Brigham_Rupp profile

I try hard not to call the United States "America," because to me it feels dismissive of others in North and South America and reinforces an exceptionalism we tend to have in the States. At the same time, I wonder why people native to either continent are so anxious to be called by a name originating with an Italian merchant explorer. If anything I would expect them to be bothered by being called Americans in the first place. Thoughts? 

Just thinking out loud now: this is one of my serious struggles with some of these movements in modern society. If we're looking for reasons to be offended, we will surely find them and from some angle every name, every statement, every action can be seen as problematic for someone somewhere. Where is the end of this road? How far do we go to avoid offending, and is there a point at which we say "sorry, you'll just have to cope?" I don't know. I do know in my personal life I will never be able to prevent all possible offenses by those around me, but I can choose not to take offense, and to me that's a very powerful fact.

Good treatment Dave. Thanks. One thought as to why some people might be so bothered: 

It's easy to compare this to a neighbor asking you to turn your music down, and in this specific case I tend to agree: A marginalized group of people asked a company to stop using a word and it's not a big deal for the company to be kind and stop using it. Hard to say there's any harm done to everyone else. With that perspective it becomes easy to dismiss all the pushback as irrational and obtuse (i.e. the Pinkbike comment section), but this angle overlooks what seems to be a broader phenomenon:

I think what we're seeing in the PB comments section is a group of people struggling with society going through a significant shift in culture, morality, and systems of social control. For example, the story about Yeti is one in a long string of incidents that some see as an increasing shift towards a culture of victimhood. (see this scholarly article for food for thought on the topic.) These shifts have occurred throughout history and come with conflict and struggle. The conflict occurs over the rise and decline of competing values, the "rightness" and "wrongness" of which are not always so cut and dry as we'd like to pretend, but instead exist on a continuum where certain values are given higher regard in society than others. 

I'm still trying to decide where I stand in relation to some of these values: Free speech vs. avoiding offense, patriotism vs. globalism, justice vs. mercy, individualism vs. community, capitalism vs. socialism.  While we try to help our societies change for the better, we see people on all sides writing off those with contrary views as obvious fools while we tend to see ourselves as enlightened. I just hope we can be patient with each other and not too cavalier when someone else gives more weight to one virtue when we are inclined to favor another.

Solid review, and pretty much exactly what I expected to hear. Definitely want one of these in the garage next to the Sentinel.

Now that’s what an XC bike made to have fun should look like. Love it.

Great vid. But 50% riding up? Unless you’re a really fast or descend very slowly... it’s more like 85% up for me!

I’m using the IXS Flows and have been loving them so far.

For me it's been pretty simple: since I switched to carbon rims 8 or so years ago, my wheels became something that I pretty much never worry about. Granted, I haven't been on the same set that whole time (sold and purchased a few different sets) but I haven't ruined (or spent time truing) a rim since. I've found them to be far more durable and problem free. Before that, I was replacing alloy rims a couple times a year. Factor in the prevelant lifetime warranties, and if you can get a decent price, it's worth it to me. If they are lighter, that's just a bonus. I also personally like the feel of a carbon wheel, but that could just be in my head or personal preference.

It’s interesting to me that companies often feel the need to say something like this in their marketing for shorter travel bikes: “...leaves you feeling there’s a lot more travel at hand.” Shouldn’t we want the bike because it doesn’t feel like bikes with more travel? Are we all still trapped in the “more travel is better” paradigm that sucked me in 15 years ago?

I’m a devoted Osprey fanboy and have multiple pieces. They just make quality stuff. The Savu is perfectly sized to help you carry what you need for 1-3 hour rides without overdoing it. At $55 USD, it’s one of the best deals in the whole industry.

Ya, wider range... sure, whatev. I guess it doesn’t hurt but I’ve never felt like I needed it (which seems to be the general response to this release: “okay. Thanks SRAM.” And the huge step is lame. I keep hoping for a system that covers the same range in 6 or 7 gears. That’s what I would like. Fewer gears. Heck for my riding in southern Oregon, I think I really only use three or four consistently.