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The Water Cooler, Scuttlebutt, Chit Chat Thread

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The Water Cooler, Scuttlebutt, Chit Chat Thread

Old 07-25-21, 09:17 AM
  #6326  
Doge
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Originally Posted by ridethecliche
I've asked about this before and got some feedback but time to do it again seriously.

I'm looking for a fitter... Someone that knows wtf they're doing and has worked with injured athletes. If they have a PT background that's a plus. I'm in nj but willing to drive as far as MA/DC (or even Virginia Beach) since I can make a trip out of it and see family or friends.

Hoping not to pay a crazy amount but I think the going rate for a detailed fit is like 300-500 now which is just fine. Esp since I have two bikes that I'll be riding if I ever do this regularly again. Sigh.
David is very good. I don't know if he does remote. I'm thinking maybe. Bike Fitting | Dave Jordaan Cyber Cycle Coach
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Old 07-25-21, 09:47 PM
  #6327  
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Originally Posted by topflightpro
I expected to be told to go to 165s, given all the current trends. But my fitter - also ERO - was surprised by how flexible I am and my ability to get into an aero sprint position and still turn 170s efficiently. (I am not a pursuiter, so there's that too.) Also, the longer crank arm gives a bit more leverage for turning bigger gears.
I got 170s because I run 175s on the road, even though my inseam says I should run probably a 150 on the road. Saddle to BB (with Keos) is 67 cm I think. It's 65.7 or 67.5cm. Inseam is less than 28". However, even with short legs, I have incredible difficulty using 170s on the road, the 175s make it feel like I can breathe again. I tried really hard to go to 170s on the road, committing to them back in 2020. I did one race, in 2021, and immediately put on the 175s. Felt a 1000% better the following week.

My bars can't go lower legally so that's not an issue.

So based on that experience I decided to lengthen up on the track, to 170.

I've ordered chainrings so I have 2-3" increments up to 114" (hahaha) from lower than my 91" (I'll have 51, 52, 54, 56, with 13-16T cogs). This week I will be rolling a 92" and I want to try a 98" just because that's what it'll be if I change wheels.
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Old 07-26-21, 03:47 AM
  #6328  
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which track are you going to?
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Old 07-26-21, 07:06 AM
  #6329  
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carpediemracing do you know Andrea Myers?
https://www.classcycles.com/articles...ting-pg177.htm

Seems like she might be good as well. I feel like someone had mentioned her last time.

Originally Posted by ntnyln
I've not used him, but this guy is a PT and has a good reputation https://www.velofitpt.com/

This is my guy, and he is amazing. He's not a PT but he knows his stuff and helped me clear up a lot of issues with my fit. https://www.parvillacycles.com/about...logy-pg155.htm
Thanks, I'll look into it!

Originally Posted by gsteinb
Seems he's down with Lyme and probably out until the fall.
Ugh, bummer.

Originally Posted by topflightpro
Ero-Sport near Allentown is very good. Depending on where in Jersey you are, it's not that far of a drive.
I'll look them up as well. I don't mind driving 2-3 hrs each way so it should be fine. My parents live in bucks county and allentown's like 1.5hrs from there.

Originally Posted by Doge
David is very good. I don't know if he does remote. I'm thinking maybe. Bike Fitting | Dave Jordaan Cyber Cycle Coach
This seems like an almost ideal setup for a fit, but Irvine is very far and a remote fit sounds sub optimal.

Last edited by ridethecliche; 07-26-21 at 07:10 AM.
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Old 07-26-21, 08:36 AM
  #6330  
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I use ERO as well. They have a studio at the Carson track. ERO has a large data base of international and profession athletes that includes pro racing success as well as solving problems.

Having said that, I think fit evolves and problem solving is iterative and takes time. I see the ERO guy several times a year when I am training and racing at Carson and he sees me on the track. Fit in the studio may or may not equal fit on the road or track at different power and fatigue levels.

