niels@nsmb.com profile

Don't forget that everyone's large monitor is also hardware-calibrated (if we are dreaming anyway)!

The paper map simply gets folded and goes into my shorts pocket so I can grab it really easily to have a quick look. With a little pre-ride map study and reasonable spatial awareness and map reading skills that quick look is often enough. Works with long fingered gloves, doesn't need to be unlocked, no need to zoom in or out, no need to protect it from a crash, etc.

Of course it depends a lot on the terrain and signage (if any) how easy or hard navigation is and it's still nice to have a phone stuffed in my pack as backup to confirm location using GPS if it isn't directly obvious from the paper map.

I like paper maps as well but here in BC trail networks tend to change a lot so maps become outdated very quickly.

I've had good success with printing out my own maps from the Trailforks website before riding in unfamiliar areas. I usually annotate them with pencil and yellow marker for my intended route and put them in a plastic ziplock bag for waterproofing. Lo-tech solution for sure but much easier and faster than taking my phone out all the time and much cheaper than buying another GPS device.

Don't tell this to Cam but I'm working on a secret platinum level above Brown Pow. It will be called "Acoustic Echo Chamber" and will allow members to hide e-bike related articles as well as comments advocating for e-bikes. Membership will be by invitation only and require proof of no Strava account. The entrance to the Acoustic Echo Chamber will be deliberately obscured to prevent unsuspecting Joeys from stumbling upon it.

Sorry to hear about your injury, Andrew. Wishing you a full and speedy recovery!

Mike, as a fellow lurker in the NSMB Whatsapp group, most of the gear discussions in there are completely outside my frame of reference as well, and I actually live and ride on the Shore. Not everyone here is that hardcore and needs DH tires with inserts and burns through waterproof gear like brake pads ;-)

I have to admit we are lucky to have a disproportionate amount of good sport physios here in North Van though!

+1 for Squirt, have been using it for 13 years now in a wide variety of conditions. Just wipe off dust/dirt after a ride and every once in a while apply new light film of squirt on the links. So easy. I don't see any reason to try anything else to be honest.

Best to set multiple different privacy zones around your home. With a single one on your address it's still not too difficult to figure out from a couple of rides.

I fixed the photo

Fixed! Thanks for the heads-up.

Posted by: Stuminator

I have just learned that a Shogun named Marcus is currently unable to post in NBR due to complaints by unthinking leftists. Is this a communist website? What happened to free speech & the exchange of opinions? Agree or disagree with his opinions, he should still be able to post them like anyone else should be.

I posted an update on forum moderation in the NBR moderation thread.

A short update from your moderators.

Since the last post in this thread, we've tried to monitor NBR a bit more actively and we retracted posting privileges in NBR from 4 members who were consistently stirring up arguments and controversy and generally negatively impacting the atmosphere in the forums.

To be clear, these members are still welcome to post in any of the bike-related subforums and demonstrate that they can make meaningful contributions to the forum. So far, none of the affected members have and one member opted to close their account.

NSMB is primarily a website about mountain biking. Forum members are welcome to share their opinions even if they disagree with our content, have negative experiences with our advertisers, etc. The NBR subforum is provided for members to blow off some steam and discuss off topic stuff in a casual manner but it's not intended as a free-for-all for posting contentious content and stirring up arguments and controversy. We moderate the forums very lightly and mostly rely on members to self-moderate. In general we think that's working very well. When it doesn't, we may resort to taking away posting privileges from individual members. We don't do this because of someone's opinion, we do this because of how someone behaves in the forums.

If you have questions about moderation, please feel free to respond in this thread or send a message to Vik or me. Please keep in mind that forum moderation is not an exact science, we do this in our spare time, and we are not perfect.

Thanks for supporting NSMB and for keeping the forums alive!

I haven't had any issues with 2 consecutive personal bikes with PF BB either - knocking on wood.

The first one was a GXP PF BB. Given the bad rep I bought a spare BB to be ready for when the shit would hit the fan. 5 years later the original BB was still spinning smoothly and I gave the unused spare BB to the guy who bought the bike from me.

Currently on a DUB PF BB, so far so good.

