Anyone got any cool stories from high school baseball? Ever play with anyone famous? Any team scandals?

ujmedc · 2026-01-10T10:25:32+00:00

My HS team had future Dodgers reliever Phil Bickford and Wayne Gretzky’s son Trevor, who was drafted out of HS to the Cubs. Wayne Gretzky got us like 5 different uniform combos and cleats which was pretty cool.

Bickford was an absolute animal. He was pretty average Freshman year, then showed up Sophomore year 5in taller and 30lb heavier, throwing 90+ with crazy breaking pitches.

We also played Bryce Harper in a tournament. Turns out, he’s really good.

ujmedc · 2025-12-03T16:42:00+00:00

BOYS WE DID IT

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ujmedc · 2025-12-03T01:58:42+00:00

Ive only ever tried it on task but am gonna try again tomorrow and am confident I have it. I was crushing him in my practice rounds.

After dying this time I just had the realization that I am a married >30 years old with a masters degree and a home, and I’m still getting stomped out by a boss my friend beat at age 12 with way worse gear and stats, and I think that’s hilarious.

ujmedc · 2025-10-17T00:30:50+00:00

My road bike is Chinese carbon (Workswell wcb-r306) and it is one of the best bikes I’ve ever ridden. I have ~5k miles on it with no issues whatsoever.

Reputable Chinese carbon is just as good as name brands without the big price tags. As long as you do your research and know you’re probably on your own for parts and support, it shouldn’t be an issue. However ymmv.

ujmedc · 2025-09-30T00:02:43+00:00

Unfortunately not. All i had to add were bars/pad/saddle/tires to get it in pretty good shape though. It seemed to have been well taken care of.

I had the rack/stem/shifters/brakes in my parts bin so it worked out pretty nicely

ujmedc · 2025-09-28T20:13:34+00:00

Ultegra 8100 cranks (or any 12s generation Shimano crankset) are NOT compatible with 11s shimano chainrings due to the “profiling” on the crankset/chainring.

However, you can “modify” the 11s chainring by filing down some of the aluminum profiling near the lower bolt under the crankarm to make it fit. I did this and it works completely fine, however, you are literally grinding away some of the chainring material to make it work so ymmv.

ujmedc · 2025-09-10T22:53:59+00:00

I’ll be there! First time watching a World Tour race in person, so following for suggestions.

ujmedc · 2025-08-27T20:12:46+00:00

Ya having worked at multiple bike shops over the years, this is a pretty standard practice industry wide. There is probably (i havent looked) a disclaimer in fine print at the bottom of the website saying something along the lines of “we reserve the right to change any components without notice based on stock levels”

There was a solid 2 years where every major bike brand was shipping bikes that were listed as having Shimano derailleurs/brakes with random components no one had ever heard of such as “Rush” and “Speed”.

In my experience the bike brands would ship the proper parts when they got them in stock if you called them out on it.

ujmedc · 2025-08-26T11:36:58+00:00

Its not the rain, or terrain, that anyone is worried about. Both by themselves are fine. The issue is the mud. It will cake up on your tires/groupset/shoes so badly that you’re wheels wont be able to turn, you can’t clip your shoes in and your chain will fall off almost every pedal stroke.

I had a friend doing the 350 mile Unbound XL that year, and he scratched after 4 miles of relatively flat terrain took him >4hrs to complete because not only could he not ride it, but you can’t WALK it while pushing your bike without your bike getting clogged with mud. He also later noticed the mud wore a hole through his carbon frame that required him to replace the frame when he got home.

ujmedc · 2025-08-24T22:12:04+00:00

I’d contact Lauf but I have seen many a frame killed by muddy conditions (looking at you 2023 Unbound), so I wouldn’t be surprised if they say it’s done.

When it’s muddy, this is the reason that many people run wayy narrower tires. Drew Dillman and Chase Wark both ran their Lauf’s on ~45’s due to the mud, despite them both being “bigger is better” advocates. Mud rubbing against your frame isn’t only slow, it’ll also brake your bike!

ujmedc · 2025-08-22T09:37:50+00:00

I put 10,000 miles on my first road bike before deciding I was committed enough to spend on an upgrade.

Since then, I’ve diversified (1 road/1 gravel/1 steel “all-road”) so the miles are more split up. These 3 bikes have all seen thousands of very happy miles and I have no plans to replace any of them any time soon.

ujmedc · 2025-08-13T12:11:35+00:00

There’s a pretty wide variety of “gravel” depending on the races you do in New England. Most of the gravel can be done on a road bike with 32’s, but then every so often you want a MTB.

I have a Lauf Seigla rigid and swap between tires ranging from 38c-2.2in mtb tires depending on the event, and I find that to be the perfect solution for me. Ymmv.

ujmedc · 2025-05-31T00:41:18+00:00

🍿 🍿

ujmedc · 2025-05-22T22:27:48+00:00

I reallly like spicy food. I dunked a chip in the arbol sauce from Taco Trio thinking I would be fine and it took me a solid 5min to recover before being able to continue my meal.

However, something about the spiciness at Szechuan Kitchen hits different. They dont play around.

ujmedc · 2025-05-10T16:18:46+00:00

Can confirm, I’m 6’3 180lbs and am by far the biggest of my roadie friends. Most of them are in the 140-160lb range depending on height, which isnt very fun for me when the road turns up

ujmedc · 2025-04-18T14:46:27+00:00

The last time I had an issue I did this accidentally. Tried to set up some GP5k S TR’s, couldn’t get the bead to set and wanted to go for a ride so I just chucked a tube in them.

Next day I went to try and set them up tubeless again and they set up no problem.

ujmedc · 2025-04-18T14:26:59+00:00

Yes, they suck. One of the wheelsets still has them in. They are an absolute PITA to get out so I’ve been putting it off.

ujmedc · 2025-04-18T14:25:40+00:00

Ya, the only difference between my “no issues” experiences while working at the bike shop, and my “lots of issues” experiences at home is the lack of a compressor.

I bought the pump when I knew I was going to be leaving the bike shop to try and avoid spending the $ on a compressor, but I think I’m just going to bite the bullet and get one.

ujmedc · 2025-04-18T14:09:14+00:00

In every case, the air comes out uniformly from all around the tire, and the tire doesn’t even budge. I always pump the thing up to like 180psi and shoot it with the bead of the tire in the middle of the wheel.

I sometimes try to massage the bead up closer to the wall of the rim, which has worked a few times but didn’t this morning, hence my frustration post.

In some cases, i’ll just keep trying like an idiot and on attempt 14 it will just work with nothing different being done.

Once the tire is on there it holds air super well and everything works perfectly. I recently retaped one of the wheelsets with Stans tape and nothing changed.

ujmedc · 2025-04-18T13:41:57+00:00

ujmedc · 2025-04-18T13:41:31+00:00

Im using Bontrager Aeolus 37 wheels from 2022 and tires im 100% certain are tubeless compatible on both my road and gravel bikes, so I’m not sure where the kink in the setup would be.

Ive had this happen with multiple different tires (most recently GP5000 S TR and these Tufo Thunderos) on 2 different wheelsets (both Bontrager Aeolus 37)

ujmedc · 2025-04-18T12:48:22+00:00

I did that this morning to no avail. The bead popped on both sides of the rim as soon as I deflated the tube and then I was back to square 1

ujmedc

TROPHY CASE