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Um... I'm not from the US neither did I comment anything related to the topic in a pro-US way (so the ya'll regime doesn't really apply to me), but saying @sethimus does anything politely on this forum is a bit optimistic, isn't it? I don't have a problem with someone saying something against some (admittedly very problematic) political situations, but beating the dead horse over and over again and doing it in a very crass manner gets annoying, at least to me. And based on the average number of downvotes his posts usually get it doesn't look like I'm the...

Without derailling this thread any more, @sethimus is putting it VERY politely what the rest of the world thinks of ya'lls regime over there

the problem with your problems is that they seldom stay an isolated american problem but quickly turn into the world‘s problem… the price increases due to YOUR tariffs usually end up in price increases for everyone in the world because the american snowflakes can’t be burdened with carrying those costs all alone so everyone in the world gets to carry some of these prices hikes and i haven’t even touched your iran problem that makes EVERYTHING more expensive. so please, pretty please fix your shit in a timely manner, will you? sincerely the rest of the world…

Lots of people confusing their position on the USA with bikeconomics. Standert has always been most feasible in the EU, even in Australia they’re expensive with shipping and tax. Yes, tariffs are dumb and stuff is more expensive, but if you can call Walt, Steve Rex, Paul Sadoff, Cam Falconer, etc etc and go custom (plus choose your vibe) why would you not? It’s a different level of quality to production line frames too. the point about the micro brand and JIT is that Standert doesn’t really carry stock or debt in the way other brands do, and road bikes...

Isn't the point of "earnest money" to prove that the buyer is earnest and sincere in their intention to buy the house? In my experience it is held in escrow, and if some issue beyond the buyer's control or agreement comes up that prevents the sale then it is refunded to the buyer. It would seem like the seller refusing to complete the sale would qualify as an issue beyond the buyer's control. The only situation where I could see them keeping the earnest money is if the buyer was demanding some further concessions or changes to the contract that...

I've got both the new Zeb and Lyrik, and ran the previous versions of both. Old Zeb I had to run an MRP Noken to use most of my travel as opposed to only 2/3, at pressures that were reasonable for the first half of travel. Old Lyrik I had no such issues, but it was noticeably more flexy fore/aft and torsionally than old Zeb. Both new forks are a lot more linear and I'm able to use full travel on big landings at baseline pressures (then add ABO to give some reserve). New Lyrik is more linear than new...

This is a slight derail but I agree. My hot take is that the ride quality of the new Lyrik will never be good enough to justify the weight. The previous one was awesome, and so was the one before that. The fact that is being praised as much as it is, opens the door for the other big dogs to keep beefing up. Current Lyrik is nearly identical in weight to the previous gen 38... The Pike was a quality enduro fork in 2017... Please spec 120-140 fork travel bikes with pikes/non-obese Lyriks/36SLs or even 34's. I'm so sick...

Dear Tire Nerds, I'm searching for something that maybe doesn't exist, or maybe it does? I'm riding 29x2.6 Alberts Radial on my hardtail/rigid Solaris Max. I love how damp the radials feel, I like the volume, I can pump them up a little stiffer while still get that nice muted feel. I can run them pretty soft as a rigid without bottoming out the rim. However they are pretty slow rolling. Is there another tire out there that will have that nice cushy feel but have a faster tread? I feel like the cheapest thing I could do is just...

Blows my mind that people move to another country and hardly bother to learn the language. Don't be that person, dive in! I don't see myself ever moving to Italy, but I would love to stay for a month or two on the northern coast. Ride all day, and then just east pasta and seafood every night.

All those towns are sick, but you must love winter as well. arguably better skiing.

Put NH / VT / MA as options too. So many lifts in a short distance. So many decent trail networks in many communities especially in VT. November to March is a crap though.

I am lucky to have gotten into Durango when I did. I will never sell because I will never be able to get back in. TBH I don't really love desert riding so have no interest in going anywhere west of me within a few hours. Even GJ is too desert for me but the moto is great

The spots in Romania and Bulgaria sound very cool not even on my radar. I went into a good rabbit hole on both and they sound very nice. This is the reason I started this thread to hear about places like this. Thank you for all your responses.

Standert is a micro brand who is able to source product J.I.T. from a country that they are seperated from by a line draw on a map, in a tarrif free relationship from a single source vendor using stock tubing and machine parts. Those bikes are neat and priced ok in Europe, but under the current political situation in the USA it’s pretty much impossible for them to do bussiness. In the USA You can call up Paul at Rock Lobster or FTW and have them build you a custom frame using the exact same Dedacai tubes and machine parts...

Lots of hate for taxes on this forum… but it’s Private Equity that is depressing the legal cannabis market, not taxes. Rich people are using fake money to grow way, way too much product… It’s all big national conglomerates that operate seperate entities in each legal state… just like any other mature market under late stage capitalism, 3-4 primary players with smaller producers fighting for scraps of market. Because you can’t ship your product across state lines, the mega scale grow operations got way in front of demand, and the overwhelming amount of product has seriously depressed retail costs.

Disagree - the weed industry is in the shits right now too. At least in California, it is. Someone must be doing well considering the sheer number of new $100K plus cars I see, even in the (at least what used to be) very blue collar neighborhood we're in.

I think beer might be a tough example, since from what I’ve heard, smaller craft breweries are closing left and right.

I was gonna suggest the Eastern Tennessee area. WNC has gotten kinda crazy with prices recently but east TN is killing it. There's soo much riding within a 45 minute drive from the Knoxville area. Housing is cheap and the riding is year round. I prefer the riding in Knoxville (they've done so much work on riding infrastructure) to Bentonville any day.

Imperia region of Italy. See Paul Aston and his bike farm. Buy some ancient stone place in Molini for 50k and make it livable. Then ride ride ride.

“There are too many brands in this space” is something we hear a lot in this thread, and it makes intuitive sense. But is that really true? Yes, of course, some industries and markets can’t carry a lot of brands, and we should expect to see consolidation, like toilet paper. You've got your Charmin, your store brands, and maybe a regional brand or two. But other industries can carry an enormous variety of seemingly redundant brands, like beer. Even before the explosion of microbrews 20 years ago, there were still way more brands in the macrobeer market than there was...