AustinBike

Put in a travel requisition with AustinBike headquarters for an exploratory trip, hopefully it will get signed off by corporate so that I can get it on site before I leave the country.

Just need it to be dry for Tuesday 😉

My MK3’s have been great. Watching this thread tells me: 1. All of this is highly dependent on situation 2. Budget is a prime consideration 3. Warranty is critical and important to know up front 4. Important considerations should be given to both the costs and benefits of each choice. There is no one good answer. I am cheap and am fine with the AL trade offs. Most importantly, the weight savings is so minimal to me. But for some, especially if you race, it could be an advantage. everyone is different

That is not the one I would be worried about...

I used to bring my singlespeed into my office on tuesdays rather than leave it on my car. Someone would always say cool bike, what does that cost and then shit a brick when I tell them the price (they lived in the world of $150 cheap bikes). If anyone ever gave me shit about rolling the bike through the office, I’d casually ask them what their company insurance covers for thefts in their parking lot. That always stopped the security guards at dell when they got huffy about me bringing the bike into the building. Also works with hotel security guards.

I am out of state but just looked at the radar to see the rain back home. My gut says that walnut is gonna get hit. If it does get rain, stay off of it for ~48 hours and let it dry out. Based on the fact that it got a ton of rain last week, it will not do as well this week if it is hit again.

Thanks, now I remember why I had you on ignore. This is not Walmart's business model.

Walmart is big with beginners. Walmart is selling $2-6K carbon bikes. As always, you are disconnected to reality. Do you have any idea how long it takes to nurture a buyer from the $150 Walmart bike to a $3K carbon bike. They have neither the time nor the patience - the circles of the Venn diagram do not cross.

Marks is actually good because while there are creek crossings, they are all basically armored with rocks. There was one I stopped and jumped over but for the rest of them they were rideable.

Rode Walnut this morning. 95% good to go. Stay off Windy Loop for another day or so. Mark's Art has water in the creek crossings but the rest is dry. Hero dirt everywhere else.

I know a bit about how they do business. They can only bring the price down in one of three ways: 1. Better supply chain. That can shave ~3-10% off the price 2. Labor reductions (by offshoring) 3. Material reductions (i.e. cheaper grade materials) I'm not complaining, that is their business model. If they cannot maintain a sizable advantage through those 3, they will not get into the business. For instance, they could go after the PC business except that has a better supply chain (no on #1), all of the labor is already offshore and materials are not commodities in their eyes, so they would not be able to shrink the costs and still make money. Things like BBQ grills are prime candidates because there is a labor and materials reduction that they can grab, then use their supply chain to drive the extra profit off the top. They will be very hard pressed to bring down the cost on high end bikes because those demand quality components (ie. Shimano, SRAM, DT Swiss), labor is not a sizable part of the BOM and the sales channel is not big box retail, buyers dropping $3K+ need a higher touch. The sweet spot for Walmart is a manufactured commodity product with little brand recognition. Think grills, camp chairs, plastic bins, etc.

I mostly rode the greenbelt and city park back then. I am not a big air guy and always take the easier line. I am not the guy that should be breaking frames. Broke a Gary Fisher twice (cheaper bike), broke the Hammerhead (after 4 years of regular pounding), then I broke a Knolly 3 times (design flaw). Since that time I had a Sant Cruz Blur (still running the the Austin circles) and a Niner RIP 9 (bought used, now ~8+ years old.) From roughly 2002 - 2008 or so it seemed like every week someone broke a frame. Few riders I knew escaped without a crack somewhere. The industry probably grew up too quick and pushed the envelope. I'm sure the warranty costs from that time period taught them all some expensive lessons. Those that were able to ride it out financially ended up building burlier bikes and those that could not went under. That is why today you don't see the failures. Another contributing factor used to be that bikes were $1500-3000 back then. If you spent $3K you were really splurging. These days it is difficult to find a new bike under $3K. Maybe our tastes have changed, but I think there was a general recognition that if you are going to be riding hard and want your bike to last, make the investment upfront. I only have one friend these days that regularly breaks his frame, and I bet Salsa hates him.

Yeah, no kidding. $1500 is the border between misdemeanor and felony, pretty hard to argue this one down. Basically any reasonable bike being stolen is a felony.

I used the 1UP wheel locks and then add an extra cable if I am going to be gone a while or if the bike is too far out of sight: If I am leaving it for a really long period of time or am on a road trip, I do the wheel locks and a heavy lock/cable that locks to the rack and the car hitch.

That looks exactly like my Hammerhead from around 2005. I demo'd Charles' bike and then bought one. Loved it and hammered on it for ~4 years, then the frame cracked at the head tube and it had to go to that great bike pile in the sky.

I was attacked by two smaller dogs that chased me at ~15-18MPH in the lot and then for about 1000 yards. Every time my foot went down on a pedal stroke they went for my foot. No leashes. No collars. And the owner was a total bonewipe about it. People suck.

Actually when I lived in Chicago I looked out of my apartment window one night and someone was boosting my neighbors wheels. They were not happy about me banging on their door at 11:30 at night but that changed when I told them what was happening.

Only need about 2” (that’s what she said)

That sounds like a great idea, need to track some of that down. In a real pinch I would think that even hose clamps could be used, but that is a pretty cheesy solution.

Hopefully, king will get in that bandwagon.

My MK3's are awesome. Have them on two of my three bikes and love them. I'd replace the Arch EX with Arch MK3 on my new wheels, but they are in pristine condition so I have no need to waste good rims, but the minute I trash one the whole set is getting rebuilt with MK3's.

Bought a used Pike from Seth this past week and it was a boost fork. Non-boost is going the way of the 26" wheel, so I bit the bullet, bought a boost fork and got an adapter to fit the wheel. Long term I'd like to see a new axle as King does not seem to have 15mm boost conversions that I can find, but for $12 on eBay, this one solved my problem. Here's the install process, hopefully when the trails dry I can give it some real testing. http://www.austinbike.com/index.php/repairs/349-boost-adapter-for-non-boost-wheelsets

Maybe the slam is "you live in Austin and haven't been there in a while?"

Um, kinda. I built one. Bought a frame and a wheel set, the rest of the parts were in my bins, so technically it should not be this strong. I blame someone else.

Walnut got between 2.5" and 3" with another huge cell moving through this morning. It's just about to hit here in central Austin and there is no way that it gets missed. The R&I will be urban this week 😞