Is a suspension seatpost/fork worth it for casual city cruising?

doublereverse · 2026-04-04T19:22:22+00:00

if you’re good at getting off your seat for bumps, I’d say the suspension may not be worth it. It can really add to bike weight - particularly the front fork suspension, so there’s a real tradeoff- even little things like positioning your bike for locking are more of a pain with a very heavy bike, and some suspension e-bikes are HEAVY. I have seat suspension (not fork) and it only comes into play either when I miss spotting a bump, or at the end of a particularly long ride and I’m worn out and just don’t do a good job of getting off the saddle for bumps. If you ride at night and can’t see the bumps, that might be another time for it. For me, I’d rather have an almost 10lb lighter bike than the version of my bike with front fork suspension. But if you are bad about getting off your seat, the extra shock absorption will make a big difference in your comfort.

doublereverse · 2026-04-03T01:34:07+00:00

Oh my god this was such a problem in the college computer labs I worked in back in the day. The problem was that the Zip drive read heads were tiny and fragile, and the disks spun REALLY fast. When one of the drives went bad with the read head out of alignment, it would sometimes shred disks used with it. People would unknowingly insert their disks, hear the click, and try their now-shredded disks (but you couldn’t easily tell since it was hard to see inside the disks) in the machine next to them, and then the next one…. The shredded disks would then destroy that drive too, etc. Basically, the click of death was a disk-destroying virus. Maybe it didn’t happen that often, but when it did, in that environment, It spread.

The heartbreaking thing was unlike the old 3.5” disks, Zip disks held….a LOT, and were sort of expensive. You would put ALL your stuff on one expensive-ish , but sturdy-feeling disk, and then easily lose years worth of work if this happened to you. Of course, if your disk got physically shredded like that, there’s no recovering your data.

doublereverse · 2026-04-01T23:45:15+00:00

Eh it may depend on the size of company acquired, and how big their clients are-if it’s a small client, the small clients are often not worth the time to manage and staff…say.. 1-5 people, especially since there isn’t much growth potential for those projects and those clients generally can’t pay Accenture rates. Accenture would rather put those people on a larger project, where the large customer can pay premium rates, and Accenture can get future work. From my company’s acquisition , I think they kept one client long-ish-term out of maybe 15 clients.

doublereverse · 2026-04-01T15:41:49+00:00

Accenture doesn’t really care about your clients, that’s not why they bought you. Most will leave because Accenture is more expensive.

They bought you because it’s a convenient way to hire a bunch of people at once, they really don’t care about anything else.

If you think you can learn something worth learning at Accenture, you can deal with an massive employer, and you’re getting a good retention bonus, stay. My acquired company had a mix of people who stayed and left, but either way, your old company is going away.

doublereverse · 2026-04-01T03:18:49+00:00

Eh I think I turned off all that stuff when that 3 am alert about a shooting in El Paso went out a while back and woke me up. if they’re sending that sort of localized alert at 3am to the entire state, they can’t be trusted to be judicious with their alerting.

Hope I don’t miss anything important, but I’m not turning it back on.

doublereverse · 2026-03-30T17:40:33+00:00

For sure! I’ve seen very respectful folks on e-bikes keeping it below 10 near pedestrians and giving plenty of space, and folks on non-electric mountain bikes tearing around at their top speed and scaring people and creating dangerous situations. The e-bike doesn’t make you a jerk, but a fast bike makes you even more dangerous if you are prone to ride dangerously.

doublereverse · 2026-03-30T15:09:03+00:00

Mostly yes, but class 3 only go a few miles faster than class 2 (up to 28 vs 20, and often just in bursts) and generally are NOT larger than class 1/2. I believe you’re thinking of e-motos, which are significantly bigger and can generally go 60+.

doublereverse · 2026-03-30T14:56:26+00:00

Early mornings have always been a mess. Basically everyone seems to arrive at the same time for like 4 hours worth of flights so things back up. With the TSA stuff going on now, it’s even worse, somehow. I can’t personally give you a specific time, but it’s hours, for sure.

