AntonioGG

This keeps me awake all night every New Year's and July 4th with all the neighborhood idiots that light massive (like pro level) fireworks be there a drought or not.

This is not something I had tried. I'm looking forward to trying this out soon. Thanks!

I'm looking forward to Seth's follow-up of the internals. Though, I bought the 1 liter container. It's way more economical than buying the small bottles, and since it's mineral oil, you don't have the issue with the opened brake fluids. I do love my Hope brakes (have them on 2 other bikes, rode 10k miles in one of them, only had to bleed them when I damaged a hose). The negative against the Hopes is the DOT 5.1 fluid. It's pricey, and it absorbs moisture.

Sorry for piggy-backing onto your post AB, hopefully we both get sorted out here.

My calipers say BL-M987 on them. I forgot, I tried this too. I got them to a point they were decent, but.... ...yeah, it only took a couple of months of riding and some pad wear and I'm back to having to pre-pump the brakes before I really want to brake. I did some calculations and I think I posted them on the other thread. It doesn't take much wear on the pads and disc for the small volume in the tiny cylinder to become a limiting factor.

I do all the work on all my bikes, and bleeding XTR brakes may be one thing that causes me to take it into the shop. There's something about the master cylinder and caliper design that makes it hard for bubbles to come out. I've looked into a syringe adapter to screw onto the master cylinder to draw a vacuum. If you read up on this, you'll find people put their bike vertically (or bleed them off the bike), tap on the lines for a while, leave the cylinder open overnight, etc. I've done all these and I still get not solid feeling brakes. One thing I recommend is to check your disc thickness. I discovered mine were thinner than spec and that was not helping on the brake feel.

When I used to wrench a lot, I used to wash everything, rags, clothes, gloves. People that wrench know that combo smell of sweat, gas, wheel bearing grease, gear oil, regular oil. I always used extra soap and Oxy (2-3x recommended per load). One time I washed rags that were probably too grease soaked to wash and they left grease spots in my washer. I just used some white gas to clean it up. Never had an issue with the smell of gas.

How is Walnut Creek today? Which trails are OK and which are to stay away from?

As of yesterday, trails are closed due to rain Friday night/Saturday early morning.

7.96in in September vs 2.99in average, double the average October precipitation (7.74in vs 3.9in), a bit under average for November (1.73in vs. 2.95in), more than double the precipitation in December (5.84in vs 2.4in), already 0.4inch above the January average (2.58in so far vs 2.2in average) with 12 more days to go.

I think one that fits in the seat tube but has a remote stick-on antenna on the bottom of the seat would work.

what's that piece of furniture on the right rear corner?

Same here with a rental in India. I didn't go off-road but it still took getting used to.

That was my old home trail. It was boring then.

They make them. Aeotec makes a 40A 220V Z-wave outlet but it costs more than some window units. 🙂 The main reason I want it to be automated is to have it run in the coolest part of the day during the summer without having to leave the garage door open. Right now, I put two box fans on the window pointing out, and I crack one garage door. I don't have an AC in the garage. I've tried one of those standing ducted intake units. It worked for hours to get the temp down to 85°C. My double window is too small for a unit the size I need. I mainly needed AC for when I had my trainer in the garage. For working on stuff I don't need the AC. I just point my pedestal fan at me.

Great idea on the proximity sensor to turn on lights. I was just looking more into the exhaust fan and it seems many z-wave devices (compatible with SmartThings and IFTTT hubs) include a temp sensor. For $20 I can get a window sensor that includes a temp sensor, then use weather data to compute the delta and have the hub switch on an outlet. I could also get an indoor air quality monitor that would give me more data and criteria to switch the exhaust fan on (most have CO2, some have VOC sensors too.) My biggest challenge now will be to figure out an air inlet into the garage.

Good idea on the outlet! have a smart things (Samsung) outlet I use in my kids room and control it with a schedule or with my phone. It hadn’t occcurred to me to suggest that. Hmm, now I’m going to look into it to see if there is a smart things temp sensor so I can automatically vent my garage in the summer.

Anyone have any updates on Warda? Even any EE reports would be good. I'd like to go this weekend or next weekend if possible.

https://flatcreekcrossingranch.com Parts of their website are out of date, but the calendar page seems to be updated.

Same as happened to my friend and I last week. We finished 1/4 notch with a light drizzle. I took my tire pressure to the lowest I've ever ridden with. Probably about 15psi on my front 2.35" tires and 22psi on my rear 2.2" tire. Normally I'd have burped that rear tire, but with zero side load it was totally fine. I bet your chubby girl's tires were even better!

I remember bombing down St. Ed's with the rushing water. For me the rain started coming down on the downhill. It was strange going as fast as the water. It was interesting. By the time I got to Thumper it had stopped raining but it was extremely slick. I think it took me 2+ hours because it was mostly walking.

To clarify, I've been riding the trainer a lot the last few months (3 off-road rides in 5 weeks: One in 4C, one at Brushy (got rained on halfway through), and WC on 2 trails this past Thursday). I've also been doing less road riding than ever, and now I'll be doing even less after loosing a fellow endurance MTBer in College Station (RIP Ken Spence). Otherwise, I just ride the hills in my neighborhood. I'm fairly lazy too (lights plus winter gear plus driving in traffic=no thanks) and so I'm not going to the R&I tonight and instead did 1hr at a good effort on my trainer for lunch while I listened/watched a company monthly update. I'll do the "I "part on my couch. 🙂

+1 To clarify, my goal is to flatten to the level of the undisturbed trail. I'm talking about a limited size spot in a trail that has had the mud vertically displaced into a ridge by several sets of tires. It's about the consistency of play dough or modeling clay. Once it hardens, it will take a shovel or other tools and much more work. I'll take pictures the next time I do this.

With different parts of the trail being so different, I think you would need a bunch of local sensors. Note my last post in the R&I thread. I seeing a big disconnect on what people consider OK and not OK to ride.

I rode church hill 6-7 times on Thursday from around 3 to 4:30pm. Now reading y'alls comments, I'm afraid I've been doing it wrong all these years as far as the rules on when it's OK to ride. When you guys say church hill, you mean just the climb part right? I'm racking my brain trying to recall what part of that climb was a mess. Is riding the wet limestone itself the problem? Or was there actual mud (like on the Windy loop first climb) when you guys rode? Here is what I go by when riding, please correct any of these things I'm doing wrong: 1) ride through the puddle if the bottom is firm (most of the time this is true when there's actual water.) 2) if it looks like deep mud (as opposed to a puddle of water), avoid it. If walking off the trail would damage that part of the trail, then don't do that. I've turned around at this point. At places like Brushy where it's very rocky, it's easy to just walk on the rocks and not widen the trail. I look back often to see what my trail looks like. I look at my tires to make sure they are coming up clean. 3) If the mud has ruts, but it is hardening (i.e. improving) I make it a point to ride on the ridges to flatten them out. I do this at point 6 once it starts drying out. I figured it's much easier to flatten things out with tires when the dirt is soft than it is to wait for them to harden and have to do with a shovel. If it's very soft but not sticking, I get off the bike, and I use my tire like a rolling pin to flatten things out. I've done this at peddler's pass recently. I will not ride if I leave more than a knob depth imprint. 4) If the mud is caused by an easy to clear blockage (detritus), I often stop and clear the blockage. I don't ride with a shovel or any sizable tools, but I'll use whatever is handy (sticks, rocks) to "cut through" the ridges on the ruts to let the water drain (I do this frequently at Brushy Creek's Mulligan).