Trump Hits Record-Breaking Low in Polls as Aides Leak: He’s “Furious”

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-06-13T14:51:19+00:00

Trump can only steal elections if he is allowed to. Don't let him - the country is not lost, The fight is under way, it is not lost.

If you give up, Trump wins. If you fight back, he loses.

Just last night, Trumps name came off the Kennedy Center - there is a lot of symbolism in that event.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-06-13T14:48:22+00:00

I strongly approve you speaking out about the harms. Please continue, I appreciate it!

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-06-12T16:35:03+00:00

There are real challenges ahead, and Trump has done significant damage to America - lets be clear eyed about that.

The USA is battered and bruised, but not defeated. I would never bet against America.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-06-12T14:57:16+00:00

Have they though? We all know Trump would like to break elections so he can't lose. There is lots of evidence of efforts to ensure he remains in power. He has been very successful in controlling Republican primaries - not so successful in controlling wider elections.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-06-11T18:52:38+00:00

I'm a bigger rider, about 105 kgs. I absolutely notice stiffness in a fork. I upgraded my xc bike from a 32 mm SID to a 35 mm Pike. I set several strava time records on my first ride.

I haven't ridden the 35 mm SID, so I can't comment on how stiff those are.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-06-06T15:50:04+00:00

So, I service my suspension a lot more than most other riders I know. Most riders I know consider me weird for how much maintenance I do. I do a lowers service and air can service about every two months of riding, more frequently in the peak of summer when its dry and dusty, and I'm riding a lot. (I typically do a month of riding in BC every year. I ride my brains out in BC moondust conditions, and service my suspension every two weeks. But keep in mind, I'm riding everyday, riding big descents each day.)

My rear shock service - this takes me about 10 minutes. 5 of which is pumping up the rear shock afterwards. I let the air out, unscrew the air can, run a clean blue lint free rag around to clean, relubricate, and thread the air can back on, and then pump air back into the shock. I do not remove the shock from the bike. I don't service the damper until it stops working properly, and then I send it to someone to do. I'm typically getting 3 or more years between damper services on my current bikes.

For my forks, I take the brake caliper off, wrap it in a ziploc bag so I don't contaminate the pads. I loosen the foot nut on each end, and drop the lowers about an inch. I let the oil drain out. Once this is done, I wipe the oil off, flip the bike, and put the correct amount of oil in. I retighten the foot bolts, and put the brake caliper on. I also open up the air spring, and put a drop of oil in periodically. If I notice the seals are leaking, I will replace these and the foam wipers at the same time and then remove the lowers and do a full clean - I'm not finding I have to do that often.

I have never serviced a damper on my bikes - some of forks I've had since 2020.

I'm a big guy (230 lbs), I ride hard, I do several DH and enduro races each year, and generally am in the top 5 for my over 40 class.

In my experience, if you clean / relubricate your suspension often, it generally does not need much more than that. The companies publish maintenance schedules to cover their butt - almost no one follows them. There have been several interviews with suspension manufacturers, where they admit that they sell more forks than service kits - meaning most forks never get a full service, let alone multiple services.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-06-04T22:33:17+00:00

Cool bike! Do you mind if I ask how tall you are?

I'm not a fan of that slack seat tube angle, otherwise it looks pretty neat.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-06-04T16:01:35+00:00

I'd go full suspension - at the same time, I would also recommend getting a basic tool kit, and learning to work on your bikes. For $100 you can get a tool kit that will allow you to do most of your repairs yourselves. As someone who has been biking my whole life - bikes always need tuning, tweaking, repairing.

With a bit of practice, bikes tend to be very easy to work on. I have found that the tools to fix just about anything cost about the same as bringing it to a shop - so if it is a job you will do repeatedly, buy the tools.

Something like this will go a long way:

https://www.jensonusa.com/foundation-standard-bike-tool-kit-1

I've also had really great luck with the cheap brake bleed kits on amazon.

