Anita Handle

15 minutes ago, Big_papa_nuts said:

I have to strongly disagree. The Back 40 had almost zero technical challenge, which is a big part of what I enjoy. It also lacked senic appeal and had very little flow, both of which would have made it better.

 

If you like steep climbs and wide gravel trails you'll probably love The Back 40, but if I'm making a drive I'm going to El Paso where they have chunk and vistas.

There's definitely a lot of machine cut stuff, and some people don't like that very much, but I can't see how it's not flowy. It's not rocks but I do consider jumping to be a technical skill and there was plenty of opportunity for that. I like our chunk but it would be nice to see better flow on some of our trails. There's a lot of trail here that just shoots down the steep part (instead of milking it on the contour) and them comes to an abrupt stop at the  bottom and turns.

Either PNW or the One Up are on my list when my Reverb bites the dust.

How would they know it was you? Plus, Craigslist.

2 hours ago, Teamsloan said:

Somewhat related...

Keeping the younger generation away from scooters...with e-bikes. Scott now offers a 24" wheeled ebike.

Man, that thing will be outgrown before the battery is dead!

 

On 12/7/2018 at 7:19 AM, AustinBike said:

Nope.

Let me put on my economics hat for a second (since I use my degree about twice a year these days).

Scooters operate in a different economic sphere. The real danger to bike shops are wives and children. Scooters compete with walking, taxicabs, buses, and ride share. All of these are essentially zero investment activities on the front end with varying degrees of flexibility - mass transit is cheap, per-ride consumption, but are fixed in route/time. Scooters, taxis, and ride share are more expensive but more flexible from a timing and route perspective.

Bikes compete with cars: some investment on the front end and ownership costs. Cars have less flexibility and also incur parking costs. Bikes will compete with self-purchased scooters (not Bird or Lime but the ones you can buy, own and maintain yourself.)

The reason that bike shops are in danger of children is that people spend a lot of money on bikes when they are single. But if they marry a non-biker, that revenue stream either stops or is greatly diminished quickly. Then children come along and there is not enough time. So mid-20's through early 40's you probably see a huge drop in bike shop spending that then kicks in as the kids are self-sufficient or divorces kick in (yeah, dark thought but let's face it, economists don't care about such things, just the facts.) 

If I were a bike shop owner and I had money to throw around on lobbying and trying to juice the market, I would invest in the following:

• Propose legislation to make Tinder, Match and the rest of the online dating sites more difficult to use
• Invest in Trojan and other condom manufacturers
• Lobby to make divorce easier to execute
• Lobby to increase the cost of marriage licenses

Notice that scooters aren't on that list. Shops only compete with purchased scooters and in that domain as a shop, I'd probably start carrying a scooter line as it can be complimentary to the bikes I am already selling.

When you have the time, health and freedom during your youth, you're usually not making much and by the time your earning potential is realized, you've usually taken on other high priority responsibilities, like houses, spouses, children, cars, etc, so I think it all evens out. I'd bet that a higher number of expensive bikes are purchased by husbands or dads than by single young bucks.

I also wonder if Bamwa's point is more valid than one might expect. Mountain bike snobs might not even notice them but most shops carry a line or two of relatively cheap "urban" bikes like Fairdale and Electra. I bet they sell 5 Fairdales for every >$3k MTB. Those types of hipster bikes might go down in sales. Or maybe people who are choosing the scooters are mutually exclusive to people who have a bike as an alternative. It would be interesting to know this user info.

3 hours ago, AustinBike said:

Dog poop bags. Work great in a pinch.

Shitty humor. Just my style.

Red Wing boots, calf length tube socks in Packers colors, Dickies work shorts, wife-beater, and a Dickies work shirt. 

I was just shopping for some kind of good quality bib pants or bib knickers. I don't like the feeling of  a waistband on my riding shorts, especially when I have several layers on, so I'm looking for something with bibs. I think covering my knees would probably be good enough on almost any day I was willing to ride.

I've tried long tights over shorts and neither were bibs so it was squeezing my gut the whole time. hated it and frankly didn't feel all that warm, which I'm sure was due to the particular tights.

Since these will probably be expensive, they'll probably be my Christmas gift to myself.

Shit. And here I am putting the finishing touches on my new Boost Supreme++ 165mm rear axle standard. Now who will I show it to? 😞

Thanks for clarifying.

I went in prior to the crazyt 50% off announcement and I did get a good price on a chain and another small item but I didn't find the bike prices to be drastically lower than the normal Performance discounted prices. Those Breezer steel + hardtails look pretty sweet...

Kent, effing great work.

This is probably a dumb question but what is the outcome of your negotiations? Is it to merely not lose standing or is there the possibility of gaining some additional standing, even if not additional access?

 

Asheville is a friggen awesome little town but I'm not sure if you can ride your bike to much of the good stuff around there. A lot of it is a half hour or more drive out of town. 

I think the rule of needing to be able to ride to all the trails will be limiting. 

Durango is a decent sized town with great trails from right in town as well as trail shuttles to the top of trails like Kennebec Pass and Hermosa Creek. Not sure how costly it is to fly there. 

Flying to Salt Lake City then taking a shuttle or bus to Park City might be a good choice. You can probably ride your guts out from within Park City without ever needing a car.

I would think that a flight then a shuttle to a good mountain town, like Breckenridge or any number of awesome Colorado towns, is a template that might work. Crested Butte, Breck, Salida, etc all have riding that start/ends right in town.