Over the years I've had premature wear issues with a few other PF bearings though, specifically rear hub and suspension pivots. In all cases I highly suspected the issues to be related to poor tolerances. The rear hub one was just too tight a fit, putting pressure on the bearing. The pivot ones suffered from poor alignment of the frame parts.

I think Sunrace also has several wide range 10 speed cassettes that fit HG freehubs, from 11-40 to 11-46.

I ran 10 speed 11-42 with an X9 derailleur for 2 seasons, the shifting wasn't super smooth but it worked and was a cheap solution.

Andrew, the Lefty that had broken in half we only saw in passing during the race. I vividly remember the branch duck taped to it like a splint, you don't forget something like that. I don't know what happened so yes, it's "just a story".

The terrain there was very tough on bikes and in 8 days, between 1200 riders on lightweight XC bikes, we literally saw every possible part break: wheels, frames, forks, handlebars, seatposts, etc. So the story is not a stab at Cannondale specifically. The race organizers had a team of mechanics on site who were wrenching deep into every night to enable everyone to start the next day, it was quite impressive.

My friend's Lefties must haves been late '00s and he typically serviced them regularly himself but had sent both in to Cannondale for full rebuilds before the Epic just in case.

Anyway I saw "Frankenbike" mentioned and it brought back these memories, no deeper intentions than just sharing some fun stories.

Posted by: AndrewMajor

First I’d make the argument that a Lefty is a strut, not a fork.

Then I’d say their relative weirdness is location dependent. There are some places where Cannondale is so strong as a brand Lefty/Ocho aren’t weird at all.

I loved my Lefty 2.0. Wicked stiff, wicked smooth, very light. The one change I would have made is to make the top crown so it could accept a direct mount stem.

You are right that it's a strut of course but to me it has always looked like a fork with one half missing ;-)

That friend with the Frankenbike was back in the Netherlands where indeed Cannondale had (has?) a very strong presence. Based solely on my friend's experience the Lefties had reliability issues, he actually had 2 because one was always in for service. We rode the Cape Epic stage race together in South Africa and he had both his Lefties serviced before departure, put one on his bike (a Scalpel, not the mentioned Frankenbike) and brought the other one as a spare, and it turned out both were leaking air. Perhaps he was just unlucky.

During the same Cape Epic we saw another rider with a Lefty that had literally broken in two. He had attempted to repair it with a branch and duck tape to make it to the finish. Talking about Frankenbike!

A long time ago a friend put a spare Lefty fork on an old hardtail frame that was only rim brake compatible. A Lefty is obviously only disk brake compatible so he ran disk in front and v-brake in the back and had matching mismatched wheels. We always called that bike the Frankenbike.

(I guess one could make an argument that a Lefty is a Frankenfork)

Finally weather that feels like Spring.

Seeing my parents for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Took them for coffee and double baked almond croissants at Thomas Haas and a stroll on the new trestle bridge walk at Cypress.

First paddle date of the year in Deep Cove. My partner has been struggling with her health for a while, we weren't sure she was ready. Just 50 minutes on the water but she made it.

Back to the rocket launcher idea then.

Posted by: mammal

Posted by: niels@nsmb.com

Posted by: mammal

Posted by: Shaboob

Every morning when I’m getting on the highway heading West at the Lynn valley exit someone in front of me will try to merge onto the highway going about 40kmh. If you or your car don’t have the balls to get up to the speed of traffic and not cause an accident then just get on at Lonsdale.

That's the worst zone on my commute. Between the 40k mergers, and the fact that nobody realizes it's a yeild for the mergers, complete shit show.

Perhaps getting on at Lonsdale instead would avoid the 40 kmh mergers and spare you from the frustration every morning.

No, this is "heading west" off the Lynn Valley exit, so going the opposite direction you're referring to.

Perhaps I misunderstood but Shaboob suggested the 40 kmh mergers should get on at Lonsdale instead.

My point is that given that the 40 kmh mergers are apparently there clogging up the Lynn Valley entrance every morning, it's unlikely they will follow up on this suggestion and it's likely they will continue to be a source of frustration. Therefore, I suggested those frustrated by the slow mergers may avoid the situation altogether by getting on at Lonsdale themselves.

Anyway, that's what I would do (if commuting at a less busy time or avoiding the car commute altogether are not possible). YMMV.