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AustinBike

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Posts posted by AustinBike

  1. On 4/12/2019 at 7:06 AM, Ridenfool said:

    Locks are to prevent relatively honest people from succumbing to the temptation of easy pickings.

    Since the advent of cordless power tools with cutting wheels nearly every lock can be defeated in less than a minute by an industrious professional thief. With this fact firmly established, other methods of security, such as disassembly and storage inside the vehicle or taking it with you into a building are the only options remaining, short of hiring a security guard.

    Familiarity breeds contempt. Doing the same thing successfully over and over in no way changes the fact that bikes are easily freed from the various locks currently offered. Effective security will never be convenient. The people selling the locks are as guilty as the thieves in the way they sell "peace of mind" knowing full well that their product is only the slightest of deterrents.

    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. 

    • Like 2
  2. 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. 

  3. 7 hours ago, Barry said:

    I was there last night as well. I went into Mark's only to turn around and go the other way. The first xing had water flowing, so I didn't think it would be worthwhile to ride it. But IMO Windy is just fine, good in fact, so long as you use the alternate entrance/exit instead of the seeping mess that is the entrance/exit by the creek. That thing will be wet for a long while I bet. 

    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.

     

    • Like 1
  4. 7 hours ago, Teamsloan said:

    Right, only slightly lower or in line with...

    If the Walton's can't bring the prices down on high performance bikes, no one can.

    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.

  5. 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.

     

  6. 50 minutes ago, RedRider3141 said:

    I carry a spare cable lock to lock the bike to my 1Up. The rack is also locked to my hitch.

    I actually saw this last night and thought it could probably be incorporated into the 1Up. (Patent Pending). It's a lock that GMBN showed on their Hacks and Bodges segment. A guy was using it to secure his bike in a panel van. 

    image.thumb.png.5dc7213c194c7f7d215fabaf3abefb8e.png

    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:

    1up_cabled_banner.jpg

     

    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.

     

  7. 11 hours ago, brentb said:

    I wasn't ignoring you, keep scrollin'.

    Pretty funny, I think I may have gotten your post notification about the same time I got Tim's call.

    Here's the deal. I keep bikes a long time and keep them running. Last Saturday, I finally sold my 1993 Trek 8700. This was Trek's half carbon, half aluminum bike. All XT, total weight was 26lbs IIRC. That bike took me on the MS150, and was perhaps my favorite ride for Walnut.

    Regarding the shock, Tim @ Cycleast finished up my shock today, and he said while the internal seals were shot, everything else looked fine. No problems rebuilding it, all internal seals were replaced, new damper fluid, and a fresh nitrogen charge.

    So, for entertainment purposes here's my 2001 Titus. The original owner was the founder of Hammerhead bikes, I forget his name (Charles?). I'm the third owner and got it around 2005.

    After a quick clean and reassembly:

    259763833_titus-2.thumb.jpg.76b6e02d6ead894194f15c40ee6fcff3.jpg

    XTR hubs and front derailleur, XT rear derailleur.

    640576362_titus-1.thumb.jpg.c24cbea55f477ee933f31973ff504d47.jpg

    Besides 4 or so small rock dings on the bottom side of the down tube, the only damage is the punched seatstay below. That part of the stay is slightly bent, but it was like this when I got the bike. I had a fall on cheesegrater that punched it even further though, but it's been like this for many years now.

    536051012_titus-3.thumb.jpg.79ef030e94ff12460abc34370efcbc5c.jpg

    And top tire choices for Austin, for 2008.

    1224061305_titus-4.thumb.jpg.d4a4e99c17b7b86acbd1df1d89174217.jpg

    I'd like to point out, the rear tire is a full 2.0 inches.

    2097542714_titus-5.thumb.jpg.98eec9cf86fc06a99f3e10c7710fd005.jpg

     

    Besides normal maintenance, here's the total work I've had to do on this bike:

    1. Replace original Marzocchi Bomber fork with the Recon. It was a huge improvement, low cost, more travel, smoother, and except for its weight, is not a bad shock at all.
    2. Disassemble, clean, and lube the front derailleur shifter. It works perfectly now. Done 3/2019.
    3. First rear shock rebuild, 2009ish? Sent to Fox.
    4. Second rear shock rebuild, 4/2019

    It's been a great bike. The rear wheel needs truing, but nothing major.

    Thanks, everybody, for the various shop suggestions that allowed my bike to get fixed so quickly! I appreciate it.

    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.

    hammerhead.jpg

    IMG_9233.JPG

    • Like 1
  8. 5 hours ago, Barry said:

    Honestly though, you can't really do a quiet ride of a crowded Walnut anyway. It's always: "Hello." "Three more back." "On your left." "Excuse me." "Thank you!" "What a cute Aussie!" "You know this is the on-leash side, right?" "Just me." "You're all clear, thanks." "No problem, you're fine" ...and on and on. 

    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.

    • Like 1
  9. 58 minutes ago, Seths Pool said:

    yes you can do that, or also what Shane @canyoncycles in dripping springs did for me was used small pieces of large diameter shrink wrap to affix the boost adapter spacers to each side of the front axle. looks nice and works perfectly. 

    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.

  10. 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

     

    banner.jpg

    • Like 3
  11. 27 minutes ago, loop_out said:

    I will talk friendly to birds, but screw them squirrels.  I find their trail manners to be pretty shitty.  The same goes for bunnies.

    Oh, and I always say "hey puppy" to any dog I see on the trail, especially loose ones. It tends to soothe them for some reason.

    • Like 2
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