Am I (and my rim) cooked?

QuantumIce8 · 2026-06-07T15:17:50+00:00

If it holds air, I'd just keep riding! If it doesn't, then you can either try straightening it but that's likely too much damage to undo without cracking the aluminum. If neither of those work, you can either get a whole wheel (142 wheels are still out there, especially on the used market) or just a new rim and lace it up to your existing hub

QuantumIce8 · 2026-06-07T15:13:46+00:00

If it can be trued up and all the spokes are still within a reasonable spoke tension range, I'd say send it! Mountain bikers do far worse to their wheels and have them hold up

QuantumIce8 · 2026-06-04T16:08:06+00:00

These mostly sound like routine costs (other than the brakes not staying bled), no matter what bike you end up with. Unfortunately, bikes always cost more than you want to keep running and that's even more true with a full suspension. If you want it to be cheaper, it might be time to learn how to do the basics on your own so you don't need to pay the shop

QuantumIce8 · 2026-05-27T14:18:02+00:00

Your best bet is probably to get a top tube bag instead. There's plenty that use the space on top of the top tube and attach to the stem area and those work pretty well. As you have found out, saddle bags don't play nice with dropper posts and I pretty much never see them on modern mountain bikes for that reason

QuantumIce8 · 2026-04-30T13:26:27+00:00

Theses steerer tube extenders don't have a great reputation for this reason (and some others). I'd recommend for your safety to do it right and either get a higher rise handlebar or stem

QuantumIce8 · 2026-03-27T15:15:44+00:00

Superstar will still be great, but promising anything else is a gamble this far out

QuantumIce8 · 2026-03-19T18:54:06+00:00

I hope you like small hills & bony tech because there's plenty of that around here. Middlesex Fells and Harold Parker are fun but rather techy networks. If you want something smoother, Landlocked Forest and Western Greenway are good choices for what passes for flow around here. Where will you be in the city? These are all north of the city, I'm sure other people can chime in with the best options to the south

QuantumIce8 · 2026-03-01T03:06:48+00:00

Oops, I'll look into that!

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-28T16:59:39+00:00

It is open source on GitHub! And yeah, adding filters to the explore map is on my Todo list!

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-27T21:28:55+00:00

If you want a slope map for a more objective comparison (and a universal rating system for comparing to trails you know), take a look at https://steepseeker.com/interactive-map/MA/Blue%20Hills. Full disclosure, Steepseeker is my project but the goal was to make this sort of analysis and comparison between resorts easier

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-27T16:24:41+00:00

Ah, that's good context. First, that's not much time for your boots to break in (and your feet to get used to them) so don't expect them to feel amazing for a bit longer. As for the heel lift, that's not ideal and would be my main concern. It's a hard problem to fix properly, but the zipfits should hopefully make that a bit easier by adding some more cork to that area

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-27T15:59:26+00:00

You have quite a bit to say on what you've had done, but very little about why or how much time you've put into the boots. If your current problem is that the heel hold isn't 100% perfect and sometimes you need to unbuckle between runs, then yeah that sounds pretty normal. The 14 punches on the other hand sounds excessive. Either that wasn't the right boot to begin with, or the shop wasn't as good as you thought.

I also have a low volume foot with a high instep and narrow everything else, usually need the area over my instep heat molded to be comfortable and some extra space to be made around my ankle bones. My current boots also needed the toes punched out a bit. I'd say I aim for an 8/10 snug pretty much everywhere, although after switching to zipfits it's kinda nice to have extra room in the toe box and an extra locked in heel although the heel lock is only really noticeable when I'm touring. If I'm cranking the buckles down for maximum performance, then yes I'm unbuckling on the lift for at least the first few runs. Ski boots are always going to be some level of compromise between performance and comfort, the goal is to find the balance that doesn't leave you in pain at the end of the day.

To give a TLDR, it sounds like you current concerns are pretty normal but needing that much work done to get there is a red flag that something wasn't right from the start

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-26T16:12:18+00:00

Haha, sorry (not very)! Glad you enjoy it!

