Monthly Archives

May 2020

News

Rumor has it

If a Venge and a Tarmac did the dirty, chances are we’d get this. Which is rumored to be the new, SL7, Specialized Tarmac. Word on the street, er… Internets, is that the Venge is on the way out, and this hybrid will take it’s place. While I’m sure that’s great for some, I prefer the non-integrated stem setup on the SL6. Just makes it a much easier thing to work on.…

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Blog

Hey Strava, let’s talk about Packs

Strava’s predatory pivot to subscription is old news. I still think we should be ranting about it, but old news nevertheless. What isn’t clear, at least to me, is how this impacts Packs subscribers. As a legacy Packs subscriber, I’ve received several emails from Strava indicating something. What exactly? I’m not sure. I click the link which is supposed to explain it all, and just end up on a page which tells…

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Blog

if (calcFTP > FTP) { showNewFTPDialog(calcFTP); } else { //stfu Garmin }

It’s not obvious from the photo above, but I hope the title helps a little, that Garmin shouldn’t be showing this dialog to me post ride. Why? Because I’ve already told it that my FTP is more than 262. Unless it’s running some kind of next level AI cloud processing (it’s not), there’s no way for it to tell if I’m detraining. And, frankly if it were, it would be wrong there…

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News

Caley is wrong, so very wrong

I do agree with Caley on one thing. It is important to support, and pay for, the things you love. Where we diverge, and it happens quickly, is on where Strava fits into that equation. Before getting to that, I should also note that I also completely understand where Caley is coming from as a content producer. While this site isn’t very old, I’ve been working in the media space for more…

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News

Cry ‘Havoc!,’ and let slip the dogs of war.

As a relatively slow cyclist, I use Strava for two reasons: as a social platform to share the pain I subject myself to, and to get motivated by what others are doing to create personal suffering for themselves. If I were faster, or more focused, or more competitive (that’s a lie, I’m competitive, just not “competitive”, because relatively slow) maybe I’d be willing to pay to see how slow I am in…

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News

Can’t help but ask if those were 10-20 min efforts, would Nate feel differently?

Without knowing the grade of these climbs, it’s hard to know whether this is pure rider preference or an interesting nuance sussed out by In The Know Cycling’s approach to reviews (of which I am a fan). I’m going to guess, based on some of the hints in the article, that Nate is a larger rider with a higher absolute FTP. If that’s the case, then it totally makes sense that the…

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News

Well, that’s promising!

I guess, perhaps, I was too harsh in my last post about iQ², because it looks like they are actually ramping up  production of both their single, and double, sided power meter pedals. Currently they are making “hundreds” with plans to hit “thousands” a week “soon after”. That’s great news. Still think it’s odd that they only supplied a single-sided sample to DCR… As you know, we’re currently scaling up production so…

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News

Garmin makes it easier to do something you could already do

I’m not sure I understand the point of this, given that it already works. But, it is nice that the process of getting a course from Komoot or Strava loaded on your Garmin head unit is more streamlined than before; which did involve installing a Connect IQ app, linking the account, selecting the course, and downloading it. Where, now you should just have to link the accounts. I haven’t had a chance…

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News

Garmin revs Varia, neglects biggest gripe

I love my Garmin Varia RTL510. It’s one of those things, like a helmet, that you certainly can ride a bike without, but once you do the math; why would you? So when all signs pointed towards a new Varia I was really hoping that Garmin would solve the most common gripe I’ve seen with the device – mounting and security on the back of the bike. As it turns out, they…

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