[Xerien]

Would like to add my heartfelt thanks, and of course, congratulations…

Thanks for hosting this site, keeping it clean, and well, attracting and offering the best of the best.

[Xerien]

"GoldenGoose" wrote

😯 😮 😮

German chicks [i:1vjqfwnx]proving[/i:1vjqfwnx] they are better bike riders than you and I…

[url:1vjqfwnx]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b36Yi-Pb1wM[/url:1vjqfwnx]

Holy crap! I can’t even conceive of that level of balance… I could go on for a couple paragraphs, but I think I’ll let the holy crap stand… 😛

(There must be some steroids or blood doping involved 😎 )

[Xerien]

Shimano or SRAM rear derailleur? (Doesn’t matter for the front, essential for the rear.)

If you’re SRAM on the back end, Jenson still has the SRAM X.0 (top end, $250) on sale for 149.99.. X.9 are also similary discounted to under 100 bones. (90)

If Shimano, sorry, don’t have any links for you. (I’m SRAM on my sled, so haven’t done any research and have no opinion or experience, aside from my wife’s Trek which sports low-end shimano, which doesn’t suck…)

You have to add the heavily discounted items to your cart on Jenson to see the price. (Don’t have to continue, just have to take the 1st leap 😛)

[Xerien]

Doesn’t really fit into the ‘don’t want to spend a lot’ bit of your question, but I use a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx.

Love it. Beaten it to heck and back; it’s survived all the crashes, and a couple dunks in the river(s.)

[Xerien]

Yeah yeah, thanks for the input Captain Obvious… 😳

(me, not you)

[Xerien]

Those web-based resizers are great, if you don’t have any software on your computer to do the trick. The thing I don’t like about them is you still have to wait for your file(s) to upload to their server to be converted. 😢

[Xerien]

"trek7k" wrote

[quote="GoldenGoose":1nbm1obd]When I link an image from my photobucket account, does it shrink it for me or does it have the full size image there too?

On the forums we use javascript to resize pics to fit the page. You may have noticed the layout shifts and pics get smaller after the page loads.[/quote:1nbm1obd]

Key is ‘after the page loads.’ 😀
Those "monster files" linked from an external site can really dramatically increase the time a forum thread takes to load. It’s not a huge deal with good broadband (stress on good,) but with a spotty connection; well…

If the software you’re using is cumbersome, there are some free resizers. I just checked out picturetray and after a test drive, I may actually keep it for quick resizes for places like this, as it consolidates the outputs into one folder (defaults to the installation location) while accepting ins from all over the place. Much quicker than my current software and does it all in a single shot rather than the multiple converts I currently have to do if I’m going from more than one location (we store pics by date.)

Can’t vouch for the safety of the file, but norton 360 didn’t gripe about the site or the software, so… 😎

And finally, as to the question of a plugin to automatically resize (on the client browser side) on the fly; No luck so far searching for that. Found a bunch of photoshop plugins, but nothing for browsers.

[Xerien]

Have occasionaly experienced timeouts myself – and as a programmer (including web) I habitually reduce the size of photos before uploading for just this sort of reason. (I should ask now, are you uploading full resolution pics?) In some cases, either the browser, or the server will timeout (get bored…) and in fact, the browser can sometimes choke before the upload has even commenced for real, as it has to scan the entire data file, sometimes numerous times to find some unique strings to use as delimiters before it converts the file to text and begins the upload.

Just this sort of issue has been a support nightmare for me in the past, since users (very reasonably) want it to "just work" without them having to go through any extra steps. But I digress…

Since the site resamples the photo-album pages anyhow, there’s not much point in uploading full-size shots. The whole process will go faster, and I’ve yet to have an upload fail when sending the reduced size since they go so quickly.

I believe this site uses 580 pixels wide for the albums, but I tend to use 800X600 when I reduce images since I also use that for emails and my wife’s facebook posts. 8X6 is just a nice round number that fits on even the oldest displays (these days) without distorting the aspect ratio.

[Xerien]

"Biohazard74" wrote

I go for one thing and walk out with 3 digits worth of stuff every time. 😆

So so true… That’s gotta be written somewhere in a rulebook, because it’s always the case. 😕

[Xerien]

Thanks guys.

We had discussed green and black, but he didn’t dig it at the time. The scheme was originally my wife’s idea.

