IsaacBikes

@veero: 8 years on, I'm more conflicted on it. 2 years ago I had a bad crash and broke my arm. It was a bit of a freak accident; caught a poorly sawn stump that was just off trail, hidden by some foliage. I was riding at a pretty leisurely pace on trails I was familiar with, just got caught out. That being said, as I get closer to potential fatherhood, I see the value in having the kid up front and really "with" me. I'm starting to imagine possibly doing something like this (the Spirited Man YouTube channel has really spurred me to think more about it), but I'm not sure I'd ever take a kid on anything remotely like most MTB single track I've been on, and certainly not near my normal leisurely pace. Something I like about the trailer is that the resistance reminds and forces me to take it much easier - maybe having the kid up front would do that, too, but I can imagine getting comfortable and complacent. Constant vigilance, I guess. I'm probably a few years off of having a kid where I'll actually have to make this call for myself, but I'm not sure I'll ever feel totally comfortable with it, but maybe that's the point?

No one talking about how Addison's last tool tip was to always bolt-check your bike before dropping in - the exact thing he got disqualified for last year lol

@alicialeggett: Is the app that good that the $24/mo subscription fee can be justified? The fitbit one is $100 (just over 4 months worth of Woop), and has (as far as I can tell) the same functionality. Sure, it has a really basic screen, but you can keep it on your belt or something and never look at at anyways.

I think that in the long-term, Flight Attendant (generally electronically tuned suspension) has the most potential. Most riders aren't getting the most of their suspension (myself included), and every tuning is effectively a compromise to one's average riding style. Right now, LV and FA are pretty basic, just using the gadgets to change between three compression settings. However, as it gets more sophisticated, there is a huge potential for this to tune so many other settings than just that one lever. Imagine if it had all of the insights of a Quark (now owned by SRAM, so I see LV having a huge advantage here) and tuned your suspension on the fly - not just to the average, but to the second. Furthermore, I bet there's a ton of stuff that the folks designing bike suspension would love to have available to tune that doesn't make it to final designs because product testing shows that most consumers don't want more than 2-3 settings to change, tops. As for "aLl ThE bAtErIeS", we're probably heading towards a point of cable-routed batteries so that you have one battery to rule them all (even your lights and Garmin). At present day, I don't think that e-suspension offers anything significant to the average consumer, especially considering the price premium. Someday, though, when the price comes down and the features expand, I think we'll look back on LV and FA in a similar way as we look back on the first suspension bikes - unrefined, but now ubiquitous.

What a stark difference between him and Cody, eh?

Same. Where I ride is mostly hard-pack. I've rarely had any issues with grip (though that's probably because I'm S L O W). Tried tubeless for a while and it was just a big PITA - tried a couple different tires (Kenda, Bontrager, Continental...), all "tubeless ready", and all would slowly leak air. That extra step of checking and setting pressures every ride was enough of an encumbrance to keep me from going out sometimes (especially when I didn't have a good pump at the ready due to student living).

Basically just a much more complicated and cumbersome version of Britek's Energy Return Wheel (http://www.energyreturnwheel.com/Home.aspx). No perpetual motion here- just energy recovery. I do have doubts about how much it returns vs how much it weighs, though.

Should put a leaf spring on the front instead, like how old road bikes used a flexy fork for a bit of shmush.