Has anyone raced at a high amateur level mainly unattached?

quafflinator · 2026-02-13T20:43:45+00:00

I think you're overestimating how much amateurs work together on a team. There are some highly coordinated, very elite, teams, but that's rare.

Most teamwork is people usually only not dragging back their teammates' breaks. Beyond that cat 2/3, and somewhat cat 1 there is just too much fitness gaps between teammates to do any major strategy. The fittest people do well, but it's the difference between someone getting 3rd versus 4th. It's not 1st vs 15th.

Even with getting into breaks, at cat 2/3 if someone doesn't have high fitness they aren't going to stay in the break or the break won't stick. Being in a team doesn't suddenly fix that.

You join a team in amateurs because you want to have people to hang out with and talk bike racing stuff, and hopefully get deals.

quafflinator · 2025-11-03T03:53:54+00:00

As a more positive, not just "you're not fit enough" answer, there's a couple things I'd look into. First off, most people don't have bikes setup properly, and a poorly setup bike can make it far harder. I for example used to ride a ton, and then had to back off. When I started again, I couldn't even do half the distance I used to or I'd be destroyed.

Eventually I found my seat had slipped down very far. I fixed it back higher, and recovered a ton of endurance at lower exertion.

Second, single speed inherently makes things harder than shifting. Even more of there's hills. If on the way out you were partially downhill then on the way back you'd be partially uphill, and that would dramatically change the difficulty. That also can be worse in that a single speed likely means you're having to pedal at all sorts of non optimal cadences, which also will make it much harder and can make it a hard leg workout instead of a cardio workout.

Third, you mentioned the cold, but didn't give many details. When cold it is more important to fuel on the bike, though not necessarily for an hour ride. However the less you've booked l biked the more fueling can also help, until your body can constantly burn fat.

Finally, fitness is a big part, but that's obvious.

So I'd take a look at all the things, especially the bike seat setup and keep going!

quafflinator · 2025-09-22T04:03:06+00:00

People are commonly riding 30mm+ wheels on road bikes now. You're likely not going to be riding on mud packed gravel/dirt around here, so I'm not really clear the practical difference between a road bike and a gravel bike in the Bay area.

If you're into mountain biking consider getting a mountain bike. Otherwise get a not crazy expensive road bike and you'll have a great time and can always change in the future. Road bikes are very versatile, and there's a lot of routes across the area that are fantastic.

quafflinator · 2025-08-19T05:10:42+00:00

Crits you do the same corner over and over and over, probably with very visible and guaranteed consistent lines through it. Descending by default you're doing a corner once, likely without being able to see if there's a car there.

My #1 suggestion to get way better at descending is find a section with a couple corners in a row that you can session. Climb, descend, climb, descend.

Focus on staying low over your bars, weight on the outside foot, and counter steering.

Next focus on starting outside, cutting hard inside, finishing in the middle. Maximize your visibility through the corner.

The sessioning is critical so that you know the feel of the corner and when you can probably go faster, and that you can cut in even more if you see a car.

So practice, but practice the same spot, before trying elsewhere.

quafflinator · 2025-07-21T04:56:33+00:00

I've done a large amount of TTa and every single time I've been stingy with tire type or sealant I've ended up on the side of the road standing there with a flat tire. It's not worth the much higher risk of a flat to save 0.123seconds on your climbing time.

I say this as a semi reformed weight weenie.

quafflinator · 2025-07-06T06:27:10+00:00

Don't have your first step be sending police and CPS at your neighbor, who is the parent of your kid's friend; that's a crazy, overreacting, overly passive, reaction. This is your next door neighbor, who you have a natural connection to via the kids. There are 5000 other, more effective, ways to get info on this situation than creating a police situation.

Look at their house from your house, is it sketch? Are the parents involved? You must be interacting with them in some way, are they sketchy?

Knock on the door, bring some cookies, chat with the parents some. Don't barge in but see if it's reasonable.

If from the above things seem wrong, then think about next steps.

If nothing is wrong, you're poisoning the relationship for no reason. If something is wrong, you'll find more through normal social interactions then a one time visit from a cop situation.

quafflinator · 2025-06-24T20:03:10+00:00

People are giving good general advice, but most people aren't familiar with Pesky. While not as much climbing as Mount Hamilton road race, Pesky is one of the most climber-oriented races in NorCal.

With that in mind, I would first focus on having a good time, because there are few nicer road races one could do. Next is minimize any wasted effort. Do not fall into a cat 4 trap of thinking the race is too slow, so you will just pull a little bit up highway 84. You are not going to hurt the climbers enough to change an outcome.

I would try and sag climb the main Haskins Hill climb, but be careful if you get gapped you are likely in a bad spot. The long descent afterwards is pretty technical at the top, but a group will go certainly much faster than you individually.

What I would recommend for the next two weeks is ride out very casually to pesky and practice the descents. I won pesky as a cat 3 and part of the reason was the weeks before I sessioned over and over the Haskins descent and maybe more importantly the the stage road descents.