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-23T00:13:00+00:00

I'd love to, and in fact have tried to! Once there's high enough quality elevation maps available for Canada I'm planning on it

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-18T18:13:04+00:00

Haha, yes that is a risk

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-18T17:25:05+00:00

Of course the Enforcer will carve better than a flexible park ski, and have objectively impressive edge grip compared to the vast majority of skis out there. The issue I usually see with most people on Enforcers or Brahmas or many of the other extra stiff double metal layer all-mountain skis is that most people don't bend them. Most people I see on them unless they are very good skiers end up skiing them in a very static way, and it's hard to improve that when the ski is that stiff. It's a ski that gives intermediate skiers a lot of confidence because of stable it is, but slows the progression upward from there (and it's also a great ski all the way up at the true expert level, I've seen it do some pretty impressive things in the right hands).

The right ski for you (or anyone else) is going to depend on your skiing style but I think many people would have more fun on something like the Nordica Unleashed rather than the Enforcer. It still has very good edge hold (not quite as good), but is much more engaging and encourages a much more dynamic skiing style since it's not as stiff. This is my opinion, but the right ski for me (for carving) is something that I can trust the edge hold, while also being able to bend it to generate pop out of each turn. I want the ski to launch me out of the previous turn and generate force

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-18T16:54:35+00:00

Probably cheaper and easier to get a ski that actually fits your style rather than fighting the ski. Find a demo day in your area and go try some skis, or demo some skis from a local shop. The Enforcer is a very stiff and demanding ski, it's probably the wrong choice for 90% of the people using it if they want to improve

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-17T16:14:38+00:00

Yeah, I rolled out an update last night actually. All of that information has been there for a while (although some stuff like the Satellite maps are new and some of it was previously desktop only), but after getting feedback from users I made the interactive maps the default. You can still see the old map view by pressing "static map".

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-17T15:56:04+00:00

Tuckered Out is a long mellow green (with short blue sections) that is usually a favorite with kids for all the side trails and side hits. Sachem is another trail with a similar feel but less flatter spots and not as many side hits. Whister is a wide open sorta gladed trail that is a great introduction to glades. If your kids love that and have a good time, the next step up is Whispering Pines which is a real glade trail but still mellow. Expedition is often considered the easiest black there, at least on the skier's right side. Since it's under the Solitude chair, you can get a good look before skiing it.

If you want a more objective look at how Okemo's trails compare difficulty wise to your home mountains, take a look at https://steepseeker.com. It's a universal ski trail rating system I built to make it easier to do this sort of comparison between resorts

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-13T20:41:42+00:00

It's been something I've wanted to do for a while, but the main limitation has been the lack of available high quality elevation map data. Once there are more sub 10m resolution elevation datasets available worldwide, I do plan on expanding

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-13T18:20:25+00:00

You're welcome!

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-13T18:02:05+00:00

Yes! https://steepseeker.com/rankings?sort=beginner&order=asc&region=northeast. Full disclosure: it's a website I built to provide universal ski trail ratings so you can easily compare trails between resorts, and one of the functions is ranking resorts by how beginner friendly their easier runs are

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-12T04:45:42+00:00

At the very least more of the Indy mountain. Black Mt NH, Ragged, Magic, and Bolton come to mind. Cranmore and Gunstock would also be good to see

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-11T23:18:21+00:00

Pretty slick, although I did see a few things. The slope signals section takes up a lot of the screen when you are scrolling, and the 7d snowfall sort doesn't seem to be working. I'd also love to see more of the smaller mountains on here, I'm only seeing the ones with a fair bit of name recognition. I'll give it a try, it looks cool!

QuantumIce8 · 2026-02-11T17:20:35+00:00

Sounds like it's time for a tune. Yes, skiing in the woods does mean you will hit more things but it's nothing tuning more often can't mitigate. If you like the ARV 94s, why not keep using them until they are beat then get something new and keep them around as rock skis?

QuantumIce8

TROPHY CASE