[peterw_diy]

OK, I have to give Strava some credit. It appears that power estimates are tied to activities and not your current body weight. Leave your profile body weight blank and you can use Strava.com to manually trigger calculation for a ride, using different weights for each ride.

[peterw_diy]

All I need is a pedal-based meter, like this new one from Garmin which costs more than my bike & all its accessories. And then some pedal inserts so we can ride with street shoes. And some Ant+ device to collect the data. No problem. Ha.

Today Strava prompted me to enter a weight for a ride. I thought, hey, this is perfect for those of us with significant differences in cargo weights for different rides. Of course Strava just wanted my body weight. It seems I can always count on them to let me down!

[peterw_diy]

@hozn 71680 wrote:

Well, I think one of the things that participants liked about the competition was the social aspect. From my optic, linking to Strava profiles is something we /do/ want. We want to take advantage of social features like photos and comments that Strava provides to supplement forum discussions. I don’t think this competition caters especially to people that really don’t want any of their ride data made public

As currently designed, no, it doesn’t. I think BAFS might benefit from letting riders choose whether to expose more than just their ride count, mileage, and climbing stats. You’d more likely attract folks like me who are nervous about Strava, and IMO (though I could be wrong) would not significantly reduce the level of fun for folks who like Strava.

I think Strava has a very different vibe from this forum — it focuses on personal bests, KOM, segment speed leaderboards where this forum is much more truly social — folks offering advice, nominating others for WWPD awards, etc. Strava = competition, BA forums = cooperation. The current design of BAFS feels like a Strava app that happened to be born on this forum. I had expected it to feel more like this forum, merely using Strava as a data source.

I’ll try to let this go, especially since I’m not volunteering code. Nothing worse than whiny users going on an on about feature enhancements they’d like without contributing any source.

[peterw_diy]

@KLizotte 71686 wrote:

I wonder if they are trying to weed out ebikes?

I certainly think they don’t want to be associated with those types. Or adults on trikes. The horror! This is a social network for athletes, people!

[peterw_diy]

Also, I think it would be good for BAFS to have a Privacy page that explains a bit about Strava’s current privacy settings, to help educate any folks like me that have not really used Strava before. You don’t want participation in BAFS leading to problems for any riders who don’t think this through. Hopefully the others who’ve signed on have though through this — e.g., hopefully Tim doesn’t mind my seeing where he bought his Christmas tree last weekend and how he got it home.

[peterw_diy]

@hozn 71672 wrote:

Yeah, as guga31bb pointed out this data is all publicly available on Strava.

We’ll see. I’ve just upped my Strava privacy settings; we’ll see if BAFS works with that, and what the difference is. Right away I see that Strava won’t show anon users my climbing stats, nor a list of my rides. From the authentication UI on Strava, it sounds like BAFS will have access to more info than anonymous strava.com visitors.

We could consider using forum names instead, but we may not have that data — and anyone could click the link to view a user’s Strava profile and see their name

Viewing the profile is only true if you add the link or otherwise expose the Strava ID #. The BAFS user table could have its own unique IDs (autoincrement int, GUID, whatever) and be designed to never disclose the Strava ID# in anything sent to a client. And you could always use something like “Rider #42” if the rider hasn’t filled out the registration form (or only use data for riders where you do have all the data you want, like forum names).

Apache license — cool. I think Freezing Saddles is a great idea, and I could easily see other regions wanting to take advantage of your work.

[peterw_diy]

@Subby 71588 wrote:

Is there a way to show both the competitor’s strava name AND their forum name?

I prefer that BAFS not expose Strava profile info.
* I’d prefer that BAFS use my forum name than my Strava name.
* I’d prefer that BAFS use its own participant ID #s and not expose my Strava “athlete” number.
* I’d prefer that BAFS not show the names I’ve assigned to rides.
* I’d prefer that BAFS not expose my ride “activity” numbers, and certainly not link to the Strava display for those rides.

