AustinBike

Did you have covid? I know a lot of people who find that the hangover from covid runs significantly longer than expected if they got back to riding too quickly afterwards.

Sadly I did not train at all this year so I have to pass. Gonna be in Bentonville anyway. Almost ride thumper this morning but I was on a rigid singlespeed so I opted to pass. Weirdly I miss riding thumper and might head over there in a week or so, it's an acquired taste.

I had a zipper rip on my pack, sent it back to them in the height of the pandemic. They were not able to fix it so they offered me a brand new one. They did not have my model but if I wanted to wait I could, no idea how long. Instead I took a smaller one and just bought a new 3L bladder (which fits). Was very happy with their service. If I ever buy an additional pack, I would definitely choose them again.

All yours, let me know when you want to come by and I will leave them on the porch.

What are you, a dentist? Sadly, Time cleats are side specific so you have to bring a pair. I noticed mine as I was packing my parts bin for the trip.

PSA: Check your cleats. Getting ready for a trip and thought I should check out mine and make sure they were ok. Apparently I don't check often enough:

Avid BB7 Mechanical calipers. With extra set of pads:

Very nice! You win the garage award for this week!

I guess I never responded with what I ended up doing. Nothing. I had ordered some cranks but they never shipped. Was leaving for NM for a month and ended up canceling the order. What were the odds that my existing cranks would actually fail while I was there? I'll just deal with it when I get back. Apparently the odds were 100%. I was riding Glorietta, with some Austin guys of all things, and my crank arm fell off. A lot. I managed to get down the hill but I had at least 4 "reattachment" episodes. When I got back tot the hotel I called around. Found a shop to put a new set of SLX on the bike for $200 - including the new bottom bracket. Perfect solution. This weekend, at Frankenbike, I found another set of SLX cranks and those are going on the other bike. Say what you will about fancy carbon cranks (I have some on one of my bikes), I like some good metal cranks, especially on a singlespeed.

I plan on riding tomorrow. I don't need anything from Frankenbike, which is why I will probably end up buying something anyway.

Based on the way that supply chains are these days, having a backup bike is a good thing. I have a garage full of bike. I have three that get ridden every week, pretty evenly. But I also have a geared hardtail bike that I keep in the garage. When a friend is over and we want to take a ride out to get a beer, it's fine for them. When I broke my singlespeed frame, I moved the wheel set over for couple months while they re-welded the broken frame. There is utility in just about any bike as long as you can build a use case around it. Each of my bikes is different from the others. I would never have 2 identical bikes. Two of my four have identical frames, but one is a singlespeed and the other is geared, so totally different use cases. If they were both geared identically, I would get rid of one of them.

Anyone need Avid or Magira (older) brake pads?

If you are a technology, networking and security junkie, the Zero Days on Amazon Prime Video is really compelling: https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Days-Colonel-Gary-Brown/dp/B01I2EJOW0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38Y12H4WXYZQH&keywords=zero+days&qid=1664545243&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjgxIiwicXNhIjoiMS40NyIsInFzcCI6IjAuMTgifQ%3D%3D&s=instant-video&sprefix=zero%2Cinstant-video%2C159&sr=1-1 I had always been fascinated by this particular project and this is the first good dissection of what happened and how it happened. If you think that shooting a satellite into space to deflect an asteroid is an amazing feat of science then check this one out. It was akin to using a bullet to take out an oncoming bullet.

Thanks, ended up drinking the blue last night. Not as "wheaty" as the typical Belgian so pretty good. I will try the Cinq next.

Help! A vendor sent me this: I am not a Chimay guy and not a fan of Belgian beers at all. We have a virtual happy our this afternoon, which one should I hit first if I am not a fan of Belgians and prefer German beer or craft beers?

See, that is where the singlespeed pays off at Walnut - shorter chain, less noise 🙂

that is awesome!

Yeah, this is a good point as well. Especially if it is for 10 speed, there will be choices out there that retailers may be interested in getting rid of.

This is awesome. I like the change in approach towards work days. Sadly I am booked up but I hope you get a good turnout.

Check out the XD wheelsets in depth before you mark them off the list. I had someone give me an XD wheelset and I needed a Shimano 10-speed for that particular bike. I had to spend ~$80 for a new HG driver, but the wheel set was free so it made sense. Most decent wheelsets have replaceable drivers so you can swap out the XD with an HG. But make sure that you can make the switch first AND that the appropriate freehub body is in stock and available to ship right away. The supply chain situation these days can be an issue, so don't pull the trigger on wheel unless you are 100% sure that you can make the change. It may vary by wheel set. As I recall, the DT Swiss 240's were replaceable and some of the other models (like the 1900 I have) are not. It becomes very wheel specific.

My old company used to sell the specialized memory (non-volatile) for companies that make the systems. The design in cycle is really long and so many of the platforms are highly specific to the different auto models. We also did the black box memory for airbus, but I digress. The reason that so many of these are terrible is that the car platform refreshes are long cycle, typically 4-5 years. So, Imagine you are buying a 2022 Nissan Rogue. the platform refreshed in 2021. The design cycle on the NAV was probably 3 years, so the bulk of the design work started in 2018. Right now you are sitting on 4 year old technology. That *might* not seem too bad. But the 2017 was the previous platform and that one was designed ~2014. If you bought your Rogue in 2020, you were buying 6-year old tech. Now consider that you are going to hold the car 5-6 years and by the time you get rid of it you're sitting on ~11 or 12-year-old technology. Compare that to the phone that you carry in your pocket that you refresh every few years and you can see how the gaps can widen. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are a really big deal for auto manufacturers because they allow them to move away from a business that they have generally performed poorly in over time. As evidenced by the huge aftermarket that exists for in-dash entertainment systems. 10 years from now the default option will be wireless connection to your phone and having your phone do all of the heavy lifting, they are just waiting on smartphone penetration. Someone will come up with a smartphone analog, some type of 3rd party device for maps, music, etc. that can be plugged in. The idea of in-dash NAV and entertainment is going to go away as soon as they can get a semi-standard figured out.

Last night at the R&I an engineer and master bike guy both chimed in that the bolt should have Loctite. This morning I removed the bolt and found that my answer was there all along: Cleaned it off and added fresh loctite.

Adding to this, their markets are going to be shrinking in the future. Cell phones today are starting to employ low earth orbit satellite connectivity. This will be limited only to sending small text messages, not surfing the web, but it will provide the "always connected" experience for people that they currently get from things like Spot. The tracking capability won't necessarily be there (at least not officially or immediately) but it will eventually get there. But for a sizable chunk of their user base, the "connect to help in an emergency" is far more important - they will lose these people soon enough. These guys are the equivalent of the companies designing the proprietary in-vehicle navigation systems. When everyone carries a smartphone, nobody uses the in-vehicle nav very often because it has shitty usability and relies on out of date technology. Their days are numbered.

I have a 2019 Orbea Occam and the rear shock fits into a mounting directly. I am assuming that this is aluminum because you would not screw a shock into carbon, right? This comes loose after a few rides and the whole back of the bike gets "loud". I re-torque it down to the 6nm spec and it is great for 2-3 rides. Then it starts getting loose again. I did a little research and it looks like people are mixed with some saying that you should not use loctite on anything that you are going to want to remove. What is the collective wisdom here?

If you have Peacock, The Undeclared War is interesting. It is a bit too long on the personal interaction, but overall an interesting look at cyber warfare.