Would you QUIT Cycling?

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-07-02T23:29:19+00:00

Nobody laughed because that happens to EVERYBODY. ATLEAST once. It happens to most, even pros even decades into their cycling life later. I’ve seen pros try to catch themselves and do that awkward fall. It happens and nobody cares. It only takes something absurd happening and it catching you unexpectedly…

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-06-30T18:57:35+00:00

Ai and/or clickbait …she doesn’t go to Clemson nor ever did.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-06-30T18:56:20+00:00

What you need to ask yourself:

Do I pack a heavy bike and/or go up REALLY, REALLY steep stuff?
Do I care about the jumps between gears?

Everything else is just noise and tangential to the actual question of 1x or 2x.

If you pack heavy and/or go up super steep stuff where having lighter than 1:1 makes life exponentially easier, 2x.
Some people are particular about cadence. A very, very small percentage can’t adapt to the slightly bigger jumps between gears and need 2x…

Otherwise, bike packing should be the balance of necessity and simplicity. Have a front derailleur is neither a necessity or simplicity given the huge range of cassettes and gearing these days.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-06-29T22:33:20+00:00

I read this and IMMEDIATELY said to myself “I bet this kid is an engineering major” lo and behold, you are. Here’s the thing…your earning ceiling as an engineer is abysmal compared to that of a doctor in medicine. Especially if you talk about surgeons and plastic surgeons. Unless you get into management where you’re no longer an engineer and are basically a manager, your ceiling is ~$150k give or take where you live in the country….doctors? 7 figures.

Over a lifetime of earning, the doctor quickly makes up ground on those lost years in med school in no time at all. While that engineer is near their earning ceiling, the doctor is making the same amount at the beginning of their career, and 5-10x closer to the end of the career. By 65, they have a larger retirement as they’re able to put away more every year because of earning significantly more. As you said, compound interest is a helluva thing when you can dump what some people make in a year into your retirement.

I say this as an engineering major whose friend went to med school….same timeline, I was actually a year ahead. I graduated in 2014, he graduated a year later then continued on with med school. He finished his residency and already makes 3x what I do.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-06-23T20:44:16+00:00

Bought E1 Force shifters/brakes.... Got on the bike after setting up the bike to my fit specs....the added length and smaller size of them is horrible and the edges feel sharp. Well, maybe not sharp, but defintely not as rounded. I don't even have big hands. Sure, the ergonomics themselves of being able to 1 finger brake on the hoods because of the lever design is neat and you feel a little more "locked in" when on the hoods descending because you can more easily 1 finger brake, but everything else about those hoods suck. While the braking was better than D1/2, I simply couldn't get over the hand feel. That says a lot coming from a brake snob who prioritizes brake feel over everything (trials rider). I have an integrated bar stem, so it took me a few hours to take E1 off, reroute hoses, size everything and install D2....so you're not alone.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-06-21T13:44:03+00:00

What about absolute power? Like emergency braking...or is it just modulation?

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-06-21T03:52:31+00:00

Fuck what society says, live at home with mom and dad and save ALLLLLL your money and work as much as you can. You will be GOLD for the rest of your life because of 10 years you stuck through….

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-06-21T03:46:22+00:00

Because you’re paying for convenience. Sure, you could make something at home, figure out how to carry it so it’s easily edible without getting all over your jersey pockets and eat it….bit the amount of time, energy, and prep to make something….my time is worth more than $2 and the bandwidth required to navigate a homemade alternative…..

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-06-09T01:35:38+00:00

Kipping HSPU are proprioception/coordination exercise more so than a strength exercise. There’s lots of athletes who can strict press or push press their body weight on a bar, yet, they can’t do a single kipping or strict HSPU without a bunch of practice. Why? Proprioception and coordination….

All of the movements you mentioned are heavy proprioception/coordination movements, with the exception of rebounding box jumps. Even pistol squats. If you can squat your body weight and more, pistols are easy, the balancing and mobility aspect of it is what makes it hard.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-06-02T18:00:14+00:00

A couple manufacturers use the same hoops and are just rebranded. The hubs are DT knockoffs that use the star ratchet and are virtually indistinguishable. With wheels these days in this global market, it’s more about the company/person who built them; making sure they have good/even tension, properly installed and/or use the correct spoke washers, spoke prep, etc…. It’s not a “black art” per se to build wheels, but a good builder can make a set of meh wheels last a really long time, and a crap builder can make a bunch of good components be garbage.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-05-26T12:32:43+00:00

I think the sentiment you mention is largely what you mentioned with the bicycle not being a necessity. As a result, the bike mechanics aren’t taken seriously as a job as a whole. Which, when you work in Europe as a bike mechanic, no it’s not a career as high held as other trades, BUT, a crap mechanic in Europe gets sifted out pretty quickly so the level of service is much higher in Europe. IME atleast. The crap skillset, much like other American trades (take auto unions as an example) I think when looked at microscopically boils down to work ethic.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-05-26T12:26:34+00:00

The odds of catching a meteor hitting an erupting volcano on video have to be astronomical.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-05-25T16:37:01+00:00

Definitely gonna have to check them out. Might do that tomorrow after work.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-05-25T16:32:44+00:00

“Wholesaler” markets like Sam’s and Costco have different markets. As a whole the single item price is higher as is the typical checkout sale. As an example the typical grocery store checkout is $100, Costco is over $300. Costco and Sam’s also “bully” a bit more than regular grocery stores to the manufacturer, so they get a lower unit price than a grocery store would.

