AustinBike

6 hours ago, El Gringo said:

Ha!  Check your facts, dude.  My wife's a real estate agent, and the VAST majority of her clientele are relocating here from CA (particularly NoCal), IL, NY, and NJ.  <....> Let me Google it for you . . .

Let me google that for you:

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/how-many-people-are-moving-to-austin-every-day/

Quote

For the Austin region, according to data from Texas Demographic Center, a little more than half of all the people moving to the area come from other parts of the state. A good number comes from other states, and the city is also adding people from international immigration. 

Here's the thing with using a single realtor's input as a data point: It is totally biased. Not that they are biased, but realtors *generally* specialize in a particular area. If you were a realtor that specialized in my neighborhood you'd say that people come from all over (we have few California transplants.) But if you worked in my in-law's neighborhood you'd say 90% are coming from California.

Californians tend to cluster towards more expensive locations possibly because they are coming in with big checks from selling their homes and end up spending about the same amount here. When you sell a $1M 1500sqft house in the Bay Area, you look for that $1M 4000sqft house here because it seems like such a bargain.

Clearly we have a lot of them coming here from the Bay Area for tech jobs, and California is probably the primary supplier, but it looks like more than half of the people are coming from within the state.

Also, one little trick that you have to consider is when they say that Austin is adding 100+ people a day, consider that the number also includes births, not just the people moving here.

I have noticed a distinct difference between 2019 and 2004-2010. Anybody remember how back then someone was breaking a frame once a week? Seems like the industry got its act together and we have better bikes. Chuck and Seth notwithstanding.

Didn't you just rebuild that one? Maybe this is why you cannot have nice things.

How tall are you? I have a Vassago hardtail (medium that skews a bit towards large). Happy to ride with you some time and bring it along if you want an extended HT demo. Retired now so pretty much any weekday would work.

I am still old school, 700, 710 and 720 on my 3 bikes. I don't get the whole wide bar thing. I believe 800's do give *some* people more leverage, but for many, spreading your arms out that far actually gives you less leverage, it really comes down to your "wingspan" as to whether or not it will benefit you. If we are going to have a discussion about bar width, it only makes sense if we are going to include a fingertip to fingertip measurement, their height and possibly their cockpit height as well.

So much of this is dependent on geometry of the overall situation. Without that data we're back to the 26" vs. 29" discussion with no indication of the relative advantage based on the rider.

And for the record I am 5' 11" and I'll measure my wingspan once my wife wakes up. If you know what I mean.

Thought that was you, but we were hauling - there was beer in our future!

56 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

turns your undies into concrete.

That's what she said

9 hours ago, mack_turtle said:

On working outside- I lasted less than six months as a commercial electrician a few years ago before taking a big pay cut to work in a bicycle shop again. I worked in several buildings that summer, buildings with no electric other than temporary lights and a few fans, but walls to trap heat in. Long days in 100+ in boots, jeans, hard hat and carrying heavy tools around tool it's toll on my soul.

Iwould lay in bed in a puddle of my own sweat every night trying to get to sleep knowing I had to get up at 4:45 and do it again 6-7 days a week. Lots of overtime pay but I got seriously depressed. I could not drink enough water to stay hydrated, Gatorade didn't help either. Mad respect for people who can do a job like that. That kind of heat makes me not want to ride my bike in modern technical fabrics let alone denim.

The guys doing AC work in Texas get my respect. 120F+ in most of those attics in the heat of the summer working on AC units that have died. 

Looks like rain has departed. Even if it is pavement, we'll be able to ride!

Costco also sells some kind of neck bandana thing that is supposed to keep you cool. Wife bought one and never really used it, I am going to ask her where it is and give it a try.

16 minutes ago, hurronnicane said:

Taken on the east side earlier this week.....

Having taken a million or so pictures of riders going over things, I have found that the secret to making things look real is the positioning of the cameraman. The more that you are under them, the more realistic it becomes. Otherwise, the vertical definition is lost in the picture and you look like you are going over a curb. Congrats on the feature, my cajones still have me going around both of those. I prefer to have my wheels on the ground for some strange reason.

Putting plans together to get out of dodge for as couple weeks in August. Wife keeps telling me that if the Texas weather is like it has been for June she might decide to cancel and just ride it out here. So I am actually cheering for a couple 100+ days in July to help convince her that a trip is in order.

Dawn, I have a decent loop that goes from Oskar Blues to WC, over to Balcones Park and then back. ~10 miles or so, either on dedicated bike paths or mostly on roads with bike lanes.

Yeah, I'll get my riding in tonight, got the women's World Cup going on right now and can't pry myself from the TV.

I am pretty confident that Plan A is going to be off the table based on the current downpour....

Rainus interruptus. Heavy sprinkling on the way turned around. If it clears up in the next hour (like the radar shows) I might head back via the streets and poke around a bit.

Heading there now, I'll give everyone an update this afternoon.

you are correct on YBP being closed, will toss them in my trunk

Anyone need 25.4mm stems? 

Heading to yellow bike today to drop them off if nobody wants them.

Yep, everyone is different. I gave up on skiing because I can't stand the cold after 25 years in Texas.

I can bring a table if we are at WC

47 minutes ago, CBaron said:

 

Welcome to 2007, its funny to hear the last 29er holdouts make the same statements we made back a decade ago when the "big debate" was taking pace.

Signed, "no camel backs for me", -CJB

I was a holdout for a long time because the early 29ers had crap geometry. A couple of generations of learnings and getting things dialed in made all the difference. In 2007 I was a skeptic and by 2012 I was a believer, but a lot happened in those 5 years. Geometry changed, I didn’t, they came around to me, not the other way around. 

1 hour ago, JRA said:

It's ok at WC, not sure I would ride anywhere else without  a CB. I'm definitely weighing options for waist packs, water bottles, steer tube multi-tools, seat bags, etc. I'm done carrying all that shit on my back.

I typically do an early (half) lap and a longer lap once everyone shows up, so having extra water and ice in the car could help out in that situation as a refueling.

Yeah, I have not mastered the leaving the pack behind but I need to get on that. Every ride has enough tools to fix any major issue but at WC you're never too far out (unlike the GB) so I just need to suck it up and start risking it a little more.