So, I bought these when they were on sale for $30:

 

I'm a cat 5. Hurricane.

I used to be a runner in highschool, trained really hard, then severely herniated my #4 vertibrae. Never ran without pain again. I just bicycle occasionally for pleasure, nothing serious. More than 10 miles is too much effort lol.

I honestly have so much respect for all you riders who push it hard and long.

 

I broke one of my Crank Bros Eggbeater pedals tonight. .

I have eggbeaters on both my roadie and Mtn. I currently only have one pair of shoes.
I would like to take this as an opportunity to buy nicer shoes for my road bike and dedicate my hybrid/touring shoes to the Mtn bike. So pedal/cleat swap-ability is not a concern, as long as the the two systems aren't totally dissimilar in feeling/engagement.


If you were buying one pair of shoes and pedals from scratch, for either discipline, what would they be?

 

Giro Empire or VR90, Speed Play Zero for road and either Shimano or Candy for the MTB. Until something else comes around, I will only ride Empire ACCs/VR90. All of this is personal preference, and I like a soft upper with a super-stiff lower for both road and dirt. Pedals with removable bearings are worth the investment in my experience.

 

Thoughts on me only riding the Stigmata in Colorado and throwing a double on it? I want to take the Evo but I don't want to mess with the FD and crank swap on that bike, looks like I'll have quite a few 60mph descents, could then only take one bike and three sets of wheels for road/gravel/dirt.

It's a good bike but a little like tracking a Suburban when compared to the Evo.

 

 

Hey guys, so I can get a factory refurbished Garmin 800 right now for 189 shipped. it doesn't come with maps, so the question is are there any open source ones that will still work with turn by turn directions? I also know I'll need a power meter and a heart rate strap if I want but the computer seems very capable. The next one cheaper is a Garmin 200 for $90 which is a bit more limited it what it can do.

So, even if I don't end up using the maps portion of the 800, for that $189 price, is it worth buying over other computers that will be cheaper, but lower end?

 

Get out your leg-stretchers and ride my tarmac while you're out here.

 

I will add this to my doping programme.

 

Quick question.

Had a spoke break on my rear wheel commuter. Won't be able to fix it until after the next time I have to commute to work. Will it be the end of the world to ride it for a couple days?

 

Nope. Just don't huck any curbs or anything dumb. She'll be fine.

 

Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap

DC Rainmaker.com has a good tutorial on how to load the maps. I use these all the time for the long gravel Grinders I do. Seems like I'm the only one who has good navigation.
I have one too small local grinders because I was only one who followed the complete course and didn't get lost.

One really useful feature on my Garmin 510 is the elevation profile. You can see how far it is to the top of the hill and the shape of the climb. I keep little folders on my computer with various area maps. Open street map is very detailed. They usually have dirt roads and even hiking trails sometimes.

 

How about the other functionality of that computer. I see power meters are expensive but is a speed and cadence sensor along with an HR strap worth getting to monitor those things? I want to start riding longer distances 50miles +

 

The 520 works for me.The 800/1000 are just too bulky for my taste. GPS updates too slowly so when doing nav at speed, you have to pay close attention. Some of the grinders I do are fast, like a road race but with twist and turns down side streets, between houses, etc. That's my chief complaint. Could also use a faster processor and more ram. Some times it'll lock up for a few minutes while chewing on a deviation from a pre-defined course you have laid in. But all GPS bike computers are kinda like that. Even my Garmin huge Monterra hand held GPS unit is slow like that. Fine if you are walking or don't mind pausing mid ride but a PITA during a race with crappy course marking. In their defense, they're not made for that.

Would be nice if these little GPS units all got the 1m resolution we were promised by the gummint a few years ago.

 

Crank Bros recent breaktastic reputation is pretty well earned. The plastic platforms on Candys break often too.

Shimano for peak reliability for MTB, Time if you need the float like an eggbeater. Bonus is that a hard rock strike to the underside won't promptly release your foot.

 

Im not doing racing stuff so no worries there. I guess for under $200 would there be anything better than an 800? It's normally double that price that's why I'm thinking that even if I get a lower end model which is cheaper, it may not be that much cheaper than the 800.

I'm not tied to Garmin at all so other manufacturers are open season as well

 

Just by comparison a garmin 500/510 is currently 100 MORE than the refurb 800. I dunno how their refurb process is but my apple stuff I get refurb whenever I can cause its basically new and cheaper by 15% or more. This one is 50% off

Im sure someone else makes similar units. I don't NEED the maps but a really basic garmin edge 25 is only $30 less and features less as well. Trail maps are appealing for using with my mtb also

 

Edge 520 user here (Thanks chooofoojoo); never experienced the older 500 or 510. The 520 is pretty slick though. Strava live segments do push you to perform, i've gotten quite a few top 10's probably because of it. The connectIQ stuff is somewhat gimmicy but I did add the 'pace app' since I also use the 520 when I run, and knowing my pace in real time makes me happy.

I'm no Hustler, but did manage #5 overall on a strava segment last friday, on a CX bike with a rack haha. Must have been the week off I took after mechanically detaching the nail on my big toe.

I also found a nice climb near my usual railtrail loop!


CXRays arrived (thanks again choofoojoo!). Laced the front dry to get a feel for it and I may have gotten spokes a size too small. Didn't want to see if I could bring them up to tension unlubed, but I brought one up to 75kgf with only 1.5 turns left before bottoming out the nipple.

 

Edit: mine is a 520. I do not use the live segment feature, I find it distracting.

 

Another commuter wheel question.

Should I get a tension gauge and run through my wheel and make sure all spokes are good, or should i just slap a new spoke in there and call it good.