Barry

The older, "stretched" chain will wear the wear down the teeth of the cogs and chainring. The primary issue is that your new chain will skip over your old cogs or chainring when you apply a lot of power to them in a climb. Or in some cases you can just have bad shifting. Back in the 9 speed days I was really happy with my ProLink chain length checker. But I've tried a couple of newer 11 speed chain checkers, and they never seem to be as reliable.

I always keep my chain handy until after my first ride on a new chain! Interestingly chain life can have a lot to do with your cassette and chain ring--aluminum chainrings and cogs mean much more regular chain changes. In the old days of 2x and 3x, aluminum rings would wear down on me at a rate of about 4-500 miles per chain. So if I went over about 400 miles on a chain, I knew I was killing my aluminum chainrings. But with narrow-wide and 1x, I'm able to get 1000+ miles on a chain, and I got 6000+ miles out of a chainring last year. And then my first version of the e13 11sp cassette was aluminum for the largest 3 cogs. And I was wearing that 3rd down cog at a rate of about 3-400 miles. Thankfully e13 changed it up so that only the 46 tooth is aluminum, and now again I can get upwards of 1000+ miles on a chain without killing the cassette.

He is a larger fellow who already likes drops on his hardtail. He'll probably be hitting bigger and bigger stuff on his new bike. I would absolutely suggest not buying a used bike, outside of the odd scenario that it comes with a full warranty, like some demo bikes. @quixoft, whatever you go with, buy new and get that warranty. And as a 190+ lb rider myself, I have broken a ton of aluminum frames. But modern carbon fiber seems to hold up to my abuse much better than aluminum. My Santa Cruz is the only frame I've ever gotten more than 1500 miles on without breaking, and it's currently sitting at 7K miles with no issue. And I second the idea that you may want to look hard at Guerrilla Gravity. They're a great company to work with, and their pricing is spectacular. They've somehow managed to make some of the cheapest (and they claim most durable) carbon frames available, all while building their frames in the US. Unfortunately this doesn't support local business at a time that they need it, and it also means you can't demo it.

I think the chart is a bit out of date. There may be a simple chart on this site, but I haven't found it. You may have to use their search function to find a particular news source--but they're all there. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/

Craigslist missed connection?

We've also using the smoker a ton. Brisket, turkey, chicken, pork shoulder, fatties, and whisky cheeseburgers in the style of BBQPitBoys--we followed them exactly except cheddar instead of swiss, and only 1lb burgers instead of 1.5lb. Now I really need to smoke up some salmon! Those whiskey cheeseburgers though!

But it has been explained why they choose not to. Yet you ask again as though it hasn't been answered. I don't care how earnestly someone thought the newest Alex Jones video was worthwhile. That's the guy who pushed 9-11 and Sandy Hook conspiracy--I'm not clicking that BS.

I'll take it that you're not specifically referring to me. But "why not actually listen to the video" has been answered multiple times. Why do you ignore the answers that you've received?

At a minimum, those organizations will issue retractions when they are shown to be wrong. Freakin' Epoch likes to point to retractions like they're a bad thing.

I like Peddlers Pass, but I'm glad that's not all we have. I particularly like it as a contrast to Deception. But if it was either/or, I'd take Deception no question. But both are an example of trails that are a little too dense, but it works anyway.

Right. I was only addressing density. Where do you mean? If you're talking about FRR, when was the last time you were there? There were a couple of places with ruts, but they weren't really flat spots--they were slight fall-lines. Anyway almost all of that has been repaired for now. Presumably it'll rut again, and be repaired again until he decides to route it not on the fall line. And that actually yields more trail since fall lines are straight.

Flat Rock Ranch is about as packed with trail as you'd want a trail system to be without feeling too packed. FRR has 1300 sq ft and has about 36-37 miles. It probably has room for 40 total if the north west side was more utilized. ~ 1 mile per 36 acres. WC feels a little too trail dense (I'm not saying it should have less trail). It has only 293 acres and about 14 miles total. ~1 mile per 21 acres. If you wanted to pack 500 acres fairly densely, I suppose you could plan for 1 mile per 30 acres. That would give you 17 miles.

No, this is the free version.

Strava has a quite good means of tracking component life. I knew Strava had this ability, but I can't believe I waited this long to really start using it. So I went back and plugged most of my consumable parts into their install date. Pretty good stuff, but it would work really great with a couple of changes from Strava. 1. Sometimes components are removed and then later reinstalled. it would be great if you could "pause" a component, or simply "unretire" it. It seems once you retire it, it's done. 2. There isn't a dummy field. I want to track my bearing life, but bearings are not an option, nor is there a "make your own" option. So I added a Stem component, but it's really bearings. 3. Alarm settings would be helpful. My chain gets to 800 miles? Send me a notification. And related to # 3, Strava could actually monetize this with some relationships with Amazon or Jenson. And hell, the whole reason I don't pay for premium, is that I don't find any of the premium functionality useful. If there was an advanced functionality here, this is something I'd pay for.

I was there Friday afternoon. If mint was a 10, it was a 9.5.

I must know...for what does this acronym stand!?

I don't mean to pile on... Neither is needed with a proper clutch'd rear derailer. The only thing this bike needs (assuming you have a proper clutch'd derailer [by that I mean Shimano]), is a whisky flask cage. Unfortunately my ridiculous photo was only missing one thing...my flask in my whisky flask cage. Whah-whah:

Could I use it to feed squirrels dry corn from a distance?

Now way they'd let me operate a tank with my blood alcohol level at that particular moment.

44cm bars and 3" tires...what's this, amature hour? How about 50cm (at the hoods) and 4.8" tires! And of course a drop post. I call it FattyFattyDropDrop. Joking of course, that bike looks like a blast, enjoy!

This is so true. The fact that flu-like illnesses are way down, yet our death rates from flu-like illnesses are going to be about normal (if we're lucky) is a big clue.

LOL, CiCis or PIzzaHut buffet FTW? Oof.

So it's the best pizza casserole, but not good enough to spell correctly? 😉 Other than the satisfactory Mangia, the only one on the list I've had is Uno (franchise), and it was wicked gross. I think I would have preferred sicilian, or (retch) Pizza Hut.

Last time I was there was last year's EB. At that point, the chunky climb had been dramatically sanitized and is unfortunately very easy now. Maybe erosion will "fix" the sanitation over time, HOL style. Maybe it already has?

No matter how good the pie is fresh, the next day toaster oven version is better.