n_maher

Simple solution to that Dinny - pickup a castoff 3rd gen at a discount and wait 6 months for the Retina mini. I think Apple rushed slightly to get this mini out in time for Xmas and that they'll be higher-spec version before long. They've shown they don't give a shit about pissing off customers with untimely upgrades or better put, the sheep don't mind the buggering, so just get something to take the edge off for a little while.

So Ian and I got back out to Fort Rock today for a little cold weather ride through the woods. Much fun was had with one exception. We saw a hunter on the trail actively hunting. Not cool. While I don't wear brown when I ride I don't (or didn't) wear blaze orange either. You have to understand, much of what we're riding here is within a mile of one major highway and several residential areas and major secondary roads. From where we saw the guy you could see traffic on the highway through the trees. WTF? Anyway, something bright and orange will be procured. Other than that the bike performed very well. If I hadn't had a minor off causing me to put a foot down in a puddle during mile one I'd have loved the whole day. As it was my foot was fairly frozen after the loop despite wringing my sock out before proceeding. We also tried a new section of trail called HIllzilla on the southern side of the loop. It was pretty freaken crazy. Much walking was done as there was no way I (or Ian) was going to try riding some of this stuff. We both agreed that a video of the loop needs to be taken at some point. We also agreed that next spring is going to be a lot of fun. Ride Data Screen cap from the short video that Ian shot of me acting like a 10yr old. The vid isn't that impressive but holy shit this section of the trail is a lot of fun. [edit]Wow, Raffy, those were some sweet bikes to take a spin on. Not sure I'd want to do that for the pain of knowing what could be.

Nice, Haj!

Happy Birthday!

I'd go road bike, Mike. Sell the Gunnar when the other is done and use the proceeds for the MTB. I'm with pak in that I wouldn't want a custom MTB but not dueto resale. The mtb is probably going to see a lot more abuse and if I'd paid even retail for my bikeiydbe hard to chuck it around and have real fun on it.

Congrats (belated) on 10 years, pretty scary how close I'm getting to that mark. Eek, @ Shelly. At least the bullet wasn't aimed at you. Bummer, Vicki, but try to keep the long term in mind and not suffer the day to day to much. Me - time to do a little grocery shopping with Lily.

I lust after firefly and IF bikes but for me the Roubaix is probably a forever bike. In Jekyll news I bled the rear shock last night and redid the setup process. The clunk appears to be gone but I want to give it a quick spin around the yard later to make sure. Here's to hoping.

^^ Nice. It's looking like I'll have time to get out for a good ride on Sunday. Need to try adjusting the shock air pressures before that to see if I can cure the clunk.

I'd say that it's likely that someone will buy the rights to most of the popular brands and production will resume at some point after the liquidation. I can't help but read stuff like this along with the stuff like the USPS losing $16B last year as a result of pension/benefit issues and think that a national overhaul of entire industries (starting with the healthcare,insurance,litigation debacle) isn't coming sooner than any of us think.

Anyone in my league want Eli?

This. The weather here has turned cold enough that I'm pretty sure I'm done road riding for the year unless we get some really strange warm snaps. It was 22 when I left this house this morning with forecast daytime highs in the mid 40s. I can still MTB in this weather so I'm hoping to get a few more rides in on the new bike and I mounted the road bike on the trainer last night. I'm currently shoping for an iPad case to mount to my handlebars to fend off extreme boredom.

I wonder if some past event didn't cause damage to the trafo (before the current ownership) and it's now no longer capable of performing properly even under the best of circumstances?

Mike,If you're looking for a less expensive option now is definitely time to talk to dealers about not only the leftover stock that they already have but what is available to order. I think my LBS had a leftover Flash 29'er Carbon 3 for around $2,000, about a 30% discount off full retail. Another one to look at would be the Jekyll 4. There's a boat load of those left in Cannodale's inventory and your LBS should be able to negotiate a very good deal, maybe a few hundred more than the Airborne but pretty damn close. The 2012's 4's had the fully adjustable suspension but the 2013's don't for some weird reason. [edit] There's a pretty good review of the Jekyll 4 online as well and the case is made that the 4 is worth buying for just the frame and is worth upgrading more over time. I'd agree with that statement.

The thing that I like about this area is that there are many obstacles that have multiple lines so you can sort of challenge yourself by choice and take a less technical line. Granted, there are still some areas where you're chosing between gnarly and insane... And as I said it my little writeup, I'm man enough to admit that I walk some sections that just aren't in my comfort zone.

There is some disturbing discoloration on that transformer, in my non-professional opinion. I would make sure that the amp is setup for the proper line voltage (assuming it's adjustable like other Stax amps) and after that get a known good set of cheap tubes to try in there. Could be that one of the 4 tubes is going bad and drawing more current than it should be. Otherwise, I don't know enough about that amp to be really helpful.

