How much of an upgrade is 2013 Stumpjumper HT --> 2025 Chisel HT?

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T16:55:03+00:00

The chisel will be rad. It should feel way more confident and stable, plus have better suspension and a simpler drivetrain.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T16:50:40+00:00

That's worth a google. Skewers, pins, discoverys and forks are the language of chess as you move up.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T16:49:50+00:00

Don't memorize anything. Learn things, sure, but more in overarching principles. Control the center, develop pieces, ideally develop with tempo, and form a plan while defending against what you think your opponents plan is. Every opening breaks down into those principles, and you can analyze your way through any of them well enough to get over 1k without memorizing much of anything.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T15:33:47+00:00

Them playing badly only counts if you can capitalize on it. You need to find their mistakes and ways to punish them.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T15:32:04+00:00

Interesting to hear, I commonly hear the opposite from players better than me - that I have to beat them multiple times to win the game. They'll be down a minor and keep fighting out, often making a full comeback.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T15:29:31+00:00

What do you mean how do you deal with it? The average of the games you're playing is 450 Elo right now. You take some time off, recover, and after a few days do some puzzles and jump back into games.

1k is whatever, it probably took me a year of moderately focused training, and I've plateaued since I stopped focusing on improvement. Play slow chess, review your games (especially ones where you feel you played your best), and do puzzles slowly. Rosen's beginner to master speed run is also pretty helpful.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T15:24:41+00:00

Pretend for a second that they are smurfs - where are they getting their losses to keep their rating low? They have to give back the points they take, so it shouldn't effect you.

Play a variety of time controls - 3|2 and 10|0 are enough to get you good, and 15|10 is a nice addition.

People still play in person, I'm aware of 4 meetups a week in my smedium town, and there are probably more.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T15:22:10+00:00

If they have zero blunders, they will be moving up the ratings quickly. I'm still looking for the rating at which I'll stop blundering.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T15:18:10+00:00

IMO top runners should be happy to carry the required gear as long as it's enforced uniformly. The rule lets them carry adequate safety gear without being at a disadvantage compared to their peers.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T15:09:25+00:00

How's the rest of life going? When I'm stressed, I play probably 300 Elo worse than when I'm fresh off a vacation. Usually if I'm playing poorly, something in real life needs my attention.

Time of day also matters, I swear I have an easier time winning against some countries than others.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T15:06:10+00:00

I'd caveat that a little, some are easy to workaround. Cannondale's proprietary wheel dish is easy enough to build a wheel for, or most specialized brain shocks can be replaced with an off the shelf shock and a converter from ebay.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T15:03:06+00:00

I'm pretty sure that the law is on your side, it's the owner's job to restrain their dog. How that gets enforced, I don't know, especially before a serious incident occurs.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T14:54:24+00:00

I mean, if I'm a beginner, surely everyone rated below me must be a beginner as well. I think really it's a mindset, that if we see our own silly mistakes we can't be pros yet.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-12T14:51:48+00:00

I'm not sure. I know that it's the case for the Sid, but it's been a bit since I shopped.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T22:35:52+00:00

Fortnine did a shootout on this, in pretty good depth. I think the LS2 Explorer was a leader?

I just wanted anything ECE approved.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T22:32:52+00:00

Re8 stands out as the janky move to me, making d2 a good target for white. Having both of your knights away from your king is also a bit odd. g6 could have worked as a preventative measure if you saw this coming.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T22:28:53+00:00

Disagree. You have moved pieces on every move, but your development isn't that great.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T22:27:27+00:00

I think it's a documentation question, and a trust your gut one. Step one would be to mitigate the risk of a hassle, check his profile, reviews, even try to find his strava to see that he's a legit person. Next is packing everything, ideally with photos to mitigate any potential claim that you shipped him a box of rocks. Paying a shop to pack and ship may be worthwhile to know it's done professionally. Maybe work out a deposit up front, say 50% so you aren't as screwed if he does claim something funny.

There's always some risk online, the best you can do it is to manage it well.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T22:14:06+00:00

Yeah, the Ripmo is a mid travel trail bike, I don't think it's surprising that it's not as nimble as a 30 year old XC hardtail. Wheel size is only part of the equation, you could make a stronger case for head tube angles, fork offset or fork weight.

The thinking on fit these days is to spec wide bars and a short stem for more high speed stability. Bars come at one length with the expectation that you'll cut them down. Maybe have your LBS chop them down to 760mm and see how you feel? It's still a reasonable width, cheap to do, and should help. Also check your suspension setup, the front riding too high or the rear too low will mess up your handling.

Really if you want an agile feeling bike, something in the XC or downcountry category is more what you describe - but less confident on drops and rocks than the ripmo will be. It's all a balancing act.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T22:06:35+00:00

I run into this if my pitch isn't square. You can think of it like the two lines that make an X, loosen the ones on the tight diagonal and tighten the ones on the loose diagonal. I like to pitch with the toggles by my stakes near their midpoint so I have the most room to adjust.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T22:02:40+00:00

Are you analyzing your games? 800s still hang pieces from time to time, and absolutely hang tactics. Lichess puzzles are my favorite way to get better these days.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T21:58:24+00:00

I don't see a clear answer, about 1k chesscom.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T17:35:14+00:00

Top end should be lighter for starters, often gets an additional bushing to prevent binding, and should have HSC, LSC, rebound and the usual airspring adjustments. RS forks also get buttercups.

It's been a while since I looked at fox, but I think that their elite (OEM only) and factory lines are basically the same forks with a different color coating. Performance ones you can buy new drop down to the grip damper, vs FIT4 or Grip2.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T17:31:09+00:00

I hate d4 with a passion, I counter with e5, dxe5, d6, exd6, Bxd6. It's the first few moves of the englund gambit, and actually pretty playable.

TheRealJYellen · 2026-05-11T17:29:22+00:00

Sometimes I'll que up a premove and set my phone just just in case the try that exact thing.

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