hankthespacecowboy profile

Thanks to your earlier Bead Dropper / CushCore reviews, I bought 3 Bead Droppers with my CushCore inserts; they are the tire levers we should have had all along! 

My lady is as obsessed with gardening as I am with bikes; some of the larger plastic planters are great for rim wrestling.

Handguards for bikes are right up there with dropper posts for advancements in mountain biking that should have happened decades ago. Perhaps it's because I grew up in a throttle twisting culture rather than a roadie culture, but few things have hampered the development of mountain bikes as much as the unspoken, reflexive question, "What would Fausto Coppi think?" to every bit of product development that could potentially improve the experience of riding bicycles off road.

Another proud member of the Zee Luddite drivetrain devotees here. In my younger, less financially stable days, I experienced multiple episodes of months at a time of not being able to ride my otherwise functioning bike due to destroyed dangly derailleurs. Call it PTSD, but I have absolutely zero interest in the new drivetrains that have become even more expensive & dangly. Now that I have middle-aged purchasing power, I buy Zee derailleurs 4 at time (roughly equivalent to buying 1 XTR derailleur) as a hoarding response. 

I run them with the Goat Link, and a cassette in the 40-42t range. Current setup on my Dreadnought is 11-40 cassette w/ Hope EVO 165 cranks, and 30t chainring. Was running a 28t, but found I was spinning out on flatter, faster trails. Swapped out for a 30t before our Oaxaca sabbatical, and have been regretting the stiffer gearing on steep climbs. Probably would have been better off to leave the 28t on for this trip, and swap to the 30t when I get back home to Colorado.

On the thin kerf / battery saw blues : I recently purchased a Stihl MSA 120 after trying a fellow trailbuilder’s 140. It’s become my favorite saw for clearing corridor in high desert pinyon & juniper. It uses a more standard size chain & bar, and I am about half a dozen battery re-charges in on the stock chain without any re-sharpening love. On cuts longer than 6”, it now states to demonstrate some drift. Remembering to check the oil has been the biggest challenge, as the battery generally out last the oil capacity. In the spirit of min-maxing, I went for the cheapest, lightest saw, and spurlged on extra, larger capacity batteries, which had really played to the saw’s strength. No, you are not going to fell trees, or buck up firewood, but not having to carry gas, and having a noticeably lighter saw package has made it my go-to choice in the high desert.

The Rogue Hoe 115 FR is one of my favorite tools in their line-up. Far more effective than either McLoeds or regular rakes in the loose, rocky soil that makes up much of our conditions in the high desert / Central Rockies. Sharpen the outside edge of tines, and you have a excellent root chopping / light benching tool as well. Rogue Hoe are my favorite tools by far, but in 7+ years of ordering from them, they have never managed to get anything out to me in anything less than a 2-3 month lead time.

Maybe it's because I was influenced by O'Mara, Wardy, and Bailey as a youth flicking through moto magazines, but I'm all about having a proper visor on my helmet. The Giro Switchblade, and Tyrant Spherical have been my favorites for echoing that '80's open-face vibe, and the visor is long enough to actually be functional in glare protection. 

From another perspective, I just got into skiing a few years ago, and have been perplexed & disappointed by the lack of visor options for ski helmets. The likelihood of being caught in conditions of flaky precipitation falling from the sky, or ducking a snow-laden branch would seem to champion the pragmatism of visors, but since none of the World Cup pros bombing the Hahnenkamm wear visors, no self-respecting skier would be caught dead with a visor adequate to their local conditions.

I have the '21 St-Evo, which is a bit shorter travel (140?) than the '22, and doesn't have the head angle adjustment features. Of course, I knew I had to try it in the low position, so I set it up with 145mm Profile BMX cranks, which gives the best of both worlds in corner-schralping ability, and nearly eliminating rock strikes at the same time. Loved the bike on the descents, but the summer I had it built up had me seriously questioning my fitness at I had magically become the slowest rider on every group ride, and was beginning to loathe the idea of riding bikes. After taking the bike to three different establishments for hopes of diagnosis, I finally detected a roached wheel bearing over the winter when I had time to carefully check the bike over without being in a rush to make it to the next ride. In the meantime, I built up a Forbidden Dreadnought, which astonished me with its climbing composure, but reading this review makes me want to get Stevo back together, and compare the pop v. plow factor of the two bikes.

I jumped into the deep end of the alt-drop bar pool with the 660 Crust Towel Rack on my steel Hakkalugi. Paired with 45c Panaracer Fire Cross knobbies, and Gevenalle shifters, it has been a glorious not-quite road, not-quite mtb ride for exploring local options that would be too boring on a mtb, and too challenging for a road bike. I chew very modest mileage.

Not to distract from the key take-away of the value of being conscious of our limits as we ride, even as bikes & trails tempt us into riding beyond our limits, but...... Couldn't the argument of the insidious of danger of blue flow trails with  open sight lines, lack of technical obstacles, and increased rates of speed be apply to road riding as well?

I didn't think about it until I read this article, but now that you mention it, the savings accrued from staying with a Zee 10 spd drivetrain has indeed been about the same as the cost of buying a ticket for our annual pilgrimage of gustatory & singletrack pleasures in Mexico...