mack_turtle

my job is in north Austin and I have to be in the office 2–3 days a week now, which is stupid. I've made a second full-time job out of finding a new job for the past six months +. custom-tuning your resume and cover letter for 10-20 job listings each week is exhausting. I've had three interviews and literally hundreds of "after careful consideration..." emails. I kept them all for a while but I was running out of storage space in my inbox. most likely, I didn't get those jobs because I am not qualified to do much of anything, but also some 22 year old straight out of college with $100K in loan debt and a degree custom-tailored for the job swooped in and took it for half the salary I was asking for. damn whipper snappers!

more dangerous self-disclosure: i've been pursuing a certificate in UX design. I don't have time to ride my bike because I've spent every waking moment with this course for the past two months. I don't have the certificate yet, but what I do have, after covering the first five months of what is supposed to be a six-month course in six weeks, is a string of tension headaches, a sleep disorder, and probably a panic attack. as a bonus, I have discovered that I'm really bad at it. but i'm so close to finishing that I'm going to see it through. I realized recently that I was making more money in 2008 than I am now, and I'm trying to make up for the past decade + of missed opportunities. if that means not riding for a few weeks, I hope it does not break me in the process.

Full disclosure: just turned 40 and I feel like I should adopt gears and suspension. I've only briefly experimented with gears and never owned a bike with rear squish. Most people treat themselves when they reach a special birthday. I went hiking at Pedernales Falls SP. I might be able to convince myself that I'm worth the expense. My wife would not recover from the laughing fit she'd suffer if I told her how much a bike like that costs, so I need another source of stoke in the meantime. I keep telling myself that when I get a raise, I can do it, and then the cost of living shoots up my nose and it's back to just maintaining the same bike with hand-me-down parts and DIY damper service. I just bled the FIT4 on my 2016 Fox fork rather than drop $200 on such an old fork. Expressing this is really whiney, but after all these years of trying to advance my career with night school that goes nowhere makes me want to just take up hiking and forget it. Hence my loss of stoke.

do you need that many spacers on the left side? seems excessive. could you get away with removing at least one of them?

here's a little research I did on various multi-tools that I found compelling a while back. in a hilarious turn of events, I didn't buy any of them. Fix It Sticks $34 51g Mineral mini bar $40 112g Granite Stash $55 57g PB Swiss $40 91g Blackburn Big Switch $35 spurcycle $70 90g Lezyne storage drive $25 77g Uniche ratcheting tool $30 136g

I'd like to hope I'll never need this, but if one was to plan a very long bikepacking trip, it could come in handy. https://uniorusa.com/products/pocket-spoke-and-freewheel-remover-wrench

On a serious note, I seem to have lost my stoke. Haven't touched a bike in over a month. I thought trying something new might help me find it again. You might be right.

I have zero interest in a FS bike, and all the demo bikes I've seen listed are purely FS. I'd love to take a spin on a somewhat modern hardtail like a Chameleon or a Honzo. Consistent with my style, nothing makes me happy. I might need to consider something like Outerbike as my only opportunity.

Any other demo days coming up? Is there a consolidated calendar of such things? Bikes are expensive and I don't wanna consider buying something that I've not ridden.

yes. I looked them up, and the threaded part of the bolt is 12mm. the outer shoulder is 10mm. so you can't thread the bolt completely out of a standard dropout. you loosen the bolts and let the axle fall drop right out. if you get some M12 x 1.0 (again, double check that thread pitch) and turn down the part that fits inside the dropouts, you could make some. still, I'd ask Chris King why in the world they stopped making something for the thousands of hubs that are still spinning out there. I found a few for sale by looking up the manufacturer part number: PHB507-10

another long shot: apparently these bolts are M12x1.0. you'll have to confirm that thread, but you'd need the end of the bolt just under the head turned town to 10mm to fit in conventional dropouts. it would not be hard for someone with a lathe to take some fine-thread M12 bolts and modify them to fit in the frame. I have seen this question come in a few other places and no one can find them. that's really weird that Chris King simply discontinued them, considering how many people love those hubs and they never seem to die.

derp, that BB number is right on the cup in the photo: https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/component/deore-m610/SM-BB52.html I just realized that Shimano designs these bottom brackets with a stack of three different-sized spacers on the drive side so that a chaincase can fit. because, doesn't everyone want to put XT cranks on their Omafiets? if you wanna get really nerdy about drivetrains: https://nsmb.com/articles/were-being-slowly-boiled-super-boost/

I'm not certain you need all those spacers. that appears to be a BB from the era of SM-BB70, so measure the width of the frame's BB shell (68 or 73 mm) and check that you have the right amount: https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/si/SI-1L60A-003-ENG.pdf if you have the right amount, moving one of the drive side spacers to the left side is not going to hurt anything, but will move the chainring over a tad.

