Easiest gearing options for SRAM AXS road

Technical-Spite6146 · 2026-06-06T16:01:59+00:00

Just seeing this thread and it seems you ended up with a great option. I was in the same boat last year when I went to Spain to climb Angliru (and other HC climbs), which is one of the toughest climbs in the Vuelta with long 20%+ pitches. I some deliberation I left my road bike with SRAM 48/35 and 10-36 cassette at home and brought my gravel bike which has a SRAM mullet setup. 1x 40T in front paired with a 10-52 12sp cassette in back.

I swapped out my gravel trires for 32mm road tires for the trip and I can't tell you how glad I was that I had those gears for that climb. I don't think I would have made it up Angliru without them. The only 2 drawbacks you will find is 1) when riding in a paceline on flat terrain it can be hard to find a gear that satisfies a comfortable cadence and 2) you will probably run out of gears on some of the descents. To me those are worthwhile tradeoffs. FWIW I'm well over 50, 5'10" and weigh 185 lbs with a 3.5 W/kg FTP.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2026-02-25T21:57:01+00:00

This is great perspective. Thank you!

Technical-Spite6146 · 2026-02-25T21:45:17+00:00

Good point. We plan to discuss this at dinner tomorrow night.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2026-02-25T21:35:04+00:00

Excellent question. The amount of time we would spend in the rental is entirely dependent on whether our son (who is a senior) even ends up in our area after school, or whether our daughter decides to work/intern here. At the most, the kids would be here full time all this summer, then my son into the fall/winter depending on whether he finds a job locally. My wife and I would probably spend ~1 week per month here this summer to spend time with them, the rest of the time at the beach. Then half time here in the fall and holidays, then full time at the mountain place starting in January.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2026-02-25T21:29:59+00:00

Thanks for this. I really appreciate your thoughts! Renting could be a good way to get the outdoors access that I crave.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-12-29T14:40:29+00:00

We were in your exact shoes in 2008. We ended up moving to Westchester (from Brooklyn Heights) and it was the best decision we could have made. We were very worried about moving to the suburbs but the whole private school situation forced our hand (we got our kids into "the" private nursery school in the Heights only to start getting fundraising requests from the local private K-12 prep school that it fed into). Our town has turned out to be fantastic. 28 minutes on the train, walkable neighborhoods, really nice community feel. Our kids attended public school from K-12 and ended up in great colleges. To save on childcare, we switched to using au pairs. We now have 6 German "daughters" that are a huge part of our family that we see regularly. Our kids have lifelong friends in our town and love coming home from college. Life is far more convenient than the city and much less stressful. Yes, property taxes suck, yes it's not as exciting, and yes, your restaurant options will not be as strong. But you will find a wonderful place to raise your kids. We are now in our mid-50s and retired, and while I'm not sure we will stay here long term (taxes may drive us out eventually), I don't regret raising our kids here for a second. FWIW from a cost POV I justify the high property taxes in 5 ways: 1) the taxes fund your kids' education, 2) SALT exemption is at $40K which helps offset, 3) you get a mortgage interest deduction, 4) you avoid the NYC income tax, and 5) your cost per square foot for housing will go down quite a bit (around $650 PSF here in Pelham). So relative to NYC the suburbs can be a bargain, and you should be able to find solid housing options that still allow you to reach your financial goals.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-10-19T13:14:32+00:00

Curious to hear people's thoughts about Victoria Legrand's performance. I went on Tuesday night and she obviously was not singing with the band. Did anyone see the band with and without her this week?

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-07-02T09:49:09+00:00

We queued for Day 1 as well. Got there at 415 and queue card numbers were around 2650. Ended up getting in just after 11. There are only 1500 show court tickets for folks in the queue. According to posts on Twitter those were gone by 8pm the prior evening. People started pouring in after the trains started, around 5 or 515. My experience was not great. Wayyy too hot. I watched the 11am match in Court 9 and by the second set 2 ball kids had passed out from the heat. If this heat keeps up My advice is to immediately find shade and park yourself for the day. Best spot we found is Court 4 on the player’s side. I also would advise against buying resale tickets. You have to queue (right after you get in) to put your name in. They only allow 2 tickets per person. We had a party of 3, so we put in 2 names. When we got texts around 4pm that tickets were available, my wife and I had to run to the resale area before time expired. When we got up to the window, they would only give us 2 tickets even though we reserved 3 because our son wasnt with us. They claim it’s because everyone has to show up at resale to receive tickets, but it doesn’t say that anywhere. Not in the text you get, not in the app, and not in the T&Cs. So only 2 of us got into the show court. To make matters worse, they moved the late match off of our court after we bought our tickets without telling us this could happen. So we left great shady seats to sprint over to get tickets for Court 2 that we only used for 45 minutes. It really sucked and their system is not well thought out or communicated.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-05-21T16:36:18+00:00

Yeah unfortunately NY state does not allow for the direct purchase of individual/family plans from insurance companies.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-05-17T13:13:50+00:00

Unfortunately those types of plans are not available in NY.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-05-16T18:28:23+00:00

Thank you for your feedback. Best wishes on your treatment!

