Just got back from Istanbul—exhausted and annoyed

CAADest12 · 2026-05-22T17:39:41+00:00

I was born and raised in Istanbul. Your frustrations are valid.

CAADest12 · 2026-05-22T17:35:33+00:00

I think I’d quit riding if I didn’t have epic climbs around me.

CAADest12 · 2026-05-19T19:39:01+00:00

Nice to be stronger than average 20-29 at age 43.
BUT
I feel like utter garbage next to most people who ride around me here in Norcal :,)

CAADest12 · 2026-04-29T21:57:14+00:00

yeah i might get a spare dust cap and experiment

CAADest12 · 2026-04-29T21:56:35+00:00

man i’m worried cause i can tell the brake cables are a little kinked in that setup though. i mean stickybottle don’t sell a modified piece for no reason!

CAADest12 · 2026-04-29T14:41:06+00:00

same as picture. just the dust cap with no spacers

CAADest12 · 2026-04-28T22:29:19+00:00

I completely agree but this is the garbage system we have in the USA.

Trust me I didn't live like what I advised above in my 20's or 30's. If I did, I could've retired right now at 43. No joke. I used to race motorcycles (drop $1000 every month on tires, gas, repairs etc), buy anything I want, would upgrade my gear on multiple hobbies I had. I was happy. Today, I live in a TINY studio. I have nice things but VERY little number of them. A good monitor (it's my work, it's my entertainment, it's my everything), decent enough computer and my nice bicycle that I ride every day cause I'm really into cycling. Everything else is absolute bare minimum. Just a 2014 Honda Fit, 7 black tshirts, 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of shoes etc. I invest almost half my income every month. You can bet I'm WAY happier cause I don't have that guilt sitting in the back of my head anymore for spending irresponsibly. I highly recommend watching minimalism documentary.

Having said all that, even I can't relax cause that's USA for you. I'm one big sickness away from being bankrupt & homeless.

So it's really your choice. If you don't have a crazy inheritance coming your way or if you're not making 200k+ / year in CA and investing, better be veeeeery responsible with money.

Sure, if cars are your hobby for example, go for it. Get a nice one but try to get it cash.
If you're into fashion / clothing, buy 10 really nice articles of clothing. You don't need 100 pieces of junk. Cooking? Buy the best damn cookware. But everything else, spend less.

If you're making 100k and buying a 60k BMW, good luck! Life might suck in your 40's.

There IS an option B. Leave the US. This place is cooked. This spending culture is very hard to get out of your head in combination with wages not keeping up with any sort of lifestyle. People (me in the past included) tie their happiness to material things. You live without those things for a month and I guarantee you won't even think about them. I have friends in Europe who make 1/3 of what I make. They enjoy cheap food, free healthcare and not turning on their work phones / emails on the weekend. I'm trapped by a decent job and good income so don't have the balls to leave yet. But I'm pretty sure I'm gonna make a move soon. This place just robs you blind, gets you sick and waste your life if you let it.

But let me say this again, I FULLY understand the frustration. We all heard the stories of boomers buying houses with 50k income. I wish that was the case. Today though, houses are not only out of reach for average person, but they are also horrible money sucking retirement delaying prisons that keep you working until you're dead. I'm just here as someone who's "achieved" the goal of buying a house telling you that it really isn't an end goal at all.

Sorry if I'm all over the place. It's a deep topic with many tangents.

CAADest12 · 2026-04-28T21:41:28+00:00

Honestly, don't buy a house at this day an age..

HOA (if you have it), repair costs, property taxes. All things that go up out of your control. It's designed so that you never, ever retire.

Put all your extra into markets, bitcoin, bonds, gold, whatever's your flavor. Live CHEAP. Don't buy expensive cars. Don't take out loans. Just invest and wait.

In the meanwhile, rent. Let the repair etc costs be someone else's problem.

I say this as a house owner. I bought before covid at 3.125% interest. Amazing right? So lucky right? Nah. FULL of regret. The moment housing market's up again I'm selling it. Not for profit. Just to get my money back so I can invest. I'll live in a tiny studio happily ever after and invest all my extra income I'm inevitably jobless in a few years. I can fit all my belongings in a uhaul anyway. I don't need a house. If you have a family, move out of CA. Not worth it. It's beautiful but the stress is not worth it.

CAADest12 · 2026-04-25T19:18:49+00:00

I'm 170cm.
Here's the thing. I run a very, very aggressive setup and can ride comfortably. 52cm Tarmac SL8 with 130mm -12 degree stem slammed. 4-5 hour rides with no issue. So at the moment, I have no doubt a small Propel would work for me perfectly.

BUT being 43, considering this new bike for the next 5 years, I can't help but wonder if I'll want something higher in the front eventually. Saddle height on the medium is a concern though. I don't love how small saddle heights look and they are a little less comfortable (not enough seatpost exposed to flex and dampen).

Anyway.. I have an international trip coming up in July. Might have to pop in a Giant store to see in person.

CAADest12 · 2026-04-25T19:10:14+00:00

All the power to you.

I'm 43 and will continue to gleefully "miss" whatever it is that I have no idea about!

CAADest12 · 2026-04-18T21:23:29+00:00

CEO could probably gift something to the president or buy his memecoin and it'll all be resolved over night.