Dopesick is on Hulu. story of how Purdue Pharma got Oxy everywhere and the death toll that followed. I lost someone close this way, so this is hard to take in. I want to look away but I can't.

it looks like the invitation to bid on construction of the Veloway section of the trail ends today. so that part is moving along! https://violetcrowntrail.com/violet-crown-trail-veloway-to-circle-c-trail-invitation-to-bid/ more maps and updates are here https://violetcrowntrail.com/explore/ The only part that you literally can't ride is anything south of that Wildflower Center land and some owned by City of Austin.

VCT as it stands is the main trail along Barton Creek up to the "Spec's" entrance near Brodie. It offically picks up again at Convict Hill/ Brush Country-Latta, basically behind Costco and under MOPAC. It continues past Dick Nichols park, back under MOPAC and up to Davis. it wiggles through a neighborhood to the south and crosses Slaughter Lane. it technically ends at two bridges they built over Slaughter Creek near the Veloway. Of course there is singletrack after that. I think the plan is to make it wrap around the Veloway to the cul de sac at the end of La Crosse. from there, I guess it has to go through or around Wildflower Center land to the new paved trail at SH45/MOPAC.

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2022-02-14/construction-starts-today-on-mile-long-missing-link-in-violet-crown-trail?fbclid=IwAR3OSyqHGN08Gr7hgLF00yFVYUS87egMXhV1Y49zySOrdPP3sONgUwlK63A looks like they are finally connecting the Sunset Valley Home Depot through Indian Grass to MOPAC. I don't think we'll lose much interesting singletrack over this. the full "Valero Loop" will be interrupted for a while. They'll probably build a nice bridge at the crossing on Williamson Creek and some sort of smooth passage under MOPAC near the former Randall's on William Cannon. more wet-weather friendly trail!

TNRCC on that map means it's been a long time!

I know that James guy from somewhere. I'm not terribly familiar with everyone in the bike shop scene. where did he work before this?

Me: I can't get past this stupid hangup in my life! George Watsky: I will soon defeat you I will build a bridge above you Or I'll tunnel underneath you I will eat you and excrete you and I'll feed you to the flowers If I need to I will go right through you and absorb your f_cking powers.

Ask your denist to zip those razor tooth edges out of your mouth. I don't need to bite down hard on mine so they last a long, long time.

when I worked at REI, we had pillows and big beanbags to stuff into backpacks for customers to walk around the store with a weighted pack. I learned the basics of adjusting a pack to fit the wearer and load it correctly. I sold a LOT of Osprey hiking packs based on these tests walks. everyone said these packs were way more comfortable when loaded down.

if a company has to replace something multiple times over the lifetime of the product, they're going to lose a lot of money. they're banking on their product having good materials and craftship, so actually replacing a well-made product should be rare enough that they'll make more sales based on the customers' peace of mind.

the realtor who found this house for us stays in touch, so I'll check with her.

to clarify, there's a built-in pantry next to the stove. like, right next to the stove. so there's a wall on the left side of the stovetop, making a lot less space for pot handles, a giant PITA. We'd like a countertop there with cabinets above and below. The walls of the pantry don't go all the way to the ceiling, as the ceiling follows the slope of the roof up, and there's a useless ledge on top of the pantry. so it's not structurally important. there's also a box that sticks out of the wall above the cabinets. the cabinets aren't attached to this box. unless there's HVAC stuff in that box, it seems to be just weird '80s aesthetic, taking up room where taller cabinets should go. there's also a "peninsula" of countertop with a sink and dishwasher under it, and we'd like that to be an island countertop. however, there might be vital plumbing inside that wall. I don't know how to find out without cutting a big hole in the wall. there is certainly electric in there for outlets and power to the dishwasher and garbage disposal. an architect might be helpful here, but we don't know where to start otherwise. I don't feel comfortable telling a capable contractor, "take down this wall and put that there, and that there," without knowing if a) it will actually work and b) if it will look ugly and detract from the value of the home long-term. in case anyone cares, I started drawing it.