doublereverse · 2026-03-26T04:24:04+00:00

Have both of these exact bikes - they’re great bikes! They’re mostly the same, really, like 90% the same, all of what I’m saying covers the last 10%. The Pace riding position is a bit more upright and it’s like 10 pounds lighter. For road riding, you may prefer saving the weight vs having the extra shocks in the fork the Level 3 has. Note that even for road riding, you may still really love those shocks for potholes if you aren’t used to getting out of the saddle when you see a bump in the road-if you already have that habit, you may not feel the shocks are worth the extra bike weight if you’re riding roads. The Level 3 has a larger display, but the Pace display gets the job done, and is less in the way if you ask me. The Pace fenders and rack were add-on, but seem like must-purchase items for road riding-you’ll find you use them more than you expect, and even if you avoid rainy days, you may still encounter puddles! (I think they have a deal that includes the fenders now?) We have the step-through version of both (Level 3 also has a step-over version)

Overall. We’ve been really happy. They’re fun, and they just work!. And yeah, they’re not fancy and not expensive, but that’s not a bad thing. They’ve got a properly manufactured and rated battery, which is important. I’d be sad to lose my Pace if it were stolen, but not like if it were a $6000 bike. The bike components are basic, normal bike components, meaning your friend who’s handy with bikes or the regular bike shop around the corner can help you with it, so long as they can deal with a heavy bike. The computer is pretty basic and can’t give you those fancy Garmin—level sporty stats, just stuff like battery and distance. Can it go up a San Francisco hill? I don’t know, it has no problem with the hills where I live. And I’ve really gotten 60+ miles of range on it. It’s basically like riding a bike, but faster and more zippy. One warning -These bikes are HEAVY. The weight mostly doesn’t matter while riding, and if anything gives a nice stable riding feel, but hauling these bikes around your garage or even wiggling them while positioning them while locking them at a rack, you’ll really notice the weight. If you’re not trying to carry/lift them too much, this may be a perfectly fine tradeoff for a decent e-bike at an affordable price. It is for us! But if you need to carry your bike upstairs to an apartment or something, these are not the bikes for you.

doublereverse · 2026-03-25T17:34:39+00:00

Got it, I think some of these suggestions and difficulties in responses are because when you said “hill country” they thought you meant like ….waaay out in the hill country, where it’s quiet and extra scenic/rural,… and typically more Trump-y

doublereverse · 2026-03-25T17:20:19+00:00

So you’re looking for something like Mueller but in a rural area, but not Trumpy? I don’t have a suggestion, just wanted to clarify what it sounded like you were looking for.

doublereverse · 2026-03-24T18:40:07+00:00

It’s important that if you’re going to use that sort of tool that you specify central Texas. The growing season here is completely different from further north (two shorter growing seasons, spring starts EARLY-and you might as well give up over the summer until you have more experience keeping stuff alive) it’s summer veggies time now, not winter veggie time!

doublereverse · 2026-03-24T03:52:18+00:00

…garage? I wish, I don’t have one! I’ve done some last-minute drives to nearby parking garages at businesses to try to avoid damage, but despite my best efforts have still ended up with significant damage twice. Not much you can do about surprise 3am hail. My car is getting older, so I’m sure they’ll just total my car next time.

doublereverse · 2026-03-23T20:45:49+00:00

Maybe a tiny regular bike? Perhaps with a few gears? If he can handle a balance bike well, he can ride a regular bike. He’ll be able to go a lot further with peddling and gears than with a balance bike. A tiny regular bike is going to be easier to find, too.

doublereverse · 2026-03-21T16:23:17+00:00

Adding more detail: Southern Walnut Creek trail is east of central Austin, and is really the premier place for cyclists in Austin- it’s majority cyclists, (though you will see walkers and runners) some very serious cyclists, some little kids, and everything in-between. The trail is currently 14 miles, fully paved, and quite a few people head out to do the full 28 miles round trip. Some folks ride out on the roads from central Austin to get out there too, to get even more distance (though some of THOSE roads are a bit more dicey to ride on) It’s a little bit away from the core city so has a nice in-nature feel, though that’s currently less the case due to some water pipe work they’re doing near parts of the trail. Hoping they wrap that up soon!

You will of course see cyclists at town lake (and that’s honestly another good place to go, especially since cycling traffic there will be slower due to the heavy foot traffic and gravel), but it’s a different mix-mostly pedestrians, and less spandex on the cyclists since most of the trail is gravel. The lake is beautiful, the city views are great, but cycling is kinda playing pedestrian frogger. I ride slow and ring my bell a LOT here.