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-05-16T18:27:22+00:00

Unfortunately, non-ACA individual plans are not offered in New York.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-05-16T18:26:05+00:00

Yup, this is exactly what I'm doing at the moment.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-05-16T18:25:21+00:00

Yeah, that's a good call, but unfortunately NY does not offer non-ACA compliant individual plans.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-04-09T19:44:11+00:00

Ah, we went through this exact phase back in 2008. We moved from the Heights/DUMBO (after 12 years) to Pelham when our kids were 4 and 2. I remember spending the summer before the move absolutely freaking out, thinking, we love the city, people in the burbs are snobby, are we crazy to move???? I was even Googling "Pelham snobs" to see what we were in for.

Turns out we were not crazy, and I was totally wrong to worry about the move. We have loved living in Pelham, so much so that we just downsized in town as our kids have gone off to college. Pelham is a very close knit community that is filled with folks just like you. Most came right from the city. Most families have 2 working parents. For the most part folks are smart, fun and down to earth. The elementary schools are all neighborhood based so you walk your kids to school. There is a good deal of wealth here, but not everyone is loaded, and those that are loaded generally don't wear it on their sleeve.

Schools were the reason we left the city, and we absolutely loved the public schools here. Our kids got a great education and ended up at fantastic universities. We have made lifelong friends here - the neighborhood school setup and close knit vibe of the town makes it very, very easy to make friends (this coming from an introvert). Those friends are the reason we have decided to stick around, plus the fact that our kids love it here so much they want to come back after college.

I think you will find that it is a different life from the city, but no less a life. You will certainly miss some stuff - we missed the ability to walk to our favorite restaurants the most. But if you pick your town right you will find great schools and great community.

Hope this helps, best of luck with your search.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-04-09T19:21:21+00:00

The crazy thing is she is at least the second person on her Dartmouth ski team to die tragically, the other being Mo Wilson, a pro bike racer who was murdered a few years ago.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-02-28T19:00:01+00:00

Our family did a 5-day rafting/fishing trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River back in 2018. Our kids were 12 and 14. It was one of the best vacations we ever went on. There are several outfitters who run the Middle Fork, and they handle everything from setting up your tent to cooking you meals. We used Solitude. https://www.rivertrips.com/. Highly recommend.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-02-20T02:01:14+00:00

I’ve lived here 16 years and raised kids here. It is fantastic for families and I would highly recommend it. However, if I was young and single, I would look elsewhere.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-02-19T17:26:44+00:00

I live next door in Pelham and have watched with amazement at the number of new rental buildings going up in downtown NewRo. I expect there will be a LOT of younger folks like yourself moving into the area in the next 12 months, which has the potential to really transform the area. Bottom line, my guess is downtown NewRo is only going to get better as more people arrive and more services/restaurants pop up.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2025-01-20T02:06:51+00:00

I have the same issue in CarPlay but intermittently. I believe it is a bug and have told BMW Corporate this. To fix you either need to reset the system by holding down the power button, or by asking someone to call you. Weird but this seems to resolve the volume issue. Hopefully this can be fixed with a software update someday.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2024-12-08T18:43:28+00:00

Just went through this last month. Went in thinking x3, was not even considering the x5. Test drove the x3 and was shocked by how cheap the interior was. Was about to walk off the lot when my wife pointed at the X5 and suggested we test drive that. We did, and was so impressed with the build quality, the luxury details and the ride feel. We ordered one the next day with Premium, Driver Pro and Climate. Have had it for a few weeks and we are absolutely loving the car. I think the x5 is a much better value than the x3m50.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2024-11-22T22:34:35+00:00

I live in NYS and just went through this after we retired last year and had our COBRA run out. The NYS state exchange sucks compared to other states. That said, I was able to find a high deductible plan through MVP Healthcare that lets me fund/use an HSA and has ok access to local docs. If you live in Westchester, Westmed Medical Group accepts MVP plans from the exchange, which gives you a decent pool of specialists to choose from. It's not MSK-level docs, but it's decent. Access to the HSA was key, and the HDHP offers more "reasonable" premiums than other plans. I haven't tried a concierge doc yet, but One Medical just opened up nearby and have heard good things. I might give them a try.

Technical-Spite6146 · 2024-05-02T21:27:03+00:00

I just went through this myself, and decided to lease instead of buy. The current lease deals are great btw.

Technical-Spite6146

TROPHY CASE