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Shaving time

Having become quite comfortable breaking the rules, more than a couple on the screenshot above even, I’ve resisted the urge to signal membership in the cycling collective. As one might reasonably guess, that time is done, at least temporarily. But, have no fear! I will hold steadfast on my other violations. First of, I am surprised that anyone who has shaved their legs does it more than once. What an absolutely horrible…

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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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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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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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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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Insight worth paying for

It’s Tuesday, Strava… If you start the week on Monday… Oh, nevermind… Stuff like the screenshot above really gets me. Strava wants to pretend that it provides valuable insight into my fitness and training, you know, to help it justify a $60/year vig pivot towards profitability. Where the insight provided here is useless to me. What are they trying to communicate, how does that help me plan the week, or is it…

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Getting KOMs is easy, when you stack the deck

I don’t have the legs, or desire to plan for strategic segments strikes because I don’t have the legs, necessary to take most KOMs. But, that doesn’t mean holding a KOM, at least for a short while, isn’t in the cards. The trick? Make your own segment, post-ride, for a section of road you remember CRUSHING IT (no one has to know you had a tailwind ;)). Congrats on your crown, you…

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Another use case for the Garmin Varia

I love my Garmin Varia. It’s a massively helpful bit of magic that enhances my perception of safety on the bike because I know when there’s a car behind me, and in a broad sense how fast it’s approaching. Given this information, and with all the solo riding I’ve been doing lately, I recently discovered another great use case for the device. Motopacing. Standard T&C apply (i.e. probably not the safest thing,…

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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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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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