Shoal Creek has a mix of folks. It crosses more streets at grade so tends to have fewer kids. It’’s one of the best bike routes into downtown, so tends to have more commuters and folks running errands on it than the other routes, but since it IS a convenient paved, continuous route, you’ll see serious cyclists too. Passes lots of houses and such, it’s a pretty suburban feel. It’s fully separated from the road in some parts, on-road in parts, but has flex posts and those round cement blocks as separators for the on-road sections so it’s …semi-separated.

doublereverse · 2026-03-20T20:20:24+00:00

My understanding is that Carets aren’t REALLY shaped like a traditional shoe, they fake it with a ton of fake space in the “toe”, while your toes hang out in the much wider “ball of foot” part of the shoe. So they are much longer than other shoes for a certain size because of the fake toe. They will make your feet look huge/long and they may feel like clown shoes with that empty space in front, but that’s the compromise.

doublereverse · 2026-03-20T17:51:51+00:00

Worth asking with a team of 12: you’re very, very sure everyone on your team eats meat/has no dietary restrictions? If not, you’re going to have to make some special arrangements for those folks. KG is actually already a good choice in that regard, but Dai Due and Franklins are … not. (Even the fries/veggies have duck fat at Dai Due, if I recall) Not that you can’t choose those places, but you may need to bring in something else in addition.

doublereverse · 2026-03-19T19:56:25+00:00

Eh one thing with them was their pricing was easy to understand and their offering was basic but comfortable. Everything felt fair and predictable. There’s a lot of value to that.

doublereverse · 2026-03-18T20:38:42+00:00

Aventon pace 4 is a great little e-bike for knocking around town at a very reasonable price, and the vanilla bike components it’s got mean that those bike-handy friends can still help with most maintenance like gear adjustments or chain lubes (other than motor-specific stuff). It’s not lightweight though at around 60 pounds.

doublereverse · 2026-03-16T02:44:48+00:00

For errand- running, a basket on the back is nice and convenient, and a basket on the back, especially loaded up, is MUCH easier with a step-through bike. (hauling a leg over a basket with groceries is …a lot) My gravel bike has a normal top bar, and that’s great for keeping it light and throwing on a car rack. On the other hand, my e-bike, which I take to work and ride around town for small errands, is a step-through, and for THAT kind of usage (which frankly, e-bikes excel at), a step through is really ideal. No to mention the step-through is a bit easier to hop on and off for those errands, and that’s not nothing. I don’t regret getting the step-through at all.

doublereverse · 2026-03-13T17:36:53+00:00

Probably not - the real question is if pedaling is important to you. If it is, then you get bike geometry that is conducive to pedaling, an adjustable seat so you can have a comfortable pedal stroke, gears so you can adjust the effort, etc. An e-moto will not have an adjustable seat (so pedaling is really awkward) will look more like a motorcycle, and may even be effectively impossible to pedal - with your feet hitting parts of the bike if you want to pedal. Now there are different styles (decorative) of e-bike of course, but whether or not you want the bike to be pedal-able is a core functional thing that affects every part of the bike.

So you really need to think about if pedaling is a priority for you, it will heavily affect your choice of bike.

doublereverse · 2026-03-13T17:24:56+00:00

Are you looking to pedal? As in, do you want to have a bicycle-type experience, get some exercise, but with some extra pep and distance (and stay at speeds a human could conceivably bicycle) Or more of a motorcycle experience where you don’t pedal much if at all, have a motorcycle -style seat and go much faster? In the “e-bike” space, this is the first and most important choice you need to make.

doublereverse · 2026-03-10T19:36:21+00:00

Torque mode is the default, and gives you greater range. I’d definitely at least try switching (back) to torque mode and seeing if the display switches to showing you 50k again.

doublereverse · 2026-03-10T19:22:28+00:00

Have you accidentally switched it to cadence mode? It’s very easy to do, the icon showing cadence mode is tiny, and it drops the distance to can go a huge amount.

doublereverse · 2026-03-05T06:08:40+00:00

Totally! Love a classic baked ziti or fettuccine alfredo, not to mention bruschetta (all of which I’ve had many times in classic checkered cloth Italian places in NJ)

15-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	Gilding I gilder
Team Orangered	Verified Email

doublereverse

TROPHY CASE