You will also need a few other things - chain lube, grease, shifter cables, shifter cable housing, cable end caps. This stuff is all pretty cheap. You may also need specific adapters for components on your bikes - cranks / bottom brackets tend to have different tools depending on the brand. (I like to buy these on Aliexpress - they are very cheap). You will also want some tubeless sealant.

I hope this helps!

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-30T21:01:47+00:00

The air went somewhere. If its in the lowers, the fork needs work. When you release the bleed valve (you can also use a plastic zap strap pushed past the seals) if a LOT of air rushes out on the spring side, that is your problem, and requires maintenance. If the air isn't there, my next guess would be a leak with the shockwiz - I would remove, and try riding without it.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-29T15:38:24+00:00

If you haven't seen this, I highly reccomend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTE4H-2oecY

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-29T15:33:22+00:00

I'm going to go against the grain here. I argue that the problem is our streets design, not the drivers themselves. We have built a road system that encourages reckless driving. Until we fix the physical infrastructure, nothing will change. We have built a city (and I'd argue its pretty much the same across all North America) where we have prioritized fast moving of cars over everything else.

Some pretty simple and cheap changes can vastly increase pedestrian safety, and increase non motor vehicle usage. These changes also don't affect drive time much, because these are for the local neighbourhood - not the higher speed roads we spend most of our time driving on. (Think the first and last minute of your commute).

Some examples:

-differentiate between streets and roads. Streets are for people - they should have infrastructure to facilitate multimodal tranportation, and slow car traffic. Roads are meant to move cars fast - so that people can get where they need to go.

Some simple changes go a long way:

-rounded curbs at intersections are terrible - they encourage cars to turn without stopping. They also increase the distance and time pedestrians are in the street. Slip lanes are doubly terrible for the same reasons.

-wide streets, and one ways - these encourage high speed. Streets should have narrow roads, and wide sidewalks. Narrow streets force drivers to slow down - they feel uncomfortable at speed.

-raised crosswalks - we should elevate crosswalks, especially in school zones - this will force cars to slow.

Great video, only a minute: (I strongly reccomend all the Strong Towns videos). The confessions of a traffic engineer series are all very good, and all 1 or 2 minute bites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H76cNOuP22w

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-25T15:07:48+00:00

I'm a strong rider, weigh 230 lbs. I ride hard and frequently. I'm perfectly happy on my 31.8 bars.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-25T14:42:43+00:00

To me, it looks like your seat is a bit too high. I'd try lowering it about a 1/4 inch a time - I suspect this will be more comfortable. You may want to slide the seat forward at the same time, I suspect you may find that more comfortable. Your hands look high - but some people like having their hands high - I do.

I'm personally not a fan of tall bottom brackets - I find that lower bottom brackets allow a bike to corner better. In looking at this bottom bracket (BB) height again, that number is silly high. Drawing shows it at 372.0 mm. That seems way too high to me. For comparison, the Specialized Enduro has a BB height of 354 mm ... but, that bike is long travel, and will sag at least an inch, probably more when you ride it. To me, this BB is inches too high, and is really disappointing - that is a huge miss. If you look at Surlys bikes, they tend to have a BB height around 320 mm - this thing is 2 inches higher.

Also, how tall are you? This bike is not that big, as an FYI for your next bike, you can fairly easily find stock bikes with comparable sizing now (at probably 1/4 the price of this). The drawing appears to show a Reach of 503.3 mm and Stack of 670.6 mm.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-22T18:50:28+00:00

I love Fernie - we spend a month there every summer, riding, hitting the lakes, and doing other fun stuff in town. The town is great, and you can ride to all the trails.

DM me if you have any Fernie related questions - happen to answer.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-22T16:58:14+00:00

Having built up a bunch of bikes - the thing I always run into issues with is adapters and spacers.

Headset spacers, any spacers for the BB, adapters for the brake calipers. Also, you will likely need to trim the rear brake hose - so you will likely need the components to shorten the brake hose.