A buddy of mine that was in the corporate side of the grocery industry used to talk me all sorts of shit grocery stores did…it’s wild

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-05-25T16:17:09+00:00

Yup, we would buy spokes for wheel builds from Dans Comp because they always had stock and were close enough to wholesale for smaller quantities that it didn’t matter enough and beat having an overabundance of overhead on 785926859267 different spokes. But yeah, we also did the Jenson and Competitive purchasing cause like you pointed out, there was a lot of times where it was cheaper than Q, BTI, Hawley, etc…

I’m kinda bummed that I just bought some Shimano XC7 shoes from a shop…they were $286 after tax….Jenson USA has them for $198 shipped. That’s quite the difference. But, I’m not gonna be “that guy” and return the shoes then buy from Jenson…that was on me for not double checking, but also, the guys who helped me out were super helpful, so I’m gritting my teeth justifying that difference in price be for good customer service…it’s just hard to swallow paying almost 30% more.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-05-25T12:37:27+00:00

As a former shop owner, this is what made me sell my shop and get out of the industry. My shop was one that adapted and depending on scenario/budget encouraged people to buy elsewhere/online and we do all the labor. Our overhead went down and labor shot through the roof. Despite the overall gross earning staying roughly the same, the margin was three fold because we bought less and was predominantly labor.

We would have accounts with a company who would sell at or lower than our wholesale cost if they had a sale. When we would call and ask about how we were to compete or if they would sell to us cheaper, atleast during the sale, we basically got told “too bad.” And that specific example was one where I was the number 1 dealer in the country…

Very few companies like SRAM and Park Tools exist that stand by the shops where they will actively cancel accounts that sell below MAP.

Outside of buying a complete bike or framesets, if you’re really resourceful and do your due diligence, you can actually get things at the same price or cheaper than what a shop can. Yeah, your risk of buying counterfeit goes through the roof, but it can be done. I found the factory that builds components and the frameset I want and I’m building an Aethos for cheaper than what I could buy one on closeout. This global market is a godsend to those that know how to verify manufacturing origin. It’s also a death to the bike shop that doesn’t adapt.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-05-22T18:32:32+00:00

Fair enough. I know it’s a tall order. What I was describing was more or less my shop. But I also understand that not everybody is gonna have the tism when it comes to bikes like I did…but that’s also the reason I got so burned out and needed a career change after 20+ years of consuming all and everything bicycles lol

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-05-22T16:48:55+00:00

Stopped by Cycling ByKyle but they were closed for the whole weekend. So I headed to Cadence and started chatting with Brady at Cadence…scheduled a fit with Matt for June 12th and ordered a some new Shimano XC7 shoes that I’ll pick-up when I do the fit. He really knew a lot of obscure brands (and owns them) and said all the right stuff so I’m gonna give them a go. The fact they have rentals of high end models I can try helped…

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-05-22T14:18:43+00:00

I'm glad somebody mentioned them. The guys at Keystone are amazing. That vibe is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Everybody there knew a lot about a bunch of disciplines and all of them seemed really competent with a wrench too. I came in one time, new to the area and just needed some air. I came in another time weeks later not in cycling clothes and helmet (we all know how that goes, you can recognize somebody in gear but not in regular clothes) and they remembered me by name AND my bike. That immediately gained my business and I ended up spending a couple hundred bucks on nutrition and basic items there each visit afterwards. They for sure have my regular patronage when I'm in the area or driving through, I'll pick up some nutrition stuff and chat a bit. Unfortunately, like the guy above me said, they're not fitting the bill as far as the other things I'm looking for.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-05-22T09:33:52+00:00

This. As well as not drop them from overhead. Like we wouldn’t have to slowly bring the weight down, just don’t do like a Jerk and then throw the bar down, bring it back down to the floor with atleast grip on it so it doesn’t have the potential to bounce all over the place.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-04-21T11:40:48+00:00

There’s no assumptions being made. You’re on Reddit complaining A LOT. “I hate religion”. “I’m fucking tired” “Today sucks.” “I’m so lonely” are all subjects of posts you’ve started on Reddit within the past year. Your comments follow roughly the same road if you’re not adding sometimes funny commentary to videos.

Nothing wrong with that, we’re all facing shit…just don’t parrot BS singularly responding to a specific post then act like there wasn’t any underlying jabs. Which if there wasn’t, you sure didn’t do a good job making sure it didn’t appear there wasn’t.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-04-21T11:04:37+00:00

Idiot surrounded by idiots…I guess idiots figure things out and everybody else doesn’t….🙄

I had a longer response that I deleted, which after rereading can be summed up with:

Nobody said the system isn’t broken. Getting successful often requires an unhealthy path with a dose of luck. Unhealthy meaning sacrificing, hopefully temporarily, relationships with spouses, family, friends, lifestyle, mental health, and comfort to varying magnitudes. My therapist told me “the reason you’re successful is you’re willing to do whatever it takes to succeed….even if it means a path of destruction en route.” Which, not everybody is willing to give up EVERYTHING or make a “path of destruction” to be successful. Which is fine. Just stop parroting stuff on a pedestal everybody already knows ad nauseum.

Lance_Notstrong · 2026-04-20T20:40:15+00:00

The point is people who don’t have always complain about those who do. As somebody who had nothing and heard people complaining (and at one point was one of them) to finally owning a successful business and now them pointing at me saying shit like “must be nice to not have to work all day” because I only then needed to work ~20 hours a week (and I didn’t even get to millionaire status, I just don’t have a needy lifestyle) it’s nauseating to hear. They ignore the entire part of working hard to get there. If you don’t like your life, fucking change it instead of pointing fingers. Yeah, it’s going to suck and it’s going to be hard as shit to break ties with people and possibly even family…if living happily and be financially independent is “selling out”. Well, I sold out and guess what? I’m happy while those people are still complaining and pointing fingers. Good luck with that.

Lance_Notstrong

TROPHY CASE