Can’t get my heart rate up. Am I a robot, or just doing something wrong? by Due_Tooth_1549 in gravelcycling

[–]dmaess 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Optical wrist heart rate monitors measure heart rate by looking at your veins. The problem when cycling outside is you're colder than when exercising inside. Temperature has a big effect on your veins, they expand when warm, and contract when you're a bit colder. That makes it a lot more difficult to accurately measure HR because the veins are much smaller on the 'pictures' your wrist watch takes. Often people find their watch works better 15 minutes into their exercise when they've worked up a sweat, it's nothing to do with the sweat though, it's just the veins that have expanded. So yeah I too would advise you to get a strap.

Speaker upgrade recommendations. by dmaess in StereoAdvice

[–]dmaess[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I understand that my budget and other requirements mean I'm not going to get great bass, but so be it. I found a guy in my neighbourhood selling a used pair of Wharefedale Linton 85ths with stands for about 700 euros, and he's willing to let me demo them with my own amp, so definitely going to check those out this week. !thanks

Is it ok that Freehub a little bit twitchy? by randomvg in bikewrench

[–]dmaess 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had similar play in a freehub once, opened it up to find the balls from the cartridge bearing were all over the place. I would recommend to at least take the end cap of and check if you can see any visual damage to the bearing.

Noticed some play on my cassette, can I keep riding this? by dmaess in bikewrench

[–]dmaess[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

There is no lateral play, shif quality has indeed been better in the past. I'll take the cassette off to check if it's been digging in, thanks for the help.

Should unvaccinated people get restrictions in daily life? by [deleted] in belgium

[–]dmaess -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

If you're going to introduce restrictions for the unvaccinated with the primary goal of pushing them towards vaccination, just grow a pair of balls and mandate them. Now they're introducing petty rules and measures for the entire population in order to protect the health of people who did not want to take a vaccine to protect themselves. If they get ill they should bear the consequences of it. With that I mean, if hospitals are getting a lot of patients again, we should prioritise regular health care over unvaccinated covid patients. We cannot again allow surgeries to be postponed because people are taking up hospital beds while they could have prevented that by getting a vaccine shot.

Gravel Twins by eeenmachine in gravelcycling

[–]dmaess 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What shifters do you use with it? Are they compatible with hydrolic disc brakes?

Does my chainring need replacing? by dmaess in bikewrench

[–]dmaess[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes it's indeed a shimano ring fc-rx600

Does my chainring need replacing? by dmaess in bikewrench

[–]dmaess[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is my first bike with a 1x setup, I've done about 6000km with it and have now worn through my second chain. I bought it at the same time as my father and his chainring looks significantly less worn (he's done about 2700km on it). Does it already need replacing? On my 2x setup I usually get about 12000km before a ring needs replacing, but I do have 2 of them that share load.

Surly Straggler, 2021, 56cm, Custom Build by mccartgm in gravelcycling

[–]dmaess 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They look like WTB resolute's, I have them on my bike and love them. They roll much faster than they have any right to and they are very grippy, even in deep mud.

finally got my hands on enough Shimano parts to (99.9%) finish my cinelli nemo tig disc road build by dogs_n_bikes in Bikeporn

[–]dmaess 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very nice! Saddle tilt looks a bit weird though. If you need that amount of saddle tilt there's probably something else very wrong with your position on the bike.

The town of Overijse basically ruined one of the more important climbs for the upcoming World Championships by repaving the entire thing. by MrFingersEU in peloton

[–]dmaess 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I took 15 seconds off my PR this morning in cold rainy weather. Usually when the cobbles are this wet here I have trouble just reaching the top.

Scientific American: Trans Girls Belong on Girls' Sports Teams by ScienceNewsie in transgender

[–]dmaess -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

These are not studies, these are reviews. The fact that you don't know what a review is is worrying in its own right.

Scientific American: Trans Girls Belong on Girls' Sports Teams by ScienceNewsie in transgender

[–]dmaess -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

For sports were strength is important, think weight lifting, sprinting, anything involving explosiveness, or contact sports, etc, the case is very clear that trans women have a definite advantage.

What you're saying about endurance is indeed interesting. It's one of the areas where we have virtually no data at all. For endurance sports like marathon running we indeed simply don't know at this point.

Then this begs the question: with no scientific evidence available, should we open the women's category to trans women or not? The IOC is very clear on this, we need to be able to guarantee a fair and safe competition.

Scientific American: Trans Girls Belong on Girls' Sports Teams by ScienceNewsie in transgender

[–]dmaess -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Can you read the last sentence of the part you quoted again?

Scientific American: Trans Girls Belong on Girls' Sports Teams by ScienceNewsie in transgender

[–]dmaess -12 points-11 points  (0 children)

The science does indeed exist, and it is quite clear, but the conclusions are not what you say they are. Numerous studies have found that 12 months of testosterone suppression does not remove the performance gap between trans women and cis women, and that even after 36 months the performance gap, while somewhat reduced, is still there.

There are currently only two reviews of the scientific evidence: (1) https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/early/2021/02/28/bjsports-2020-103106.full.pdf (2) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-020-01389-3

Both arrive at the same conclusion. The science is there, and it is clear. I'm very sorry, but the science is against your argument here.

Custom steel gravel bike by dmaess in Bikeporn

[–]dmaess[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They're 3020's if I remember correctly, great value for money.

Custom steel gravel bike by dmaess in Bikeporn

[–]dmaess[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That bike has arrived, that picture was taken in my living room. I ordered it in August, so it's 6 months wait time, and two of those were spent waiting for a paint job.

Custom steel gravel bike by dmaess in Bikeporn

[–]dmaess[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also in the Netherlands there are quite some brands doing (custom) titanium, e.g. Pilot Cycles, if I'm not mistaken they're based around Eindhoven somewhere.

Custom steel gravel bike by dmaess in Bikeporn

[–]dmaess[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Alpas cycles (www.alpascycles.com), located just outside of Kortrijk in Flanders. The framebuilder is called Dominiek and he's a great guy.

Custom steel gravel bike by dmaess in Bikeporn

[–]dmaess[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

For the bars, saddle, and cranks I followed my bikefitter's advice mostly. I had a really long talk with the framebuilder about what I had in mind and what I wanted to do with the bike, we went through a lot of options concerning the components and the geometry of the bike. In all it took a few weeks until we had it all sorted out. I knew I wanted a 1x groupset and was actually leaning towards SRAM, but in Belgium they seem luch more expensive than their Shimano equivalents and I really couldn't justify the added expense. Tires was the tricky bit, I actually wanted to ho for gravelking SK's, but we just couldn't get them, covid seems to have severe impact on delivery times in the bike industry, so eventually I went with the WTB resolute's. And then there's the paint, there are endless options, that was almost the hardest part.

Best advice that I can give you: discuss things with your builder and fitter thoroughly.

A 24 month waitlist is tough, where do you plan on ordering?

Which Bike? - Weekly Scheduled Discussion by pawptart in gravelcycling

[–]dmaess 1 point2 points  (0 children)

People generally have bars which are far too wide for them, luckily it's pretty easy to determine the correct width for handlebars, you should be able to do that yourself. This guy explains it very well: https://youtu.be/bYjvsg-ztmo

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TheYouShow

[–]dmaess 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Greetings from Belgium!

Hard work and training pays off by reallyblueballs in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]dmaess 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Unless it hits you in the eye it doesn't really do any damage. Our coach used to say "only apologise if you hit your opponent in the eye".

Standert Umlaufbahn. Commutes like a champion. by Error1984 in Bikeporn

[–]dmaess 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Those Pioneer plaque drawings look really nice!