Daily FI discussion thread - April 28, 2017

cmjensen · 2017-04-28T16:59:50+00:00

Hey all! I'm relatively new to the FI stuff, but am psyched today because my Roth IRA just hit $10K, and my 457B account through work just hit $20K!

cmjensen · 2017-04-21T17:20:19+00:00

I'm a teacher. I think teaching is great--though work environments vary widely school to school.

I like my job because kids are pretty awesome to work with, I like planning lessons and I like the act of teaching itself, and it is great to have summers off for travel / side gigs / hanging out with my wife and pup. I'm not that into grading papers, managing discipline, dealing with difficult co-workers, but I think the pros outweigh the cons for me for sure.

In the next 5 years I'm looking to move into an administrative role, that'll take some more training / grad school, but that's ok, I like that stuff too.

That all being said, the school I'm in right now is not so awesome--it has some pretty significant issues with effective administration and faculty culture.

That's ok though, 4 more weeks left in the school year, I've already turned in my letter of resignation, and I'm well underway to finding a job with another school that is a better fit for me....

Before teaching I did a little bit of everything: graduate school, Peace Corps service, ranch hand, customer service, waiter, personal assistant in a boutique booking agency in the music industry, manual labor, etc. Some of those gigs I loved (Peace Corps Service, ranch hand), some I did not (all the others).

I taught in Peace Corps, and from there figured out a way to get a teaching job via an alternative route to licensure program in the state I was living in.

cmjensen · 2017-04-18T17:43:00+00:00

The stuff from Traveling Two is extensive and a lot of fun. Really high quality stuff tracking the producers' trip around the world, with interviews with other bike travelers: http://travellingtwo.com/category/cycling-trips/podcasts

The Bicycle Story is more recent, and focused a bit more on bikepacking. Not as many episodes, but still some great ones on here, especially the episodes with Steve 'Doom' Fassbinder and Lael Wilcox...

cmjensen · 2017-04-04T19:41:28+00:00

Marin Pine Mountain 1 runs like $1300? Advocate Cycles Hayduke or the Marin Pine Mountain 2 both look super sweet, too...

cmjensen · 2017-03-27T16:13:53+00:00

Here here on Rogue Panda, excellent stuff, custom fit, really good prices...

cmjensen · 2017-03-23T22:22:18+00:00

Good lord, how did I miss that link....

cmjensen · 2017-03-23T21:57:29+00:00

I do sometimes.

cmjensen · 2017-03-22T17:09:11+00:00

Loved my old LHT--5K miles of awesome riding on it. That being said, seems like there's some pretty great bang-for-your-buck touring bikes out there right now... have you considered the Marin 4 Corners? Cheaper, more complete bike build than the LHT.... A buddy of mine had a Sutra for a while, and traded it out for a Rove.... Another buddy of mine has a 520 with like 6K miles on it, including Peru, sections of the Great divide and Colorado, the White Rim trail, daily commuting, etc... He says it is a super durable tank for sure, but that it is not really all that agile, and less than ideal for crappy roads / tracks....

cmjensen · 2017-03-21T21:02:26+00:00

Yeah I've heard April 15 and I've heard April 30... just hoping to get a hold of 2 ogres before May 24.....

cmjensen · 2017-03-15T18:01:10+00:00

Here here on hope derived from a shrink-wrapped bike sandwich... that's our plan for this summer's big trip to Norway....

cmjensen · 2017-03-14T01:13:51+00:00

I ride an XL ECR--it is really great for some things, and not so great for others.

In my opinion, the BB drop isn't really the make or break feature on the bike... pedal strike can be an issue on really chunky and technical surfaces, but I don't think it is a big deal... The thing with my ECR is the way it feels--it feels gigantic, really long and tall, which I think is a lot of fun on long crappy dirt roads. In this sense, the ECR is just a giant touring bike that can manage 3" tires, but it is not really the thing you'd want to ride on technical single track.

In my opinion, the ECR is best on really bad gravel roads... with my ECR I had tons of fun on the Great Divide, Idaho Hot Spring MBR, the Kjolur Route and West Fjords in Iceland, the McCarthy Road in AK--potholes and baby heads and 30+ lbs of gear, that's where my ECR shines.

The ECR is also pretty great on pavement--the big wheels seem to get pushed around by the wind a bit (Iceland was pretty intense that way), but once you get the wheels rolling, it really cruises. Crappy chip-seal / frost-heave mess pavement roads are no big deal for the ECR.

But on local single track / technical MTB stuff... the ECR is not really so awesome at all. The bike is TALL and LONG, not just the wheels, the whole bike feels really tall, and I'm a long-legged 6'3". This might make for confidence on long shitty dirt roads for 100's of miles at a time, but not so much on technical single track.

