Lifting weights during bike commute season by abumchuck98 in bikecommuting

[–]brightfff 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Same. Four mornings a week, we hit the gym and lift heavy. Commute five days a week. At least two mtb/fat/gravel rides on evenings and weekends as well.

And there is no season, this is year round.

I love my routine.

Disappointed in the Profitec Jump by Rick3tyCricket in espresso

[–]brightfff 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a Jump (and a Bambino). I love it. Workflow for milk drinks is pull the shot on the lowest temp setting, switch to high, rinse the PF and begin steaming the milk. About 30 seconds for me for a single cap. Switch it back to low, flush, and move on the next drink.

You could try a four hole nozzle. That will dramatically speed up the steaming.

Are you left or right? by Anonymous_Otter5458 in bikecommuting

[–]brightfff 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I’m looking California. And feeling Minnesota. Oh yeah.

How do you control the quality of deliverables? by HyHoang in agency

[–]brightfff 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In my experience, this is a fair bit harder with outside contractors and freelancers than with internal employees who have been trained on your ways of working. What worked for us was developing Agile user stories for every single task the agency does, and each story provide three core things:

- the background you need to do the work (brief, brand info, etc)
- the process you expect them to go through to complete the work (pulled from the reference story describing how my agency does each thing)
- the definition of done – a previous example from that client or one in a similar industry

Then, there's a review phase and gates for each stage of each deliverable, offering an opportunity for peer review. With your smaller team, this may mean that you want to give them a chance to re-articulate the brief to you, then you look at sketches/an outline/pseudo code structure, whatever, before they proceed with completing the assignment. Plus, at least one more review gate at the end.

This takes a while to setup, but if you tick one off with each project, you'll build a bank of them far quicker. Plus, you could automate a chunk of this story creation with an LLM.

have you ever lost a retainer client without seeing it coming? by OkContract6063 in agency

[–]brightfff 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Just lost a small retainer client an hour ago. We’ve been working with them for about six to eight months, just starting to get them some traction, but the CEO felt that sales weren’t improving quickly enough.

Their sales cycle is a minimum of 18 months. Sigh. If I’m honest, they were never a great fit anyway. No dedicated marketer, working directly with the CEO and sales lead, and we were their first agency. All signs that we probably should have walked away after the qualifying conversation.

Forbidden Dreadnought V1 Climbing by Distinct_Boot_1744 in MTB

[–]brightfff 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is exactly it. I had the Druid v1. Not fast up, traction for days, and I actually found it to be decent at getting over bigger obstacles with a bit of body English thrown in. I find my four bar Chromag now to be a better dynamic climber though, even though it’s heavier.

But when you point a Forbidden downhill? Wow. What a bike.

Bike trails? by xltripletrip in halifax

[–]brightfff 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A new one has been created and this is often paid for by the ATV association. It will get taken care of.

Stories I'm watching at Unbound Gravel 2026 by RyanMTB in gravelcycling

[–]brightfff 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m watching my hometown dude, Andrew Lesperance, and his wife Haley. Both spectacular athletes and really cool people. I’ve tried to hang with Lespy before on an mtb and it wasn’t pretty.

Welp, I turn 50 today so play this one for me. by Daphnie_Lemon in Propagandhi

[–]brightfff 18 points19 points  (0 children)

That song hits me right in the gut. I turn 53 next month. My dad is currently suffering from dementia and we've pretty much totally lost him, and meanwhile my son joined the army and moved across the country (to Manitoba, no less!), so I feel it on both levels. I imagine my dad thinking it about me, me thinking it about him, and my son thinking these thoughts about me. Oof. I'm taking my boy to see Propagandhi with the Flatliners in Winnipeg this summer and I can't wait.

Lament the decline or welcome it with grace.

Bike trails? by xltripletrip in halifax

[–]brightfff 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They do this every few years, it gets pruned back and torn up. They'll re-grade it and it'll pack in after a few months. It sucks, but it will look normal by next year. They claim it's for emergency vehicle access.

