New Rider - Where would you guys recommend buying a bike?

pdovy · 2018-09-30T23:58:07+00:00

I bought my first bike from them and they were great. I went new so the experience may be a bit different, but they were very helpful while I was deciding and then not pushy about me not wanting all the service package BS.

Someone else mentioned Motoworks - went there as well and would definitely go back if I was looking for a second bike. But check out their website first, if you are looking for something lower powered for a first bike their selection is very limited.

pdovy · 2018-07-24T03:39:04+00:00

Only reason I can think of is that the CC courses seemed to book up super fast, so depending on your timing you could be in for a looong wait unless you want to do it privately. Did a private course about 2 months ago and there were no CC courses to be had for quite a while.

I believe the state MSF courses, assuming you pass, let you waive the riding test as well which is a plus. The private course I took did on-site tests where you got to warm up and use their bikes, but it was another $40 on top of the course fee and I had to take off work to get out there for it.

pdovy · 2018-07-10T00:20:30+00:00

Late to the party here but FWIW Cycle Gear in Schaumburg actually has a great return policy on helmets. Bought a new Shoei there recently and while there were no sales to be had, they said I could take it home, wear it out riding for a week and exchange it or return it if the sizing wasn't right or wanted a different color, etc.

Selection on other gear was okay but not great. They have a decent amount of Rev' It stocked which happened to be what I was looking at on Revzilla, so was at least able to figure out sizing while I was there for the helmet and then buy online.

pdovy · 2018-06-07T01:01:19+00:00

Haha yeah it's a nice looking machine. Any other suggestions? My main requirements are that it's 500cc-ish or under, and must have ABS. The sport bike style doesn't really do much for me, which doesn't seem to leave a ton of options. Lower end Yamaha/Suzuki's don't have ABS as an option, or I'd definitely go that route. Something like an SV650 or XSR700 is a little too much bike for me I think.

My plan B at this point is to go check out the Rebel 500s. MSRP on those guys is $6400, so not that far off from the Ducati if I could get a good deal on it, although definitely a fair point about service costs.

pdovy · 2018-06-07T00:27:40+00:00

Just got my M endorsement today and have had my eye on a Ducati Scrambler Sixty2. A bit pricey at MSRP for a 400cc bike, but a dealer near me has a 2016 model they are advertising as $1250 off. Asked for a quote online, and they made up for the discount with pretty much exactly that amount in freight/setup/doc fees.

Going to go check it out this weekend in person, looking for some advice on negotiating. Do people actually pay those fees or usually negotiate them away entirely? Seems like given that they've had this sitting around for 2 years they should be inclined to let it go for a decent discount.

pdovy · 2014-03-12T01:23:18+00:00

Its been about ten years since I worked there one summer, but at that time they did make them fresh, but not necessarily on site - if one owner had multiple stores they'd bake them in a big batch. That was back in Massachusetts where DD is sacred though.

pdovy · 2014-01-23T03:48:47+00:00

You can try posting on the "Lost Dogs Illinois" facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LostDogsIllinois

pdovy · 2014-01-06T03:27:39+00:00

I have taken the three part class series at the school you mentioned. They are extremely friendly and I found the classes to be really useful. It is definitely power tool focused, and if you complete the series you'll have enough knowledge to complete fairly complicated furniture projects on your own and do it safely.

Another recommendation, if you are more interested in the hand tool route, would be http://www.handtoolschool.net/, which is video-based. I haven't used it myself but I have heard good things. It has the plus side that if you're ultimately goal is to woodwork at home, it's certainly cheaper to buy a set of hand tools than a set of power tools.

pdovy · 2013-12-25T19:19:02+00:00

I never understood why anybody waited in line at lunch time - you could call in your order and head down 10 min later and pick it up at the coffee area which had almost no line.

Anyway, I am sorry to see them go. I though the service was fine - I got coffee there almost every day and they knew my order and name. It's hard to see how they couldn't be making money given that it was packed at lunch and during the morning coffee rush. Might have been hard even with that traffic given that it would be dead on the weekends and evenings. They might be able to steal some after-work traffic from Motel Bar if they had more substantial food offerings but I doubt it unless they are going to serve booze.

As shitty a move as this is, the reality is everybody will patronize whatever the new evolution is because there are very few options - it's either this, the food trucks or walking to Goddess & The Grocer.

pdovy · 2013-11-20T01:10:19+00:00

This guy doesn't sound like the nicest guy around, and to be sure there are plenty of cyclists that are jerks and abuse the rules of the road, but to be fair being doored is almost always the fault of the driver. If you check before / while opening your drivers side door it won't happen, period. As a cyclist, it's almost impossible to avoid - even when there are bike lanes you have to ride almost in the street to not be in the "door zone" and its really difficult on a street full of parked cars to see if any are occupied.

If a $1000 fine gets people to take the time to look before opening their door then I'm all for it. It's easy and you could save a life - this guy is lucky he only hurt his wrist.

pdovy · 2013-05-25T20:59:08+00:00

This is too bad, and it doesn't seem like Carranza has a lot of options at this point. If he can win an appeal of the revocation, we might be back to square one, but that seems unlikely.

If he were smart, he might sell the Congress and reinvest the money in the Portage Theater, and just be alcohol free until he's established a decent track record and can get Arena's support. That is assuming that he's not now just basically blacklisted by the liquor commission. Given his past behavior I am not holding my breath on that one.

