all.

I hadn't even checked the single lap times. I was already impressed with the 1 lap pace of the 2-lappers. 3:36 for a single lap...this means he'd be calling "on your left" to a lot of MTB riders!

Update: It was the cassette. The GRX cassette is multi-part. The person that assembled this bike used a super sticky sulfur smelling lube. Almost like Phil Wood Tenacious oil. A bunch of grit had accumulated. It was also too easy to remove the nut. I cleaned it all off and used regular grease then torqued to 40Nm and the creak is finally gone!

I'm going to go against the consensus a bit here and say that I don't get too upset about puddles in the "usual places." A persistent puddle means that particular spot needs work. Raise the tread and add drainage. And yes, ride through and not around until it's fixed. Any damage done riding through the puddle will be corrected when the puddle spot is sorted. Avoiding an entire trail because a "usual" spot is wet is pointless. My gauge is mud sticking to the tread or generall very slick trails leaving ruts. Are the unusual spots wet? Then you're not gtg. This also doesn't apply to low laying spots-- like Mark's Art or Mulligan--where an actual stream run through in high water situations.

Not if the puddle is only taking up half of the tread and the other half is dry. That would make no sense to aim for the puddle just so you can leave a rut and carry some soil away. I addressed this issue in my post, "(but don't leave the existing trail tread because that widens the trail). "

I'm still waiting for time/weather for doing the clear coat. But I plan on using "permanent" vinyl under the clear. 🤞

Thank you, the last ten days sucked pretty badly. A couple days ago things turned around and she was awake and pretty normal. Everyday is a big improvement.

I doubt it. I live about a mile from the park and it poured for quite a while this morning and the sun didn't come out until late afternoon.