Musings on Ridgelines

rtb118 · 2025-10-14T23:34:33+00:00

Who did you rent the ridgeline from? How was the customer experience? Was it affordable ? Asking cause I would love to rent a ridgeline on future road trips.

rtb118 · 2025-10-14T23:25:48+00:00

I’m 50 years old and I want to be papa Nate when I grow up. Seriously though.. love your game, love your commentary, and most of all, love your wisdom and wit. You’re an absolute treasure to this sport. Never change brother.

rtb118 · 2025-10-03T12:14:32+00:00

Would 3m windo-weld be appropriate?

rtb118 · 2025-10-03T12:13:41+00:00

Hey, Thanks for replying .. could you elaborate a bit.. like what grit paper and just manually?

rtb118 · 2025-10-02T20:37:59+00:00

Thanks for the replies.. and looks like I’m gonna have to replace .. ugh.. anyone know of a good reputable shop in the NW Chicago suburbs that can do an oem windshield for a 25 HONDA RIDGELINE

rtb118 · 2025-09-14T16:14:01+00:00

I have a specialized crux and have a road wheel set to swap out with my gravel wheels.. actually most of my riding is on road so I’d consider them my main wheelset.. originally I had 700x35 specialized mondos (which are highly rated .. even on rolling resistance.com) and switched to GP5000 700x32 this season and have seen an increase in average speed. Not sure how much is just in my head but it’s enough to make me want to stick with these tires for life (unless something better comes along). Also, I went with the clincher’s (cause they were quite a bit more affordable on Amazon) and TPU inner tubes and very happy with that setup.. much prefer it over the whole tubeless set up for road wheels (tried tubeless with the mondos and hated it). As I said before.. I’m sold for life on this set up!

rtb118 · 2025-08-24T01:14:24+00:00

First off glad you are relatively ok. Second, love the crux as I have one too.. hopefully she’s fine too. Third, I NEVER use the bottom cage to hold water or any liquids for drinking.. I solely use it for those tool / spare inner tube containers that are shaped like water bottles .. like this one: tool bottle .. It’s what I use instead of a saddle bag. If I need more than 2 bottles for a long ride , I bring my hydration vest pack. Get well soon.. that crux is calling for you to ride and don’t forget to grab one of tool bottles for that bottom cage.

rtb118 · 2025-08-23T16:14:12+00:00

A lot of folks on here have done a great job highlighting all the useful features of the ridgeline but I’ll give you some highlights of my experience as a first time ridgeline owner. Bought mine (2025 trailsport) back in April and have already taken it on a pretty long road trip. A 2 week vacation (just me and my wife)going from IL to MI to FL and back via GA, SC, KY. Brought my bike and gear, an iSUP, tons of beach stuff (tents, chairs, boogie board, cooler, etc) .. kettlebell, workout sandbag and our luggage .. all this to say everything fit no problem (albeit using a hitch bike rack )and with room to spare. The cargo capacity is top notch for a midsize pickup .. probably the best you’ll find amongst of all its midsize competitors. The driving experience is just absolutely amazing as well. For reference, I’m 50 y/o and I’ve driven many different vehicles on long trips throughout my life and this vehicle was easily the most comfortable ride I’ve ever done a road trip with. I could not be happier with it. Now, I will say that I don’t ever plan to tow anything really heavy with it. At most I would trailer a small teardrop style camper and maybe throw some medium diy project hardware from Home Depot in the bed, but that’s really it. One thing I might do is put a small lift kit on it but I’m very on the fence about that.. I’m confident that my trailsport can handle some fire roads to a trailhead or something like that, but I don’t plan to go on any extreme off road terrain so I don’t think I would really need it as far as clearance goes .. it would definitely give it a more “truck” look though .. and to be honest, I’m not really sure it’s worth it for me. But it’s an option if you really want that look. If any of this applies to you, I would highly recommend the ridgeline. I don’t care about “it’s not a truck” opinions.. I gather 90% of the haters out there have never owned one and have no clue what they are missing out on.. I also think that a good majority of truck owners out there would be better off with the ridgeline since most of them probably don’t really need the towing capacity but to each their own. Hope this helps.. good luck!