Ugh, disappointing week. Several odd no-shows: Roethlisberger with fracking 10 points against KC, Decker with 3 against Carolina, the 49ers D with 3... shit, if I'd just started Dever's D I would have won.

It still wouldn't have been funny. Maybe you know Vicki better than I think you do although I would have thought that if you knew Vicki well at all you'd understand that she worked her ass off prepping for this ride and to have a random (non-cycling related) injury prevent her from participating is killing her.

Happy Birthday, Dinny. I know it hasn't been the easiest year but this signals the start of another, hopefully better year.

Holy shit this much fun shouldn't be legal... So I got the trailhead around 2pm and got rolling quickly. My usual riding partner had other things going so this was a solo trip. The first section is a short, gravelly downhill followed by a pretty decent, rocky, rooty climb (called Hamburger Hill). Being the excited idiot that I was I forgot the start the Garmin until I was nearly at the top of the climb. Anyway, my initial impression is that even a somewhat well setup and sorted suspension makes a giant difference. Holy smooth ride. Good tires help too. The stock Hans Dampf tires gripped great in the loose stuff and held well even on the loose leafy crap that is all over the place post-Sandy. I took it pretty easy for the first few miles getting to know the bike and just how different it reacted to things that I'd ridden a few times on the Gary Fisher. But towards the end of the getting to know you period it was clear the bike and I were bonding. I came up to a tight, technical uphill turn that is very rocky and I was going too slow. So slow that when my front time hit the last rock I just stopped. But rather than unclip I simply paused for a second, adjusted my line and rode through it. HOLY SHIT! I would have eaten it hard on the GF or at least been forced to stop, dismount and then continue. So I gained a bit of confidence and was promptly bitten in the ass for it. Approaching an obstacle that I've previously had no issue with, a short segmented-stone water crossing I eased up to it. Too easy. Burried the front wheel in a divot and smacked down on my left side. Oh well, the bike got its first scratches. I was fine and laughing at the stupidity of it. So I lined the obstacle up again and rode through it with little difficulty. Most of the rest of the loop was a ton of fun. I was riding over stuff that I previously would stop and walk over. Which isn't to say that I conquered everything. There are still a few things on this trail that I won't even try. But I was really happy and having a hoot of a time. I was doing great until I was on the final downhill section. I was flying, eating up the bumps and even taking a few jumps when I looked ahead and saw that there were two hikers coming up the trail at me. They started to head off to their left side of the trail so I did likewise. In this section there's a small rock jump in the middle of the trial and there appeared to be a similar one on the left side of the trail so I took it. Oh fuck. Right as I was about to go airborne I saw the 4" diameter tree that was across my side of the trail a good 6' beyond the jump and 12" off the surface of the trail. Fuck, fuck, fuck. So I put as much as I could into it and managed to get the front wheel over it. The rear, not so much. You can see this even on the ride data below. It's the abrupt lowering of my speed in a otherwise high speed section at about 5.6 miles. I ate it hard going full ass over tea kettle. Thankfully I managed to unclip in mid-departure so the bike didn't get tossed any worse. Doubly thankfully I landed in a pile of leaves. Minor scrapes on my knees, a bruise on a forearm and a cut on an ankle were the sum total. I pretty much rolled out of the fall and got back up. Much to the surprise of the 80+ year old man and wife staring at me. I muttered something like, "the wonderful thing about tiggers..." and the guy said, "What'd you say?" I moved the tree out of the trail and took a second to wonder if Sandy or some asshat put it there... at least I'll be the last one who hits it for a while. Anyway, I finished the last little section without further drama and there was no real damage to the bike and it definitely still ranks as the best time that I've had out there. I'm really hoping to get one more ride in after some rear shock tuning. Ride Data

Epic fun had today. More later, time to make enchiladas. I love this bike.

Good eye Steve. I was wondering who'd be the first to notice her. She helped,e pick it up before grocery shopping. I'll give shock tuning a try before punting to the LBS but signs are good that'll I'll get the real maiden voyage on it tomorrow.

Not a great first picture but all I've got.

Shit, piss and corruption Vicki, that sucks. Good news is that it isn't worse and there will be other rides.

are you off your meds again?

I got the bike this morning. The shop did setup the suspension per the manual for my weight but there appears to be an issue with the rear shock when in long travel mode. It thumps at the top of the stroke. I'd think something was loose if it didn't function perfectly in the lower travel setting. Regardless I took it home to give it a shakedown ride sometime this weekend and then I'll bring it back Monday or Tuesday so my LBS can get in touch with Fox.