AustinBike

Great price. I paid that much for my 650 or 700 or whatever it was. Really solid product, literally and figuratively.

As we get older we have begun doing some preliminary reviews into options. There are a lot of rental-based retirement places coming up, this seems to be the new trend. You don't have to buy in like the typical place and you can get options without the crappy industrial meal plans. Looks like they are targeting people like me, and in another 10 years there should be enough of a track record to know the viability. Much rather have an apartment in the city tied to retirement than still have a house to contend with. More time for biking!

Nice deal on the Bronson - its a good bike. It would be great if someone created a marketplace for people who buy expensive bikes and stop riding after 3 months. I am guessing that bikes fall into 3 distinct categories (my marketing head at work): 1. Buy a top line bike, ride multiple times per week, eventually ride it down to a nub. 2. Buy a top line bike, ride for 3 months then it site for a year, only to be sold. 3. Buy a mid line bike, ride on a regular basis and get 5+ years out of it, eventually upgrade when all parts go obsolete The rest of the market is low end that nobody wants (but tries to sell at a premium on craigslist.)

Yeah, I would think that the processing capability of the drone would be way too limited to actually follow a rider, at speed, in a tree-lined area. Theoretically you would have enough processing capability if you bumped the data up to an HPC environment but bandwidth and latency would be a real issue, even with 5G. In my mind the short answer is that a "following" drone will work on a sunny trail but not really if there is ample shade. Unless it is some of that sweet California singletrack that is smooth and straight.

How about a lip at the end to launch you?

I used to love them back in the X.9 days. My current bike has a GX/X.0 combo and I am less than impressed; it works, but I would probably move to Shimano if I had the chance. But in the 12-speed world it seems like mixing and matching bits is not recommended so I would need to burn through a cassette at the same time as blowing out a derailleur.

Same here. Between the "sail" effect on the highway and the "bonk" effect with the garage entry, roof racks are a no-go. I know for sure that I would be that guy.

And then you'd crash your roof racked bike into the loft instead of the entrance 😉

So, I gotta check that OUT!

Not sure what this is all about but I saw this on reddit: Take a look at those tall garages. I have know idea what they are for, but if you had a roof rack that would be perfect. Because we all know someone who did that...

I'm out, going to see an in-studio of Fastball downtown. Gonna be cold and wet.

Two annoying Silicon Valley things there. First, the inflection is called "uptalk" and it is basically used as an exclamation point, but not just an exclamation point but a "and then you can't ask me a follow up" inflection. Think of it as a END STATEMENT that gets put at the end of every sentence. The second thing is starting sentences with "So,..." Equally annoying. Basically that starts the sentence off with a "Well, you stupid person..." Put them together and you have <well, idiot> <insert statement about the product> <AND IT ENDS HERE>. Plenty of examples in the valley of how these talking patterns have permeated management, my belief is that a lot of it has come from having to pitch VCs and ask for money. You need a way to not say "that was a dumb question" and also not let people dig too deep into the line of questioning.

This entire discussion would make more sense with an outer diameter discussion. How different is a 27.5 w/2.8 vs. a 29 with 2.4? Not sure anyone has ever done that apples to oranges compare. Typically I see 27.5 v 29 using the same approximate tire. And that defeats the purpose of the comparison in my mind.

I became a fan of the Shimano XT's. I still have SRAM on my hardtail but rarely ride it. Every time I do I ask myself why I have not put Shimano on that bike. The difference is night and day. Especially when it comes to bleeding. Had to bleed an XT about 2 weeks ago before a ride. Took the bike off the wall, the lever felt squishy. I bled it in under 4 minutes and went off on my ride. Rarely do I trust myself with a critical repair so close to the start of a ride, but with those brakes I never think twice.

To me, having 2 different sized wheels is always a dumb idea. 2 different tubes to carry, can't swap tires to even out wear. I believe that 27.5 brings the "bigger wheel" benefits to those people who are shorter. I have ridden 27.5 and 29 and don't really see a dramatic difference between them. But when people ask, I tend to recommend 27.5 for small bike riders and 29 for large bikes. Medium could go either way, based on whether they are a "large medium" or a "small medium". Seems to me that someone would really do the industry a great service by measuring height and inseam to figure out where the 27.5/29 crossover point happens. Long term in the industry I think that we will have both options, but I believe that the industry is best served to address wheel size as a function of bike fit and not a function of performance/handling. It just feels like they are creating the artificial argument today to try to sell people on owning more bikes. The 26/29 gap was pretty large but with 27.5/29 it gets a lot smaller.

Wife's family is Alsacian (she gets pissed when I tell her that makes her German.) Who would ever forget ham??

We'll primarily be in the north (Normandy area) and my assumption was this was more of a mountain food and that we wouldn't see it in the north. Paris was probably the best bet as you can find everything there.

Had to google that one, never had one before. Will check it out in May and report back. Where in Paris? I will primarily be in the north and that sounds like a mountain food so Paris may be my only option.

My wife is the opposite as well. My wife will instruct me to get on a bike if I go more than a day or two with no saddle time because she says it makes me cranky. Bike time is an important part of overall mental health.

Technically you can make that trek with only one metro change at Charles de Gaulle Etolle, but even then you're probably looking at a 15-20 minute trip in non-peak time. However, I will say that there is a good crepe place in La Defense that I know. If you have a banana-nutella crepe, all is right with the world.

Most of the long stairway shots were clearly not in Paris.

That was kind of a douche move to cut across the grass at Sacré-Cœur. At 5:02 he ran right past my favorite cafe, spent plenty of time sitting there drinking wine, usually that is one of the first stops for me, after getting my morning coffee.

OK, I will bring it to the R&I next week.

Just remembered that you helped me out with the bottom bracket, don’t worry about bringing beer 😉

The cold kind. Check your PMs.