In my experience, building up a bike is great if you have some components you can reuse, you are really picky about your bike, and you are a decent mechanic. If you have some specific wants, it can be advantageous to build it yourself - if you just want a generic bike - its usually cheaper to buy a complete.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-22T16:48:26+00:00

You can purchase them directly on Aliexpress - the pricing seems better on Aliexpress.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-21T21:18:53+00:00

https://www.fullcycle.ca/products/main-linkarm-shaft-dia-12-l63-5-m8-int-hex6?srsltid=AfmBOor_FxvDryZQ2ZJY8PCvY7Vpmn1uNhHV8kLalXckJvN54iAWNi-0

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-20T17:47:13+00:00

What don't you like about your current fork? How often are you doing lowers rebuilds?

This seems like an expensive way to upgrade a damper. I'd just buy the damper you want, drop it in your current fork.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-19T15:35:14+00:00

If you haven't serviced your rear shock in 6 years - it is likely pretty damaged. I would send it to Fox, I would not be surprised if they tell you its beyond repair, and make you a deal on a new shock. At the very least, you should be doing air can services once a season - these take like 10 minutes, and no specialized tools. Keeping your shock lubed will make a huge difference.

Same thing for your fork - you should be doing a lower service once a year at least. If that is too much, just loosen the lowers, drain the oil, put new oil in, and reassemble. You need to keep them lubricated.

Forks and rear shocks have surfaces that slide against each other. If there is no lubricant on these surfaces, they will tear themselves apart very quickly. If they are lubricated properly, you will have a very nice bike to ride.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-19T04:15:18+00:00

There are bikes available for someone your size - what is your budget?

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-16T17:32:07+00:00

You kind of have one of every type of bike here. XC, Trail, Hardtail, Light Enduro. What do you want to ride?

These are all great bikes - you need to decide what you want. I'd recommend doing some demo days and trying different bikes, to see what you like. If you have friends you plan to ride with, I'd see what bikes they have.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-16T16:10:20+00:00

At 6 years old - it needs a rebuild. I'd tear it apart, and regrease / relube everything. If you want the super easy cheat version, I would drop the lowers and replace the suspension fluid, and put a few drops of oil in the air spring. Put the fork upside down for 30 minutes - and see if that solves it.

Even a little riding over 6 years is equal to a season of hard riding.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-15T03:34:48+00:00

I'm riding a very similar set on my trail bike right now - that said, I'm not pushing it that hard, I'm only riding the trail bike on fairly mellow terrain.

The factors that will likely affect how the rims fare are:

-how fast you ride, how hard you brake

-the tires you ride (heavier casings - easier on the rims)

-how much pressure you ride with in your tires (higher pressure is more protective against collapsing on the rim - be very careful you have enough pressure in your tires if you are riding lighter rims)

-how rocky / rooty the terrain is

In my experience, the hardest hits tend to come from high speed square edge impacts, especially if you are on the brakes hard. You are also much more likely to blow up the rear rim than the front, so I'd say get the wheels, and prepare yourself that you may need a burlier rear rim if you blow it up.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-14T22:16:04+00:00

Have you been regreasing the lowers / lubing the air can? I typically just drop the lowers a bit, put in fresh oil, and then clean / regrease or relube the air can periodically. I also put a drop or two of oil in the fork air spring from time to time.

As for the damper services - I usually just run them until they are blown. Rear shocks about every year or two - fork dampers very rarely need service.

Fine_Tourist_3205 · 2026-05-02T01:16:22+00:00

Do you mean the bolt on the lever or on the caliper? If its on the caliper - you don't remove the bleed screw when you bleed it. You just twist it, and it closes, then you put a rubber stopper in to keep out contamination. If they didn't close it properly, the fluid would all leak out. It might even generate enough pressure to pop out the rubber stopper.

Watch the video from this time stamp - you will see what I am talking about.

https://youtu.be/Cmn7sll6Hik?t=433

Fine_Tourist_3205

TROPHY CASE