AustinBike

Yeah, that's the good news with good patents: they fetch good money on the open market when a business goes under. I worked for a startup and Dell was licensing our technology for one of their platforms. We were taking on water and tried to get them to buy the company. Why bother? They could buy the patent in the liquidation at a fraction of the cost. I'd bet if these are solid patents, they'll be around in the future on other products. If nobody wants to buy the patent or the assets of the company, they *could* still end up in the market if someone is ballsy enough to figure that whoever is holding the bag on the patent is unlikely to sue. At that point, you're throwing good money at bad. It's a weird world full of lots of calculations.

I would think that any insurance company is going to set rates based on the probability of something happening. Fire in a traditional shop is probably pretty low. Fire in a shop with top line bikes is higher. Fire in a shop with any kind of bike is going to be the highest. I'd bet that shops will also limit what they will work on based on their insurance, so if someone does buy the cheap knock off, it may be more expensive to get it repaired. I could see a shop agreeing to only work on approved platforms in order to get some break in liability insurance.

Looks like this is a federal recall from CPSC. So Fox is basically pushed into this vs. doing it for the good of the customer. Either way I'm going to check my stuff when I get back into town.

I need to look into this, my 2019 bike came with Fox on both ends.

That and a few jerseys that I still wear.

If you have trail forks through the Apple Store you can cancel now and still have access to your subscription until it ends (vs. me having to remember to cancel before July 23rd...) I typically use it for navigation in August when I am out of town for the month. The rest of the year, the only time I access it on my Garmin is with the ForkSight functionality that pops up the map when I stop. Very intuitive because when I need to figure out where to go, I stop anyway. I do not know if Forksight will work on only the free subscription and not the pro, I guess I will find out in July.

I will probably drop down to the base subscription now. Loved the Garmin integration, but not enough to merit paying when I only use it while traveling.

Looks like the law of small numbers to me.

I have a Kona 31.8mm 730mm that was cut down to ~27" (roughly 685). If you want to try that you are welcome, I will not need it until I sell the Kona and that will be at least a year.

Nice bike. Yeah, Wes runs a great shop. I've got several friends running those bikes on Austin trails and love them. Don't worry, you'll be able to ride it soon enough.

If it was black, that was the one that growled at me and stood in the middle of the trail until I was close enough. Did not seem happy that I was there. Any time I see a dog with no collar I expect the worst. And I am a big dog guy and often stop to pet dogs on my rides.

I ride WC weekly, BMX loop has become so much of a shitshow with homeless people, encampments and loose dogs (from the encampments) that I have decided to stop riding it. There is a new piece along the concrete path, east of Lamar, that I substitute instead.

Attaches to rear axle skewer. Collapses for easy transport. $50.

What they need is standards so that you get longevity. I used to sell $99 CPUs all day long to OEMs. But the same embedded part that needed a long lifecycle and long-term support was waaaaay more than $99. The real challenge with any bikes is that the average rider is not going to burn through the wear and tear in a short period of time. My Orbea has ~4200 miles in a little over 4 years. So that is 1000 miles per year, and still kicking. I have stockpiled hangers, bolts and other proprietary components because they stopped making many of them over a year ago. And that is a bike with a pretty decent shipment range. Specialized and Trek could merit stockpiling motors for downstream service needs based on their volumes. Not sure Fezzari can support the volume to make that viable, it's a pretty large capital outlay for things that are going to die once they accumulate enough wear. It is a capital game far more than a technical game. If you can standardize you can minimize the capital outlays and have better chance. Also, amortizing a part over multiple years of models helps greatly, but so many of these are platform specific and change each year because there is no standard to build around.

Those companies are all in England, not Scotland. And Absoluteblack manufactures most of their stuff in Poland. There are plenty of great things about Scotland and I would also bet that the Czech Republic would probably make a really shitty whisky and Germany's Haggis is probably inedible. But their precision machining is first rate.

You lost me with "Scottish startup." Scottish manufacturer? Sure. Scottish machining? Not so much. Well funded technology startup? Sure (probably, depends on the funding...) When it comes to precision machining, I'll take Germany, Switzerland, Austria, most of Eastern Europe, Japan, South Korea. I leave China out of that list because their machining is only as good as the people standing over them. Apple does a good job because they have tight engineering standards and stand over them all day long. But if you don't have someone watching the process and you are only sending the specs and doing quality checks when they arrive, you're fucked. And while the the article says that it fits the same physical space/specs, it is unclear if it is licensed. If it is licensed, it will be very hard for a startup to compete with Shimano. If it is not licensed, I'm sure they will let them ship up to a certain point and then come down hard with the lawyers. Basically let them prove out a manufacturing concept then push them into an expensive licensing to make the whole thing go away. Anyone that they were selling the design to will now be far enough down the road that they will need to pay Shimano. I think this is called "DW-Linking".

Having dealt in the world of OEM solutions, I can tell you that obsolescence is a real big problem. I am fighting with Lowes this week to get a stove delivered, all because the control panel unit, that is very specific to my current model, is broken. A refurbished one costs ~$350 and another $150 to get it installed. All with a 30-day warranty if you know how to chase the right people down. Or a new one can be had for $900. I am guessing that all of these low-volume custom designs are going to start to see very expensive parts go EOL with no warning. I have an Eagle GX derailleur and cassette in my garage waiting for the inevitable failure, I only bought those because of supply chain issues 2 years ago. Who is going to stockpile an $800 bespoke motor for their specific bike?

These are fetching over $100 on eBay these days, I'll sell at $80 to a local buyer. Hardly ever used, thus the reason I am getting rid of it. I'm just not talented that way.

Saw a tandem e-bike with a cargo back end today. THAT is an excellent use case for the technology.

I ended up at home. Internet went out and had to wait for a tech. ABW is the proper option these days, although I think Bouldin Acres on Barker could be an interesting option.

When I tighten up the chain and the sliders, I find that it will make a little noise for the first 1-2 rides. But after that it falls into the right spot where it is quiet for a few months. Then I notice the slack in the chain, oddly it seems to make the pedaling more difficult for some reason. Then it's flip the bike over, grab the Allen heads, lather, rinse, repeat.

Here is where I saw the issue: https://www.mtbr.com/threads/orbea-occum-2020-snapped-shock-bolt.1147195/ This was on a 2020 and I have a 2019, they changed the design a lot in 2020 so I generally assumed that I was safe. I did break a derailleur hanger bolt but I found that an old Honda or Nissan oil pan bolt was the same diameter with the same thread pitch. Adding a couple extra washers to take up the slack help get me back on the trail until the replacement was shipped to me. Knowing thread pitch is really important, with that data you can often find something that will work in a pinch.

That is a great use of the technology.

I store all my bikes on Steadyrack hangers, which hang the bike from the front wheel. Never had a shock or fork issue. But I cycle the bikes fairly often. The full suspension is ridden at least twice a week, the singlespeed is ridden once a week. The hardtail is ridden once every 2 months or so.

My PSA is whatever you buy, get several because they come from Spain. I had a small part break and when I saw it was going to be 3+ weeks to get a replacement, I bought two so that if I broke another I would not have to wait. The shock bolt was another part that several people had to replace and they recommended getting a spare to have on hand. But, I have to say, the bike has been incredibly robust. I have probably put less money into this bike, post-purchase, than any other bike that I have ever owned. That is also a testament to getting good components to begin with. Still on the original derailleur that is over 4 years old.