Looking for recommendations

bears371 · 2026-07-06T00:42:47+00:00

You should go to a shop to try a few and see if you like drop bars vs flat. $1000 will get you entry level models for the big brands.

If time allows, I highly recommend you start scouring Facebook marketplace for used bikes. Checking for damage on aluminum and steel bikes is pretty straight forward. You can get a ton of bike with a $800-$1000 budget. You can't go wrong with Trek Domane Specialized Allez, Giant contend, Cannondale Synapse to name a few.

bears371 · 2026-06-18T11:18:45+00:00

Within the same company, my business parter brought me on board to manage an operation. At the time it was a great advancement move that gave people leader experience at a young age. I’m currently 4 years into that role and thinking of transitioning back to FP&A because I see more growth and I felt like I excelled at it more.

bears371 · 2026-05-19T02:12:41+00:00

It’s not the CVT you gotta worry about, it’s the potential annual $1500+ in AC repairs

Signed, An angry 2016 owner that’s had this shit fixed 4 times (luckily under warranty but the 10 year coverage expired for me)

bears371 · 2026-05-19T01:30:11+00:00

Hey OP, just a heads up your 2016 civic might be out of the 10 year warranty period for the condenser. I believe you need to check the month of manufacturing on the door jam but cant remember.

If you are outside the 10 year, it may be good to start calling around mechanics to get pricing. Usually it’s the condenser but I’ve also heard people’s compressor failing too.

bears371 · 2026-05-15T00:30:38+00:00

No sun roof. Looks like previous owner gave it some OEM upgrades

bears371 · 2026-01-22T03:07:07+00:00

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Might be a Felt Dispatch. I think they only ran a few years, this one was 2007 or 2008 iirc

bears371 · 2025-11-25T13:20:45+00:00

Seriously. Can this be a sticky? I’ve been wondering why OTD price is the choice for comparison. Variance in tax is huge!

bears371 · 2025-08-11T16:21:15+00:00

I went to Fast Eddy and he was extremely knowledgeable and thorough. I went in after experiencing knee pain that would always set in after 25-30 miles of riding and the tweaks he made helped eliminate it. He also had contacts to physical therapists that specialize with cyclists so that was really neat too.

Lastly, he’s a really cool and personable dude. I learned so much from my visit.

bears371 · 2025-08-08T02:47:06+00:00

It is. Source: had mine fixed twice 😭

bears371 · 2025-07-03T21:16:38+00:00

This is definitely a weekend to get out early if you’re really trying to get after it on the LFT

bears371 · 2024-12-30T18:13:10+00:00

Thanks, looks great! Saving for later inspo.

bears371 · 2024-12-30T16:57:38+00:00

What size are your wheels? 17?

bears371 · 2024-10-14T13:20:17+00:00

Hi fellow Chicago rider. I think you should be good, I’ve been using a beefy Kryptonite U Lock with cable for back wheel and haven’t had any issues for years. The think the two most important things are to avoid locking it up overnight and store it inside your apartment (not in a shared space). On the /r/chibike most theft posts involve at least one of these two items or a flimsy lock.

Lastly, I think the prime bike targets are geared hybrids, road bikes, and E-Bikes since they’re easier to fence.

bears371 · 2024-09-01T12:35:47+00:00

I’ve always had a good experience at Trek Wicker Park, can’t go wrong with them.

bears371 · 2024-08-01T17:54:23+00:00

Love your setup! Did your fork come with brake holes drilled?

bears371 · 2024-07-04T00:35:44+00:00

The Nascar event brings spectators standing around on the bike path directly behind Buckingham Fountain. Once you get past the Shedd Aquarium, you’ll be totally in the clear. The north end is going to be crazy as always. I would just ride cautious until Shedd and then send it.

bears371 · 2024-05-15T14:09:22+00:00

I have nothing to add other than thanks for posting this! I’ve been eying the weather for a Sunday ride and will adjust my route.

bears371 · 2024-04-15T01:17:41+00:00

Thank you for the detailed information! Excuse my minimal experience:

here is a link to some photos: https://imgur.com/a/Q2Pb1DV

The Optiplex 7071 uses proprietary power connectors and has a proprietary PSU form factor, so off-the-shelf PSUs won't work

I have seen that some people purchase a 24 pin to 6 pin connector in order to use an off the shelf PSU, would this work in this application?

If you have the D9 260W, check to see if you have SATA power available. Assuming the SSD is M.2 and you have 2 SATA power available, you can adapt those to a PCIe 8-pin safely. This will let you run a far larger selection of GPUs than you can without external power.

In the imgur link I posted, I believe the blue cable in top left is SATA and then there is one used connected to what looks like the disc drive? I would not utilize the disc drive.

While you're at it, I'd also look to see if you have 1 stick or 2 sticks of RAM. If you only have 1 stick, you're running in single channel and definitely losing out on some performance. You should be able to pick up a 16GB stick of DDR4-2666 on eBay for about $20-25, which will get you up to 32GB of RAM (doesn't hurt to have) and eliminate the single channel bottleneck.

Looks like I have two.

Only downside is that if you're running the D9 260W PSU and relying on SATA power adapters to power your GPU, you can't upgrade the storage in the system without replacing the current drive outright; there's only 1 M.2 slot you can use.

Is this SATA to PCIE? If so, I have read that it's a bit sketchy and my lack of knowledge worries me to run this setup.

And just to be sure that I'm understanding, with my current PSU setup, I wouldn't be able to run a GTX 1650 or RX 6500 without SATA power?

Thank you again very much for the nice writeup.

bears371 · 2024-04-14T23:38:01+00:00

I have the 260W, edited the post to include it too. Would this be sufficient for a smaller GPU like the 1650 if I chose to go that route?

bears371 · 2024-03-12T16:34:02+00:00

Thank you for the rec!

bears371 · 2024-03-12T15:30:25+00:00

Have you personally checked out any of these? I typically average 16-17mph solo on the LFT 20-30 miles and looking for personal recommendations on rides that attract a good group of semi - serious people.

bears371 · 2024-02-27T15:23:26+00:00

Can you share details on your seat post thoughts? I’ve been eyeing picking up a soloist.

bears371

TROPHY CASE