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This is an excuse to get away from work, pretend you care, feel better than you should about yourself all the while doing absolutely nothing...err less than nothing to fix the problem.
In a way, it reminds me of this...
[[[and with that, Jeff has retained his king kook status for at least another season]]]]
i will say seeing the strike footage/photos (picking shots of the biggest crowds for the most impact) was a bit of a bummer. wouldn't it make sense if the strikers had nothing unnecessary with them and one sign at the front of the crowd? the amount of signs and paint and potential litter/landfill material consumed by protesters was pretty obvious disappointing. i know, i know, it's easy to critique the efforts of those wanting to make a positive impact, and MANY of the signs looked like re-used pieces of cardboard. it just seemed like a no-brainer - protest about saving our environment by NOT consuming 100,000 pieces of posterboard and paint/sharpies/tape for signs. is that unrealistic on my part? i'm not trying to be a dick or sound like a disbelieving conservative about this. it was just a head-scratcher to see the clutter in photos.
Every other 2 wheeled motor sport has realized that stiffer isn't necessarily better...
We could go back to full oil bath forks... Smoother action, less maintenance but more weight...
You go to work, just like every other friday for us M-F monkeys. Then, after work, instead of going to do whatever you'd normally do, there are programs throughout the country where you could go to a garage, a shop, a place with sewing machines (what is that place called?) and you fix something, learn to fix something or get lectured on fixing something.
Keeping a product in your closet or garage is far better for the earth than buying something new. A culture of fixing not only helps the environment, but it feels pretty good too. Putting emphasis on fixing stuff is something of yesteryear it seems, often looked down upon as "not as cool as my desk job" (LOL!~)
Not to stereotype (too late) but I'd wager the majority of those cardboard sign "strikers" don't know the difference between a socket wrench and a box wrench.
I think it'd be rad.
Boom.
EDIT: This is where blockchain could help too. It'd be hard to institute, but you could use blockchain to manage your supply chain, all the way from raw materials to the product going into the dump. If "X" products hit the dump before "Y" time, you get taxed?
I dunno...drank too much coffee.
I sucked at riding bikes when I first started racing. I was around some fast dudes, and I so desperately wanted to be fast, but I wasn't.
The Shiver let me do things I couldn't have done on any other fork. It was so incredibly forgiving. It let me lean back, hold on, and hope for the best, which usually worked out.
The first race I had it on was Snowmass, the first time the Banzai course was ever taped. I remember riding down that with DCamp leading on an Azonic with a Super T (another great fork). The grass so high it was over my handlebars in places. With that fork I could just lean back and hold on, muting my sub par bike handling much to the dismay of my friends. I think it kinda pissed them off that I could ride stuff I had no business riding on that thing.
The next year I was on the old school dorado, which is still one of the best forks I ever have used. It was a lot like the shiver, with better damping. I remember converting the grease system to "semi bath" and the seals wouldn't hold the oil in. I finished a number of races with a barely working front brake...
I still think a modern shiver would have a place. Yes, it'd be heavy, but the rental bike, park bike, or "I don't want to fuck with it bike" would benefit from something like that fork.
The comments are savage.
Apparently my POV is not all that unique.
My only real gripe on this whole climate strike is that they are pushing it on the backs of kids... I know every 13 year old is suddenly an expert on climate change and not simply regurgitating whatever they've been fed...
There is evidence of several climate shifts prior to the industrial revolution.. I'm not saying mankind hasn't contributed, but it may not be all man made either... But, yes.. doing our part to conserve some resources isn't a bad thing... There are still many questions about our planet that haven't been answered..
personally, this is something I have always tried to do with our family.. Both my teenage sons bikes were re-purposed from the side of the road. Re jigged replaced parts as needed and did a full disc conversion (hydro on 26 inch wheels) as no one wants the old stuff anymore.. In this process we found out that so many large companies dont care even about spare parts. The disc brakes we brought (shimano), had a MC failure after a crash and some serious 12 month use by one of my sons.
