Monthly Archives

October 2020

News October 29, 2020

Winter is coming. Get a smart trainer.

In general, the main driver for choosing a wheel-on vs. direct-drive smart trainer is cost. Unless you can’t stretch (or your partner won’t allow you to stretch) for a direct-drive it’s almost always going to be the better option. Quieter, more accurate, won’t eat tires, don’t need to pump the tire up to 110psi every time you use it; are just a few reasons why they’re better. Direct-drive trainers are all more…

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Blog Featured October 29, 2020

Advocating for Dual-Sided Power Meters

Single-sided power meters are far and away the most popular kind of power meter. There are a few reasons for that, but the biggest are that it’s cheaper and easier to do it that way. Buy a new crank arm with a power pod, and swap it for the left arm on your bike. Done. For an experienced mechanic, this should only take about five minutes. While that is cheap[er] and easy,…

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News October 23, 2020

Garmin Edge 530/830/1030 Get Radar Enhancements

If you have a Garmin Edge 530/830/1030/1030 Plus, a Varia, and are comfortable running BETA firmware, Garmin just released a firmware update that, along with some other improvements, adds an “All Clear” tone for the radar. While that might not seem like a massive improvement, if it works that’s a fantastic enhancement to the experience (which is already pretty awesome). Changes made from version 6.20 to 6.22: CIQ 3.2: Added CIQ 3.2…

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News October 22, 2020

Garmin releases 12.20 firmware for fēnix 6

The pace of improvements for the fēnix 6 is very impressive. Although, it’s also kind of disheartening that there are still so many issues to fix… I’ve been running the 11.x->12.10 betas without issue, well generally anyway, there are definitely some issues – just nothing that I would consider a showstopper or blocker of basic functionality. Unfortunately, Garmin hasn’t provided a download for 12.20 so we’re reliant on rollout schedules. Although, sometimes…

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News October 20, 2020

This shouldn’t be free

No one knows the sports gadget like DC Rainmaker. No one. That he does this every year isn’t news, it’s totally understandable that someone with the level of expertise that he possesses would be in high demand for industry events. What’s awesome, is that after recording this for the players, he shares it with the rest of us. At 44+ minutes, it might test the attention span, so grab whatever helps you…

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Blog October 20, 2020

Not cool Strava, not cool at all…

I’m not sure when it happened, but Strava has silently changed the amount they plan to charge me come December from the $23.99 I agreed to auto-pay, to the $59.99 they are now charging for Live Segments  + a bunch of rubbish. Legally they are allowed to do this sort of thing, but it’s still shifty AF to change the price by 2.5x and not the automatic opt-in. Clearly they have the…

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News October 14, 2020

We can’t have nice things

Remember how that guy freaked out about Strava matching his run with someone else’s? Well, apparently we can’t have nice things now because freaking outweighs sense. Of course, it is easier for me to feel the way I do because there’s literally zero reason why anyone would stalk me. But, for those who have concerns around that, the option existed to not be in the Flyby pool. Where what Strava did, by…

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News October 14, 2020

State Bicycle 6061 Black Label All-Road Checks A Lot of Boxes

✔️Metal  ✔️Frameset option ✔️Price ✔️Fender mounts ✔️Orange So maybe, orange bikes aren’t your thing. You’re obviously wrong, but my kids tell me I need to be “more sensitive” to a diversity of opinions, so we’ll let it slide. But, there is no denying that the 6061 Black Label (hmm… Johnnie Walker might take issue with that), named for the 6061 aluminum used in the frame, is good value-for-money at $1,400. Although, personally…

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