Love me some REI

I decided to splash some puddles. I like to switch it up and do indoors/outdoors on rainy days.

On these days I have a specific location I like to ride the mtb. It's in a canyon with some wide dirt fire-road type paths with a few interesting twists and turns. I'm not out ruining single track or anything.

Anyways this area gets particularly flooded and I take a lot of interest in just checking out the water levels and the flooded creek beds, makes me feel like a kid. At one point I tried to ride across some water that was nearly knee-deep and was stopped fairly quickly so I had to dismount and run through it.

idunno who hates on rei, its ****ing great.

salsa deal was announced last year some time, its nice because rei offers service to members but other than that i dont really get it
im quite sure their overall sales volume in bikes is much less than the rest of their inventory, but i could be totally off since thats not based on any statistics whatsoever

The only hate I've heard about REI is the fact that their prices are kind of high, but the price comes with a lot of satisfaction and customer care, so it's alright.

Last time I went to an REI, it was to get a bottom bracket tool. They had a better selection of Park tools than any bike shop I'd gone to.

Today I did not go to REI, although I shop there fairly often.

I did go for a run, the second one this week. I also rode my bike once this week and hit the gym once, a pretty good workout streak for this lazy guy. Really looking forward to Spring, when the good running and riding weather returns.

i predict rei going out of business within 10yrs. the place is a revolving door when it comes to employees, has pretty high prices (compared to amazon/moosejaw etc) and is a boutique version of what they used to be. the only thing keeping them relevant imo is their return policy (which they shorntened a couple of years ago). the co-op is dying, it seems. check out the AMA that the ceo (jerry stritzke) did on ****** last year. total **** show....
also, you can lookup what the CEO pays himself on their website, since it's a co-op, they have to post it. $3 million a year to him and $100,000 to each of the board of directors seems to be a little out of line from a co-op's belief system...
and the fact that they don't pay dividend back to the "owners of the co-op" (members) on anything that's discounted kinda sucks. guess you can't have your cake and eat it, too.
i do know a secret to getting the best customer service at rei though...when they ask if you're a member, tell them no- even if you are. they will wait on you hand and foot. if you're already a member, they seem to lose interest pretty quickly.

From an industry standpoint, REI loves punishing vendors with fines/ fees when they slip up.

Something as trivial as a box missing its outer indicating label, despite an including packing slip within, will cause a manual receipt/ check-in penalty in the hundred's of dollars.

Also, any retail fixtures in store that are not standard REI, the vendor pays rent on. As well as cooperative fees, for when the REI website features/ recommends merchandise of a company.

Oh and the staff there do not "tidy" up private fixtures, the vendor has to hire a company or have themselves do it.

Those 25% off members coupons and year-end dividends have to come from somewhere!

Today I got my first fix of 2017.









fixed gear ride, hehe.

We should all rage quit REI

https://media1.giphy.com/media/QZG1iAhhVHjdS/200w.gif

today I've got four slabs of ribs on the smoker. going to be a good day

Today I am getting ready to head out to get a few miles in. Weather has broken a bit and the forecast says it should hit 55°F here today. We will see. Currently 46°F and slightly damp roads. Jersey and sleeves will feel really good after wearing a jacket for a while.

Too late they already took my $20. :o

.... well I bought a tent there that was well over $200 at the same time, so it was free. :)

Today my calculations were incorrect. 49°F temp, 49°F dew point, 100% humidity, and wet roads/air. Thought about taking a fendered geared bike out, but my heart was set on fixed, so I didn't go. No desire to ride fixed with no fenders and have to clean the hell out of it when I get home.

wait. you chose not to ride at all because you didn't want to ride a different bike?

That makes sense.

Today it was 62° in northwest Georgia. Thunderstorms all morning and the sun came out about noon. The roads were almost dry by 3:00 so I did 25ish miles on the road bike.

I went for a ride in the snow:

http://i.imgur.com/lGTh5hn.jpg

Had my heart set on going fixed. Geared bike is alright but I didn't feel like riding that one so I didn't.

That white stuff gives me the heebie jeebies.

For riding, or just in general?

http://i.imgur.com/3JPKryw.jpg

42°F, 42°F dew point, 100% humidity with some fog and the cabin fever was setting in. Forgot my Strava account so I made a new one. Only had 1 KOM left on there anyway so what the hell why not. I got that KOM on my Felt in 2015. Set out to see how I would fare today. 2 seconds off and tied for 2nd place on my fendered and semi wide tire commuter. Hmmm. I will just have to see about getting that back right quick.

I do this sometimes. I only have four bikes, and I ride one of them very occasionally. I split my rides pretty evenly among the other three. But sometimes I don't just feel like riding a bike; I feel like riding a particular one. When the weather or other circumstances preclude riding that one, I might forgo the ride altogether.

Funny how that works. I'm different, in that I choose which bike to ride based upon the weather.

Yes, I do that too sometimes. Or I pick the activity based on the weather (riding, running, or gym).