I’m new to Strava so I guess I’ll figure some of this out as I play with the soft-launch BAFS site, but it really gives me the heebie-jeebies thinking that BAFS could lead to exposing so much info — routes, days I ride vs. days I might be on vacation, rough home location, etc.

The site looks really nice. though. I like the ice blue color scheme. And thanks for putting the code on github. Note: I don’t see any license info; I’d suggest you clarify that so other localities can better judge whether they can just pull the code & run it on their own server.

[peterw_diy]

It’s high time for S to get new lawyers. First, bullying. Now it’s revealed that S tried to register Roubaix as their own trademark in Canada after licensing it from Fuji/ASI? Who exactly is abusing IP here? Not the LBS owner…

How sweet would it be for ASI to revoke S’s license for “Roubaix”? Please, let there be a clause in the agreement that lets ASI do that without losing revenue…!

[peterw_diy]

@mstone 71408 wrote:

Peter White recommends not riding “too aggressively” on studded tires? What does that mean?

You want to avoid excessive lateral stress on the studs, as when braking suddenly. Or, as I discovered, riding along the side of a concrete slope (even just a 6″ curb). Or, I guess, sprinting too fast. Speed isn’t a problem, it’s acceleration, deceleration, and lateral force.

A few times in the 2 winters that I’ve ridden studded tires I’ve noticed studs halfway out after the sorts of maneuvers I described. I carry one of those tiny Swiss Army knives, and the screwdriver blade is perfect for poking the studs back in place. Last weekend I mounted the tires for this winter. I only lost one stud last winter. My first winter was the worst, I think I lost 6 that year. (A few companies sell replacement studs, and the good carbide-tipped ones are apparently all about the same size. I use the inexpensive set from 45Nrth, and use Nokian’s tool for inserting them; I see that Universal has an inexpensive 45Nrth tool now. Here’s the blog post mentioned in the Universal replacement stud comment: http://thegoldenwrench.blogspot.com/2010/11/replacement-studs-for-studded-tires.html) Riding with 6 studs gone was no problem, I just prefer keeping the tire full.

I run these all winter so I can ride every day without worry or the effort of keeping up with the forecast & swapping tires/wheels the night before. I know it’s likely overkill (I used to ride Chicago winter streets on plain 28c touring tires), but running the studded tires is nicely reassuring.

[peterw_diy]

@ShawnoftheDread 71338 wrote:

So, it may be right at freezing when I leave tomorrow. Multi-trail tires or studs to play it safe? What are others doing?

Studs. They’ll likely stay on until the beer runs green. What’s another 2 pounds of rotating mass, anyway, but a means to honoring rule #5?

[peterw_diy]

One commenter suggested that a Specialized could ask the shop to pay $1 to license rights to (continue to) use the word. Any IP lawyers want to comment on that idea?

[peterw_diy]

@cyclingfool 69543 wrote:

when I went to see the ISS cargo test launch a few months ago, I got a good view of it from the east side of the US1 bridge over the railroad tracks between Slaters Lane and Potomac Avenue.

I might see some of y’all there. What’s the trajectory? Launch should be E/SE but then which way is it headed? S toward the equator?

[peterw_diy]

Maybe there’s hope for a pedestrian bridge after all. If NPS is willing to install hideous flashing lights, how could they object to a simple bridge that’s smaller than the existing automotive overpasses?

[peterw_diy]

As has been noted, you can always put a somewhat skinnier tire on if you like. I’d suggest making sure the bike can handle 32-35c tires *with fenders* if you plan to ride in all weather — room for 35c plus fenders if you might ride studded tires when the temp dips below freezing.

[peterw_diy]

Regarding Arlington’s silver status, I note that at least next year’s LAB Bike Friendly Community (SM) application (the draft version that’s online now, anyway) asks specifically about clearing snow from the off-street bicycle network; this is a separate question from clearing snow from bike lanes & shoulders of the on-street bike network. “Never” is one of the options.

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