AustinBike

BIG fan of the park master link pliers.

yeah, I can see this "crap, I have a flat, does anyone have a tube?" "ummm.....no" You can either give away your $35 tube and get a $5 doubly sized replacement back (sometime in the future), give them a $35 tube and never receive anything back, tell them you have a tube but it costs $35 and they need to replace it, or lie to them. None of those four options is good.

I like this, but I wonder whether the cable "end" (i.e. with the lead weight) attaches at the lever or in the dropper. I have 2 different droppers, each attach in completely different ways.

Honestly, I would not be surprised to find the vendor shipped him some free ones. If I received free ones I'd probably be raving about how great they are. It's the physical act of buying them that suddenly makes them unreasonable. As a giveaway from the vendor they are awesome.

Tubes are awesome for trailside patching of tubeless flats. I happen to know someone that has had several tubeless flats recently. First the bacon. Then putting more Stan's in. Then finally pulling out the tube. Yeah, there are ways to fix a tubeless flat but most of the time I's done and having a cold beer while they are continuing to try things to patch their tire. Just put a tube in it. Oh, and don't pay $35 for that tube.

This is an awesome solution in search of a problem. If weight is your issue, then tubeless will wipe it out, hands down. If puncture is your issue, then tubeless will wipe it out, hands down. If cost is your issue, then tubeless will wipe it out, hands down. If space is your issue, then tubeless will wipe it out, hands down. I fail to see how this will beat tubeless in any relevant manner. What this does beat is traditional tubes. It is essentially sits in between a traditional tube and tubeless, but has a hefty price tag. I fail to see where the market need is for this product. I have heavy, relatively cheap, tubes in my urban bike for riding on the streets. I have tubeless on my mountain bikes for riding on the trails. This would be used in neither place for me. The only benefit is that it is smaller so it takes up less room in my pack, but at ~$30 more than a standard tube, I am happy to carry a normal tube and drop that money on a good case of IPA.

It is that time of week, gonna be hot but the beer will be cold.

Less about pricing and website, more about inventory and back-end logistics. That is where the real financial problems arise.

Retail shut down, now trying to compete with online only. That is a tough hill to climb because they are up against Amazon with massive fulfillment capability and they are trying to maintain their own inventory and fulfillment mechanisms. I don't see them competing long-term, not because online people can't compete, but because if you start with a retail mentality it is hard to rid your organizations of that mindset. Strictly retail will do OK (if they understand where their money is made) and pure online will do ok if they, again, find their niche. But the combo model has never fared well. Just getting rid of retail stores does not mean that they have also gotten rid of the retail mindset.

I have not had an issue with the PNW or KS dropper levers. Clearly there are better ones on the market but I guess, like many other things bike related, I don't have a strong opinion on the difference. The only thing that bugged me about the KS lever was that because it was small, it would slip in sweaty conditions. I put some stuff on the button to give it more of a grip. A $3 solution that works fine now.

Was in the display case. Didn't see the diameter at the time.

If you are looking for one locally, I noticed the downtown store has them on display. $200 is a great price for a sweet dropper.

Was just talking about that on yesterday's ride. The literal worst part of that is when the people on the left go right and the people on the right go left. So not only do they give you a narrow corridor to pass, but they basically block the trail while they are jockeying for position.

Yep, $500 per dog. And to the entitled ass who walks her 5+ dogs off leash at WC who claims she is "in control of them" in the non-leash area, I pray that one day she meets up with a cop. I just don't get people sometimes.

No, I believe he was off of a trail in the southwest.

You’ve been a goon for only 10 days??

I know someone who was riding alone on a bandit trail, crashed and was unconscious for a long time. He always rode with a full face after that.

I run into loose dogs all the time on BCGB. I typically tell people "hey, I saw the cops and they are handing out tickets, it's $500 per dog..." Typically they leash up REAL fast at that point. The only stretch in that is that I never said "today" or "close by." Yes, I have seen cops hand out tickets on the GB, I'm just fudging on the timing. Off leash dogs are not allowed, so technically I could just tell them that, but that never ends well. Those people are typically entitled bonewipes who don't care about others but are very concerned about themselves. So I appeal to that part of them.

yep

No, they are going to pick them up on their way out. Every time I have confronted someone that is the story I get. Basically they pick up the crap with the bag so that people think they will take it out. Then, when nobody is around they ditch it. I firmly believe that we should do DNA testing on all dogs. Then we could test the poop and identify the culprits.

Nando, I am skipping town to go to Chicago and beat the heat. If you want to borrow my kona unit SS to get a feel for it, let me know, I can bring it to the R&I. I have ridden it on some of the WC trails as a skin(ier) tired broke, it now has some slightly fatter tires on it, but still street tires. Good solid frame that can be built up to a trail hardtail pretty fast.

"schwarzes Schiff" - reminds me of a story from my old days of marketing with "schwarzes Schaf". That was the day our Swiss product manager learned that I could actually speak a bit of German and I was not the typical American. Back on topic, Ich fahre ein schwarzes Fahrrad. Does color help bikes on Spider Mountain?

Auf Englisch bitte.

My single speed is all black. Makes it less of a target because to most people it just looks like a cheap old bike, not an expensive one.

Actually, when I skied I never bothered with snowboards. Basically I only had short trips, 3-4 days on the slope. To get good I would probably need to spend a week with lessons and then getting the hang of the thing. That would be 2 years of wasted vacations. A single speed, on the other hand, is much easier to learn. And it will make you a better overall rider.