TL DR. One may need a few sessions and observation by a fitter to solve problems. Local access or a studio in a area that you frequent is excellent.
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Old 07-26-21, 11:24 AM
  #6331  
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I think I don't have any right to complain about riding variety. In looking at maybe selling to cash out some home value and moving to a cheaper locale near my work I realized I would literally only pretty much have Zwift or the same 5 or 6 roads only to ride.

In town and where I am now, if you ride the right times of day the world is your oyster and Umstead gravel a 30min warmup spin from the house on greenway 75% of the way.

Selfish part of me finds something like that tough to give up.
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Old 07-26-21, 11:38 AM
  #6332  
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BTS - Where is your office located?

I'm thinking about refinancing and taking some cash out of our house and using it to do some upgrades/repairs on the house. Our house is about 15 years old. So, I know I'm going to need a new roof, HVAC and probably kitchen appliances in the next few years. And we really need to replace all of our flooring (It's contractor grade carpeting for the most part, and the dog has worn it out.) I'm on track to pay off the house by the end of 2025, so I'm conflicted on whether I want to extend my debt timeline. Still, interest rates are so low right now.

And in other news, it looks like they are finished repairing my track frame and will be sending it back to me, so I should have it in a week or so.
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Old 07-26-21, 11:56 AM
  #6333  
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Originally Posted by Hermes
I use ERO as well. They have a studio at the Carson track. ERO has a large data base of international and profession athletes that includes pro racing success as well as solving problems.

Having said that, I think fit evolves and problem solving is iterative and takes time. I see the ERO guy several times a year when I am training and racing at Carson and he sees me on the track. Fit in the studio may or may not equal fit on the road or track at different power and fatigue levels.

TL DR. One may need a few sessions and observation by a fitter to solve problems. Local access or a studio in a area that you frequent is excellent.
Yeah, having a place to go to locally would be decent I think. I worked with a guy here who may have helped a little bit but the problem came back as I increased miles. He had said everything looked fine. Nothing else had changed. I think he was decent, but may have needed a bit more. He does have a studio doing retul fits which maybe merits a look. I had done this out of his garage with a buncha fans pulling air out during covid times last summer so it was good but not ideal.
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Old 07-26-21, 12:15 PM
  #6334  
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Originally Posted by topflightpro
BTS - Where is your office located?

I'm thinking about refinancing and taking some cash out of our house and using it to do some upgrades/repairs on the house. Our house is about 15 years old. So, I know I'm going to need a new roof, HVAC and probably kitchen appliances in the next few years. And we really need to replace all of our flooring (It's contractor grade carpeting for the most part, and the dog has worn it out.) I'm on track to pay off the house by the end of 2025, so I'm conflicted on whether I want to extend my debt timeline. Still, interest rates are so low right now.

And in other news, it looks like they are finished repairing my track frame and will be sending it back to me, so I should have it in a week or so.
We rest our head in N Hills, rapidly developing and rising prices. I work at Novo out in Clayton. Traffic is easy out of town and back in as many more folks drive into town for their daily work. So commute is fine.

I'm just so torn. I'm pretty sure we could move to an affordable area near Clayton at a price where we'd own immediately with no loan. But, none of our fave food places. No Umstead a short spin away. Etc..... Ayyyyyeee.

We have time. Wife has to finish grad school and see what her job prospects are anyway. So, no biggie. I just haven't really thought about this in depth that much.
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Old 07-26-21, 12:54 PM
  #6335  
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In other news, tired of wearing worn out flappy kit on the TT bike training rides. Bought a used Castelli san remo suit to try. If I like the cheapo used one, I'll buy a new-to-me one. See if I like it.
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Old 07-26-21, 01:08 PM
  #6336  
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I made it out to do the Madison last week at Northbrook myself. Was talking to a local that races a lot of masters nationals and worlds and he was talking about how crazy gear selection has gotten and how it's all changed recently.

