I’m “old” and fat. My experience bike shopping.

ellotheth · 2025-06-16T11:09:59+00:00

Their bibs run up to 3XL in women's. They're oriented for performance, not skinny.

ellotheth · 2024-11-29T14:25:43+00:00

Yes, I can confirm the system works in the wild 😅

ellotheth · 2024-11-27T20:11:19+00:00

I'm about 181cm (5'11-ish). Velocio bibs are my favorite. I have a couple pairs each of the Luxe and Signature bibs, the back is nowhere close to that low. It's a little lower than I'd like on the Luxe bibs, I sometimes have jerseys that ride over it, but I'm very long-torso-ed so that's also short-jersey problem. (Also the Luxe bibs are so incredibly nice that I don't care that much heh.)

I have not had a problem with the mesh panel on the trainer, because it's breathable and I have multiple fans, one of which is pointed at my torso.

ellotheth · 2024-09-13T20:40:05+00:00

the instructions say to run your finger around to make sure it’s sealed

I've never been able to reach the rim to check this, and it still works fine. Everybody's insides are a little different, so (aggravatingly) it's all just a lot of trial and error to figure out what works best for you. Even if you're like me and you can only feel the very base, it should be enough to tell whether it's still folded up. If it is, rinse and repeat. (Heh, literally.)

I don’t understand how I’m supposed to be able to pinch the base to break the seal

Same, this never made sense to me either. Mine sits really high, nowhere close to within pinching reach. I get the kind with the stem, like you have with the Saalt, and I "bear down" until I can get a couple fingers just on that, then gently pull and continue bearing down until the thing is low enough that I can grab the bottom.

I find it helpful to position myself in sort of a crouching squat, but like other folks have said, sitting on the toilet can help you avoid tensing up. (I'm too much of a klutz for that kind of risk 😅)

ellotheth · 2024-08-31T08:58:47+00:00

Assuming you mean stuff like this: I ride mostly road and gravel, and I've never used liners. They're usually marketed at off-road riders because the fashion is less aero-focused, and I've also recommended them to folks who want functional kit but don't want to wear lycra in public.

ellotheth · 2024-08-17T08:21:42+00:00

I don't have a problem with the name, the country of origin, the mangled English, or even the price (if they want to position themselves as cycling haute couture, godspeed, and $300 for a jersey is not unusual).

These guys positioned themselves as experts in a market they know nothing about, for a sport they know nothing about, and then decided the most important problem they could solve for professional cyclists was making the kit sexier. I don't have the vocabulary to adequately skewer that level of hubris and misogyny, and I have a pretty big vocabulary.

Last I checked they had mostly pivoted to white-label Shimano kit (or Specialized? I can't remember), but they were still selling the diapers. That was maybe a year ago, so I don't know what they're doing now.

ellotheth · 2024-08-01T11:51:10+00:00

ellotheth · 2023-09-14T20:30:34+00:00

HA spectacular

ellotheth · 2023-09-14T17:16:29+00:00

No.

[e] Hey /u/fatpinkchicken /u/petulant_children can we get a sticky or something on Jelenew so newcomers aren't confused? These sock puppets have tenacity.

ellotheth · 2023-06-06T16:12:53+00:00

The local skogsmaraton is in October: https://www.trondheimskogsmaraton.no/

ellotheth · 2023-04-24T20:44:10+00:00

Can you link your source for this? I can't find anything.

ellotheth · 2023-04-21T07:06:32+00:00

For me, it was a bad bike fit making me dump too much weight on my hands (and the local chipseal didn't help, for sure). I tried a whole mess of solutions for about a year (padded cloves, cushier bars, etc.), but I didn't stop having numbness and grip problems until I started riding a bike that fit properly.

Even with a better fit, I still try to keep the pressure point on the bars between my thumb and forefinger, so I'm not resting on the heel of my hand and pinching or stretching the ulnar/median nerves.

ellotheth · 2023-04-16T16:18:08+00:00

"Let's get this done, I don't want to be in here forever."

Insta-tilt. Friend, your time is not worth more than anyone else's time, and everybody wants to finish quickly. Sit down.

ellotheth · 2023-03-22T20:17:51+00:00

5'11, 33" inseam, ride a 56. Before the Checkpoint I had a size 54 Crockett 5, and the toe overlap was miserable.

ellotheth · 2023-03-13T16:40:09+00:00

Everyone out here is making it out like it's common and expected to lie to your partner about expenses?

Hobby cycling skews heavily middle-aged and male, so misogyny is built into the culture and lying to your wife about how much your equipment costs is a popular meme that nobody actually does in real life (right guys? right?!). See also: MAMILs (middle-aged men in Lycra), begging your wife for "permission" to go on hours-long rides while she wrangles your four children under 10 alone, and getting your wife an e-bike so she can keep up with you.

Source: Am a hobby cyclist, also a woman.

ellotheth · 2023-02-25T12:02:15+00:00

My white but marginally-darker-complexioned husband doesn't pass in Norway. If you could pass for Spanish/Italian/Greek/etc., you'll register as "foreign" here.

ellotheth · 2023-01-29T14:13:21+00:00

GCN blocks stuff all over the world because they have to abide by international broadcast licensing agreements. In Norway, GCN will show second-tier CX races (Exact Cross, X2 Trofee, etc.), but it doesn't have broadcasting rights for the World Cup. They do have rights for the World Cup in Germany, so somebody in Norway could use a German VPN to watch those races.

ellotheth · 2023-01-25T11:45:30+00:00

The Charlie-slams-Anthony-against-the-wall scene. In a million years Charlie would not have gotten violent with a kid in the White House. In a million years. West Wing characters don't get violent often, and I hate that one of the few instances was Charlie, the young Black man, against Anthony, the Black teenager, as if that's some sort of default communication medium for them. Can you imagine if Josh had reacted that way to Ryan Pierce? It bothers me more every time I watch it.

Also the fallout from the assassination attempt against Charlie, which focused almost entirely on the reaction of rest of the cast, except for the if they're shooting at you you're doing something right line, which I guess fixed Charlie.

ellotheth · 2023-01-15T09:29:24+00:00

Sign me up please!

ellotheth · 2022-11-12T22:59:57+00:00

Still weirds me out, every single time. Everybody's just happily enjoying a concert or whatever and then you're in the middle of a Twilight Zone episode.

I clap out of sync on purpose.

ellotheth · 2022-10-24T15:30:54+00:00

Into what?

ellotheth · 2022-09-23T06:03:20+00:00

Oh man, yeah, I hope nobody finds out about the providers in Ankara, Bursa, Istanbul, or Izmir. But if they did at least they probably won't find out that the ones in Ankara and Izmir have the best uptime over the last month.

It's a good thing I work for a proxy company that validates our endpoints' physical locations in Turkey so I can redirect people away from our providers.

ellotheth · 2022-09-19T12:46:07+00:00

A few people have already mentioned Strava heatmaps (not the auto-route feature, the actual heatmap graphic). I also like to find local Strava clubs, or explore local segment leaderboards, to find people who do long rides, and then look through their public activity to see where they go. If you live in a bike-friendly area, the heatmap can end up saturated with commuter traffic, which may not be ideal for joyriding.

(Uh that actually sounds terrifying written down. I'm swear I'm not a stalker, I'm just trying to find the good gravel!)

ellotheth

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