khai profile

A couple of years ago I completed my transition to *all merino socks.  

*I might have one or 2 pair of ski socks that aren't merino, and still have a pair of waterproof socks that aren't as well (though I do have the excellent Showers Pass merino lined waterproof socks now) - but my daily wear socks, riding socks, and in general pretty much anytime I'm pulling on a sock it's merino.  Point6 makes a merino compression sock (https://point6.com/collections/socks-with-compression) that's taller than the ones you have and offer a couple of thickness/padding options.

LOVE that phone case.  I've got an old Chrome one that worked pretty well back when phones were much smaller but it's not waterproof at all - it's more of an arrangement of straps and velcro than an "enclosure".  I may have to get on that bandwagon...

(Can't reply directly to Velocipedestrian so I'm doing so here)
My wife had one of those Thule racks that we used for a road tour.  Once I got it tight enough it held up well, but I really had to crank down on those fasteners - far more that I liked on a carbon fork.  It had slipped down after a few hours and I tightened it more, then later in the day after it slipped again I really had to reef on it (I think I improvised a cheater bar to use with my full size allen wrench to get more leverage).  After that it held up for a couple of weeks of touring with no issue, and it worked well.  But I didn't like how hard I had to crank on those straps to get it to hold, and that was a road tour.  I wouldn't personally trust them on a gravel/dirt based trip for that reason.

I have no experience with this product but it has caught my eye and looks to be a viable option...  Aeroe Spider

...bike companies, if your seat tube is interrupted such that the combination of minimum seat post insertion depth and the average XS/S riders' inseam means they have to run an 80 mm dropper post on their trail bike then you suck for short riders.

PREACH IT, BROTHER!!!  A combination of the One-Up dropper and fairly short cranks allow this 165cm "tall" / 75cm inseam dude to rock 180mm of drop.  I've discounted a lot of bikes over the years due to dumb bends in the seat tube and it strikes me that most don't need to be there for engineering/packaging reasons.  Pedals of varying thicknesses and shoes/insoles can also contribute to/exacerbate this situation.  As well as saddle height as you mentioned, and the presence/lack of a chamois.  I've spent more time than most pondering this situation, and have had many iterations of spreadsheets with various calculations of max insertion/post drop/crank length/...  Some people may never change shoes and notice a difference in fit - others notice within 3 pedal strokes.

I've also had my tyre buzz the saddle on full compression and while it wasn't the worst sensation in the world, I did fix it pdq.

If that's indeed the part they're charging an extra $10 for then I stand corrected and apologize to the good people at Wolftooth.  And if not, that was an awesome rabbit hole either way.

I do like the look of that Wolftooth 6Bit tool, but is anyone else offended by the fact that they want $10 for the keyring?!  @Andrew, please tell me that I'm wrong, that they machine these in house and that they're way nicer than the standard ones that come on a variety of other keyrings and can easily be found cheaply/in multi-packs...

In other news, this is an appealing offering.  I've been looking for a good solution for a while, and this seems to fit the bill nicely.

Funny, I got that flyer yesterday and dig KMS Tools perhaps a little too much...  Just out of curiosity I looked up the Knipex flush cutters - $60!  Or 10x what I paid for my cheap ones.  I'm sure the Knipex ones are a joy to use, but my $6 ones work really well...

Great to know, thanks - I won't bother with the JIS if you feel that the difference is that marginal.  

I've got a pretty good idea of how I can store an ultrasonic cleaner - I just need to build a small bottom shelf on my bench and should be good to go.  I almost bought one 2 years ago when the carb on Andrea's TTR was giving me fits but I finally got there with a tonne of patience and a can of carb cleaner.  I can see myself dropping all manner of stuff in there just because I have one.

Does anyone have an ultrasonic cleaner? I keep thinking it's the sort of thing that once I had one, I'd use it all the time - but have yet to pull the trigger...

I just put a JIS #2 Philips screwdriver in my Amazon cart as well. Time to see if it's actually better.

That's clever as hell.  I don't often have a need for cone wrenches, but a pair of those would be sick...

>> Green electrical tape or if you want to be fancy green vinyl from a sign shop can cover any damage at low $/hassle with some close colour match or contrasting accent options as desired.

I've never been arsed to do it myself but understand that nail polish is really good for small paint touch ups like this.  Comes in a billion colours, is cheap, and once you clear over it should last a good long time - but is pretty easy to remove when fresh if the colour doesn't quite match.

Is anyone else experiencing problems with Chrome? I'll fairly often get the following error message when trying to either follow a hotlink to the board (say from the main page of from a search), or as I drill down into a specific post/thread: The page you are looking for is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. If I copy/paste the URL into Internet Explorer it loads just fine. Other times/threads everything loads as I'd expect.

Anyone else seeing this? Solutions as to a fix?

Thanks,

Here's where I pull the "I've owned a 2013 Saint Shadow Plus Derraileur for 4 months now" card and say;
I've tried it, it kind of works, but its definitely not worth you spending your money on buying a product that "kind of works", or trying it to find it doesnt work for you, when there's one that will work infinitely better for the same ching.

Cool - thanks. I'm in the process of building an AM bike and it just sounded really awesome… Not that XT is "bad" by any stretch, but because the shifter is paired with the dérailleur it seemed a natural time to try it out. Or not, as the case may be. I still want to be able to climb anything pretty well so I need that 2nd chainring.

According to everything I've read this is designed as a 1x10 RD. Does anyone know if the cage is too short to be used with a double up front? Tooth restrictions?

I tried the Shimano tech website but all I found was a blow-apart diagram…

Thanks,

I rode it yesterday, and was very impressed.

Perhaps a dumb question given that you were in Whistler, but did you spend any time climbing on it? How pedally is it, say compared to the new 2013 (non-Evo) Enduros that are supposed to climb really well, or the 2012 Enduro Evo?

I demo'ed a 2012 Enduro Evo and thought it was a blast going down - but not that much fun to climb or pedal through rolling singletrack… (mind you, my current bike is a 100mm Titus Racer X so my frame of reference is quite different from that of a shuttle/park/DH guy). I'm looking for a bigger bike to complement the XC race bike but I still want it to be a fun, capable climber.