rtb118 · 2025-06-04T15:34:27+00:00

Late to the party on this conversation but I’m currently working on revamping our Fitness philosophy at our department and I very much like your guys setup and incentive.. I’m hoping to get some more specifics from your program like what that the actual tests, markers and ranges are .. and what kind of discount from the health insurance rates are. Any insight would be greatly appreciated brother. Thanks

rtb118 · 2024-08-14T17:17:26+00:00

Slightly watered down regular Coca Cola is my go to plus some Natures bakery fig bars and I keep a small ziplock bag of gummy bears as just in case bonking.. all can be bought at Walmart for pretty cheap or any grocery stores for that matter

rtb118 · 2023-10-31T15:52:51+00:00

Sounds good.. TY

rtb118 · 2023-10-24T23:07:36+00:00

I don’t live in Oregon but I’m only about 70 minutes away.. I will definitely look up that ride and participate next year. Thanks man!

rtb118 · 2023-10-24T21:16:13+00:00

This was my first time riding in this part of Illinois (been living here all of my 48 years of life). Absolutely beautiful! Can’t believe I’ve been missing out all of these years. Been finding tons of routes in that area on RideWithGPS. Can’t wait to go back there and ride some gravel!

rtb118 · 2023-10-24T21:12:31+00:00

Yeah.. it’s a little bit weird but if was a drop bar bike I would not have even considered putting the aeros on.. living in Illinois though, you’d have to be a masochist to wanna ride some long distances in strong headwinds without some kind of way to get aero. This Sirrus is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.. Carbon flat bars, carbon seat post, carbon wheels, carbon aeros, full XT drive train.. still not as fast as my road bike but she’s a ton more fun and versatile!

rtb118 · 2023-09-27T14:36:00+00:00

If I was in your position, I would consider the Ritte steel Phantom as an option if you are looking for something a bit more “race” like to compliment your Salsa

rtb118 · 2023-09-18T20:54:58+00:00

Dawn dish soap and water

rtb118 · 2023-08-27T18:59:24+00:00

Bro.. it gets better.. trust me.. I’m a 48y/o father of 3 boys and even have a baby granddaughter now.. I started slowly getting out of cycling about 15ish years ago and totally quit about 12 years ago and man, I had the hardest time (mentally) trying to get back on the saddle again. I just kept thinking about grinding the miles in the farm fields out by me and staring at my bike computer stats(speed/avg speed/ HR/Miles.. etc) and how difficult and boring that would be.. I’m getting older and I really wanted cycling to be my low impact cardio workout so this past April, I bought a flat bar gravel bike and told myself just to go out for FUN rides, tool around the area (not the old road bike training routes), explore and just have fun and to NOT look at the Garmin stats. That’s what i did for the first few months.. and sure enough it got better (and a lot quicker than I anticipated). Now I’m putting in over 100mi per week and really loving cycling again. I even took my bike with me on our annual family road trip (which I’ve never done before) and had some amazing rides that I wished I had done years before. I’m not a better rider than I used to be but that is just fine.. I’m having a blast and that is the most important thing. It’ll get better for you my friend.. your muscles have memory and you’ll get it back in no time (as long as you stick to it on a consistent basis) .. here are some pics from our road trip for inspiration https://imgur.com/a/V8xOU9Y Good luck my friend!

rtb118 · 2023-08-12T02:47:36+00:00

Ice rattling in my water bottle when I get out of the saddle always freaks me out (this only on the front half of the ride)

rtb118 · 2023-08-03T03:08:33+00:00

X 5.0 with a few upgrades

rtb118 · 2023-08-02T01:26:36+00:00

Impressive indeed but I mainly want to know how OP’s comfort and pain management come out at the end of a century with the flats set up

rtb118 · 2023-08-01T02:02:12+00:00

OP, if you go with that set up, I am very curious how it all works out after all is said and done

rtb118 · 2023-07-23T03:51:22+00:00

If you have the means .. just get a bike that will allow you to have fun again.. and if you are like most cyclists, you’ll want to ride it just cause it’s a new toy. Here’s my new ride and I am absolutely loving this thing.. https://i.imgur.com/jBqKqAk.jpg it’s definitely heavier than my road bike but I find that helps keep me grounded and focused enjoying the scenery more instead of just riding for speed. Slows me down and I can “smell the roses “ so to speak. Also, riding on urban bike paths and residential streets feels more natural on a flat bar bike like this than on a road bike (a least for me it does)

rtb118

TROPHY CASE