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the_meat

Member since Aug 2016 • Last active Feb 2022
  • 1 conversations
  • 992 comments

I don't live in London.

Most recent activity

  • in Bikes & Bits
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    Points deducted from me for taking a meme seriously, but there is, much to my own annoyance, plenty of the latter on the East Coast/Appalachian side of the US. Though it's true that those of us who live here also have to deal with West Coasters designing gear and components as if moisture does not exist.

  • in Bikes & Bits
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    You may already know this and just be goofin', but "FTW" is "Frank The Welder," a dude who's famously done a lot of production aluminum welding work for various MUSA brands.

    I had a chance to buy one of those stems for dirt cheap a while back and very much regret not doing it.

  • in Bikes & Bits
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    Right. Most of mine, though not all, are upside down for one of these two reasons. I'm not a stickler for tradition but it is a cute excuse to play with a weird feature of CK headsets.

  • in Bikes & Bits
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    Heard it as tradition if you buy the headset used. Bike above doesn't look like the sort where that's the case, though.

  • in Bikes & Bits
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    I'd feel differently if Mash weren't still giving bikes to the track bike wheelie kids that are keeping track bikes and street riding alive in the next generation, and making bikes for those kids.

    I'm not sure if this is the case over the pond but in the US, even in small cities like the one I live in, the kids are on that 12 o clock boys kick and a bunch of them are doing it on track bikes. They're definitely a separate scene from people like me (30 yrs old, got into track bikes through racing alleycats, etc).

    Mash seems to be in touch with that scene and promoting it, so imho they're not out of the zeitgeist just yet. But maybe things look different over where y'all are at?

  • in Bikes & Bits
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    I'll say in contrast to everyone else saying to size down, I'm 6'1" and rode a L, which at the time meant a "58cm" according to them. In reality it was only 58cm ctt, and it was something closer to a 54 ctc. I sized up two sizes when I replaced it with the new run, and it fits much, much better. That said, I'm a lanky dude and am pretty comfortable with a lot of reach. Personally though, unless you ride with a lot of saddle-to-bar and need that shorter reach, I'd go for the larger of the two sizes.

    @hollow__legs hah, I bought that wheelset thinking I'd be one of very few people in the whole country with that setup, and a month or two later went on a ride with a local crew and found out I wasn't even the first person in my small city with it lol

  • in Bikes & Bits
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    Finally cut the steerer on my Steel. Sized up by two from the one I had before, this one actually fits. Rides nice, now has basket reinstalled.

  • in Bikes & Bits
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    That Lancia makes me wish I didn't have eyes.

  • in Bikes & Bits
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    As one of the token US members here: the safety pizzas are partially just-for-fun, partially for safety, and (arguably) partially for compliance with certain laws related to bicycles and reflectors.

    The thing with all-road/gravel bikes here is that it's really impossible to overstate how car-centric the US is in infrastructure design and attitude. Some seriously ridiculous "safety" measures begin to seem more logical when you think of them less as actually effecting safety, and more in terms of a strategy for undercutting embarrassingly clumsy and stupid arguments from dangerous drivers in an inevitable courtroom. Those clumsy arguments will nevertheless often hold power without these measures, i.e. "were they wearing a helmet?" is asked every time a cyclist is hit by a DUI driver, and many people here truly believe it's relevant info to who's at fault.

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