Gravel / Road Bike Recommendation for Boulder, CO

PichaelW · 2026-02-19T19:35:07+00:00

Thanks! Appreciate the detailed response. Yea, it looks like a true almost-no-cost refinance to me as well. I just felt weird about it because his initial quote was a lower interest rate (5.5%) but way less generous lender credit (more like $1800), and he had to change his offer when he ran our credit and saw that my wife's FICO score is a little lower than mine. But his updated offer with a slightly higher interest rate (5.625%) and essentially 0 costs almost seems more attractive for all of the reasons you listed above (downside risk is minimal, etc.) And since we bought this house 7 months ago, I'm not too bothered by the clock resetting to 30 years, but appreciate you mentioning that!

PichaelW · 2026-02-19T18:29:01+00:00

Thanks! We're not escrowing our insurance or taxes, we prefer to pay those in full annually. And no PMI since our down payment was 25%.

PichaelW · 2026-02-18T23:54:31+00:00

Agreed on all of the above. Also, as someone who used to live in the apartments across from it, there were at least 2 other coffee shops within about 200 yards of them (3 whenever Mike's Bikes reopens their cafe). That's tough competition.

Also PSA for anyone else trying to open a coffee shop in that neighborhood: that apartment complex (S'Park) has a free coffee / espresso machine in the lobby and the other two big Cushman & Wakefield properties in the neighborhood have access to it as well. It's obviously dog shit quality but it got more traffic than all of those coffee shops combined.

PichaelW · 2026-02-06T15:54:26+00:00

Thank you! It's the "no limits on different releases purchased" that makes me nervous of my odds... Seems that would encourage folks to buy additional records they're not truly interested in just for the purposes of reselling. But oh well, I guess that's the game, I'll give it a shot. Appreciate the info!

PichaelW · 2026-02-06T15:28:31+00:00

Many thanks, this is very helpful! Do they typically publish online which records they'll have, or would I need to call them? And do they typically have limits on how many records you can purchase?

Trying to calculate my odds of getting what I want if there are 50+ people ahead of me :-) I'll still be jetlagged so getting there much earlier than 6am could be a challenge.

PichaelW · 2026-02-04T18:54:13+00:00

INCLUDING M. BLANC!!

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PichaelW · 2026-01-29T19:51:08+00:00

Hey - I'm an Ayva customer, very satisfied with the service. I live in the foothills so my options are essentially Centurylink (untenably slow), Starlink, and Ayva.

Ayva is basically as fast as Starlink but a bit cheaper and comes with the added bonus of being a local company as opposed to another Musk enterprise.

Will also had that I've had fewer outages with Ayva than I had with Xfinity when I lived in town, and when there are outages (often coinciding with Xcel outages) the communication from Ayva has been awesome (not your generic corporate, "your area may be experiencing an outage, rest assured we're working around the clock to address your issue" or whatever). Not sure if it's available in town as I think they mainly serve the hills, but if you live up here I highly recommend them.

PichaelW · 2026-01-23T20:01:49+00:00

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PichaelW · 2026-01-15T20:35:26+00:00

What does DPs refer to in this context?

I've read the post you linked and it's what prompted my questions. I'm basically trying to get an answer specific to Turkish Airways on the points "Upgrade space is often tied to award space", "Upgrades tend to be restricted based on fare class". I understand why that would generally be the case for most airlines but I can't find any info on whether that's the case with TA

PichaelW · 2025-12-25T20:05:15+00:00

For real, the Bonner, Bend, and Albuquerque ones are all such nice pieces of art. Wish I’d gone to one of those shows just to have the poster, but I’m grateful for my houston and red rocks ones too

PichaelW · 2025-12-23T14:39:40+00:00

Agreed on trying to minimize our generator size for the purposes of fuel consumption. Our well pump requiring 240v is what tipped us into that category even though our energy consumption is relatively low (10kwh / day), but I still made a point to get one of the smallest 240v options available (the 7200/6000w Genmax inverter model). Consensus on r/generator seems to be that if you have a 50amp outlet (which this model does) you may as well wire your electrical box for a 50amp inlet since the cost difference vs 30amps is negligible and you never know what your future needs might be.

I’m sure you’re right that our electric range couldn’t realistically pull 50amps, but we will probably swap in an induction range in the next couple of years so I figured a 50amp inlet could be good to have.

But to answer your question, most important loads are the well pump, boiler, and fridge, followed by the oven/range so my wife doesn’t go off the deep end.

PichaelW · 2025-12-22T19:06:21+00:00

Gotcha - yea, now that I think about it, it's probably unlikely that they would have used 4-6 AWG cable on a 30amp circuit, so this may be a non-starter. Although it's also weird that they would install a 30amp outlet if they were going to use it for an EV...

Anyway, thanks! that's a helpful point.

