krisrayner profile

This hits home for many reasons.  My father was a self employed mechanic who kept many, many things for that "just in case" scenario.  Pretty sure I overcompensate for that by throwing away many good things because I tripped over it twice and got mad. But between cycling and my recent adoption of motorcycling, I'm on a dangerous precipice. An older friend of mine passed away a little bit ago. He was an old time motorcycle magazine employee (advertising) and had so many unfinished projects I tried to help him with, but inevitably one thing leads to another.  He had a lot of cool vintage stuff, like old race Triumphs that actually ran at Bonneville.  But after he passed, one mans treasure turned into his spouses nightmare.  What to do with all of it? The only one who knew the true worth was long gone.  Recently I found this article on Revzilla and it reinforced the need to simplify.  I am by no means a minimalist, but I work hard to not have sentimental attachment to things that qualify for the house fire scenario.

I agree with that method. I suspect the vendors that do the opposite attract more business from impatient people though.

Not knowing if I was going to stick with night riding, I bought a couple lights off Amazon for less than $100. Found out I enjoyed it but when one of my lights died mid-descent on single track, found out I wanted quality lights instead. If your going to night ride, a good light is less than the cost of an ER room visit.

Good to know about these.  Currently running Derby carbon rims that I picked up used for a cheap price, but I’ve broke one of the rims already. I got a crash replacement and steppes up to the DH layup. If I break another I’ll probably go back to aluminum. I did have a prior set of WTB i23 that developed cracking around the spoke holes. Have you taken any deeper inspections to the rims?

I can’t justify MOST bling front hubs. That much money for something with cartridge bearings, no. But a King hub, in Pink, with fully serviceable and adjustable bearings...Yes please. ‘cause how can I show up at the trail head with pink rear King hub without the matchy matchy.

A couple years ago when Gwin was really closing in on Minnaars win record, I thought how fortunate he had been to have pretty injury free seasons of racing. Minnaar has been around a long time, but has also had his share of injury plagued seasons. Gwin has plenty of racing in him, but I don’t know that he’ll have the dominance as in years past. Injuries take their toll physically and mentally.

For those who stopped using padded shorts, what was the advantage you noticed? What kind of underwear are you using?

Until we get more transparency in the test results and what they mean ( not just pass or fail ), I gotta believe there’s too much marketing hype and emphasis on looks. MIPS means nothing to me if I can find a helmet that will transfer fewer G’s in a head on. I think that for the most of us, our decisions end up being based on looks, price, and marketing jargon then actual test results.

I miss the Breakout as well. Ran it front and rear on a Bronson and a 29er singlespeed. Really bummed when. They stopped making it.

I just installed this post a week ago.  Unfortunately I needed to shorten the hose without a bleed kit handy.  Did my best, and everything works, but the post has a small of amount of vertical play accompanied by a tap noise that it didn’t have before I shortened the hose. I figured that I just need a remote bleed, but from your write up it sounds like it might be internal.  The only thing that changed was the hose shortening.  Any ideas?