mack_turtle

I made a few attempts at putting dirt drops on mountain bikes and I could never make the fit work. Drop bars add a lot of reach and reduce the stack on a bike, so a bike that fits you with a flat bar is usually going to feel enormous with a drop bar. Getting the hooks in a position you can reach comfortably usually means a bike with a tall head tube or a very uprights stem. Kudos if you can make it work without too much drama.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/finding-your-sweet-spot-handlebar-width.html This is pretty accurate.

5'9" with a 760mm SQLabs x12 handlebar and 50mm stem on a hardtail with a 120mm fork, or rigid fork depending on the mood I am in.

What are you going to do with that old fork? Boost?

Believe me, I tried it. The best but powder. But powder the likes of which you wouldn't even believe. It mixes with sweat under pressure and turns your undies into concrete.

I have not followed TD in years past. Is this year particularly brutal?

On working outside- I lasted less than six months as a commercial electrician a few years ago before taking a big pay cut to work in a bicycle shop again. I worked in several buildings that summer, buildings with no electric other than temporary lights and a few fans, but walls to trap heat in. Long days in 100+ in boots, jeans, hard hat and carrying heavy tools around tool it's toll on my soul. Iwould lay in bed in a puddle of my own sweat every night trying to get to sleep knowing I had to get up at 4:45 and do it again 6-7 days a week. Lots of overtime pay but I got seriously depressed. I could not drink enough water to stay hydrated, Gatorade didn't help either. Mad respect for people who can do a job like that. That kind of heat makes me not want to ride my bike in modern technical fabrics let alone denim.

Chumba Sendero looks perfect! https://www.chumbausa.com/sendero-steel-mountain-bike-29er-27plus

For example, lots of my old, conservative relatives were over the moon for the headline "FBI AGENT SUSPECTED IN HILLARY EMAIL LEAKS FOUND DEAD IN APPARENT MURDER-SUICIDE" in 2016, right before the election. It was reported first in the Denver Guardian. It took me ten seconds to research the Denver Guardian and point out the error, but those people did not care one bit that the article and the entire source were 100% bullshit.

As a person with a education and professional background in newspaper journalism, that whole thing reeks of fake news. I admit my own bias, but sources matter. Every source is subject to some bias because they are human, but some are worse than others. Hot take: Rightwing fake news is more prevalent than left-wing fake news because more conservative audience leans older and less inclined to engage in critical thinking.

Facebook is for old people now. Young people are snapping or something. I wish SSUSA had a dedicated website but I don't see one.

No. Edit: on second though, try it. See what happens.

This is the extent of my knowledge of the event. I learned about it for the first time yesterday. Just passing it along. Interact with the FB page if you want to know more.

https://www.facebook.com/singlespeedusa/ I am not associated in any way with this event, just passing it along. Contact the organizers via Facebook if you want to know more.

https://bikepacking.com/bikes/tour-divide-rigs-2019/ That age spread! Quite a few single speeds in the bunch, actually. Think about all the mechanical issues you avoid that way. You might not climb or cruise as handily as the gearies, but you'll blow past them when the snap a hanger. Not a lot of suspension to be seen among the riders at all. Rohloff hubs on quite a few bikes too. Surprised there are no gearbox equipped bikes shown. I think they started with 150 riders, and not all of them are really competitors. Need some chips to go with all those Salsas too.

Steel toed boots and jean shorts too.

What's the Euro size on those? 43, 44?

I am down for a long weekend of this kind of thing and I probably have all I need to make it happen except the will to just do it. Careto share your routes for these?

There it is. Not this lifetime, but I could do better for myself in that regard.

I really need to dig into some interviews to see how people pull off stuff like this. I am lucky if I can leave my immediate neighborhood for more than a few hours to ride, let alone take a month + off to ride the whole country top to bottom. I'll have to start with a weekend excursion to a state park to start because this kind of thing appeals to me more than brappin berms.

I've been watching the dots. Wilcox subtly there down the gaunlet a few days ago by suggesting she wants to be the first female to win TD.

I split two pool noodles and zip tied them to my rims. Dropped 29x2.4 tires from 24-28 psi to 16-18 psi. We'll see how that holds up

I happened upon a jar of silver anti-seize compound the other day. Anyone need it? Also, looking for a short-ish stem and narrow handlebar and some 26" tires to replace the ones on my wife's bike. She's short and has a small Cannondale hardtail with a long stem that's probably miserable to ride.

Also not a snake, but I saw this bad MFer on the Latta Branch Greenbelt (gravel path west of Dick Nichols) a week or two ago. Apparently they have a nasty bite. 8-10" long.

Can you post this on some Austin MTB Facebook pages? Can I? I could share it on the Biking ATX subReddit as well.