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Mark LaFountain

Welcome to the IHoP v.2

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21 minutes ago, Godsmack said:

No arguments at all with this. I am increasing the fruits and veggies, more water, less soda, less prepackaged crap (meal prep instead), and I've had a few cigs since I switched to the vape, and haven't vaped in over a month. I'm still trying to stay away from the nicotine. I would enjoy a nice cigar though. Maybe next week.

Also meds are .125 of Levothyroxine, 30 mins or so later 40 mg (now 20 MG a day as of tomorrow am) Furosemide, 20meq potassium, and a multivitamin at night.

 

J

They gotchu on a pupuplatter!

 

Glad you have been off the nicotine!

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18 hours ago, Aaron Clinton said:

Welp, now I am the travel soccer coach. 

Sounds like they wanted the best. That should give you something to do in your free time. :)

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Congrats and condolences Aaron.  Just asked me to take a 2nd team as my youngest is starting to travel now as well.  Trying to convince them to hire a coach for my other son's travel team as coaching 2 travel teams doesn't seem possible.  I miss it and hate it when I travel.

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That's so cool that you guys coach.

 

After highschool I went back to assistant coach some wrestling but I couldn't get into it.  I bet if I had a kid in the sport I would have made time like I should have!

 

Way to go gents!

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@///M5

I have now tried so many bikes.  So many geometries.  Here is what I love and what I think is going on.

 

The Santa cruise Nomad and the Santa cruise Bronson.  Both are fine.  XL in the bronson but maybe an L in the Nomad.  I tried a salsa that was ok however also but it wasn't as long of a travel and it really made me less confident.   What I think is going on is that bikes with a horizontal mounted shock work so much better with how i stroke and ballance that it makes me feel confident enough to risk a weird angle. Double that problem with a shorter suspension. Hell, the salsa and the stump jumper felt too hard and I got even less speed on the 29" short travel when the pistons were vertical. That's on curbs and parking lots.

 

If you are familiar with the brand intense,  they made the only bikes I liked about 8 years ago.  A budy had a Frankenstein uzzi on a super big frame and way over sprung in the rear.  Basically the stiffest thing possible so it didnt just Bob horribly 100% of the time. I rode the sag in that long travel flawlessly.  It would be impossible to duplicate and if I went down anything sketchy I would die because of the way he changed bars up front to make it something to ride trails with.

 

I'm not sure that I can afford anything even close.  I know myself and I'm not going to ride if I don't like it so do I just save for a few years and just focus on other hobbies or is there a used option?  My joints really like that hovering flow sensation that comes with the enduro feel, but new shocks technically and that horizontal mounted shock made me so efficient even in full open that I have 100% no downsides for my style or riding.

 

Let's say $2k

Edited by dem beats

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I rode a hightower LT for example.  I was amazed by it.  Then I started to stand and shift my weight forward and I instantly realized my face was way too far over the forks with that rake and I couldn't sink back and down.  It felt way to sporty and while I'm sure it's more "flickable" even if I want to do something in the twisties I would rather not worry about my line as much and sink the suspension into the turn anyway.

Ultimately,  I'm going to ride the baby trails and baby park paths and occasionally see something that I want to ride down or jump. If I don't have 2 or 3 times the bike required for it I don't trust my body to deal with it and then I will be annoyed and have a very expensive thing that only makes my wife mad and me embarrassed. 

:D

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A 1980 hardtail bmx bike is 2-3 times the bike you need for what you describe.

First question I have is why rear suspension?  I am always excited by the idea myself, but every time I ride one I realize it mutes part of what I love on a bike.  

 

...anyone that put you on an XL is on crack.

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Did the Uzzi fit you perfect?  ...or were you just excited because it soaked up every fucking thing.

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$2k is a terrible new bike budget.  Buys one hell of a used machine though.   Personal I would make sure I knew which bike fit the best and then start shopping geometries and get something close in a hard tail with plus tires and ride it.  If you don't ride it, sell it next year.  No matter what you buy you will either not ride it or if you do you will learn a ton on what you don't like and if you buy new kiss 60% of your cash good bye.

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8 hours ago, ///M5 said:

A 1980 hardtail bmx bike is 2-3 times the bike you need for what you describe.

First question I have is why rear suspension?  I am always excited by the idea myself, but every time I ride one I realize it mutes part of what I love on a bike.  

 

...anyone that put you on an XL is on crack.

I broke 2 nice $600 hardtails in a month as a kid at the river bottoms after breaking 4 target bikes.  Of course a bmx frame could take it but my body cannot.  I didnt just mean handle the stress.  I meant absorb the terrain effciently.

Rear suspension done right increases grip and confidence on gnarly shit.  Done wrong it numbs you up.  Done right it allows you to be less picky about your path.  

 

The XL frame makes sense for one reason.  I can drop the post and my seated position doesn't matter as much as how my hips hover over the rear axle and that I can keep my shoulders and face behind the fork stem if pointed down.

One on one, freewheel, and REI all fit me for an L or XL in the enduro bikes I wanted to ride.  The rocky mountain was ok in a large I think.  I'm right on the edge and with suspension and drop posts it's way easier for me to handle a slightly larger bike than a slightly smaller bike. Especially with how light they all are.  

Edited by dem beats

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Something else that's amazing about rear suspension is how it eats a turn.  Flexing into a tight turn is maybe the coolest sensation on a bike IMO.  Letting the back end eat a rock as you keep rolling and feeling zero loss of grip is cool.