Think you could get spare parts ,,,, nope.... nata nothing... best I could do was buy a cheap EOL lever from alibaba to pinch the internals from. 12 bucks. All the bike shops were like just bin them as we can sell you a complete new lever, caliper etc for 49.... Tried Shimano Aust... no care, same answer...... Eventually I found a second hand set that I brought for 25 to use as parts as in the family we have 3 complete sets of these so should come in useful.
Same story with Hayes. trying to find a spare for an older set of nines ended up buying some second handies from US to pilfer for parts...
going to make a sic monument statue for the garden with all the bits that I wont be able to use...
Best bit with second hand goods... no taxes, little packaging, fits in budget.......
so I'm with Jeff,,,,, would love for companies to not change a couple of things for a few product rotations so that part of durability is the ability to replace small parts over generations of components thus saving inventory of spares and extending life-cycle of product..... I for one would support companies that did something like that or even included a spares kit of common wear components instead of so much money spent on packaging....
Currently we are a '26 for life cycle family' ... bits are super cheap. plenty around my boys keep up with plenty on their 26 inch hardtails even dudes on mega FS29 and 27 rigs.... once all the sheep go 29... ill get a few 27 fronts and mullet the family and progress the geo......
LOLOLOL
As opposed the the illegal actions and bullying ("legal" and illegal) done by fossil fuel, chemical, and defense industries for decades and decades? #superfundsites
Do not fall into the trap of having perfect be the enemy of good.
And yeah all the companies that did the climate strike had all of human climate change deniers e dick waving on social media. You wanna talk about virtue signalling...
As far as your sentence about a trap goes, I don't follow. Rewrite that one so I can understand it.
Finally, yeah, there was some serious anti-striker kicking and screaming out there, but I'm not sure that's "virtue signaling".
Virtue Signaling Defined: the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue
I didnt' see people suggesting they were anti strike to show how good they are. In fact, it was kind of the opposite. Whenever you are suggesting "this environmental protest is bullshit" you look like an asshole, even if you might (or might not be) right. I'm not sure how you can read this otherwise...
I know I will be , already have a couple of projects lined up
Last Friday I brought back to life my pops old mountain bike that was 100% on life support. He doesn't really "ride" the way the Vital contingent does. For him, its a work out, so the goal was to get the bike safe, reliable and operating correctly mechanically. Mission accomplished.
Question - does anyone know how to rebuild Crank Brothers pedals? I have more pair than I care to admit to owning that all have weak or bent springs. I suppose I ought to email them, but I can't find these springs anywhere - guessing I need some sort of tool to get them on, too. Any ideas? I'd love to bring 5 pairs of pedals back to life this Friday...that'd really make me happy.
I have used these springs before. https://www.pushys.com.au/crank-brothers-replacement-pedal-spring-black.html
although you prob will find cheaper option in US..
when I did mine I just watched one of those super duper park tools vids.... and viola.. expert in no time.... at least crankbros. seem more forthcoming with parts as you can buy a complete refresh kit as well... but I have found I have a knack for bringing bearings back from the dead with some skills learnt when inlining for many years... ultrasonic cleaner and some magic sauce....
Should I create a different thread dedicated to this? Its just an idea, with no "infrastructure" (lol) but I'd love to hear about people bringing stuff back from the proverbial dead, and maybe we could all learn a thing or three. Like I said, I've never rebuilt pedals, and have tons of them.Hell, when I look around my garage, I'm sure I have a near infinite number of things I could fix!
It doesn't have to be esoteric, people can also ask questions on how to fix something - even if its simple, like truing a wheel (even those that are "untruable" etc. I'm sure there are some top rung fab guys here who can do some crazy stuff to old school frames to really bring stuff back alive, which would also be rad to see.
Either way, question is are there only two people who care to try and fix things in this thread or is it something we could all get into?
Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?
disclaimer: reading aloud whilst typing equals and adds to emissions....thus multiplying ones effect not offsetting.... Men on average talk less per day than females thus able to lower their offset to a lesser extent.
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