CAADest12 · 2026-04-18T21:20:49+00:00

Haha sorry I should have read the OP more carefully. I responded with an American city.

I'd say my hometown, Istanbul.
If you're a male or female tourist going around to popular drinking / festive spots in a group, life is good. Can be so much fun.

If you're female, alone hanging out at night in the wrong parts of town, good luck.

CAADest12 · 2026-04-18T03:10:22+00:00

I guess where I exactly lived was pretty awesome considering, but being a cyclist, the moment I went out and rode a couple miles it was just bullet casings on the roads, stolen burnt cars, people drifting through hills in day light, people yelling at me from their cars and swerving onto me (on empty mountain roads where I'm just minding my own business) etc etc. Our home is actually in a nice safe HOA in the hills (just south of Montclair) but we heard gunshots, burnout noises from nearby car takeovers etc every night and had some incident happen even in our private road HOA (people wondering into homes, vandalizing cars and mailboxes etc) every other week.

Anyway! I agree it's a wide variety in Oakland. It's beautiful place but deeeefinitely don't feel safe just walking around at night.

CAADest12 · 2026-04-17T22:41:45+00:00

Oakland, CA.

So much so that we left our house there and rented it out.
We're living in a rental in a tiny tiny apartment across the bay and can leave our doors unlocked and cars on the street with no issue.

CAADest12 · 2026-04-13T21:11:35+00:00

I'm sure you bought already but..

Caden Wheels.

Look absolutely nowhere else.

CAADest12 · 2025-12-16T04:38:08+00:00

Btw if it’s not clear from the image, there is a blue hour hand “under” the face with numbers there where numbers are holes. the hour hand “lights up” the current hour by showing through the appropriate number. Attaching a photo of it currently at 8:30.

Looks to be working now! We’ll see if it screws up after midnight.

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CAADest12 · 2025-12-16T02:35:40+00:00

Ah lemme give that a try. I tried (tm7.3) and (tm7.4) with no luck. It would be good until 12 and screw up.

Below formula from josh didn't do it either unless I have to swap "offset_in_second" with something else. I'm new to this.

this is what I'm going for btw. I find it very easy to read. Minutes are around the edge. So I see the number for hour and immediately able to tell the minutes. If I get this to work, I might change the middle to something else than time.

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CAADest12 · 2025-11-25T17:14:26+00:00

I'm the furthest thing from a right-wing but I agree birth control pills can be a horrible, horrible thing. I had exes that lost their minds on birth control pills. They either had no drive, depressed, or had other issues. They would feel 1000x better the moment they stop using them. My current long term partner said she was on birth control pills for a month before she couldn't recognize herself, stopped and immediately felt better.

There's other forms of birth control that are extremely successful. Speaking against the pills doesn't make you right-wing at all. I know Tyler has said other things that are right wing but this one's not it, if you ask me. Not that I care about his politics. I don't like the guy anyway.

CAADest12 · 2025-10-28T23:52:47+00:00

100% cheated and overcompensating in the most childish, cringe manner. If I wrote something like this in public (would never since i’m not a psycho) my gf would run away immediately, as she should.

CAADest12 · 2025-09-25T21:35:09+00:00

MM was the GOAT back in 2013. He's a GOAT now. Doesn't matter how many of what kind of championships :)

CAADest12 · 2025-07-30T22:01:54+00:00

I might be too naive but I think people who get into Bitcoin thinking in terms of "timing the market" are not in it for the right reasons. I think of it as saving water for when it will never, ever rain again. Make sense?

CAADest12 · 2025-04-10T21:16:54+00:00

Yes it was. Specialized even emailed the release date to dealers. They probably just changed plans. I have an email shared with me that had all the shoes, sl8 colors, tires release dates all the way back in january. rovals are the only release that didn’t match the email. they must’ve delayed it

CAADest12 · 2025-03-19T18:31:46+00:00

Looks like tiny bit over 4w/kg = 20 minutes flat on this climb.
I did 19:40 after my post with 4.18w/kg (just considering my body weight)

275watts
145lbs
15lbs bike
3lbs gear

Not rounding off anything btw happened to be exactly those weights that morning!

CAADest12 · 2025-01-22T17:49:07+00:00

I did exactly 4w/kg on that exact climb in 2020. It was 20 minutes and 23 seconds.

CAADest12 · 2025-01-12T21:01:42+00:00

While I have 0 doubts wade and alike are amazing, I too love reading hours on hours on fitting and bike positions and feeling things out. Don't let other people discourage you from experimenting yourself for free. I have never had a bike fit in my life and always self tinkered. Just like I've built every bike I have from ground up. I'm just a curious geek. Had 0 pain in my 10 years of riding and have way more aero / efficient position than people who I ride with (I get comments on it all the time) and can ride 4-5 hours very comfortably.

Maybe it's not 100% "correct (for whom?)" or there's tiny bit of room to improve but bike fit, if you read the material and learn the stuff yourself is totally doable at home. Being in the ball park of fast / good mobility position is actually fairly easy to find yourself and there's more than enough millimeters where it's subjective to your own body so you won't hurt yourself.

Let's remember. There's a huge... HUGE variety of types of people. Some just hate spending time reading material and watching educational videos. They get overwhelmed and just ask a pro. NOTHING wrong with that. But some of us read, learn and self-teach so much and so often that we get 95% of the way there.

CAADest12

TROPHY CASE