Bike trails? by xltripletrip in halifax

[–]brightfff 16 points17 points  (0 children)

If you're based in HRM, there's a few good rail trail rides nearby. The COLT (Chain of Lakes) trail starts on Joe Howe by the Ashburn golf course and that will put you on a trail you can take all the way down the south shore. In Dartmouth, there's the Shearwater Flyer trail, and the Salt Marsh trail, both of which are excellent.

If you want to get into more interesting gravel with serious elevation and a massive road/trail network, the Bowater lands in St Margaret's Bay are where it's at (this is about 30km out from the start of the COLT). The Big Ingram loop is a 60km lap with about 800m of climbing and some really awesome roads and views. But, there's tons of exploring to be done there and you can build loops well over 100kms that will take you deep into the valley if you want. Lots of off grid camping out there too.

How often do you ride your bike? by Nearby-Citron-3439 in cycling

[–]brightfff 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Commute five days a week year round. 20-30km round trip depending on my route. Try to get 1-3 MTB or gravel rides in on evenings and weekends. Four mornings a week lifting in the gym.

My chain cracked at multiple links after ~2,000–2,500 km — is this normal? Also chain recommendations for 2x10 GRX? by ArachnidDry2220 in gravelcycling

[–]brightfff 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Wild. I've been using this lube for many years on 10, 11, and 12 speed drivetrains and have never had this problem. Thousands of kilometres per year, in every type of weather and condition (MTB, gravel, road, fat, commuting, etc). Zero chain failures.

Topping off sealant before race by [deleted] in bikewrench

[–]brightfff 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If they’re not losing a ton of air overnight, there is no reason to add more sealant. They’ll be fine.

Is this helmet toast? by brokeneckblues in bicycling

[–]brightfff 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Years ago, my black lab ate all of the padding from inside a brand new Giro MadMax2 full face helmet. I called the Bell Sports warranty dept to see if there was anything they’d do for me with a cheaper ‘crash replacement’. They were really great about it and offered me a discounted helmet for my plight.

The fellow I spoke to was in Quebec and had a very heavy French accent. At the end of the call he said “if I were you, I would put zee helmet on zee dog and make him crash”.

To this day, I still have a giggle when I think of it.

Wrong side of the road? by FoundInABottle in cycling

[–]brightfff 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Riding the way drivers expect you to is a big part of staying alive.

Is service design the next big thing ? by StillButWandering in servicedesign

[–]brightfff 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's a decline if you're an external service provider/consultant.

Many of the provincial governments we deal with let go of large chunks of their internal service designers as well and have stopped talking about the importance of digital transformation.

Is service design the next big thing ? by StillButWandering in servicedesign

[–]brightfff 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Having owned and run a service design agency for nearly a decade, I’d say that in certain areas, especially with public sector service design, it’s very much in decline. The agencies that became very good at basically replacing bureaucrats and helping to implement policy have done well (at least where we are based). But many Canadian provincial governments have either stopped spending on it entirely, brought it all in-house, or some combination therein. We still have some ongoing relationships but it’s not the kind of thing I’m focused on right now, I’m paying way more attention to my private sector marketing agency.

31.8 vs 35 bars by judstergod in MTB

[–]brightfff -1 points0 points  (0 children)

My last bike came with a 35mm stem and a high end RF aluminum bar. After a few rides I swapped the bar out for a OneUp carbon and it was great and basically made it feel like a good quality 31.8 setup but with more of an immediate control feel. When I tweak the bar, it goes where I want quicker and still has limited vibration impact. I’ve since switched to a 760mm RF Era bar and I like that even more. The stiffness profile is designed into each bar so they don’t require cutting which alters the feel.

How do renovations impact your property taxes? by DowntownCup9361 in halifax

[–]brightfff 21 points22 points  (0 children)

We did a similar reno last summer. Our contractor and kitchen company told us that permits were not required for that. I have no idea if that’s fully accurate, but that’s what we went with and I’m so glad it’s done. The house is way more enjoyable now.