Monthly Archives

July 2020

Blog

Going downhill with Strava

Believe me, I’m as tired of banging on about how much Strava sucks, as you are about reading me bang on about how much Strava sucks. But, there is so much suck, and I have to write about something ;)… I’ve mentioned before that Live Segments are the only reason I pay for Strava, and while that might seem like an exaggeration, it’s not. Sure, routes are nice, and the “analysis” is…

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News

Ditching model years is anti-consumer

According to a report on Cycling Industry News, Cannondale is planning to stop using model years. Which, depending on the implementation is likely to be bad for consumers (i.e. us) for a couple reasons. They’re also planning to change the refresh cycle to work off the calendar year, which creates a de facto “model year”, but is probably a good thing. Introducing new/updated bikes in the middle of the buying season either…

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Blog

MAP’g Game Theory

IMO, MAP is stupid and anti-consumer. Contractual obligations that extend beyond that to assure that a retail will not sell below SRP, even more so. I understand why OEMs like it, and why dealers have to play along, but that doesn’t really change the fundamentals. It is an attempt to subvert market forces, and while it’s in someone’s interest, it’s not in mine. Ultimately, it’s ineffective too. As long as you have…

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Blog

When a discount, isn’t a discount…

As I mentioned last week, I crashed my bike, hit my head, and now I need a new helmet. Fortunately Giro has a crash replacement program. Unfortunately, the discount you get (30%), doesn’t really reflect the reality of street pricing – most of the time anyway. This is actually the second Giro Aether MIPS helmet I’ve owned. The first one took a proper hit when I broke my Aeroad, this one has…

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News

It’s getting hot in here…

It was my understanding that training in the heat not only helps with performance in the heat (duh), but also performance in the cool. So there’s simple guidance: train hot whenever you can. That might not actually be the case (thanks 182lb Pure Climber for the link), with the study below indicating that there’s no performance benefit to be had from training hot for cool weather events. The sample isn’t massive (only…

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News

PSA: Know your helmet’s safety rating

I had a little incident while riding in the rain this morning. I’m fine, the bike is fine. Ignoring a few scratches. But, I do need a new helmet, so while I was checking out the site below to find a new helmet, it occurred to me that it was probably worth sharing this gem. Enjoy. In collaboration with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, we have rated a total of 102 bike…

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News

Garmin fēnix 6 goes to 10.10?

That’s really odd… Apparently Garmin messed something up in the v10 release for the fēnix 6, so now there’s a 10.10 coming straight to GA. At lease this time the release notes include Sleep and Surf (meh) ;). Same deal as always, either wait for it, or force it with Garmin Express.  …

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Blog

Strava Routes doesn’t suck. Doesn’t nail it either…

I recently got the opportunity to plan several rides in an area I’ve never cycled before. So, I thought why not try out Strava’s routing feature… Yes, I know it’s been available for ages, but in a location I’m familiar with, it, and frankly every other cycling routing app, just doesn’t do what I want it to. What made this different, was that I just wanted a few X mile rides that…

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News

Garmin Pushes v10 for fēnix 6 smartwatches

Garmin has been teasing this update for a while, both in the various 9.x BETA and 10.0 RC version that went up about a week ago in their forums. I jumped on the 10 RC bandwagon after letting it stew for a few days, but unfortunately they pulled the download and associated change log for the update, with only the a very limited list available on the forum. The odd bit is…

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