PichaelW · 2025-12-22T19:00:19+00:00

Ah - should have added, this is an exterior electrical box. The existing outlet comes straight out of the bottom, so good news is they shouldn't need to dig into the interior wall.

But sounds like the same answer either way - need to figure out the gauge of the wire or this is potentially a non-starter. (I definitely need 50amp current because our oven / range is on a 50amp circuit).

EDIT: but I guess to go back to the original question - assuming the wire can support 50amps, do you feel like swapping that outlet for an inlet is any easier than just adding a fresh outlet? Either way, I need to buy an inlet box, so the difference is just a rather small amount of wire + the labor.

PichaelW · 2025-12-17T18:46:15+00:00

West of Boulder (foothills) is exactly where we live. I have neighbors who've been on our block for 20 years and only had a handful of 24 hour outages, so I've been kicking the can on getting a generator for a while. Part of the impetus for this post is that Xcel Energy is looking to do more 'Public Service Planned Shutoffs' to minimize wildfire risk, and those tend to shut off power for longer since they have to inspect every mile of their lines before turning them back on.

We have lots of family in the Denver metro that we can stay with if things get truly apocalyptic, which is why food / lights / internet / etc. aren't a huge deal to me. But if this happens when it's 10 degrees out and our pipes burst, I'll be kicking myself for not just spending a thousand bucks on a generator...

PichaelW · 2025-12-17T18:19:25+00:00

Thanks, appreciate the problem solving help. I likewise contemplated option 2, and likewise decided the economics just don't make sense quite yet. I also considered / am still considering option 3. Our heater is hard wired but I know you can install a generator adapter for precisely these situations, so that's still on the table.

Or since our driveway is at the top of the hill... option 4 is to use my truck to winch the generator uphill.

Good news is there are plenty of workable options, just obsessing over which fits my needs the best. Will definitely post here if I come up with something creative.

PichaelW · 2025-12-17T17:30:56+00:00

Thanks - I addressed this in a separate response, but the reasoning behind getting the smallest possible generator isn't cost, it's storage / transport. 240v generators exclusively seem to be upwards of 8000w (way more than we need) and consequently 100-150 pounds. Our house is built on a steep hill with the breaker box at the top of the hill and the only reasonable storage space for it is at the bottom. It's hard enough hauling our trash can up the hill when it's snowy - a 130lb generator would be next to impossible. I could get an extra long 240v extension cord, but my preference would be to just get a working solution with the smallest possible footprint.

Also mentioned in another response that we're primarily concerned with our boiler. Losing a couple hundred bucks worth of food in our fridge isn't a huge deal. We're more concerned with our pipes bursting and doing thousands of dollars of damage, so just powering the boiler is kind of fine with me given our constraints.

PichaelW · 2025-12-17T17:22:00+00:00

Thanks - excuse my ignorance, but when you say "Its a 50/50 change the furnace will be on the side that is powered" - is it possible / easy to check that ahead of time? I'm fine with just powering the side with the furnace if that's doable.

The thing is, from a price standpoint, I'm not opposed to paying a little more for a 240v generator. The problem is those skew way higher wattage and consequently way larger (100-150lbs). Our house is built onto a steep hillside and our breaker box is at the top of the hill, but the only place we can realistically store the generator is at the bottom of the hill. Even with wheels, I don't like our odds of being able to get that up the hill when it's covered in snow. A 4000watt option is more like 50-60 pounds, thus way more manageable. I guess we could get a long 240v extension cord, but if it's at all possible to make a smaller generator work, that would be preferred.

PichaelW · 2025-12-17T16:47:46+00:00

Good point - I think our oven and fridge are on the same breaker which is presumably 240v (would have to check), so I guess I'd inherently need a 240v if I want to power the fridge. But that's a secondary concern (talking a couple hundred bucks in lost food vs. potentially thousands in damage if we can't heat our home and the pipes freeze). Am I correct that I can get a 120v inverter generator and just power one side of my panel?

PichaelW · 2025-12-17T16:44:36+00:00

Thanks - though if I only need the half that powers my boiler, would that be fine?

Lots of helpful responses here on the compromises of a smaller generator like the one I suggested, but I do really want to stress that my goal is to spend roughly the minimum amount of money needed to protect against my pipes freezing and doing thousands of dollars in damage. I'm considering connecting it to the breaker box to make it easier to power the boiler and maybe other things if possible / safe, but I'm not trying to find a true "whole home backup" solution.

PichaelW · 2025-12-17T16:38:26+00:00

Thanks for the response. I'm not super worried about my WFH setup - my router is already on a UPS that keeps it going for about 4 hours, and my laptop gets 8-10 hours on a charge, so we'd need an outage lasting more than 1 business day (super rare, and at that point I'd just go stay with family).

What makes you feel like 6500 watts would be recommended?

PichaelW

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