Some places have lots of great riding nearby but almost require a car to really make the most of it. Like Grand Junction/Fruita, you probably *can* connect up between Kokopelli area and GJ Lunch Loops but, man, I'd just rather drive and spend more time on the trails. 18 road is a few miles off the beaten path. Moab is soooo close but no way to do it without a car or a shuttle service. 

I don't know California so FJ might be the hookup there.

Maybe a resort in Lake Tahoe area?

Sedona has lots of trail that is accessible via bike from right in town. The trails basically surround the town there.

BENTONVILLE. You can ride to a shitload of trail if you stay near the Back 40 or Slaughter Pen. 

I'm a giver.

There's another social ride that meets at Walnut Creek on Tuesday in the same range of time, in case you want to join your completely distinct and non-overlapping rides up...

 

I'm curious if you're making drawings/molds so that you can sell them online and ship them or if this is purely a "hand job". heh

I think I'd like a downtube guard to replace my heavy-ass metal one on my Spartan as well as right side chain stay.

 

Your rims are plenty wide for 2.35 or 2.4 tires. 

Yep pretty much was the standard since the beginning of mountain biking. I assume 24mm external. 24mm internal is a more modern XC/trail width.

Ive been pretty impressed with 2.25 Ikons front and rear. I was less impressed with the Ikon 2.35 up front. Thought it would be a big improvement but it seemed more slippery.

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SMOKE/DART NUFF SAID.

10 hours ago, Seths Pool said:

the ONEUP dropper post is absolutely fantastic! I cant think of a single thing I dont like about it. it's <$200, light weight, super quick up and down, cable actuated (with wolftooth remote is primo) just feels nice in quality, and is ultra easy to install and service.

I would recommend this ONE UP dropper to anyone and all of my bike will be getting these once the reverbs die

rock shot "crash replacement" (out of warranty) replacement cost is like $250. just get a one up for ssuuurrrreeeee

Holy crap, the service procedure is SUPER simple! Doable by a home mechanic, for sure. 

https://can.oneupcomponents.com/pages/dropper-service-instructions

I bought a SRAM 10sp chain on saturday for a song.

46 minutes ago, ATXZJ said:

This^

 

It just seems a bit chaotic and difficult to have a line of sight on your product. But hey, who doesn't love stepping over this???????

 

I think they'll start doing a better job of educating their users on etiquette, traffic safety, traffic laws, etc. Either that or they'll end up with a pile of city ordinances in a thousand different places. I was a Pinthouse on Saturday and people had filled up the front patio, cruiser bikes were all over the placed, tucked into the tables, on the sidewalk. Again, it's not the scooters, it's the humans and humans can and do screw up this sort of thing all the time.

 

 

The Reverbs are so expensive to rebuild, they force you to consider just replacing them. Every. Single. Time. 

 

Which brand has good reliability and, more importantly, is reasonable for a DIY to maintain and rebuild? I might switch to that if you can cough up the dough.

I guess the other option is getting the tools and stuff to rebuild it yourself. Did you try bleeding it first?

IMO, if traffic on the trail is low enough for bikes, it is fine for scooters as well. That trail pinches down pretty narrow in quite a few spots, to the point where, on a busy day, it isn't worth my time to try to ride a bike through it. Ringing a bell through a thick wad of runners, walkers and baby stroller pushers is a recipe for douchedom. 

I've seen bikers blasting through there, endangering foot traffic. So, yes, I expect scooter riders to also include a few dumbasses.

I know people hate the scooters and rental bikes but I think they'll eventually be another mode of transport to get people out of cars. In Texas during the summer, I can either take a car or sweat my ass off pedaling a bike or walking somewhere. A small electric vehicle brings another option. 

On 10/10/2018 at 8:58 AM, Teamsloan said:

I'm the out of shape version of Mack_turtle. 6 years ago I ruptured a disc in my back. Since then I've "re-ruptured" it 3 times with minor tweaks happening about once a year. A lot of it is genetics, my discs are apparently thin anyways. But I've certainly not helped it by sitting most of the day staring at screens. My core strength sucks probably as much as my discipline. So it's been tough to get in to a routine to fix it. I pretty much want to stay in shape so that I can ride.

Maybe some daily yoga? I've done a decent number of yoga videos from Abi Carver, most are 15 minutes and she focuses on the specific needs of bikers either by targeting the spots that we over use or under use. Lots of hip opener stretches, core strength, neck and shoulder stretches, balance poses, leg stretches. Her new site is on the pricey side, imo. i never realized how bad my balance was, how weak my core was and how... un-limber I was until I did yoga.  https://yogaformountainbikers.com/

You can get access to her videos for less than that via The Sufferfest plus you get whatever else comes with The Sufferfest.

https://thesufferfest.com/pages/pricing-information

 

Bicycle Sport Shop sells demos, rentals and trade-ins and they've got a sale on the discounted price. Some really good deals on Yeti's. They told me the demo bikes have full warranty but you should verify. I saw a SB5.5 and it was in pristine condition and a couple grand off of full retail.

https://www.bicyclesportshop.com/pre-owned-bikes

 

For the training types, Fascat coaching is having 50% off their training plans. I have no experience with them, only have heard that Frank Overton is a respected coach. Use code fascat50 

https://fascatcoaching.com/

 

What good deals have you found?