I'm nothing of a racer but I always thought I was running heavy in the mid 90" range. Second guessed my 92ish 49x14 for the Madison but then was dragging on the last few laps.

You can run whatever cranks you want here as it's so flat but even still I believe I run 167.5
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Old 07-26-21, 01:43 PM
  #6337  
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Originally Posted by burnthesheep
We rest our head in N Hills, rapidly developing and rising prices. I work at Novo out in Clayton. Traffic is easy out of town and back in as many more folks drive into town for their daily work. So commute is fine.

I'm just so torn. I'm pretty sure we could move to an affordable area near Clayton at a price where we'd own immediately with no loan. But, none of our fave food places. No Umstead a short spin away. Etc..... Ayyyyyeee.

We have time. Wife has to finish grad school and see what her job prospects are anyway. So, no biggie. I just haven't really thought about this in depth that much.
Gotcha. Yeah, Clayton's out there, and traffic sucks if you live out there and work in town or the Park. But you could get a much larger house with a dedicated trainer room.

And there would still be plenty of flat places to ride. And I'm sure there is a CFA, Bojangles and SCNB out there.
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Old 07-26-21, 04:08 PM
  #6338  
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Originally Posted by ridethecliche
Yeah, having a place to go to locally would be decent I think. I worked with a guy here who may have helped a little bit but the problem came back as I increased miles. He had said everything looked fine. Nothing else had changed. I think he was decent, but may have needed a bit more. He does have a studio doing retul fits which maybe merits a look. I had done this out of his garage with a buncha fans pulling air out during covid times last summer so it was good but not ideal.

Big fan of the retul fits. That's what my fitter uses. In addition to the using the data from the retul fit to identify opportunities for improvement, he essentially refused to use the shims everyone else used to try and "fix" my issues. He couldn't find any obvious leg length discrepancy or any thing similar, so we spent the better part of half a day working through possible causes. He then referred my to a PT to try and fix it rather than just throw hardware at it. Long way of saying, ask any potential fitter about their problem solving methodology. If you see a bunch of shims lying around, run as fast as you can.
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Old 07-26-21, 05:32 PM
  #6339  
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Originally Posted by ntnyln
Big fan of the retul fits. That's what my fitter uses. In addition to the using the data from the retul fit to identify opportunities for improvement, he essentially refused to use the shims everyone else used to try and "fix" my issues. He couldn't find any obvious leg length discrepancy or any thing similar, so we spent the better part of half a day working through possible causes. He then referred my to a PT to try and fix it rather than just throw hardware at it. Long way of saying, ask any potential fitter about their problem solving methodology. If you see a bunch of shims lying around, run as fast as you can.
I don't think shims are necessarily harmful, but depends on the actual issue. They're probably overused significantly where insoles for collapsing arches would likely be a better option. But yeah, a tool that's good at collecting data is useless if you don't really know what to do with said data or how to use it.

That's one of the things I've been thinking of trying actually. Removing all the shims under my cleats and just seeing what happens with higher insoles.
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Old 07-26-21, 05:40 PM
  #6340  
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I had two retul fits with two different fitters. Each fitter came to a dramatically different assessment and my position ended up in a very positions.
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Old 07-26-21, 08:03 PM
  #6341  
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Hermes and topflightpro
Didn't realize you were both talking about the same place...
They're an hour and a half from me and might be worth a serious looksie.
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Old 07-26-21, 10:11 PM
  #6342  
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Originally Posted by ridethecliche
Yes. She was a regular at Bethel, I think former pro. Her husband was a very active racer (and young enough that I talked with his dad more than I ever talked with him). He was into karts before cycling too. He was the principle designer of the Tour of CT road course that wove through Fairfield County and finished doing loops in Danbury (promoter was someone else).

On the other hand I don't know anything about their professional qualifications.
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Old 07-26-21, 10:14 PM
  #6343  
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Originally Posted by gsteinb
which track are you going to?
Northeast Velodrome. Or New England Velodrome.

