Reverend profile

One other factor is whether you ride-to-ride or you unload your bike off the car at the trailhead and are on dirt almost immediately. I have recently had the pleasure of new bike day that included stock Assegais front and rear. Very nice tires but, geez, that rear sure is a slow rolling anchor on the 25 minutes of asphalt/gravel-under-powerline/path spin up to the base of where the trail network starts properly. Once on dirt I don't notice it too much but from a practicality stand point, something that rolls well yet still has some side knobs is appreciated. 

I used to run the Aggressor front/rear and I actually thought they were pretty fun (fast rolling, a bit drifty but predictably so and thus kind of fun). I've got a new Aggressor on order to run as a rear and will keep the Assegai up front.

One nice thing about carbon is that depending on how they break (full explosion vs. a crack) they might actually be repairable. I was experimenting with low pressures on my Ibis 941 wheels and found the cracking point on my rear rim. I was initially crushed by my investment going down the tubes but Roberts Composites was able to repair and I've been riding the same rear for about two years now. Had to pull out some spokes temporarily and get it re-tensioned but it a full rebuild of the wheel wasn't necessary. Try that with aluminum.

May I recommend keeping an eye out for my boys over at The Woods Spirit Co -- . Their amaro is a nice upgrade on campari and they're building their new distillery in North Van. They've got some early bottles available in private liquor stores and with better bartenders.

I guess this is the solution to the industry not being able to agree on a direct mount standard? I'm happy to see stainless steel rings - the wear on aluminum ones is pretty terrible, particularly if running smaller sizes and/or you're heavy enough to really be torquing. I would have loved to see Race Face DM steel rings but I guess the economics just don't work…

Am I the only one who finds multi-tools a PITA? I still carry the cheapo 2 through 8mm hex key set that you get at MEC. Seems to get me or other people out of 99% of jams with a minimum of fuss and it's less than 100g, cheap, and not bulky…. Put a guys crank arm back on earlier this week with <30min to sunset because he didn't have an 8mm on his tool.

It sure would be nice if they started to offer different size cassettes on these systems like the old days. I'm no retro-grouch; 11-spd, 12-spd, 18-spd is fine by me. But jumping from 6T from 36T to 42T is noticeably annoying so 42T to 50T is going to feel even worse. It's fine for them to offer a 50T cassette for someone who just wants the bailout but I'd love to see a 12-spd 10-44 cassette to give me better jumps and I'll run a suitable chainring for my terrain.

I think you need a compare and contrast review section to the Mojo HD 160mm/26er. Oh hey, I have one of those! 🙂

11b: Waterproof shorts for when it's really wet. A dry butt is nice but with fenders being super DIY and not always effective the easiest solution is to get some good shorts. I have a pair of Endura knickers that do the trick.

On an NSR4, I've had good success hanging them reversed (wheels away from vehicle) with the drop bar cradled in two baskets. I then use a series of bungees to secure them. Works quite well although it limits you to two road bikes or two mountain bikes and one road bike.

I liked my physiotherapist at City Sports & Physiotherapy downtown (Pender & Hornby), I married her! In addition to my wife (Timberly), they have a pretty great crew down there.

Hmm, interesting!
Does that mean they don't need to be declared to CRA until sold? Or does CRA need to be kept informed that you own mutual funds? If so, anyone know which form to use?

You don't have to declare your holdings. But you'll most likely receive a T-slip with some information you are required to report.

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You don't pay taxes on your mutual funds until you actually sell. And capital is taxed at a more favourable rate than interest. So in your hypothetical situation, if you buy your fund at 10k and sell for 15k, you have a gain of 5k. But you only pay tax on half that. So you pay $2500 times your tax rate.

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After what feels like ages, I am really excited about cycling again, about building a proper base for the coming season, about making multi-day trips again, riding mtb trails in areas I have not yet been, in short - totally stoked about riding.

I came across Rapha's website while surfing the web, and their stuff is pretty pricey and more geared towards road bike riders.

But some of the stuff is making me curious. I know that some of you are gear junkies, so my question is:

Does anyone of you have any apparel/gear from Rapha. Is it worth the money? Or is it rather overpriced and similar stuff can be had for less money?

It's nice stuff for sure. My fav road jerseys are all Rapha. I tend to wait for their sales because of the price.

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Given the Audi is the same as the VW SUV are there better deals on used Q5/Q7 compared to the Millennial love of VW that drives up VW prices?

The Q5 TDI would be awesome if you like the size of it (a coworker of mine has one and loves it). It's a bit smaller than the Touareg and more like the Tiguan. I could never wrap my head around the look of the Q7 but to each their own. And I think the Audi interiors are nicer. I had an Audi A3 a while back and I thought the "user interface" of the buttons and rollers and such were a bit better than the VW even though I was moving to a more expensive and newer vehicle.

Great info! I'm still interested in the Touareg TDI - it seems to be a great blend between comfort, luxury, fuel efficiency, and mild/moderate off-road ability. How many kms do you have on it now and any issues with it? I've owned 4 or 5 VWs in the past and they've all been great. I know some people have issues with their reliability but maybe I've just been lucky with mine… And I have a great VW mechanic which increases the appeal and peace of mind a bit too…

I've got just over 80,000km on mine. It was flawless until the AdBlue heater failed recently, which pissed me off given that I live in Vancouver and don't enter into temperatures requiring DEF to be heated very much. But if you look on the internet, it's a pretty common problem right around the 80k mark so worth thinking about that $1000 hit (or be willing to drive around with the engine light on). It's been my third VW/Audi product and I'd say they've all been pretty good and I haven't done anything special other than stick to the maintenance schedule in the manual.

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You mentioned the Touareg at the beginning… I bought a 2012 TDI new and still love it. Like most folks with an SUV, mine doesn't venture off maintained roads very often but I've happily taken it up FSRs when desired and it does so quite well without complaint as long as you don't have to forge massive water bars. Torque is great (fun!), fuel economy great for its size, drives pretty sporty (again, for its size), and it's very comfortable for the pax. Friends like it when I drive. I'm kind of waiting to see what happens with the whole dieselgate scandal and what they offer on the 3.0L diesels in Canada. But even if they offered me a bunch of money to buy it back, my biggest thing is that I don't see much else on the market to buy right now.

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Downtown, easily accessible from NS: Timberly George, BScPT, BScKin - City Sports [HTML_REMOVED] Physiotherapy Clinic, fantastic therapist, cyclist and does lots of volunteer work with Rugby Canada.

I just spent some time with her correcting my hip and therapy for my lower back, can't recommend enough. Her husband is a regular contributor here too.

The wife thanks you for the plug! Shoulders are a bit of a speciality for her. Other person to see would be Ron Mattison out at Allan McGavin (which is how Timberly learned all her best shoulder techniques!).

anyone question the durability of XT vs XTR? given these pedals may last a long long time, i'm wondering if the XTR's are as reliable as good ol' XT's

I have consumed several sets of the XTRs and actually just downgraded to XT for my latest set to see if the materials wear a bit better. I liked the XTRs, but they are definitely not pedals to last a "long long time".