tashi profile

I was hoping that this “produce review” would include something about tomato’s, I can’t find good ones anywhere these days.

Yeah small parts for Shimano brakes would be nice. I won’t buy SRAM anymore if I can help it and I really like that Shimano brakes just work and that they’re relatively affordable.  I always seem to have to retire them because some little seal or piston or something has died, something totally serviceable.  I have basically zero time for wrenching these days but if I could get parts for the Shimano brakes I have I’d for sure find an evening to sit down and get a couple of bikes worth of brakes going again. As is they’ll probably end up in the landfill.

And i for one would totally support a LORDCO model, dot matrix and DOS and all.  If it ain't broke...

27.5” wheels seem to me to be the only thing that is actually problematic to deal with now. 

You little wheel guys really got screwed there - you basically got forced to change to something not compatible, but basically the same as what you were already running.  

10 speed, non-boost spacing and 31.8mm bars are all super easy to deal to come by and still easy to find good stuff new or NOS.

Now if only Shimano would make a brake that’s good AND worth the effort to rebuild...

I have no idea why anyone would get butt-hurt about your articles. To me this one reads like something that describes the virtues of riding to the trail, and some hot tips on how to get it done. I really don’t understand why folks seem to think that because one thing is good, they’re being critized because they’re doing it differently. Just because min-maxed bike is good it doesn’t mean a super bike isn’t awesome also. I gotta wonder if your friend has lingering doubts about his purchase if he gets all defensive. 

Can’t two different things be good?  I used to ride to the trail a LOT. It was good. Now I drive to rides, almost exclusively. It’s good too!  Holy shit!

I’m perfectly comfortable crossing frames off the list that are priced in the Geometron category. Zero loss there for me.

One of the ways that I see this playing out is this:

- industry markets these as mountain bikes

- people use them as mountain bikes

- other people object to motorized vehicles on trails where they're not allowed, and "mountain bikes", motorized and real ones alike, are banned

- mountain biking as a sport splits: one group goes back "underground", one group continues riding the "official" areas and at resorts (who expand to pick up the slack), and one group gives up the sport.  I'm conflicted about how I feel about this scenario, but none of it sounds like "increased sales" to me.  

This tech is good, and has a place, but it may just not be in mountain biking.  They could be trading long-term sales for a short-term bump, and costing their customer base official access in the process.  Some of us have already chosen to not spend our dollars supporting companies (LBS's included; personally I already refer to my LBS a scooter shop to their staff) that are selling them, our numbers will only grow if the above scenario starts to play out.

I've been noticing those myself...

Big ups to Metacomet for taking the time to type out my thoughts on this so thoroughly and entertainingly.

I don’t think that Vic is suggesting that even he hates mountain mopeds.  That is your assumption. He’s saying he’s a mountain biker that comes to this website for mountain biking content and doesn’t want to see mountain moped content take over.  I agree, and at the same time I have no doubt that MM’s are fun as hell.  I just don’t want to lose a good MTB website to a new sport masquerading as the sport I love.

I’m not interested in hearing about mountain mopeds. If you start covering them, to me, you’re choosing to cover a different sport and I will likely stop visiting your website.  Good luck, I don’t really envy the choices you or anyone else in “the industry” are going to have to make in the near future. 

If any bike manufacturers are reading, my future frame purchases will STRONGLY favor brands that don’t sell mountain mopeds.

Posted by: UFO

Posted by: Ddean

To that I ask “so what?”

None of us get the max from our bikes. It doesn’t mean that we should not be riding them. You deserve that Evo. Go get one right away and report back on the size of your smile. Don’t delay! You’ve earned this!!!

Oh don't worry I'm not ever adverse to treating myself. 

My comment was more about the compromises in the SJ Evo that make it what it is. For my intents and purposes, I'm looking less for a downhiller's trail bike but more for a hack's do everything bike -- I ultimately ended up on a Range 29 with more conventional geometry to create more separation from my Chromag.

Yeah I read that review and thought "sounds like a sweet bike, but I bet the regular version is for me."  There's lots to be gained from this new geometry, but if you regularly ride really tight corners, particularly on climbs, than it sounds like there are some significant drawbacks.  Nice thing is that there's starting to be some choice and blending of the approaches.  I'll take a vertical seat tube and slightly slacker and longer front end than my 2014, but I have no interest in what they're doing at the bleeding edge of this geometry.

Posted by: Timv

Posted by: tashi

. I had the hand clinic make me a brace designed to protect it when riding,

Was it the black melty-plastic thing?  Did the restricted movement while wearing it cause less grip strength?

It was a tan, perforated melty-plastic thing with some velcro straps to hold it to my hand.  It didn't restrict my movement in a negative way, just kept my thumb in a grip position.  The intent was to prevent my thumb from folding back again if pushed during the recovery period.  I had less grip strength (for about two years or so I opened a beer with my left hand) due to my torn and repaired ligament, commonly called "skiiers thumb".  Nose dived off a rock drop on A-line warming up for the first Air DH back in 2001...

Yeah they’re not the biggest 2.6 out there, that’s for sure. Vs a 2.35 Minion they look only a little bigger overall, but the size is skewed towards the casing more than the tread, if that makes any sense. Either way, I like the tire and it’s increased volume is nice vs a 2.35 Minion. A 2.6” or 2.5” Minion would be too much tread for me.

Maybe not quite relevant, but my 2.6” Butcher fits a non-boost 9er Pike no problem.

Nah, you’re just being “willfully ignorant” there switch.

I doubt us plebs will ever know the full truth but domestic partisan terrorism isn’t exactly an uncommon thing so I’m not really looking for a conspiracy theory.  Sad!

“I don’t have any reliable information, but I’m going to float a conspiracy theory anyway.”

This is Trump nation in a nutshell.

Does anyone have experience with their lights?  I'm wary of lights that just add more bulbs then claim more Lumens - do you actually get longer throw from doing that or are you just blasting a close area with more light?

Yeah, the hard sell gets to me too.  I have a few buddies who have similar preferences and experience to me who have tried 'em.  They all say that they're a blast, but they also all say that they're not mountain bikes, but lightweight motorbikes.  Not one of them has moved onto riding them, and they ALL say that they wouldn't be appropriate on a bunch of trails around where we live (Victoria), and that they don't want to see them on the trails that they built.  One guy in Nanaimo bought one, uses it as a trail building sled, and also does massive exploratory rides on it.

The marketing says different.  Who ya gunna believe?

Do the eTrons run on the gas motor when the batteries deplete or do they work more like the Volt (gas motor charges the batteries, electric motor still drives the car)?