Velo Vol 

I said it is.
I don't march.
I don't wish to walk with any dog.

Any more questions?

Velo Vol 

Incoming fashion trend.

big john

I meant the movie. It would let him learn a bit about Queen, if he really doesn't know.

rjones28 

Bot

rjones28 

Isn't that the main use for trumpeters?

rjones28 

Benson forgives you.

rjones28 

Maybe

Velo Vol 

No.

The best marching instrument may have been the saxhorn, back in the day.

t2p

agree

I get excited just to ride after installing a new set of tires

a new bike just about puts me over the top

t2p

as you are well aware - western PA / Pgh does not have great mass transportation

( but then again - how many US urban areas do ? )

are you looking more urban - or suburban ?

obviously - mass transit options are better in the urban and surrounding areas

in the suburbs - the ‘south hills’ area is one of the few that has decent access to mass transit

there are some new suburb developments popping up that have the ‘town feel’ - with close (walking) access to retail including restaurants (Pine Twp is one example)

genejockey 

You don't want to be in the next row.

DougRNS

Same

DougRNS

I explained the situation to them and they rescheduled my appointment to next Friday. SMH

genejockey 

The suburb where we live now was designed before WWII and built immediately after - our house went up in '46. At that point, they still built around walking, and transit. So there's a shopping center (now a mall), across from a train station for the commuter rail line that runs up and down the Peninsula. There are a couple streets of business district about a mile in either direction from our house. It's not that great for car-free living, but not totally car-dependent, either. I COULD take the train to work.

That's what we want - what we have here, but someplace where we can use a fraction of the proceeds from selling our house to buy a nice place for cash and use the rest to live on. Equity Pirates!

I started looking at Pittsburgh, because it's got a growing economy, access to healthcare, a lot of housing for pretty cheap, and the Smith family has roots there going back to the 1820s - they lived in what's now the South Side Flats, back when it was a separate city called Birmingham. I'm kind of drawn to that. So we started looking in Pittsburgh, and what I discovered was the 'layering' of the suburbs. The South Side Flats, built in the 19th Century - row houses with no yard or garage give way to the suburbs built in the early part of the 20th Century - places like Dormont or Brookline, where the houses are close together but not row houses, and they mostly have a garage or parking space. Then farther out you have places like Whitehall or Mt Lebanon, where the houses all have attached garages but there aren't even sidewalks in many places, and farther still places like Bethel Park where the houses are even farther apart and it's totally car dependent.

Our goal is to find the sweet spot, close enough in that we don't have to drive EVERYWHERE, but far enough out that we're not dependent on street parking.

DougRNS

I changed my bar tape after 10 years of use, then went another 6 years and decommissioned the thing after getting my CAAD 12. For me, it's about riding the bike not ****ing bar tape. YMMV

MoAlpha

I bought a pair of 320s out of the trunk of someone's car at a college XC meet in about 1977. I had been training in leather Adidas with cardboard soles and they were life-changing. I then switched to Tiger Montreals and never went back to NBs for running that I remember. I now use NB Minimus shoes for weight training and love them.

rjones28 

If you're ****ing the bar tape, you're doing it wrong.

DougRNS

That's what the officer said too as he cuffed me.

DougRNS

datlas 

Had a decent Z2 ride today. I did get a front flat mid-ride, I could not find the culprit sliver despite everting the tire and running my cold fingers along the inside. The second half of the ride I kept sensing a “pulse” with each wheel rotation, it might be mental but I will have to take a closer look later today.

Velo Vol 

DougRNS is starting to get it as his surgery looms (maybe). Perhaps he's spending time contemplating his mortality?

bampilot06

So realized a couple of things today.

Electronic shifting is dumb. Think about it, what does it do for anyone. Other than removing the cables for a cleaner look, my 105 mechanical shifts just as good.

Anyways, I charged the derailers last night on the madone. This morning I did a press check on the shifters everything showed green light. Get about 12 miles in, I am going down a hill so I am big Front ring, smallest cassette, start going up hill, try to down shift. Nothing happens. At first I thought it was the derailer so I swapped batteries and tried to shift the front derailer nothing happened. Then I realized I was ****ed. I tried swapping batteries out of the shifter but couldn’t get the bad battery out. Stupid, had to struggle back up the hill I just came down in big ring small cassette, and ride 8 miles back home. At some point it felt sorry for me and magically front shifted to small ring. Now I am in major cross chain issue, and it sounded terrible.

Something else I realized today.

The Madone brings me no joy. I never ride it. Really debating with myself to sell it. This was kind of the icing on the cake. I prolly won’t sell it because I would take such a huge hit. There’s a bike swap event tomorrow I wish I could go too.

MoAlpha

As the 74th-to-last rider in the world not to have it, that makes me feel better.

genejockey 

The front tire on the Litespeed got a small cut that causes a *tic-tic-tic* sound I can hear when on quiet back roads. I think it got there from some glass that also punctured the tube, but I don't know for sure.

Velo Vol 

<==75th. Or is it 73?