Monthly Archives

February 2020

News

Rubbee is a beautiful abomination

I have mixed feelings about electric bicycles. On the one hand, there is no feeling better than blowing by one (tri-bike passes are a close second). On the other, it can take a lot of work to blow by an electric bicycle… And that’s the beautiful thing about them, they widen what’s possible on a bike. Whether that’s expanding who you can ride with, the duration or terrain of your route, or…

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Blog

In Defense Of Disc Brakes

Deep down we all know that disc brakes are technically superior. Now, there are rough edges in the current implementation, certainly for road disc, but that doesn’t change the fundamentals. There are plenty of use cases where rim brakes are just as good, but disc allows you to plan for peak. For e.g. I live in a flat place, but also like to travel to the mountains with my bike. Disc is…

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News

Whoop, you had one job…

Buried in DC Rainmakers very thorough review of the Suunto 7, there’s an interesting tidbit around the quality of Whoop’s heart rate sensor, and it’s not great. To be fair the Suunto’s is even worse, but… Actually, there is no but. Getting heart rate that wrong, for either device is inexcusable… SMH…

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Blog

Someone should tell Ted King that Vitamin C is making him slower…

I’m generally quite happy to let riders who are faster than me make all sorts of sub-optimal choices. Elbows out? Great! Resting on the downhill while rolling hills? Even better; rest now, pay later. But, this is a little different. First, I’ll never ride with Ted King, and even if I did, I would be so far back that it would be functionally equivalent. He’s F1, I’m doing doughnuts in the parking…

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News

Strava surprises everyone by adding a useful feature

Hand to heart, the news that Strava added activity cropping to their mobile apps surprised on two fronts. First, I’ve never had to edit a activity, but I knew it was possible, and just assumed that it would be part of the mobile features set. Second, OMG, Strava actually added a feature that people would use. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh (unlikely), but after years of nothing, removing useful features, and…

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News

GCN asks a stupid question, takes 8 minutes and 16 seconds to answer it

Of course you can climb on aero wheels, they just aren’t well suited to the task. It will be faster to use a lighter set (W/kg is king on the climbs); unless you’re fast. Then there’s a sweet spot (probably around 45-50mm). The real question should be “can you safely descend on aero wheels?”. Because when you’re screaming down the side of a mountain at 40-50mph, turn a corner, and get hit…

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News

Can a rocker plate help with mechanical issues?

I don’t normally like to point towards company sponsored marketing content, but this post is very interesting. While obviously marketing in intent, it has nuance (i.e. they aren’t claiming that the Saris MP1 fixes everything) that is thought provoking. The fitter found that the plate’s motion “allows” the rider to reproduce mechanical issues with their form on the trainer, that would otherwise be hidden. Which in turn, makes it possible for them…

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News

IQ² MTB Should, maybe, come in June/July 2020

Not quite two years ago, IQ² got enough people to back the [incredibly innovative, but alas, not sound from an engineering perspective] power meter dongle (?) designed to sit agnosticlly between the pedal and the crank. As a SPD rider, yes, even on the road, this seemed the perfect place to measure power; without the drawbacks of putting the power meter in a consumable pedal. Oh, and the price was perfect. Unfortunately,…

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News

SlowTwitch creates ambiguity around Shimano Dura-Ace R9100P Power Meter

I must admit that I don’t frequent Slowtwich that often, and stuff like this is probably why. While I have zero first hand experience with the R9100P, it’s very clear (as in zero ambiguity) that this power meter doesn’t work. While some of this is inherent in the asymmetric design of the 9100 crank, most 9100 based power meters (e.g. Stages, 4iiii, Pioneer), while imperfect, at least function in a predictable way.…

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Blog

Hello World!

Hello, this is Andrew with Missing Remote, er…, Mamilian. Change is hard, but I think it’s time to setup a separate space for bike stuff, and the home theater/networking/etc stuff. Since I don’t want to recreate a bunch of videos, I’m going to cross post them (I know, so lazy…). Hopefully Google doesn’t hate me because of it.…

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