The Tip

On 6/13/2021 at 11:19 AM, Barry said:

I might be late to this thread. But IMO Durango proper has some of the least interesting trails I've seen in Colorado. You're way better off driving to Phil's World or north to Hermosa. Still, it's a great town. And I did a reasonably fun ride there from the hotel. 

https://strava.app.link/ZeBkAAaK3gb

https://www.strava.com/activities/5490832127

I didn't have a big ride, but I agree with Barry. I was disappointed in this ride. Lots of climbing with no payoff. I kept thinking at points in the ride, "the trail builder wasted this resource." 

I mean, it's riding, which is good of course. And I rode from our hotel, so that was great. 

You title it Caprock Canyon but the mtbproject link takes me to a Palo Duro Canyon ride. So not sure what you are actually doing.

54 minutes ago, AustinBike said:

.Oh, and another tip. Until you are really, really dialed in on your bike and riding every week, always show up a half hour early. Get your bike set up and pedal it a half mile in the parking lot. This will help you ensure that everything is ready to go. I hate the people that pull up at 8:59 for a 9:00 ride and have to get dressed, pump up their tires and check their drivetrain. Do you friends a favor, get there early. Better yet, do all of that at home before you even leave.

Word! This is not hard to do. Folks, please take heed.

On bacon; I now carry a preloaded bacon strip in my hydration pack that I can get to without taking the pack off. I learned this trick from a friend on a ride when he got a puncture. He reached in to his "holster" and whipped out his preloaded bacon, looked at the hole for about three seconds to determine if the sealant was going to work or not, decided it wouldn't, and stuck the bacon in the hole. He barely lost any air and could have kept riding. Very cool.

Any more input about Durango? It's going to be a stop for us next week. Is there anything you can ride to from in town?

Congratulations! Very nice.

I have plans to be there June 20th. I've never been to a bike park, not even Spider yet, so I'm excited about it.

We've been watching this and enjoying it. In this context it's a person that is not so good at their craft but making a buck off of it anyway.

5 hours ago, Barry said:

As a fellow recent lip injury recipient, I can certainly sympathize. I was lucky enough to have an urgent care facility open at 2AM and super close by, and a buddy to get me there. I was unlucky enough to need 11 stitches for my repair though (the installer claimed it was 12, but the un-installer only found 11). 

How's that healing up anyway? Ya gonna live?

5 hours ago, ATXZJ said:

I believe the market has no obligation to morality, only to produce profit so I don't fault a snake for being a snake.

Yup, and the market is made of corporations. 

Look up fiduciary in the dictionary. It uses "company" as an example of a fiduciary responsibility. 

"the company has a fiduciary duty to shareholders"

A corporations ONLY responsibility is to make profit for the shareholders. And when the board of directors says something like, "let's start donating five cents of every unit we sell to feeding African children," they are only doing that to project a better image to their client base. To sell more. To make more profit. That is what a corporation does.

2 hours ago, ATXZJ said:

Isn't all investing gambling? To me, Wall street is just a giant casino where the house always wins, and we'd be better off without it. 

 

Ha! That's what my other kid said. "The stock market is how rich people gamble." Maybe over simplified, but yes, almost all investments are gambling.

12 hours ago, Lacch said:

 

- should I take on the repair myself and keep learning by making mistakes? (but, I really want to get back to riding asap)

 

 

Back up bike! 

I know that doesn't work for everyone, but it sure takes a lot of the "I want to ride" pressure off, about working on your own bike.

I've tried stuff sometimes and just couldn't do it. So I take the bike to the shop but still am able to ride the back up.

24 minutes ago, Mattlikesbikes said:

 start throwing small $ at new coins. Let it sit for years

Letting it sit is not required. He was visiting us and was on his laptop. He waited for the launch of a new coin and got it right then. Sold it 20 minutes later. "Dad, I just made $8,000."

But another one he bought 400,000 coins of at five cents. But he still has those because they didn't shoot up. 

It's really been a wild west kind of thing.

My kid (27) has been trading crypto for about two years. He got into these penny ones. Buys at .02, sells at .05.  He did that until he could trade in bigger ones. He has a good bit of Ethereum now. He has taken a bit of a hit lately of course, but at one point he was up 100X  from his initial investment. 

He has told me a lot of amazing "what if" misses too. "If I had held that," or, "bought that at that it would be worth this now." I laugh at him some saying hindsight is 20/20.