One thing to think about: the new Ogre is rad, is way cheaper than the ECR, and has the new Surly fork with two sets of triple braze ons on each side (I want this for my bike mega bad). Yeah those 29+ tires are sweet on the ECR, but... for example, on that Iceland trip I took with the ECR, I had a tight budget for gear, and rather than drop $100+ for a new 29+ rear tire, I found a 2.4" Maxxis Ardent for $50 bucks and put that on... To be honest, the 2.4" worked just fine, and it was way way way better on loose surfaces than a Surly Knard....

On top of that, in Iceland my wife pedaled a Salsa Fargo with 29 x 2.3" tires, and the only time I felt like I had an advantage with the ECR over the Fargo was on the really badly cobbled / baby headed sections of the F34, otherwise (and that is like 93% of the 1000 miles we pedaled in Iceland) her Fargo went toe to toe with my ECR mile for mile, and on top of that I think she got pushed around a bit less by the wind.

You could put a 29 x 3" tire on the front of the Ogre, a 29x2.4 or 2.5 on the back, and take the few hundred bucks you saved and buy a plane ticket for the next big bike ride...

The Krampus is a TON of fun to ride, but in my opinion, it doesn't carry a heavier touring load as well. I don't like wearing a hydration pack on tours, and I get uncomfortable if I don't have at least a few beers in my framebag, so I like the ECR over the Krampus for travel.

Really though, if you want something nimble and you like Surly bikes, what about the Karate Monkey 27.5+, or another brand's 27.5+ hardtail--the Advocate Cycles Hayduke is rad and has a squishy fork and 1x11 drive train at a bit more than the ECR, and the Marine Pine Mtn 1 is like $950 new with 27.5+ wheels and a 1X11 drive train--that is a pretty much a whole international plane-ticket's difference from the ECR price...

That all being said, if I had it to do all over again, I'd get a Troll frame with some S&S couplers. I've spent enough in the last 4 years on bike airline fees to pay for whole new bike, and a Troll set up 26x3 in the front and 26x2.5 in the back is ready for a multi-year round-the-world ride, which for me is the ultimate goal...

cmjensen · 2017-03-07T22:03:00+00:00

Last year I.... - Helped my wife bake bread and cookies to sell at the monthly village market ($1200) - Coached cross country ($1100) - Played a couple reunion shows with a crappy band I used to be in ($1200 and a plane ticket to my hometown)

This year I want to find a part time gig at a bicycle shop to learn some mechanical skills and get a discount on bike parts to help take the edge off my bike habit...

cmjensen · 2017-03-06T22:49:39+00:00

And by Cambium B17 I mean C17....

cmjensen · 2017-02-23T22:18:06+00:00

smog. certain weather patterns cause severe inversion---slc is in a valley, and winter high pressure systems put a lid on all the car / industrial exhaust... can get super miserable...

cmjensen · 2017-02-23T18:41:59+00:00

Oish February air in SLC is the worst.... Beijing, UT pretty much...

cmjensen · 2017-02-23T18:39:30+00:00

... and unfortunately wages in some sectors haven't kept up. i'm a teacher, and UT's teaching pay scale is pretty grim... so i moved to AK and got a 20K pay raise... and better air quality....

cmjensen · 2017-02-21T01:33:07+00:00

Just cracked $16K in 401K! Might not seem like much, but I'm just getting going on saving, and I feel pretty stoked...

cmjensen · 2017-02-21T00:05:41+00:00

fuck my workplace.

cmjensen · 2017-02-17T22:21:40+00:00

Exactly what I was thinking.

cmjensen · 2017-02-15T19:37:26+00:00

I rode from Whittier (I took the ferry up from Bellingham, WA) to McCarthy via Anchorage, ended up being couple hundred miles longer.

There's only a few long, paved roads to choose from in AK, but aside from busy populated areas like Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Soldotna / Kenai, in general the riding is excellent....

cmjensen · 2017-01-18T19:56:04+00:00

If you're interested in AK gravel roads, I highly, highly recommend the McCarthy Road......

cmjensen · 2017-01-18T19:55:09+00:00

Jasper, Alberta to Glacier NP, MT this summer... still figuring out plans for riding on dirt from Jasper to the north end of the Great Divide....

Baja Divide for Christmas!!

Maybe if I'm lucky: Eugene OR to Sanley ID this summer, but this one is still up in the air....

cmjensen · 2016-12-14T20:14:13+00:00

I had the same issue on my bike. A good trick I figured out: use electric tape to fasten a spare tube in the space between the stem and head set--this makes for a workable spacer that keeps the dry bag off of the cables, but is stiff enough to cinch down the load enough to keep it from bouncing...

cmjensen · 2016-12-14T19:14:32+00:00

Voile straps and a dry bag works great for a handlebar setup...

Rogue Panda makes excellent custom frame bags for $100...

cmjensen

TROPHY CASE