globecanvas

Hear hear. The house next door, where the kid in my story lived, has been abandoned and foreclosed since they midnight-moved to NC. The house next to that is also abandoned and foreclosed. But I wouldn't call the neighborhood unsafe by any stretch. Although the kid who did live next door was arrested for robbing houses, and there are definitely some meth heads up the street. It's all about what's familiar, I guess. We don't lock our door (we can't, we don't even know where the house key is), and the car keys live in the cars. I keep my bikes on the porch, though I did start locking them recently. Nobody's ever stolen so much as a yard gargoyle.

Somewhere (can't find it now) I came across a web site that categorizes area demographics for real estate purposes. Our town, a rural village with a main street and picket fences, was categorized as "Mayberry USA" as in the Andy Griffith show. We joked that maybe it should be Methberry. It's funny that you live in an actual Mayberry.

Creatre

I personally don't think there really is no reason to pay cash for cars unless you have a tight monthly budget. Car loans are so cheap you are better off keeping the cash. I'd much rather have a larger emergency fund, the money invested, or even just having the cash sitting around when I get a 0% to 1.9% loan depending on new vs used. Just my preference. It can also help build credit (if that's something someone needs) and keep the other monthly costs a little lower if you budget in a car payment every month. Pros/cons though, like everything in this world.

himespau 

I get what you're saying from a practical sense, but I've just had as part of my upbringing that it's better not to owe anyone anything in case you come to a point in your life where you can't repay all of it if needed (not that I'm near that point). So it just feels (even if it doesn't make sense) better to be putting more money into paying down the car payment and mortgage than investing that same money beyond my retirement contributions even though I'm locked in to both at 2-2.5%. On the other hand, with the mortgage, it sort of makes sense at the moment as I'm still paying the pmi, which I see as a kind of additional mortgage that will go away when I'm done with it.

rankin116

The real-life Mayberry is about an hour away from Topflightpro and I, Mount Airy North Cackalacky. I haven't been yet, but I hear it's kinda weird, like the town time forgot.

revchuck 

Dammit, somebody already got his shoes!



Yes, I do ride in rural Louisiana.

hubcyclist

got a free frame off craigslist this weekend. a univega activa steel frame. was originally going to make a poor man's cx out of my current hybrid, but now that I have this, I can take my time and not risk putting the family ride bike out of commission. will have to put some elbow grease into removing a seized quill stem and possibly the drive side of the crank. but it'll hopefully be fun to work on a project and practice my mechanical skills

mattm

In 'Bama there's one road people dump pig carcasses on - they really stink after a while!

#DirtySouth

revchuck 

My guess is that this guy was hit by a vehicle and killed, or almost, during the heavy rains and subsequent flooding last Wednesday. The road on which I was riding when I passed him still had water across it in one place, and it was Sunday. I can imagine some guy in a high 4x4 running over him at dusk and thinking he had hit a submerged log.

Wylde06

I keep trying to talk myself into doing a 30+ masters race Saturday if I decide to race at all...

revchuck 

The concept of 30+ Masters just boggles my mind.

globecanvas

It's weird that if somebody has "approve followers" enabled on Strava, and they follow you, you still have to have them approve you following them. It's like stalker mode.

mattm

I feel like even 35 is too young to start Masters. It should start at like 45!

Flatballer

Whatever age I'm about to be is too young.

topflightpro

Our team has done a 30+ masters race for several years. But that was because when we started doing the race, all of us were in our early 30s and doing a 30+ would let all of us race twice.

Now that we are all in our late 30s and early 40s, we are going to move to 35+.

That said, the cyclocross series around here have all gone 40+. They found that cutting out the 35-39 age range boosted participation.

Creatre

Oh sh!!!, I'm almost 30. Don't tell me there is a master's category for that, I'm not old yet!!

Doge

Rather silly. Male peak. In the USA maybe 40 is the fastest as the fastest USA 30 year olds are still pros in Europe.

grolby

There's still a 30-34 Masters category at CX nationals (known as baby Masters). It's typically considerably slower than the 35-40 Masters category, for the reason @Doge says about road: the fastest 30-34 year-olds are still pros, racing in the elite race. And they're no longer allowed to race more than one event.

aaronmcd

I'll be doing our masters district championship race again this year. 30-34 again. Last year our team of like 5 cat 3s showed up, and 4 others. 9 total. One was dropped quickly. 2 of them were strong cat 1s and it only took them 30 miles or so do split us up, drop us, and ride away while we tried to get organized. And they were faster. I don't expect a big turn out this year either, but I expect a couple really strong dudes will show up and crush me lol.

Oh and we were also on the line joking about it being baby masters

caloso

I haven't seen the numbers yet, but by eyeball 45+ men is our largest group every year.

topflightpro

At Masters Road Nationals last year, the 40-44 and 45-49 fields were full. The 35-39 field was about half full.

revchuck 

Sure it wasn't half-empty?

topflightpro

Yes.

Half empty would imply that it started full and then half was removed. Half full implies it started empty and was filled half way.

revchuck 

Harlan

Sometimes I hunt around on road-results and I've always thought it would be cool to see what races your friends are signed up for all in one place. All the data is already there, it just needs to be parsed.

globecanvas

Glancing through the Orchard Beach photos .. funny pic of the field sprint winner posting up, apparently not realizing the break had lapped the field and the winner was behind him.