I had to Google. It's officially Northeast Velodrome, formerly (up until 2009) the New England Velodrome.

They share track time with a karting association so it's bikes on Tu, Th, Su, karts the other days. Shallow banking, 14 deg, 333m track. Used to be shorter but they moved the sprint lane up a bunch so that there's an "apron" now. Before the apron consisted of concrete pillows (to keep karts from going too low) and dirt.
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Old 07-26-21, 10:28 PM
  #6344  
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Work was frustrating again, but a few bright lights.

First, a coworker (the best tech there, super smart, and now a super enthusiastic mountain biker that regularly overhauls his bike because his shock and brakes are like simple versions of car things, and he also has a big RC car that has overhaul able shocks.

Anyway, he glared at me at one point in the day, "Dude, what the eff?" I was a bit taken aback because I thought he was mad at me. So I did a knee jerk reaction, "What are you talking about?" "Dude, you're the only guy up front. The other four guys just sit at the service desk (on the other side of the glass, in the garage area) and they LITERALLY turned their backs to the windows when someone walked into the front. That's effed up. You want me to yell at them? This is effing ridiculous." etc etc etc. He was clearly frustrated at the lack of willingness to work from the others. So obviously there's some reason for my frustration that I wasn't super able to identify before but now seems a bit more clear. I always thought they had their hands full managing the techs and writing up orders, but apparently that's definitely not the case.

Second, there is one coworker that will jump to his feet and quickly help out people that walk in. He has the right attitude, tries to do the right thing, etc. He's the one I recommended be promoted above me, and he was. Working with him is always refreshing and boosts my morale.

Third, the customer reviews. As one now-transferred coworker commented to me, "I have never seen anyone named in so many 'good' reviews." Of course the funny part is how they spell my name. Today one came in mentioning "Anki". Knowing that I helped someone out, made them feel comfortable and safe (for lack of a better term, but relating to car repair I think it's good) makes me feel good.

And of course I have a really supportive family, both the Missus and Junior.

So not all bad. But still, it was a pretty terrible day overall lol.
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Old 07-27-21, 07:23 AM
  #6345  
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Originally Posted by ridethecliche
Hermes and topflightpro
Didn't realize you were both talking about the same place...
They're an hour and a half from me and might be worth a serious looksie.
We are talking about the same organization, but different fitters.
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Old 07-27-21, 09:08 AM
  #6346  
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Originally Posted by topflightpro
We are talking about the same organization, but different fitters.
It would be a long drive for me to ERO in your locale.
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Old 07-27-21, 11:30 AM
  #6347  
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I know. I dismissed them when hermes mentioned them because CA. Theyre close enough for me to go there.

I think it's time to start riding again for a bit and schedule things when I have some more miles under me. Might start out removing all my shims and starting from scratch. I really need to get into the yoga habit again as well.

As far as life things go...

I drive back and forth to my parents place (45mins away) and my gfs place in Philly (1.25hrs away) multiple times a week. Add to that the commute time for week since I'm at a different site everyday and it's a bit exhausting. I don't mind doing it to see my folks and gf but like, hitting the road at 6 to make it to Newark from Philly hurts sometimes.

On the plus side... I'm applying to fellowship right now. If I get into a program in Philly this will get a lot better starting next July. Application goes out this week so cross your fingers for me please!

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Old 07-27-21, 03:20 PM
  #6348  
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Originally Posted by carpediemracing
Work was frustrating again, but a few bright lights.
Are you a service advisor? I worked with a lot of advisors. Some were good, caring people and some were avaricious, lying, thieving bastards. It's up to management to decide what they want. Some places will keep a liar because they generate money, at least in the short term. As a tech, I hated working with scummy advisors who screw customers as hard as they can, every time.
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Old 07-27-21, 10:23 PM
  #6349  
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Originally Posted by big john
Are you a service advisor? I worked with a lot of advisors. Some were good, caring people and some were avaricious, lying, thieving bastards. It's up to management to decide what they want. Some places will keep a liar because they generate money, at least in the short term. As a tech, I hated working with scummy advisors who screw customers as hard as they can, every time.
Yes. I'd like to think that most of us are the former, at least at the store where I work.
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Old 07-28-21, 06:36 AM
  #6350  
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I was exhausted when I replied the above.