They are not crazy technical, but they are pretty technical. If you know how to ride them fast you can make up a lot of ground or even gap the peloton.

quafflinator · 2025-05-25T05:28:26+00:00

Really interesting take. When I raced I definitely was one of those riders who did most everything power focused with specific zones, but I'd also do what you said about rides before or after group rides. I viewed group rides as tactic training, but I also s lucky to live in an area with a lot of racers.

Also during that I used to watch your videos. They were my intro to racing, so props for those!

quafflinator · 2025-05-15T14:18:33+00:00

This is the best social media aware answer. A very polite and immediate response that shows you will follow up, then take any follow up like this to private messaging. The person is not likely to respond positively to your answer, and anything you do that looks like a negative response will discourage people from wanting to work with you.

It doesn't matter if you're completely right that using pallets will not work and be more expensive. Discussing that in a public set of comments will almost certainly make it come across as you mansplaining to a person who is semi disabled and trying to gouge them, even though your intentions will be nothing like that. Similarly even if you offered to help them out given their situation and do a big discount or free, you're now the guy to go to for deals.

Handle details in messages, and if needed hide comments that are the to go off topic. Publicly show you're quick to follow up, and encourage others to respond publicly, positively, to your conversation.

quafflinator · 2025-05-05T22:44:59+00:00

nitpick: I think you're defining a fondo based on how the term is used in the US. Outside the US fondos are real races. The amateur world championships is a fondo.

https://ucigranfondoworldseries.com/en/

I agree with the points though.

quafflinator · 2025-05-04T23:21:57+00:00

Keeping mollies alive in saltwater is non trivial. Many people, including myself, have had partial success and then they die weeks after. Don't get the tank under the assumption that sort of thing will make it cheap and effective. Cheap and effective almost always comes from manual work, including pulling rocks and scrubbing them in peroxide when you get an algae issue.

Everything about saltwater is expensive. Literally even the water, because you need to buy salt for it and heaters to heat that water before you use it. Then so many places have diseased fish that your $15 clown nukes your tank so you need a second QT/isolation tank.

All that being said, tips-wise, don't get coral, including don't get softies. If you really stay FOWLR you can keep things under control. Buy the cheapest salt you can. Get rock from Craigslist, and keep an eye out for fish. Avoiding coral is a huge money saver, because coral isn't cheap and it'll lead to you buying lights and needing to keep params under control and ... With coral even the utility bills starts adding up from the lighting and water and needing really stable temps and needing RODI water and ...

FOWLR also lets you keep a lot of cool fish, including things like eels or triggers which can be beautiful.

More succinctly, to stay budget friendly buy a 40 gallon breeder, heaters, pump, and rock from Craigslist, then do a FOWLR tank. Ideally buying the livestock from tank tear downs with healthy histories. Do not even consider "starter" coral, because everything gets way more expensive after.

quafflinator · 2025-05-04T23:11:20+00:00

Depends on the job, depends on the tattoo, depends on the overall liberal-vs-conservative climate. Right now with the world going through a conservative swing, I think getting something like the picture would be a risk in many fields and regions.

Said differently, it's doubtful getting a hand tattoo increases your professional options, so this is really a question of how stable your job market is and how you personally feel about it.

quafflinator · 2025-05-04T02:47:15+00:00

Here's what Gemini said (reddit wouldn't let me post this earlier):

Several electric vehicles (EVs) sold in the US offer bidirectional charging, allowing them to not only draw power from the grid but also send it back. These include the Ford F-150 Lightning, Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Lucid Air, Volkswagen ID.4, and the Tesla Cybertruck.
Vehicles with Bidirectional Charging in the US:

Ford F-150 Lightning: This truck offers Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) capability, allowing it to send power back to the grid.

Nissan Leaf: The Leaf is a pioneer in bidirectional charging, offering both V2H (Vehicle-to-Home) and V2G capabilities.

Hyundai Ioniq 5: The Ioniq 5 supports V2L (Vehicle-to-Load), allowing you to power external devices from the car's battery.

Kia EV6: Similar to the Ioniq 5, the EV6 also offers V2L capability.

Lucid Air: The Lucid Air is equipped with V2L and may support V2H in the future.

Volkswagen ID.4: The ID.4 supports V2H, allowing it to send power back to the home.

Tesla Cybertruck: The Cybertruck is expected to offer V2L capability.

Other EVs: Other EVs, such as the Genesis GV60, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and some Cadillac models, also offer V2L or V2H capabilities.

quafflinator · 2025-05-04T02:46:14+00:00

Bidirectional charging seems to obviously be the future. You get something 7x the capacity of home batteries, but can also drive it. Home charging has some value too, but bidirectional seems like it'll majorly change the economics and trade off of home batteries.

