AustinBike

I am hoping to get another ride in with him before we leave. Logistics on this trip have been crazy. For so much time out here to relax our schedule is jammed.

Apparently everyone in Austin couldn't bother to ride because of the weather. Out in Ventura County the weather was in the 80's and I managed to ride with an old R&I compadre that is living out here now, Bart Bombay. Did about 28 miles and over 3000 feet of climbing, it was a great ride. We made a wrong turn and ended up with a nice Pacific Ocean view.

I know exactly where that is. The sucky part was that they did not move it, they just busted it up.

Thanks for the offer, I replied.

Yes, do not get anything under a 14 based on the satellite capability of the 14 and beyond for satellite communication.

Yeah, that was an excellent article for cutting through the hype. It really boils down to the use cases. Hoss is out doing the Tour Divide so relying on a phone is a fool's errand, he needs a dedicated unit like a Garmin. I will be doing the occasional jaunt outside of cell coverage, so a phone would be perfect for me. The portable GPS market is like the camera market. For years, when I would travel the world, I carried a point and shoot camera. Then smartphones came out, but the camera still took better pictures. When the smartphone's capability surpassed the point and shoot camera capability, I ditched the camera, carrying one less device. But plenty of people still use cameras today, but their needs surpass mine, which are pretty basic. GPS units will go the same way. I believe the market for individual devices will shrink, *a bit* because the number of people that owned them that did not need the full power of one of those dedicated devices is probably pretty small. It's not the cost of the device, it's the monthly service that kills it. You can justify spending $350 to make sure you are always safe, but when they stick their hand out and ask for another $10-20 month for that, you start looking at how often you actually use it. I believe the real use case is a rugged device and the service plan is initiated by the device. You pay your $350 and you are done, until you need it. Activating it out on the trail has a $40-50 monthly cost, but it is a pay as you go. If you are stranded or injured, $50 is nominal, you'll pay it in a heartbeat. And then if the device sits around for the next 11 months, you're fine. However, I do not believe that a business model like that is tenable, I think you need a more regular revenue stream, even if it is smaller. It is really difficult to manage a spiky revenue stream.

Interesting product. I chose a Garmin 840 but did not go with the solar option because it did not seem to add much time to the battery vs. the drawback of the solar panel being the screen. That left the solar versions with a much harder screen to read. I'd take the bigger size to get the solar function without compromising the screen. I am skeptical of the dial, it looks like something that could get hit a lot in mountain biking. I think this would be one to look into in the future when my 840 is near the end.

Just found out that the beta iOS 18 device will only send satellite messages to another iPhone that is also running iOS 18 so that is a bridge too far for this summer California trip. There is no way I want both of our phones on beta software with 3 days on the road each way.

We were there doing trail work to clear out the area along the maintenance shed and the rock bridge. Ended up getting pretty wet and muddy.

Yes, I saw this the other day and was pretty excited about it. I figured it was coming eventually. The only down side is that it will not be available until the fall and I have a month-long trip to CA where I will be in the mountains a bunch in places with no signal. I am not that confident about running a beta OS to get that functionality but that may be my best choice. It's quite a sliding scale. On one hand I could have satellite connectivity for my phone, but on the other hand I have to weigh that against phone problems on the trip. I'll be watching the beta forums to see how the service is working and then make the call before heading out.

Ah, twitter, come for the discussions, stay for the nazis!

I rented one once. Let's just say that it can hold its own against a deer.

YouTube has saved me hundreds in refrigerator repairs. Now that I am mostly retired, I'm willing to try a lot of things because I have the time to putter around with them. Since I still do a little bit of consulting, I know what my "per hour" rate is so I can judge that against the amount of time and effort to get someone out to do things for us. I still find that, despite having a decent bike workshop in the garage, I still take my FS to Bicycle House for anything suspension related. Or anything requiring me to remove the crankset because a.) it is impossible to get off even with a breaker bar and b.) DUB sucks. My next bike will definitely not have a press fit bottom bracket, that is the devil.

I just saw this on MTBR: This is an interesting take. I had not considered the "finesse" that you can get from a bike that is just not present with an e-bike. So much of my riding over the years has become much more about feeling the bike through tight obstacles, rock gardens, etc. My Orbea Occam is exceptionally adept at helping me finesse my way through features, to the point where I often tell people to give me a little space because I have the ability to slow a climb to insanely low speed to slips through the appropriate line instead of just getting a head of steam and trying to power up something. The singlespeed really taught me this skill but the Occam lets me literally track stand in the middle of a climb or a rock garden and sneak through with the least effort.

We used Klock Electric in Austin when we had a lightning strike to fix some issues in the house, they were fast, did good work, and as I recall, pretty reasonably priced. Also, Mark Bedell who posted on the old Mojo site as "silverback" is an electrician: https://www.facebook.com/mark.bedell1/ I think he works for a solar company these days so I don't know if he is in the service market but if you are friends with him you may want to reach out to him.

They pulled the mask off and it was poison ivy. And he would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

Well, not to be the downer, but we live in a state where 95% of the land is privately owned. Sadly, this is going to happen. Property owners can do whatever they want with their property and allowing a high risk activity like biking is rarely in the cards.

I have a buddy that has a Kuat Transfer V2 Rack with a 2" receiver. Hardly ever used, probably less than 10 times. If you are interested ping me and I can put you in touch with him. Here's more info on the rack: https://www.rei.com/product/187294/kuat-transfer-v2-2-bike-hitch-rack There is nothing wrong with it, but they have 2 e-bikes and need a heavier duty rack to handle the extra heft of a battery bike.

You say US. You don't say Texas. My guess is that with the way Texas fights to stay off the US grid that any declaration about US plans will have little to no impact on Texas.

I view standards from a higher level. If a bike company is pushing a proprietary standard then there is a lock in - buy brand X I am tied to brand X for some small universe of parts. But my wheel spacing, wheel size, brake mounting, handlebar clamp, bottom bracket, etc. are all standard. I can change components far easier today than in the past. Now, bike component makers might have proprietary parts, but you have the choice. I can choose between SRAM and Shimano because they will both fit on any of my standardized bikes. But when I broke a Shimano brake lever blade like I did earlier this year, I could only buy Shimano. So what. I think the bike industry has gotten much more standardized, the bike component industry is still proprietary but I'd rather have proprietary at the $35 brake lever blade than the $800 suspension fork.

Tires. Hubs and wheels. Drivetrains. Brakes. Handlebars. Grips. Seatposts and seats. The industry has a ton of standardization. Go shop for a dropper and you'll find that you have 3-4 diameters to choose from and no mention of what kind of bike it is going on. Bike companies are very proprietary on their shock mounting, derailleur hangers and small spare parts. I would say that the industry is incredibly standardized. The biggest outlier always seemed to be Cannondale with their Lefty and their Headshock. The industry brought them in line pretty quick. Those are still products per se, but mostly from an ego perspective.

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I would suggest that there is a bigger determinant out there: modularity and standardization. If I were investigating an e-bike, one of my top criteria would be the modularity of the batteries. My wife has an Electra Townie Go e-bike and she loves it. But the battery is integrated into the downtube and not really user accessible. I also have some friends with REI city e-bikes that have modular, removable batteries - a much better design. But what the industry needs is some standardization. That will drive adoption faster than anything. Additionally, while it is not optimal, if you had a removable battery you could actually carry a spare with you on an overnight trip if you needed to. Sure, its not optimal because of the weight, but it would be a consideration.