cmgrowell

@CliffsEsport@mastodon.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @MLE_online@social.afront.org @plutarch@gotosocial.plutar.ch @morgan@sfba.social You can get class 3 commuter e-bikes with a throttle that are reasonable, although you still need to be careful with them. We had a friend break their elbow on a class 1 ebike that lurched forward a little more than expected when she started pedaling. I've managed to pop up the front tire on my class 1 emtb such that the bike came up over on top of me, but that was on a steep switchback. Definitely a learning curve with that sort of thing, especially since I switch back and forth with a regular bike, where you normally need lots of pedaling power to get up those types of switchbacks. These e-motos are a different story. They are made for racing up steep dirt hills, etc. That kind of torque is crazy on regular roads in inexperienced hands.

@ascentale@sfba.social @bikenite@fedigroups.social A8. #BikeNite. On Thurs. I did an emtb ride to check out the area that burned in the Sandy Fire, Simi Valley, SoCal back in May. I had never ridden over in that area because I thought it was mostly steep dirt fire roads, which aren't all that interesting to me. I noticed that the fire had exposed some unofficial single-track trails. One of them was crazy steep, which I'm not thrilled about. The one I did, called "Ham Radio" for some reason, was reasonable, but on a ridge-line and very exposed with steep drop-offs on the sides. Fun, but not my favorite thing, so I took it slowly. I would have preferred not seeing how close I was to the edge. There was another trail further down with lots of big jumps. I'm too old for that kind of thing, so, I bypassed the jumps. It was still fun, since there were lots of twists and banked turns. It was a pretty warm day (~90F) and I wasn't familiar with the area, so I mostly played it safe. Took streets back to a trail-head that I knew about. Ended up getting a flat about a mile from the end. Didn't want to deal with it in the heat, so used a mini electric pump to pump it up once and took it slowly the rest of the way on a mostly flat tire. I had been meaning to replace that tire anyway. Even though it was an ebike ride, Garmin thought it was very demanding. My heart rate was higher the entire ride due to the heat.

@ascentale@sfba.social @bikenite@fedigroups.social A4. #BikeNite Not much more to add, but we've used the Dakine soft side roller bag for a few trips and it worked well. As others mentioned, we added additional padding in the form of pipe insulation, bubble wrap, and cardboard. We had no problems, but I've heard of people having bikes damaged in soft cases. Seat or seat post damage is a common one since it sticks up and out a little. We put some additional bubble wrap on it (the photo of the bike lying down doesn't have all the additional protection we added yet). The fact that the bag rolls is very nice, since it makes it easy to drag it through the airport. We flew American Airlines because they don't charge extra as long as you keep it under 50lbs. We weighed the bags as we were packing them, and put things like shoes in our separate luggage since we were getting close to the weight limit with the mountain bikes, and these are not heavy mountain bikes, maybe 27lbs total for each (the bag itself weighs a decent amount). You can always pay extra if you go past the 50lb limit. On the trips we've done we had to rent a mini van to transport the bikes once we got to our destination and we were fortunate to be able to leave the bags with family while we were on our trip. (The kids competed in the US MTB XC Nationals race in PA.) The first photo is packing the bikes at home, the 2nd is unpacking them in a park in where the kids did a training workout on the Columbia Rail Trail in High Bridge, NJ.

@jd9c5m@mastodon.hams.social @dianea@lgbtqia.space @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org We live not too far away, same town. House built late 90s required sprinklers, but primarily due to proximity to open space and wildfire danger. Sometimes they make me nervous, like if they were to go off inadvertently. But otherwise glad to have them. Of course, in a wildfire you worry about having enough water pressure as well.

@ascentale@sfba.social @bikenite@fedigroups.social A8. #bikenite Ended last week at our final youth xc #mtb race of the season in Tehachapi, CA. Held on a hill (foreground) owned by the cement plant in the distance. A local organization has done a great job building trails and maintaining the race course. I could watch the race and do some train watching at the same time. The second photo is from a bike practice this week. One of our varsity riders carried two bikes in her Mitsubishi 3000. One on the roof using one of those suction cup racks. Another inside the hatch. She is not a big person and it was a heavier bike so she had to climb in to get it out. Now in NJ visiting my elderly father. Side trip to Great Falls in Paterson, which somehow I had never visited when growing up in the state. They harnessed the falls for industrial power. Also never realized the area is known as Little Lima with a big Peruvian population. Walked to a yummy Peruvian lunch.

@ai6yr @ascentale @xtaran @bikenite #BikeNite A1 (more) We were in Italy a few weeks back and I was amazed at how many bikes were still using dynamos. That might have been because the bikes were pretty ancient. I was wondering if that was due to theft. That, or they use them for little errands, so no need to have something expensive. The photo is from the front of our airbnb apartment in Levanto. All pretty old bikes, almost all with baskets of some sort. I think the closest has a dynamo light, but not a great photo of it. I can't say I saw a bike with a dynamo light working anywhere.

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org I recently noticed some bike team alumni using old bikes, but I think they were more interested in seeing how well they could ride older bikes down crazy trails, which would probably eventually destroy them. I know someone in the Santa Barbara area that is interested in classic and vintage bikes and wants to set up a regular ride and meet up for them, but that might be more about bikes in original or restored condition. https://www.instagram.com/p/DXuoMNZAQK1/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==