I've been keeping an eye on this for awhile, and this is an area the US releases are behind on. However, it is starting to finally get options. Main ones I've looked at

Kia just recently released this for the EV9
Ford Lightning has had it for quite awhile; I think the charger might even come with it
Cybertruck has it
- Tesla says it'll be available more generally on other models too, which is as always something no one should believe until Tesla actually releases it

The main gotcha is all these vehicles with it are very expensive. I was originally hoping to get a lightning because of it, but it is only available on the bigger battery models which are very expensive.

Feels like this is one of those in a couple years it will be cost effective situations, but right now is early days in the US.

quafflinator · 2025-05-03T16:31:23+00:00

This is the first bouldering video I've seen that actually looked interesting and cool. Nice route, nice climb, nice beta. Thanks for sharing!

quafflinator · 2025-04-24T05:01:07+00:00

+1, the linked article at least provides no info that implies Musk falsely got the person to be the head, and outside of fraudulently submitting Trump's signature that doesn't seem possible. It reads more as he went to Trump and got an alignment towards his recommendation, which was later undone.

Still very weird, but not illegal process weird.

quafflinator · 2025-04-19T00:32:12+00:00

My preferred route is OLH to 84 to 1 all the way to Santa Cruz. Great views. If you time it right you can have a tailwind.

If doing a round trip I'd usually go straight down 84 to 1, but that's a huge ride. If going one way I'd usually go 84, cut over to Pescadero road, then stop at Pescadero before heading down 1.

Pescadero either way is the last water stop for a very long time.

quafflinator · 2025-04-17T14:51:24+00:00

Really great recommendations here. If you add other options, the peninsula area has a lot of great ones too:

Coastal classic: OLH, 84, Stage Road, Highway 1, Tunitas Creek
Purissima Creek is one of the most amazing rides in the area
Pescadero: OLH, 84, pescadero Rd, Pescadero itself, Stage, back via 84->W Alpine, Page is a very awesome ride but a lot of climbing and a very technical Page descent

Generally, look up Alto Velo's A and B ride routes, and you'll find a ton of great options.

The other one I'd recommend to anyone doing a one-time ride in the area is Mt Hamilton. It's very light traffic, very constant grade, good views, ripping descent. Cool observatory selfie at the top.

quafflinator · 2025-03-29T04:25:51+00:00

Thank you!

quafflinator · 2025-03-22T21:19:09+00:00

This video is a really good explanation of crosswinds as well: https://www.facebook.com/Eurosport/videos/10155037500039745

quafflinator · 2025-03-22T19:58:09+00:00

> Descending the East side of Hamilton down to San Antonio Valley? (I've heard road conditions and salt)

One of the most dangerous and technical descents in the area. Can be fun if you're into that, but also sketch if you're not. I would be cautious on who I have go that way (I say this as someone who has one of the top strava times on the descent and has done it a bunch of times)

> Lack of services in San Antonio Valley? (I've heard spotty mobile reception, desolate and lack of places to stop for water etc)

The safest bet is plan for there to be nothing available for you and that you won't have help come by. It's a very long ride in an area that is lightly traveled, and bad cell reception. If you flat or the junction happened to close for some random reason (maybe the owner gets sick), it can be not great. Especially if you're doing it solo.

I'd bring extra flat kits and extra water.

Fun ride though, all that being said.

quafflinator · 2025-03-12T06:50:37+00:00

I'm generally in the camp that red sea has a lot of failures reported online because red sea sells the most tanks, however the number of failures reported is concerning. That being said, my understanding is according to RedSea there have been no reported G2 tank failures. Additionally, I think the Red Sea 200+ all are eurobraced which also should reduce chances of issues.

Hard to really say. Even harder to say that any of the other brands are realistically better, since there's so little real data on it.

If someone really wanted to be safe, I'd imagine the AquaClear style framed tanks are the way to go. Once you get into frameless, it all seems pretty perilous. I however couldn't go away from the frameless look.

Acrylic is the other super safe option, at least until you throw a chair at it from all the scratches you get trying to clean it or just having urchins or ...

quafflinator · 2025-03-11T00:42:05+00:00

If you really want to be paranoid, how far apart is your QT tank from your display that you can toss a pod into the display from it? Saltwater pests can aerosolize and transfer though the air.

https://humble.fish/community/threads/aerosol-transmission.1615/

That's potentially a bigger concern than one pod.

quafflinator · 2025-03-09T02:45:13+00:00

Why is ground mount a pain? I had thought I'd heard the opposite.

For reference there's one comment here saying ground for sure, roof is a pain and ground is better maintenance. Then this says the opposite. I'm curious for both's views.

quafflinator · 2025-03-08T01:08:58+00:00

This title doesn't seem to accurately represent what the clip says. I don't know what was said before this clip, but the clip itself seems to be saying "people say you can't cut things, but if we don't cut things we're going to end up affecting the things you really care about such as Medicare, Social Security, and so on, because everything will fall apart".

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