genejockey

One of the things that keeps me from riding too fast down descents is that I am a rock and pothole magnet. I have never crashed because of it, but on one descent nearby, I'd just gotten almost to the end of a straight stretch of at least 200 yards, and was going pretty fast, getting ready to brake for the corners ahead when I hit God's Own Pothole - *WHAM!!!* - and I thought, "Man, I'm glad I didn't flat!" as I took the corner at the end of the straight. As soon as I straightened out from THAT corner, *FFFfffFFFfffFFFfffFFFfffffffffffffff.......* I figure I really lucked out that the tube held till I got around the corner, especially because that hit had buggered the tire casing. I changed the tube, booted the tire, and rode gently the rest of the descent, and found a phone booth - this was before everyone carried cell phones.

So, when I'm descending, that's always in my head - what might have been.

BillyD

Nice valley.

BillyD

That's best. It's like when you're eating ice cream, just portion some out into a bowl and close the container and put it away. Whatever you do, don't eat out of the half gallon container.

WhyFi

On one of the first videos that I'd seen of him, a car arrived at an intersection at the same time as him, he locked 'em up and went down on what sounded like a sandy patch, narrowly avoiding a collision. You would think that would be a bit of a wake-up call, but I guess not.

Velo Vol 

Because they do.

indyfabz

I went window shade shopping during lunch. Pretty pricey, but I need them.

Mojo31

Incorrect.

MoAlpha

1. Bone density goes down with age
2. Prognosis after brain injury worsens with age
3. Prognosis after brain injury worsens with previous concussion
4. Crashing hurts

genejockey

The ones I watched, it looked like pretty much no intersections on the descents, but every time there was a car parked on the side, I couldn't help cringing, thinking about what would happen if they pulled out.

bampilot06

I don’t have descents where I live, so I wouldn’t know.

LesterOfPuppets

16/44.1 recordings sound pretty crappy on a good system.

Mojo31

Watched a couple. Guy is nuts from my perspective. Each video shows a near miss with the Armco or something else.

WhyFi

On one of his visits to the shop, it was kind of funny how visibly agitated Richard Vandersteen got when the subject came up. "I'm tellin' ya, boys - we've been polishin' a turd for way too long..." he grumbled. Yeah, he wasn't a fan of CDs

datlas 

I heard the M*A*S*H* theme song as soon as I saw the pic. The bag was Radar's stand-in.

Velo Vol 

How much?

MoAlpha

Ask @datlas how much it goes down in men. It goes down more in old men who get almost all their exercise on a bike.

Mojo31

I have a "nice" system by most standards, but not an "audiophile" system. I have an Aqualung set that came with vinyl, CD, and DVD versions of the album. After I got it, I wanted to see what the differences were in the formats, so I played them simultaneously switching back and forth between inputs. The differences were notable. Even my wife, who does not normally care about such things, liked the vinyl version more than the digital. I imagine playing vinyl on a truly high end system would be even more noticable

Velo Vol 

Who do I ask how much it goes down in women?

genejockey

"Perfect Sound Forever", I seem to recall they sold them as.

I can tell you, forever isn't true, either. I got a CD of English Christmas Music many years ago, and it wasn't too many years before it started making more noise than a vinyl copy of "Dark Side Of The Moon" left on repeat on the record changer for too long! I could see the silvering was corroding under the lacquer, corrupting the tracks.

genejockey

Back in the Pre-Child years, I spent a bit of coin getting Monster Cable's then second or third-best cables for the Magneplanars, replacing their standard stuff. I installed them while Mrs. GeneJockey was out shopping. As she came up the steps of our flat, before she even got into the living room, she said, "What did you do to the stereo? It sounds better!"

WhyFi

Yup. CDs can sound fantastic, but I've never met someone that preferred them in back-to-back listens with sources that were remotely comparable in price.

Once, early in my time at Sound by Singer, Andy came in to one of the listening rooms while I was playing with configuring systems at various price points. He immediately liked what he'd heard, and asked about the speaker and integrated amp pairing, but looked a little confused until I lifted the needle, "oh, that's why it sounds so good." He had assumed I was playing a CD when he came in.

LAJ

Things that keep me descending rapidly.

1. Not knowing how fast I went until I upload the file.

genejockey

I remember the discussions back in the 1980s about the reason audiophiles preferred vinyl and vacuum tubes was that these 'enhanced' the sound - tubes particularly producing a 'warmer' sound in the midrange - and whether the goal should be more accurate sound, even if it wasn't as pleasing.

Which strikes me as an odd discussion to have -
"This sounds like crap!"
"Yeah? Well maybe the original recording session sounded like crap! Shouldn't we listen to the crappy, but correct sound?"

LesterOfPuppets

Reported

datlas 

Here is a little blurb I found. Realize these are AVERAGES but cyclists who don't do weight-bearing exercises are at even higher risk for bone loss. Sad!

​​​​​​ The Framingham Osteoporosis Study evaluated the BMD at the hip, lumbar spine and the radius in 800 elderly men and women with mean age of 74 years [13]. They showed that the average 4-year bone loss at all sites was 0.2-3.6% for men compared with 3.4-4.8% for women.