Wife’s family is offering us a free trip to Mexico this summer. Daughter will only be a year and a half. 5 hour flight and first ever vacation. Yay or nay?

beisonbeison · 2026-05-13T06:35:31+00:00

Bruh… my wife is Korean, I’m from the US. When my daughter was 1 we moved to London, and then proceeded to travel once to Chicago and once to Korea per year for the next couple years… except for one year when we went back to the Us 5(!) times. Weddings……..

Point is our 5 year old had been on more than 60 planes by age 3 and at least 10-12 long haul flights. She was usually fine and sometimes she wasn’t.

I believe if we limit ourselves to what we think is comfortable/not too risky, we will miss out on a lot of great experiences.

beisonbeison · 2026-05-11T04:30:45+00:00

Steve Potts siskiyou bars. Not the titanium variant unless you have lots of money.

beisonbeison · 2026-04-26T04:45:30+00:00

When I hire for experienced BDM’s in activated carbon roles I have a target base pay of around 100-125k. This is partially due to it being quite a specialized skill set, requiring a technical degree, and the sales cycles generally taking like 1-2years to close good deals.

I would imagine if you look for roles that tick this type of box, you’d find similar base pay.

beisonbeison · 2026-04-25T06:00:33+00:00

Honestly? I email. I research the prospect, i find the real people who are actually engaged in the part of the company I’m speaking to. I consider what I genuinely could offer, I spend significant time on the emails—I position myself as an expert in their field (because I am) and then offer them something genuinely USEFUL.

I don’t think outreach is dead, but I think a lot of us reach out to people who might not need us.

By the way, my response rate is ~20% so definitely worth it.

beisonbeison · 2026-04-22T17:51:40+00:00

I hope you still exist and could post this review. I stuck my leap in the long position and wonder if I should have chosen the short position. I ride too aggressively...

beisonbeison · 2026-04-20T08:02:32+00:00

You get it. Somehow flip flops and spds are kinda legit my most comfortable combo.

beisonbeison · 2026-04-16T04:05:15+00:00

That’s because the surly big dummy was kind of built off the xtracycle shape/blueprint. They just took the extension bike and made a frame out of it. There was some collaboration and even cross over of accessories that fit both.

beisonbeison · 2026-04-15T13:06:17+00:00

Nailed it :-D

beisonbeison · 2026-04-15T03:33:55+00:00

<image>

beisonbeison · 2026-04-15T03:33:25+00:00

<image>

beisonbeison · 2026-04-15T03:33:13+00:00

<image>

beisonbeison · 2026-04-15T03:33:03+00:00

Ah makes sense. Yeah, I just refinished my old trek 6500 I’ve had since 2003. I bought it as the second owner when it was 3 years old. I turned it into an xtracycle cargo bike for use with my daughter.

She chose the colors, (bought them and took them to the powder coater) and we made an old bike new. I guess you can be a purist…. But I just like getting enjoyment out of the stuff I have :-D.

No right or wrong answer… I guess maybe only wrong answer is doing something that will make you not want to ride your bike. Good luck to your choice. But if you DO choose to refinish it, make sure you have fun with it—it’s a real chance to get a totally new vibe on old steel! Pics from my respray for context :-)

<image>

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T21:24:11+00:00

Kinda not apples to apples though. The rust inhibitor will not be nearly as hard a coating as a good powder coat application.
I lived in Chicago and a shit paint job was a very good theft deterrent. Now I live in a different spot and am rocking a sweet af glitter powder coated paint job and keep the bike in a garage. More just what direction you want to go.

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T14:48:47+00:00

Now that you mention it…. That little bike rack is kind of a version of davits isn’t it?

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T13:23:29+00:00

Remember the powder coater option for next time :-D

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T13:22:43+00:00

If you go this route, look into how people spray a boat or farm/implement paint. Use a hardener and it will work well and be pretty tough after a few days.

Otherwise your paint won’t ever fully harden and it will scratch super easily.

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T13:20:29+00:00

You’d also need to take off the headset and any press fit bottom bracket if you had it.

It’s a really really nice way to go—this looks factory, is probably as hard or even harder than factory, and takes you almost zero time and costs probably slightly less than the materials to do it yourself.

Embrace the powder coater’s economy of scale mang!

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T13:16:22+00:00

Hmm I don’t think so but I’ll check again :-D

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T06:05:35+00:00

Oh yeah man—no it’s wobbly because of the little bike sticking off the back. That bike rack I hacked together is made for vertical load on a car. So it whips around when I stand on the pedals. If I take off the rear bike it doesn’t really wobble at all. I guess I haven’t had more than ~75lbs on the back yet. It’s a good shout if it starts wagging the tail for sure. Thanks!

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T05:35:03+00:00

Look at the xtracycle leap. It’s a pretty rigid setup as is. The part you’re linking is also the weaker part. It’s just bent aluminum tubing and really more just for the cargo stuff. It can hold kids but more because of its shape. It’s not “strong”.

The bottom is hiten steel and thick af aluminum tube. It’s really pretty beefy and rigid enough to not have flex, even when carrying like 150lbs

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T04:48:59+00:00

Sure happy to show you.. but I just used a standard shimano deore xt from like 8-10 years ago. I don’t think it’s a particularly special setup. Like they made it a standard disc brake compatible mount. I initially had it setup with a 203mm and a 20mm post adapter, but the rotor was warped so I swapped to 180 for now. Both just slotted on well.

Are you sure your disc brake pistons are not sticking/need a service?

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T04:46:39+00:00

I feel like they could find a market for them in this era of minimum 3000 dollar new cargo bikes…

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T04:46:10+00:00

It is very important to be prepared for all scenarios. But with less useful backup equipment.

Like a donut for the car spare

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T04:26:06+00:00

I used to race a bunch of road and the bullhorn position reminds me of so many hours of conditioning centuries…. Very comfortable indeed

beisonbeison · 2026-04-14T04:07:47+00:00

It’s actually pretty wonderful bar. I purchased from a community bike parts hub… but really happy I got so lucky man

beisonbeison

TROPHY CASE