After he read your comments, sounds like he’s back on board with it… Bet (if the thought sticks all the way) it’s gonna look great…

Too bad we’re gonna have to replace some of the new black bolt-ons with green to match. 😛

[Xerien]

I really dig the mallets… I ran the 324’s before and had issues with them. I’ve ranted about them before so I’ll just say they didn’t work out well for me.
Switched to mallet-1’s and never looked back.

[Xerien]

Congrats to Lance, Wiens and for that matter, all of the competitors…
Too bad that Juarez broke and had to drop out.

Did anyone by chance manage to grab the trail map and elevation profile? Wanted to see it, but the site hosting the maps apparently had to shut down due to insane volume.

[Xerien]

Perhaps the salient points from this, and the microbiologist thread should be consolidated into a sticky?

i.e. keep it dry, don’t stick anything but water in it, mild detergent first, baking soda next, commercial tablets (or baking soda and very dilute bleach;same as the tablets) if you forget about it and it gets funky… And of course, rinse it well, and try not to forget it for a month (in the back seat;in the closet;in the cabinet;whatever)

[Xerien]

Wow, some of those are great quotes… Wonder if the wife would wear any of those…

‘I enjoy going down’ perhaps? 😼
or… ‘My wife has no idea what my bike really cost’ 😮

[Xerien]

Welcome to what is IMO the friendliest place around to discuss biking.

I’m with you on the ‘don’t want to break anything’ style of riding, but don’t let age or condition/physical issues slow you down. There’s no harm in riding the more gnarly trails – you can always push it through the stuff that’s more than you’re willing to risk. The rewards (scenery, or sense of acheivement when you finally nail something you couldn’t do a couple months ago) on the more gnarly trails are very often worth the time pushing.

Regarding the politics – I’ll take a pass; this isn’t the place… I will say that I’m not a happy camper this year.

Good luck with the recovery from the bypass. I hope MTB plays a substantial part in that quest, and becomes or remains a passion.

[Xerien]

Wow, it has a name and is called a noodle?

For me, it’s been "that tube thingy" as I tune the wife and kids bikes. No noodles on mine…

Why not macaroni? more specific to the shape… 😛
(nice pic, slacker, learn something new every day…)

[Xerien]

I’d suggest reading through the grip review section. to get a balanced idea. Also search the forums for lock on grips and you’ll find several threads on this topic.

I personally use and really like the ergon’s. I currently have the GP-1 and have ordered the GX-1’s to replace them. The wings take a little getting used to, and sometimes are annoying going down steeps because you can’t wrap the heel of your hand back/down on the bars. But for reducing numbness, they’re great.

[Xerien]

First, there’s the axle of the pedal which can be disassembled and lubed with a multi-purpose grease. This shouldn’t be necessary for quite some time, perhaps annually.

Then, there’s the clamping mechanism.
For shimano spd, there are quite a few moving parts that must be kept clean. Clean well and lubricate the springs and moving parts with a good dry lube such as teflon to avoid attracting dirt.
Time atac just has the release bar – one site suggests dribbling heavy oil into the pedal where the bar penetrates.
Crank Bro’s have a very simple mechanism and very little service is required – perhaps a little teflon along the axle where the clamp springs rotate.

Lubing the cleat on the shoe is really only necessary if you’re getting a lot of creaking as you pedal, or are having difficulty clipping in and out. Again, a little dry lube if possible to avoid attracting dirt, and to reduce oily footprints.

[Xerien]

Not much to it really. The lock ons usually slide on much easier than standard grips. Tighten to the recommended torque and you’re done.
The only critical thing is installing the reinforcing plug if you have carbon bars and your grip mfg suggests it so the clamp doesn’t collapse the bar ends. Using a torque wrench is also critical with carbons.
With alloy bars, no worries… German Torque Spec – gutentite.

Hardest part of the whole process may be the removal of the old grips – Slip-ons are sometimes stubborn coming off.

[Xerien]

"steve32300" wrote

[url:3fe5od7x]http://www.singletracks.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?t=2398[/url:3fe5od7x]

Here’s a link to the hydration bladder cleansing issue,Lvoz used to be a microbiologist and had some pretty cool information on parasites,mold,and mildue kinda stuff.I’m gonna go back and read it again myself.

That was an exceptional thread. Thanks for the linkage.

[Author]

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