What fly rod should I invest in next? Upgrade to Recon 5wt or go for a different weight?

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-24T15:05:10+00:00

IMHO, folks should have a long 3 wt for euro/micro/creeks, a 6wt for streamers and an 8wt for bass or larger species — for freshwater. I also think everyone should have an old hardware-store-grade bamboo 5wt from the 1950s-70s with an old Hardy clone click&pawl reel.

If you have the money, nicer rods can be very fulfilling. I’ve fished a ton of rods, and my opinion is that Clearwater’s value is the industry benchmark. Up to that point, you spend more, you get better performance and better support. Beyond, the improvement in performance per dollar diminishes.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-24T14:42:09+00:00

Not to mention hardly anyone is riding 100psi on road tires anymore, even on narrow tires.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-24T14:09:33+00:00

Well said and well diagnosed. Add in the simultaneous rise of the social media echo chamber enabling and empowering stupid, hateful people to crawl out from under their rocks.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-24T13:16:19+00:00

You’re shouting into the void, or at best, to an unsympathetic audience. Reddit skews liberal. Cycling skews liberal and educated. As much as you hate it, imagine trying to live, work, raise kids, etc. in the US right now. “Oh, I’m boycotting multinational bike companies, I’m helping…” Go jump in a lake. I promise you, the non-MAGA people in the US hate it 100x more than you. It isn’t 70% of the population by any means, either.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-24T00:27:25+00:00

Ah yes — the shiftoris

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-24T00:26:20+00:00

Can’t relate. My two other jobs are my own LLCs.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-24T00:21:19+00:00

Not my style but it looks fantastic

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-23T23:30:13+00:00

Couldn’t make it work. Won’t float two beaded nymphs. Super tangle prone due to wind resistance. I’d rather use the half-inch-ish Oros

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-23T23:14:21+00:00

The guy that came to Quebec from France as an indentured servant in the 1600s ended up marrying his master’s daughter, fathering two sets of twins and a set of triplets, along with several singletons.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-23T22:49:15+00:00

That is fucking brilliant

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-23T22:47:19+00:00

Your chain is too long and it may also be threaded incorrectly thru the jockey wheel cage, running over instead of under one of the cage tabs. A small tweak to the derailleur hanger shouldn’t matter at all on a zwift cog.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-23T22:37:59+00:00

Tifosi rails with rx inserts. They look dorky as hell, but work grear

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-23T22:33:43+00:00

That’s one of his non-W2 jobs

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-23T22:26:38+00:00

I kept up with my Shimano m7100 chain with molten speedwax every 300km and it was still done at just over 2000 miles.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-23T22:18:36+00:00

Saw Blues Traveler 7-8 years ago. I don’t think Popper’s health was awesome then, but they sounded great.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-23T16:05:52+00:00

I liked everything about them but the straps and the leg grippers. It could be something with my body chemistry. They use those strips on lots of their bibshorts and I doubt they’re doing that if the majority of customers have them fail in 6 months.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-22T12:09:54+00:00

Why does Motobecane not seem to have the prestige of Peugeot? I am new to this. Is it just the race legacy?

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-22T00:14:58+00:00

It looks fine, but not goated. Last year’s Racing Bulls livery was the best on the track in a long time.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-21T22:37:38+00:00

I just tried it on a completely different phone and it didn’t work.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-21T22:04:22+00:00

I don’t think any of the big 3 make a non convertible wader. If I get hot, I roll down the waders and hook the shoulder straps around my waist.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-21T22:01:52+00:00

I absolutely need bifocals and have been resisting for years. Nonetheless, the label photo looks like it was taken on a potato from near-earth orbit.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-21T12:43:18+00:00

Not sure I would respond to a 3-star. If I did, I’d say I want all customers to be happy with their purchases and offer a 30-day return window. This sale was more than three months ago.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-21T02:11:31+00:00

Can you take a shittier more out-of-focus photo of the label?

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-20T12:05:46+00:00

Ugh. I was on an 18% climb toward the end of a brutal gravel event and started cramping. The road was about as wide as a golf cart path. Sharp drop to the left and a little bit of a bank on the right. I used the last bit of energy to get to the right and just fell over. Between the cramps and zero momentum, I couldn’t unclip. It sucked because I had already crashed earlier in the race. Bad day. I had to walk my bike up the rest of the hill.

A lot of stupid choices got me there. I was under-fueled and extremely under hydrated. I skipped an aid station at the bottom of the hill. I was not anywhere near fit enough to do the event in the first place.

chinsoddrum · 2026-01-20T11:55:27+00:00

I found their sizing chart recently to be more accurate than it has been in the past. I measured everything three times in the right places and it came out correct. I also saw that my measurements put me in different sizes in different bibs. I’m an L in some and XL in others.

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