[Birru]

@Judd 159476 wrote:

Rimas, Birru and the Fingerman are now members of Team Friday Legs. Shenanigans are about to ensue.

I got roped into this with the promise of shenanigans. Stupidly, I didn’t ask for clarification first.

@KLizotte 159477 wrote:

Shave man, shave!

In his defense, he sketched my legs.

[Birru]

@Rockford10 159408 wrote:

By the way, last night on my way home, between fat raindrops and literally wiping the pollen from my eyes, I saw several folks with t-shirts and flyers walking around that land. It looks like there are cones out to represent something (where the homes will be?) and they had littered the area with signs.

Was it around 7:00? I think that’s when they had a walking tour meeting scheduled.

[Birru]

@anomad 159345 wrote:

I’m disappointed they don’t carry a vegan model.

Carsick has a nylon one: https://www.carsickdesigns.com/collections/portage-handle/products/portage-handle

[Birru]

Brooks’ newest lightweight racing saddle.

[Birru]

@EasyRider 159309 wrote:

Not sure one could call it affordable or family housing. It’s an age-restricted development, for those 55 and older. Not sure if it’s also a “no-kids” development or if that’s just a a softer way of advertising the same. At $600K a pop, it doesn’t really seem “affordable” to me, but I guess everything is relative. For better or worse, I think a community of well to do retired people living steps from the path will exert A LOT influence on the future of the W&OD in Falls Church.

I don’t find $600k affordable either, but for a modern house in the city it is. There are also older folks in the city with fixed incomes and larger homes they bought decades ago. So it might make sense for them to sell those homes and downsize to one of these “affordable” units.

[Birru]

It’s a carrying handle. Wait, it’s on a bike. I meant portage handle.

[Birru]

I’m not sure why some folks are opposed to a plan that actually builds relatively affordable single family housing in Falls Church. Especially since large swaths of older, modest homes have been and continue to be torn down to build large, $1 million+ houses around here.

[Birru]

@Tania 159215 wrote:

Now you’ve got that *@&#&^$ Duran Duran song in my head. Not cool, man. NOT COOL.

Frankie says relax, Tania.

[Birru]

@LeprosyStudyGroup 159200 wrote:

No stands at the del Ray Aldi which may be for the best because I didn’t think too hard on how I’d get it that last mile or two home :confused:

I saw SteveO haul a unicycle on his rack and climb steep hills like a mountain goat. I’m sure you’d figure something out.

[Birru]

@vvill 159203 wrote:

You were braking on the C&O?

That’s the thing! I just stopped for nature breaks or to swap wet clothes. The wet conditions basically kept filling the calipers with crap that I guess acted like a grinding paste. I used my water bottle to spray the gunk out as best I could.

[Birru]

@hozn 159180 wrote:

I’m not sure there’s any salient difference in modulation. I’d suggest buying a set of sintered and see how they compare with your setup. I have metallic on my MTB and modulation of those XT brakes is fabulous.

The real downside to organic is when you’re riding in the mud and you burn through an entire set of pads. Having to carry extra pads (and any special tools you may need to extract your pads) may be a strong reason to avoid organic for any bike that is going to be ridden in wet gritty conditions. (I have no plans to ever put organic on my MTB again.)

This is what I’ll probably do. Order a set of Shimano metallic pads and ride in a range of conditions and decide if I can live with the compromises 24/7. If I can’t then I’ll just swap to metallic for the worst conditions. The RS505 brakes are pretty dang easy to service, but I’d prefer not to do that in the field, in the wet. You said you got about 25k miles out of a set of rotors too. If I got half that rotor life with metallic pads I’d still be quite satisfied.

@Crickey7 159178 wrote:

I’d go with modulation over pad life. Assuming you can replace them yourself, they’re cheap enough that the extra cost is not significant.

My week old resin pads were practically worn down to the spring after one (1) muddy ride. I can’t live like that.

[Birru]

I mean, if you’re going to use Judd’s route for reference you might as well play hooky and go all the way to Heavy Seas.

[Birru]

@GovernorSilver 159112 wrote:

I do ride on quite a bit of debris. I encounter glass shards on the Eisenhower-Huntington pedestrian bridge just about every other day. I’ve been lucky to have avoided a flat for this much time on the Xplors.

I haven’t gone tubeless yet. The G-One Allround is an intriguing option. I heard that the Marathons can be hard to lift out of a rim, even with good tire levers. Do all Schwalbe tires come with reflective lines?

I think Schwalbe calls their reflective sidewall tires “reflex.” The G-One Allround don’t have the reflective strip. I think most, if not all the Marathons do.

[Birru]

My Renegade came with 30tpi wire bead Clement Xplor MSO 36c tires. I was curious about tubeless so I switched to Schwalbe G-One Allround 38c (actual measurement about 41mm on my 23mm internal rims) and I love them. Surprisingly awesome on the road at 40-45psi and they give me a a lot of cornering confidence. They also give me a lot of confidence when it comes to obstacles and debris. It goes without saying they’re awesome on gravel and even some mud. I ran them off-road at about 35psi, about 5psi lower than recommended without issue and they’re very comfortable. Obviously it’s not a fair, like-for-like comparison. I’ve heard good things about running the Xplor MSO tubeless as well. I just wanted to experiment with something a little different.

[Birru]

@Sunyata 159000 wrote:

You think YOU got baptized in mud?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14657[/ATTACH]

I heard it got so bad it was basically a hike a bike race before they finally had to call it. At least on the C&O I could keep my speed up.

I also learned I should probably keep some metallic brake pads handy for these conditions. Resin pads wear fast!

[Author]

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