I'm a bit of a gambler so I've set up a Coinbase account too. Just to play around some. But a news letter guy I read has big doubts about it. Governments have always controlled the people by controlling their money supply. They will figure out a way to control this too. Either directly or by heavy taxation somehow.

Well, after all, the guy IS a blogger/YouTube dude. He assumes that people want to hear him blogging away. Personally I prefer to watch trail videos where the rider is commenting on things. WAY more so over listening to someone's choice of music. Even music I like I don't like hearing on videos. 

My video watching preference in order: 1) Rider commenting on stuff, 2) Just an open mic with no talking, 3) Music (that I can mute and watch in silence)

And next time I see Wes I will have him autograph my helmet. (Note to self; start carrying a sharpie in my camelback.)

32 minutes ago, AustinBike said:

I could see TCAD saying "thanks for bringing up the fact that the identical property is lower, we'll take care of that." And not in your favor.

That's exactly what happened with a group of properties along Lake Austin. I forget the details, but one guy bitched about not being exempt, "like my neighbors." They swooped in and started charging all of them. 

Pretty sure that guy wasn't invited to anymore neighborhood parties!

😄

Well yes and no. At the time of your riding it, the FIRST tunnel was clean. If you had ridden that one your bike wouldn't have looked like it wrestled John Candy in "Stripes."

But, being the path finder that you are, your basic instinct (spidery sense?) proved to be correct. You chose the same tunnel that nature chose to keep the most clear. Nature just needed some help in fine tuning it. (shovel and squeegee!) 

For you non-Facebook folks, here's some news. There is now a trail that goes from LaCrosse, close to the Veloway parking lot, to the north end of House Fire, utilizing a tunnel that goes under Mopac. You can now ride dirt, avoid cars on the street, and avoid the lights at Mopac and LaCrosse, to get to that point.

https://www.strava.com/segments/27803515?filter=overall

There are six tunnels side by side that go 150 yards under Mopac. Use the third tunnel from the north end. It has been cleaned up. The north half of that third tunnel is dirt/mud/rock free. 

The first tunnel was initially cleaned up to be used but the big rain event messed it up. That third tunnel was relatively clean after the rain event so I'm hoping that further rain events will just make it more clean. Any mud and rock that was on the north half of that tunnel was scraped to the south half of the tunnel

24 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

I should email the person with the stem cap:

"I've been looking for one of these FOREVER! When can we meet up? I'll bring cash." then show up, look at the stem cap, and "change my mind" and just walk away.

"Oh. It's bronze. I thought the ad said brass. Never mind."

3 hours ago, natas1321 said:

..but the mosquitoes were out in force today.
 

I think you need to ride a little faster!

"Although mosquitoes seem fast when you are trying to swat them, they are actually slow flyers. The average flight speed of a mosquito is 1 to 1.5 miles per hour, which is slower than butterflies, bees, and virtually every other flying insect."

I have solved the problem for myself. I designed "Carl's Cool Thing." It's a short section of a big pool noodle that holds the hydration pack off my back. It works very well. I cannot imagine going out in the heat without an adequate supply of water

"My" realtor...actually a golfing buddy that helped my son buy a house, sent me a comp from a house in my rent house's neighborhood. He wants me to sell it of course. Anyway, the comp house was sold at $483/square foot. Yes that's right, get your calculator out right now, I know you're doing it; putting in YOUR house's square footage. 😄

It really is crazy.

8 hours ago, ATXZJ said:

 the worst crashes seem to happen when someone breaks out the camera 🤣

 

Or is holding your beer.

I am going to get one for my wife. We were riding some hills in East Texas and she was not having a good time with the climbing. She was LOVING the downhill runs though. Imagine that!

I'm going to get one that is bigger than the perfect size for her. The reason is that I want to ride it too 😄. I'm going to take it to the Meridian Bowl and wear out that battery! 

I hoping to get one that has everything we want for around 5K. There was a very slightly used one on Craig's List for just under 5K (just below it's list price) a few weeks ago and I vacillated too long on pulling the trigger. I won't make that mistake again. It might be awhile before one that I want is available.

Ugh! Not another spaghetti factory! 

This town is going to shit.

1 minute ago, taco_junkie said:

 the inaugural C&D Gone Wild weekend!

Winner!

We kept trying to come up with something. Done! 😄

But that is exactly what it is. It's a Crank and Drank that you don't have to go home from.