AustinBike

I am riding Palos Hills. That is THE mountain bike trail in the Chicago area. The emphasis is there to say that it is both the best trail in the area and the only trail in the area. As for Wisconsin, I have ridden Kettle Moraine, but that is essentially Walnut Creek with better shade.

Rented a "mountain bike" to ride today in Chicago. Basket. Seatpost shock. Fat "comfort" saddle. The funniest part was that I brought shoes and pedals (riding a trail tomorrow) but they did not have a pedal wrench. Even funnier was that the plastic pedals had hex bolt and not standard pedals. The girl had no clue and asked if the pedal/shoes that I had was some new thing that they are doing now. Let's just say that I used to do this ride all the time when I lived here, but in the ~25 years that I have been gone they have really done a good job on the lakefront. Literally no elevation, welcome to the midwest. Did about 12 miles and then turned around to head back north and got hammered by a headwind all the way back. But the weather played nice today.

In Chicago to beat the heat, picked up these two IPAs. Revolution's Anti-Hero (green can) is one of my favorites and I always get it when I am up here. The other one is a short run called Hop Butcher (yellow can) that is pretty good as well. Considering that Chicago used to be called "Hog butcher to the world" the name Hop Butcher is pretty cool.

I have ridden behind him (and drank night train at his house before a ride...in the morning.) Not as bad as the 2 thong guys in Austin (north and south).

Next time you go for a ride try this. Shoes, helmet and a swimsuit. Nothing else. Let me know how much safer you ride 😉 I can tell you that I am more aggressive in the colder weather with layers and long sleeves relative to hotter weather.

I like that it clearly says "one way" on it. I've never run into someone going the other way, but I'm sure that it will happen eventually.

I have another angle on this. I don't own pads, I don't wear pads (that may change one day, especially for a place like Bentonville.) My reasoning is pretty simple. In my mind, having pads will encourage me to take more risks. I believe I am more likely to crash with pads on because I am doing something that is outside of my comfort zone. There are those that argue that to have fun you need to always be outside of your comfort zone and always need to be pushing for more. I disagree with this position. I have a ton of fun riding at my skill level and I do push myself, but I take smart risks, not stupid risks. I believe pads would encourage stupid risks so I stay clear, for now.

Bentonville. Slaughter Pens was my favorite set of trails. There are so many places to choose from to ride, you will never be short of choices.

Sarcasm does not work as well in Texas. It is grown in the midwest, by the time it gets down here it has wilted a bit.

Nando, what is your budget? I might have a nice steel hardtail with some decent components (SRAM x.0, Chris King wheels, etc.) that I can get in your budget. We should talk.

So now I am carrying MORE? I thought the only benefit was cutting down on the weight/bulk?

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.