david-mills's comments

I miss cheese.

(sob)

I'm blessed/cursed with the ability to toil away in the basement on the trainer. It's not fun. Not even type 2 fun. I started riding on Dec. 27, after realizing that I was still packing weight from x-mas 2015. The same day, I started using The Great Satan, also known as the My Fitness Pal app. Those measures, plus a couple of fatbike rides each week, have been effective. I wish I could just ride more and not track what I'm eating, but down that path lies delicious ruin, smothered in aged cheddar with a side of onion rings.

I can't explain vertical compliance better than these guys:
"The short answer is no, you will not be able to tell any difference in vertical compliance between a carbon wheel and an aluminum wheel. In short, changes in vertical compliance between two wheel setups can be contributed to other factors like tire volume, tire casing, tire pressure, frame flex, handlebar flex etc., not the wheel setups. No spoked bicycle wheel, even super-light alloy wheels with thin gauge spokes, have enough vertical compliance for you to feel a difference."
Source:

That has been my experience as well. The LB 33s I built up 3 years ago have handily survived several rebuilds due to busted spokes, nipples [!] and a rear hub implosion. For stiffness and resistance to damage, I'd put them ahead of Mavic 823, less ~200g per rim. The 38s on my DH bike have held up far better than the Sun i29 [flat-spot-prone] wheels they replaced.

Yes, I believe I would be surprised.

Holy crap! Dat void…

Thanks for that. I agree, WTB makes some good stuff - I wish I would have stocked up on the Stout 2.3 tires when they were still making them.

I'm going to be that guy and ask: how can you feel differences in vertical compliance in a rim? It's less than a mm of movement…

Any chance of a comparison between these hoops and product from the opposite ends of the spectrum? I'm thinking Enve [almost $1000 USD per rim] at one end, and ubiquitous Chinese carbon [Nextie, Light-Bicycle, etc. at under $200 USD per rim]. Not a shootout per se, but more like real vs advertised weights, "this one feels flexy", that sort of thing.

Very interesting! Reminds me of my old Titus El Guapo…

Miranda Miller is finally getting the support she deserves. Awesome!

Trailforks FTW. Going to an LBS to buy a trail map and get some advice is fine, but too often the directions to a trail involve taking "a left at the big tree where the old water tower used to be, about a mile past the train tracks". Then you get out there, there's no water tower, 4 big trees to choose from, etc. TF cuts through that pretty nicely.

On the marketing side, I see e-bikes being pushed heavily on the utility cycling crowd - ride to work, ride to the store, ride to drop the kids off at school, etc. If I had the cash, I'd be all over a Larry vs Harry eBullitt for Costco runs. The motor allows you to haul stuff and go distances that would leave the average person gassed. The tagline could be "go further, do more".

What I haven't seen quite yet is marketing of e-MTBs to Boomers. I think it's coming. Lots of 55-70 folks started mountain biking 20+ years ago, but may have hung it up in the garage when they got a little rounder and had a harder time getting up the hill. Full-suspension eMTB will allow them to go anywhere their tech skills and reaction time can take them, but they don't need to have the legs and lungs from when they were younger. It's Viagra for bikes, and will probably be marketed that way.

On the policy front, in Alberta, motorized vehicles are only allowed off-road in designated OHV areas unless you have a permit. Will Parks staff be writing tickets for people riding eMTBs next summer? Not right away, but there's always that one CO who adheres to the letter of the law. If a tourist gets written up, they'll likely just laugh it off. When locals start getting busted, an MLA is going to get a call, and then the Minister, and the excrement may very well impact the rotary impeller. Given the global push toward "quiet recreation" [i.e. what 95% of us are doing in the woods], eMTBs may be in an uphill battle.

Makes sense. Thanks!

Steve mentioned in the "order of operations" for suspension set-up that before spring rate, tire pressure was the most important thing to adjust [or something like that]. He said something similar to me about braking bumps [i.e. CIU, HoD] when I was in the shop last year, but I didn't think to ask. Can we get a bit more detail on this aspect?

Thanks for posting that link!