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I agree 1000%. I always give the example of In-N-Out vs. Jack in the Box. One of these companies offers very few choices, is always busy, and is exploding with business. The other company offers burgers, tacos, salads, breakfast sandwiches, pancakes, desserts, fried chicken, lattes, burritos, is always empty, and is closing locations. Companies should work hard to avoid being Jack in the Box. As Ron Swanson famously said, "Never half ass two things. Whole ass one thing." A brief thought about Cheesecake Factory and Maxxis: these are great examples of the other side of the coin, but it takes...

Plenty of businesses are built on offering consumers maximum choice, Nike, Amazon, the Mexican restaurant down the street, etc. Optionality can be a real value-add in the right space with the right execution. But more often than not, neither is the case. You're right the Cheesecake Factory is a successful business. But compare it to a food service company like Chipotle (who has a simple menu), and the gap is massive. Cheesecake is worth $2.5B with 2–3% net margins; Chipotle is worth $60B with 12–14% margins. Sure, multiple factors contribute to that difference, but menu simplicity is undoubtedly one of...

I ride the piss out of my bikes, I'm fully aware that resale will be crap with I'm done with them. If the resale won't be crap, then it's a sure sign I shouldn't have bought that bike. Helicopter tape on the downtube for a little protection against rocks and pickup pads, a few strips where I heel rub like crazy (they only last a year there), and one strip where I strap my spare tube. It's for protection, not looks. Tools not jewels for me, but to each their own.

I just buy a roll of the 3M adhesive tape and put it on the areas that are likely to cop the worst of it like the underside of the down tube and the top of top tube. I bought a ride wrap kit, warrantied the frame and didn't want to fork out for a new kit. Just follow the instructions when you install it and your golden.

it's really the same idea as what WeAreOne / PeFarDone is doing. it's less about the rim material; the goal is to have the surrounding area of the spoke hole more perpendicular to the direction of the spoke. the benefit of it is that the tension loading where the head of the nipple interfaces with the rim is distributed more evenly around this contact area.

New fork from Intend: https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/intend-launches-essential-e… .

Getting old has made me a religious knee pad wearer, even on XC-ish rides, which I think is good. Worst falls often happend on easier trails and such. But my newfound resolve isn't about being safer. I've just realized that if I always wear knee pads, my knees warm up quicker and I'm less likely to tweak anything! 😂

A question for the peanut gallery: when your saddle height is too low or too high, you grab a 4mm allen to loosen your seat clamp and adjust your seatpost up or down. How much do you adjust it by? I'm a micro-fiddler, typically adjusting seat height by less than 5mm. And I notice it immediately. My body is incredibly creaky and tight and not flexible, so having my bike barely out of position when pedaling is really noticeable, annoying, and eventually becomes painful. For bike fit, I have a very small optimal setup window. Why bring this up in...

I don't care about 5mm of adjustment, but hot damn my knees certainly seem to care and quickly too (under 5 minutes of improper saddle height and my knees bark). I'm in the same camp you're in... I've only had one bike where i could slam a 240mm seat post, shim it down by 20mm and have it be perfect. For all of the rest of my bikes, I'm using 210's and then adjusted to height with some post showing. 6'2" on mostly XL's with a 30.5" bb to top of saddle height. The only way that 30.5" dimension changes...