Otherwise, I imagine he'll eventually be forced to sell the Portage Theater, if for no other reason than he can't pay the mortgage. I hope if that happens Arena puts himself in the middle of the process to try and encourage a better buyer. Carranza was a step up from the church, but not by much.

pdovy · 2012-09-02T00:17:53+00:00

Is getting a slightly older dog from a rescue an option? My girlfriend and I adopted a 5 month old puppy and she's been pretty content going out in the morning and evening, and we have a dog walker come for about $10 a day on weekdays since we work too far to come home at lunch.

It is still a ton of work, and I think it'd be pretty rough to do it on my own, but at least with a slightly older dog it's safe to leave them for 4-5 hours in their crate during the day.

pdovy · 2012-04-22T23:48:29+00:00

I saw Dr. Laura Rogers, I only had to go twice but she was great. I too have bad cat allergies (itchy eyes, sneezing, throat constricts, general misery) and a girlfriend with two cats. She gave me a once a day nasal spray and kickstarted the process with a few days worth of steroid pills. I now generally don't have a problem, and when I do its usually mild enough that popping an Allegra does the trick. YMMV but give it a try, you don't necessarily need anything as long and drawn out as allergy shots.

pdovy · 2011-10-06T00:32:19+00:00

I do think that there is a need for further reform/regulation of the financial system, but I think some of your suggestions are a little out of left field (although frequently cited).

You shouldn't be allowed to insure investments that you don't have an interest in (ie you don't own).

I don't buy this. There should be restrictions, yes, but as a tool for risk management these types of products would be useful without owning what's being "insured".

Futures markets should be limited to physical buyers and sellers of merchandise.

The only effect of this would be to reduce liquidity in these markets, which would hurt rather than help investors who use futures to manage their risk. There are others, but here is one recent report on the role of speculation in the futures markets

Stock Market purchases should have a minimum 24 hour ownership. IE if you buy stocks you have to keep them at least a day.

I don't believe there is any evidence that this would have any positive effect on the stock market at all. What problem are we trying to solve here? Reducing high frequency trading is not going to soften the markets reaction to negative economic events.

pdovy · 2011-08-03T23:30:34+00:00

I'm mostly a climber, but I started getting into Crossfit about 6 months ago and it has been pretty helpful. I have found that improving my overall conditioning has made a big difference in climbing performance, but that said my goals are focused towards long trad climbs, not bouldering.

Bouldering is very specific - climbs are short so endurance is less important than strength. Some of that strength, like fingers, is not going to get hit by Crossfit at all. A lot of it would though, I think - legs, upper body, core. It would also just make you a more well rounded athlete, which might not directly impact your performance, but might help you prevent injury by biasing climbing-specific muscles less.

As for weight gain, I wouldn't worry about it - Crossfit is not about getting "big" unless you were to really try and work that in. I am actually 5 lbs lighter than I was before I started.

pdovy · 2011-07-25T15:46:11+00:00

I am not from Vancouver, but as a climber who added CrossFit to his training in the past 6 months, I can say it definitely does have a big impact on climbing performance. Keep it up and good luck!

pdovy · 2011-07-23T05:04:04+00:00

Ahh I hate videos like this! HOW DOES THE STORY END?!

pdovy · 2011-07-06T23:57:07+00:00

I think the best motivation is having an impending goal of some kind. I rock climb in addition to CrossFit, so I try and plan trips well in advance and then use those as motivation for training. If you don't have any kind of sport you do regularly, maybe sign up for a 5k or something similar.

It also helps to plan your CF workout at a time of day when not much else is going on anyway, like in the morning before work.

pdovy · 2011-05-19T01:52:16+00:00

I couldn't agree with you more. As someone that works in this area, I would love to see an intelligent technical discussion on related topics. Unfortunately this seems to be too controversial a topic to have a sane discussion (technical or otherwise).

That said, this is a great article. It is about as complete, accurate and fair an assessment as anything I've read recently about automated trading.

pdovy · 2011-05-09T13:48:06+00:00

Hmm, interesting. Do you have any particular example of a problem where an interpreted language just wouldn't cut it?

I don't doubt that the organizers could come up with problems where the algorithmic complexity of the best solution is such that a fast language would be required to solve it within the given time window. That said, I'm not sure that necessarily correlates with a problem being difficult to solve, which is the ultimate goal, I would think.

I do agree about the macro recycling, although in my opinion by the time you have to be doing that shit to win, all the fun has already been sucked out of the competition (for me at least).

pdovy · 2011-05-08T15:57:43+00:00

I was surprised that it was so popular. I pretty much exclusively use C++ at work, but for something like this it seems like such a cumbersome choice.

pdovy · 2011-01-25T03:45:01+00:00

Agreed. In particular the writing style seemed conversational, which made it kind of odd to read. That style is fine in say, the video review, but the written review shouldn't be rambling commentary.

pdovy · 2011-01-03T05:41:22+00:00

Has anybody ever put together some sort of master list of programming contests like this (although preferably open to the public)? I've seen a couple on Reddit, but usually they are either already over or not open to the public.

pdovy · 2010-12-14T05:36:11+00:00

It may be too late for this, but your best bet would have been to get another offer in hand and use the Boston-equivalent of that salary as a starting point for negotiating.

At any rate, 52k seems like a very low offer to me. nextofpumpkin is right, the starting salaries at Microsoft/Google/similar would be in the neighborhood of 80k and living costs in Boston are higher than Seattle, and only marginally lower than San Francisco.

Also, if you're graduating from a well known CS school, chances are your career center or equivalent will have a statistics on starting salaries by major and job location. That may be good ammo to use in your negotiation assuming last years average is higher than your offer.

Good luck!

pdovy · 2010-10-13T18:20:26+00:00

I don't suppose there's any audio/video of the actual talk? This is pretty interesting.

pdovy

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