 

I'm not sure if this will make sense based o  your choice, but for me the fatbikes all felt "numb".  I know people ride them fast, I cannot.  I also felt no confidence.  It felt like I was on basketballs.  No air PSI felt good.  I don't have the right words probably but if it was bad suspension,  I might blame how the rebound felt?  Instead of being plush and flowing in the right amount of sag, I'm just bounced along for the ride.

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7 hours ago, ///M5 said:

Did the Uzzi fit you perfect?  ...or were you just excited because it soaked up every fucking thing.

It fit me better than any other bike because it was a large or Xl.  Everyone else who had a bike to loan was medium and set up small and flickable.

 

I liked it because it ate up everything though.

 

I have shorter arms and shorter legs that I can mitigate with the seat a bit, but this long back is hard to fit into some larges.

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7 hours ago, ///M5 said:

$2k is a terrible new bike budget.  Buys one hell of a used machine though.   Personal I would make sure I knew which bike fit the best and then start shopping geometries and get something close in a hard tail with plus tires and ride it.  If you don't ride it, sell it next year.  No matter what you buy you will either not ride it or if you do you will learn a ton on what you don't like and if you buy new kiss 60% of your cash good bye.

large. Make sense.

 

I just know I'll get a hardtail and watch it rot.  Actually why I wanted a fat bike in the first place.  I wanted to love it. I would rather ride road bike.  Maybe I can cyclocross to work.

  :D

Edited by dem beats

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Also I was impressed with roseville Erick's bikes.  They had some dummy proof measuring system. Arms at all kinds of angles crotch, back, everything.  As soon as I asked technical shit and a seat dropped had an issue the assistant manager stepped in.  He went for the hightower and got a bigger fram than expected himself because of similar reasons.  He is also the one who noticed that all the bikes I liked have a similar suspension design with a horizontal mounted shock.  He was maybe the newest to mountain biking himself but as I described what I didn't like about a particular bike he got me progressively closer to what idea hovering sensation that I like.

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Maybe this analogy will work.  I don't know how over sledded you are for riding in ditches, but you certainly do not need as much sled to simply ride the ditches, when you want to hit something you can because the machine is more than capable of what your asking of it.  

On a system where I'm only pushing it to 20% most of the time and occasionally when I want to be nuts I push it to 75-80% I really know how the bike will respond.  That is not try when you reach the limits of the suspension and I'm not a good enough rider to cope.

 

So on some level I agree with you.  Suspension is stupid in general.  Until it isn't for one or 2 tasks and those 1 or 2 tasks are the only thing I get enjoyment from mountain biking other than the scenery. 

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I do not have the engineering words to describe what is going on.  I feel like an audiophile weirdo describing chocolatey mids.

:(

I'm frustrated because from my POV the difference is so dramatic that it changes the experience on the bike from wow even pavement is fun to be on, to really disliking even coasting or gently pedaling.  Hyper sensitive to Bob and have bad ballance so I like long and stiff at that angle?  

Edited by dem beats

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4 minutes ago, dem beats said:

Hyper sensitive to Bob and have bad ballance so I like long and stiff at that angle?  

That's what she said.

:rimshot:

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R2,  I've been thinking about changing up my regular pistol and either selling the XDm or just having a 9mm around.

I've narrowed everything down to 3 guns I like a lot in .45. The FNX, the PPQ, and Canik.

FNX is too much money.  No.

 

PPQ feels chunky but the grip is a billion times better.  Canik I get my hand around a bit better, but it feels like trash compared to the PPQ.  What is easier to fix in case it's a problem?  I think you can give me a better answer than 99.99% of people.

 

I have now come around on the G word too.  I just point the others better and for the price difference I don't want to drill it.  No one ever put a big one in my hands before and it wasn't so bad.

 

BTW I have held so many CZs thanks to you.  All the ones I like are steel and you're right they are amazing.

 

If you know someone selling Sti 2011s for around those prices I could also be swayed that way.  :D

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5 minutes ago, dem beats said:

No one ever put a big one in my hands before and it wasn't so bad.

:D

 

that's what she said!:twirl:

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@///M5 

 

Craziest shit ever too.... no one asked me to buy.  Not one.  One on one got my info as did Erik's but every shop I went to literally ran out of large and XL and the closest any of them came to was, "I can't really ask you to buy if I wanted to when you can't even sit on what is maybe the right size."

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I told then open budget and to impress me and that's where we landed.

 

Lol

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For rolling fast days, get some 29".  For hard days 27.5".

I can slack or tighten it.  As gimmicky as I feel that might be, it's a good option.

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In some good news, my new suits came in!  I'm super flared up right now and I had them cut to be painted on... so next week when I can slide into them again I will be able to add them into the rotation and slowly get my other suits brought in for what will probably be the last time.

 

I got 2 for intimidation and one classic Americana grey with grey windowpanes.  I got the last swatch of fabric and got me a custom 150s for $550 in gorilla sizes!  Ballz deep, feels nicer than some cashmere!  

Saving money and looking boss feels super good.

#winning

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Across all terrain in MN I am slower with rear suspension.  The part I didn't realize is that I also have less fun.  

I didn't realize you were all torso.  That will up the frame size as you size the top tube not the rest.  I am all legs.  You may be able to ride my bike.  It will put all fat bikes to shame you have sat on.

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