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A friend that now lives in the Bay Area does canine SAR. They recently got access to E-bikes for training. Besides the speed / distance advantage they lug 30 lbs of radio, gear, food & water thru every kind of terrain in whatever conditions heat/cold/hills/chaparral that’s in front of them. Anything that conserves energy and keeps them out there longer is a huge plus for them.

Spotted a disc brake capable Specialized Hot Rock at Goodwill today. It was already sold... $19.99!

Here is where I saw the issue: https://www.mtbr.com/threads/orbea-occum-2020-snapped-shock-bolt.1147195/ This was on a 2020 and I have a 2019, they changed the design a lot in 2020 so I generally assumed that I was safe. I did break a derailleur hanger bolt but I found that an old Honda or Nissan oil pan bolt was the same diameter with the same thread pitch. Adding a couple extra washers to take up the slack help get me back on the trail until the replacement was shipped to me. Knowing thread pitch is really important, with that data you can often find something that will work in a pinch.

That is a great use of the technology.

A massive search is ongoing after a woman didn't return from going on a hike in Calaveras County on the Arnold Rim Trail in California. myMotherLode.com: Sheriff’s officials noted that a total of more than 64 searchers, 3 canine teams, 2 UAVs (drones), and 9 e-bikes have been deployed in this continuing search.

I saw it a couple of weeks ago. It was on the descent trail coming down from the top by the stores. Definitely caught me by surprise. I think we should call it The Brain b/c a white rodent surviving with all the red tail hawks around has got to be smart.

Catching up on some recent bottles and pours I have pics of. I've really enjoyed the Penelope stuff recently.

tension: tight enough that it does not drop the chain is all that really matters. I like to get it just tight enough that I can't feel the chain bouncing around annoyingly. anything tighter than that will cause additional wear on your whole system that doesn't occur with a derailer. I've always found AB rings to have pretty consistent tension all the way around the ring. The owner posted a video some time back claiming that there's no reason you can't use singlespeed with their oval rings. It's really annoying that he used a bike with a bolt-on tensioner to demonstrate, though. if you have an oval ring that has significant tight/loose spots, there's something wrong with the way it was made IMO. no chainring is perfectly round, even so-called round ones. oval chainrings should be ... is cocentric the right word?. they all have tight spots. find the tight spot and make the chain the tightest at that point, but not excessively tight.

Back to the coming Apocalypse, this paywalled story in Bicycling Fall 2023 is pretty chilling! It doesn't really concern eMTBs, but focuses on mass market E-Bikes and how their components tend to be cheap and way overmatched for the speeds these bikes go. Specifically, there's often a dangerous combination of mechanical disc brakes and quick release front wheels, in particular. Couple that with casual users that don't usually do maintenance...and you can see where that's headed. This article tells a cautionary tale about a 12-yo girl in SoCal that died after crashing a Rad Power Bike. I now find myself compelled to bring it up to anyone I meet with an e-bike.