shovelhd

Theyre really not. I have some nice ones. You can get creative. They don't have to be slabs of gold tone.

shovelhd

You can put whatever high zoot tires on those wheels but they will never ride "supple". They ride like tanks.

bmcphx

It's funny that mavic is so expensive and popular but every time I turn around someone (people with actual knowledge) has negative things to say about it. My impression based on the few items ive used from them is its kind of mid grade.

TheKillerPenguin

Ksyriums are the Coldstone of wheels.

Ygduf

the creamery?

TheKillerPenguin

correct.

shovelhd

I owned two sets so I'm not talking out of my ass. Crappy hubs. Low spoke count but huge oversized helicopter rotor spokes that are super stiff and catch side winds like a sail. Soft aluminum rims that dent, bend, and wear easily.

TheKillerPenguin

Yurp, when I first started racing Ksyrium SLs were the king of the hill, and being the impressionable young lad I was I of course had to try them out. My experience was limited to a one month span where I popped two spokes, and of course their spokes are ridiculous and have special nipples so you wind up paying a lot more than is reasonable to fix the damn things. Flexy too.

carpediemracing 

I rarely lol but this one… hahaha!

Ygduf

but I love that place and would never ride those wheels

carpediemracing 

For you, if you really have some pull in securing a site, I would say approach some of the regular promoters, the consistent selfless ones, and see if they'd be interested in a particular venue/site.

This basically happened to me for the Rent, it was like a dream.

To be totally honest I had many other people tell me that they could help me get venues but in the end it wasn't possible. So when someone comes to me with "I have a great place for a race" I take it with a grain of salt.

To be more specific, Rent on March 15, 22 (Het Huur and Le Loyer, which mean "The Rent" in Dutch and French, although a Dutch person pointed out that "Het Huur" doesn't exist, it should be "De Huur", so in 2016 if things go well it'll be "De Huur").

*edit* forgot to put the other dates. March 29, April 12 (Ronde de Walnut Hill and Circuit de Walnut Hill, historically the first and last names of the Series races because, at the time, I only had two confirmed venue dates).

At least you're honest about it. I was coming from the point of view of many promoters and their helpers where they say, "If you haven't done it then don't complain about it." I was like that also, for sure, because virtually everyone that complained about race stuff ("why don't you have this? why don't you have that?") have never promoted a race and their questions revealed just how little they understood about where my priorities lay.

On the other hand recently I realized that promoting isn't for everyone. People still need to vocalize things, though, and promoters need to be less self-defensive (maybe I'm speaking for myself but of course I'm the one typing all this). If there's something that needs fixing, even if the vocalizer isn't the person to fix it, someone needs to point it out. So if an area needs something racing-wise (a Sunday race, a weeknight series, whatever) then someone should speak up, let the powers that be know, and see if someone wants to take the ball.

One guy that helped me a lot in the whole 2015 Series said flat out, "Hey, look, I don't want to promote races. I just want to have fun with it, and it's fun for me to help you get venues. You do your thing, I'll do mine, and we can all go and race and have fun."

bmcphx

So I set out this evening to ride up a hill behind a gate that I'd been looking at for years. Turns out the gate is only to stop cars, there's a sidewalk around the gate lol.

Anyway, I was looking at the satellite images of the house at the top and noticed there are TWENTY air conditioners on the roof. 20!! I couldn't get to that house because there was a gate at their driveway, maps show a second gate as well, and it's already in a gated community. I've officially found the most overkill of overkill.

ridethecliche

This is going to sound stupid, but do you notice any changes with weather?

tetonrider

yes, we were. the gist was that for many years in his career he said that he, as a surgeon, was quick to fix things with hardware. this is the way much of the industry still is.

now, he and his colleagues have found that hardware should be a last resort for just about everyone. if one is a pro athlete, or if there is some other extenuating circumstance, he has found that the short term is worse without the hardware but the long term outcomes are far better.