So there is me who tries to take care of customers. I go by the book in that if brake fluid tests poorly (for copper content, any significant amount of copper in the brake fluid indicates that the corrosion inhibitors in the fluid are used up and the fluid is starting to eat away at the copper lining the brake lines and caliper internals) then I'll recommend fluid. But I won't do it just because it's 3 years or 2 years (for Honda I think, maybe it's Subaru). I'll recommend air filters if they're dirty, but a few techs ALWAYS recommend them so for them I go and eyeball the things. Often they're not bad at all, so I'll scold the tech then ("dude, you can't rec filters if they're clean. what if they decline and have someone else check. Or they decline and then check themselves. we'll look like liars, and specifically I'll look like a liar. DOn't do this!") and let the customer know that next oil change we'll check again. Etc.

There are two that go by the book, so if it's 30k miles they'll recommend the brake fluid no matter what - they're more rote people, they aren't super sure what each thing does, so they're not good at "feature benefit" like "I'd suggest replacing the brake fluid because the corrosion inhibitors are used up and that means you could have more substantial problems down the road, like a sticking caliper or even a failed hard line". Instead they just say "at 30k you should do the brake fluid". They're good about coupons because that's part of the rote process.

There's the manager, who will put stuff in the work order as recs but then tell the customer it's for pricing purposes only. He recommends actual required work. He's like me, but he's a bit more willing to sell maintenance stuff that I don't necessarily sell. He's super good with pricing, coupons, etc. His intentions are good, and it reflects in his quotes. He also understands the importance of covering our butts so for example if we do a diagnosis on a toilet car, it has a whatever terrible thing (blown engine, transmission, rusted frame, etc), he'll waive the diag fee but write it all up so there's a record of it (and he'll pay the tech too). If we can't do a repair because it's a dealer thing (PCM has to be reflashed at dealer) then I'll waive the fee - there are others that still charge the diag, which I don't think is right, and eventually it'll come back to bite us. I'll charge if the diag uncovers work suited for us but the customer declines.

There is one that goes by the book but if it's hard to find a part he won't recommend it because he doesn't feel like calling the dealer for the part or hunt it down otherwise. So he gives incomplete recs, like he won't recommend something needed because he doesn't feel like finding the part/s (or figure out the labor) but he'll recommend "by the book" stuff that's easy. So maybe he'll skip the brake fluid because the bleeder screws look rusted and instead he'll recommend the air filters which are pristine but way easier to write up. At least he does all the coupons.

Then there's the guy that scares people into buying stuff. He won't get into dealer stuff (air bag warning light, wacky dash stuff, super heavy corrosion) but he'll sell a ton of stuff on a car that's falling apart. I don't agree with it but I've come to realize that some people can't replace their car and they need it to have tires or brakes or struts or whatever, put it on the store card that gives them time to pay, then just deal with it later. So with him I agree with some stuff, not with other stuff, but I end up changing my mind on some of the work he recommends because the customer does it to get by for another year before buying a different car. This guy never puts in coupons either, so I put them all in before cashing out the customer.

I think a lot of the customers rack up huge bills to keep their cars on the road. And a lot of people come in with absolutely destroyed cars that they just bought and "the place's mechanic checked it out and it's all good". Well, it's all good except the head gasket is blown or the engine "has a loud clanking noise", or the transmission is effed up, subframe has three rust holes in it, etc. One car came in with "no AC". Condenser had what looked like bullet holes in it (or someone poked a bunch of holes in it with a metal rod), and it was held in place with angle iron. And they bought it from a used car dealer.
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