i've had hardware put in a few times--most notably a rod in my femur. i was back to activity pretty much immediately (riding a few days after surgery and racing within weeks, and actually doing pretty darn well even hitting some peak #s , though with a bit more variability than typical), but 6 months later i had chronic pain. autumn was pretty awful for me in terms of pain and even having to consider giving up activities (cycling) if things didn't change. for reference, even laying on a bed was painful.

i made a call to have all the hardware pulled and within a month 95% of the pain was gone, and the ancillary issues i had subsided. 2.5 months later and i think i might be back to pre-injury levels.

my case is not universal, but i have learned from my own experience (and reinforced when talking to this other surgeon who is NOT my surgeon) that installation of hardware tends to affect more than just whatever is being fixed, and issues in active, lean people (cyclists!) can pop up.

in my case, despite having chronic pain 6 months later i would still choose to have the hardware installed in my leg. i had an unstable fracture which could have displaced at any time, so i would have pretty much been bedridden for 6-8 weeks, and at the end of that i might have needed surgery anyway.

it wasn't so much about getting back to cycling and sports (that was a nice motivator), but i couldn't afford to not be a dad and a husband for that amount of time. i cooked dinner for my family the day i got out of the hospital and was on the sidelines of my son's soccer game that evening as well. being injured due to my hobby -- bedridden for months! -- was not something that would have worked.

there was a ton more to the discussion, but it was eye-opening.

tetonrider

i tend to find that aceto doesn't have much affect on me while ibuprofen does (but when i take it i am usually taking 800-1600mg). anyway, was just curious if it might be a good temporary substitute for those times when you have pain but have to be active.

of course we don't know your risk levels for anything like MI/heart attack in general, but we do know that NSAIDs taken during exercise elevate that risk. i'm OK with informed risk taking (for myself), but that one is a pretty heavy trade-off. if i feel that i NEED NSAIDs in order to be active (hobby), i would generally let the hobby take a back seat. it would be different if that is how i put food on my family's table.

Stas87

Pretty sure I broke my big toe playing soccer last night. I am still planning on a hard interval session after work assuming I can pedal with minimal pain. FWIW it's probably not broken (although the swelling would suggest otherwise) and I'm just being a big baby

revchuck 

FWIW, my bone doc told me to stay off of NSAIDs, at least until my clavicle was healed. Apparently they inhibit bone healing.

Stas87

IME anti-inflammatory meds make me feel super puffy. Probably due to the steroids; I generally stick to ibuprofen these days. More about pain management than anything else for me.

beatlebee 

@tetonrider: Interesting, thanks. My doc, who specializes in hand and shoulder, told me that for my case, a distal radius fracture penetrating into the joint, that the risk of arthritis later on was much greater if the bone was not set properly. At this point (surgery was at the end of last March) my left hand has slightly, but noticeably less flexibility and I can get sharp pains once in a while if I just happen to move it just so. When I went in for my last checkup, I had to see my surgeon's partner and he was more favorable to the idea of eventually removing the hardware, esp. for thin/active people.

I hate to think about going under again, but I have a gut feeling that my hand will feel even "more normal" afterwards.

I also have the clavicle plate too, which when pressing overhead can cause a numbness. Again, it is subtle but noticeable. Surgeon also told me that long term studies have shown better outcomes for clavicles with hardware. (?)

shovelhd

I won a NCC race on Ksyrium Elites. $300 close out from Nashbar.

shovelhd

Better Call Saul

gsteinb

are they all NCC, or just the P1?

revchuck 

I think that was the same deal I got. Still hated them, though.

shovelhd

I went through the same decision tree when I separated my shoulder. My bike racer surgeon refused to operate. I got a second opinion. They would operate but gave me the statistics, outcomes and risks. They let me decide but basically talked me out if it. I have no regrets. If it means I have to do upper body work in the gym once a week for the rest of my life to keep my arm from falling off, that's what it means.

gsteinb

no shot I'd voluntarily have hardware removed. a lot of other ways I'd spend my recreational time first. I'm always year to year in this sport. the recovery process wouldn't be worth it to me.