crappyjones123

Just went out and rode for ~30 minutes. Less wobbly than yesterday. Still really wobbly if I hold the handle bar with just one hand. Still have too much pressure on my hands. Bike seat feels like it is too far forward. I'm starting to feel like a bike fitting at a LBS might be worth it. Will try tweaking it myself but I think it will end up with me going to the store anyways. Also couldn't find myself being able to bend my elbows as it required me to bend down too far and then my thighs kept hitting my belly. After 30 minutes today and 15 minutes yesterday, my butt and adductors are sore as hell. 2 canari velo gel shorts ordered from nashbar.com. They had a 20% off coupon for today.

Got on the bike for a few minutes earlier. Felt really really wobbly. Don't remember ever feeling that unsafe. Especially at low speeds. I guess it is expected after not having ridden a bike for so long. Hopefully it improves over the next few days - going to keep going around the apartment complex and avoid roads until I can control the bike at all speeds. Will look into it Marshall. Going to make tweaks slowly one at a time so I know which variable does what. Brent, online the grey looked a lot flatter. In person it is slightly glossier but I like it. Whats the difference between a $30 pair of shorts and $60 pair of shorts? Why on earth are these things so damn expensive?

Bike is put together. Took me a couple of hours to do it properly (getting the front wheel centered, getting tight tolerance around the disc brakes etc). Have not really played with any fitting measurements - tomorrow perhaps. Not sure how I can fine tune the gears without a bike stand but I'll see if I can do it with the bike upside down. It's a lot lighter than all the bikes I've had in the past. I'm sure all the fancier ones everyone else has are even lighter. It looks like in person. I'm happy.

By quite a margin. I remain skeptical but I'll be happy once I see movement in tracking.

Called today to cancel the whole order with diamondback and they said they are going to ship the correct bike today and I should have it on Thursday. The guy placed me on hold and arranged for tracking numbers. I'll believe it when I see a 40 lb box showing movement with the freight company.

Turns out the water heater was running 24/7 due to the leaking faucet in my bathtub that the landlord refund to get fixed for almost 2 months since the leak wasn't bad enough. Projected electricity bill is back down to the ~$80s for this month.

They shipped the wrong (cheaper) bike. Not exactly thrilled. They want me to ship back the wrong bike first and then they will ship out the correct one. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK? How does that make sense? I won't get the bike I ordered for 5 weeks now.

It's like you don't know me at all. I just took my second to last (last real final) of the year so the instant gratification monkey is waking up from its slumber. Also, Amazon's quick shipping has ruined me. Ps. It's a week for them to ship it. Then another 2-3 weeks in transit. Coming from China I guess.

Bike is expected to be shipped in a week. Lame. As far as shorts go, there is a dicks around the corner that has a pretty wide variety. Will try on stuff there. I get 10% off there with my credit card but shall see if I can get a better deal elsewhere. Quite sure that M wouldn't fit one of my arms

Done. Thanks to Brent and everyone else who helped. Hopefully a picture of the actual bike next week sometime.

I can't help but laugh and also cringe at that since you didnt know my previous roommates name was Bill.

The talon only weighs 1lb 8oz. With the reservoir it doesn't even hit 2lbs so it's not so bad. That being said, I've only hiked with the bag, never ridden a bike with it before so will give it a try. If it seems too cumbersome, I'll investigate these water bottles. I'm not sure the bike comes with the necessary tools but perhaps I misread the assembly instructions. The instructions made it seem like there were too many spots where a trained eye/hand was needed to get things right in terms of things being aligned a certain way. The last thing I'd want to do is damage it due to user error during the build process. If it were a lot more money, I'd probably have just done it myself. For around $50, I'd rather someone else do it and be responsible for errors. That being said, I do think it would be a lot more fun to do it myself. Hmm.

How are your electricity bills with the sous vide? Mine have doubled, literally. I was paying ~$80/month on average and last month I used it on two weekend long cooks and the bill came out to $157.

As I told brent, I shall be sticking to the $500 hard limit. I have an osprey talon 22 bag with a 3L geigerrig reservoir that I'll be using for water duty. Most likely get a cheap bag just to hold the hydration bag down the road if needed. Don't plan on riding at night - florida drivers are bad enough during the day so can get by without lights in the near future. Helmet, sure. Don't need apparel, shoes, pedals, computers, better saddle (right now). Will likely grab tools from DB when I buy the bike as they are 40% off as well. LBS quoted me $50/$130 to build the bike. They quoted me $150/$75 to adjust the bike to me lol. Thought about going to one place to get it built and the other to get it fitted but the cheaper fitting place only offers the fitting at that price if I get it built there as well. I think I'll be doing the fitting at home. Sent Mike a message to ask him for input on LBS but no response yet. Was trying to stay under $600 all in and it seems like it just might happen. Perhaps not in HC style but I am happy I resisted the urge to keep extending my budget as has happened in the last. I don't pay any taxes or shipping on the bike so if I feel the need to jump up to a better bike, I can sell the century for a minor loss and move up.

$420 for the metro. Thoughts on the century for $500? http://www.diamondback.com/bikes-road-bikes-endurance-century-series-century Brent has mostly talked me into a road bike now.

There is no elevation here that you guys have up north. Markham Park and Oleta River State Park both have "trails." If you google the names, pictures of the trails come up. As I said, it will most likely be used to go to school/hospital. Weekend rides at the state parks or other similar geographic places. They have some city bikes for a little less money as well. Apparently the 40% off is site wide. The road bikes alone are 50% off. I tried that fixie someone posted about a long time ago at Walmart and maybe it was the fact that I had not ridden a bike in a very long time or maybe the seat was just horrible but that's been my biggest issue with bikes until now - butt pain. I don't ride long enough anymore where chafing would be an issue. Used to have a road bike growing up in India that I rode up and down the mountain side for ~12 - 15 km every day between school, tutoring, after school sports. Chafing was an issue then but it was a small mountain town and you just dealt with it. There were no bike shorts or special clothes.

Just getting around. There are a few trails within biking distance from me. Only reason I asked is because I got an email from my school saying they had some sort of a deal with diamondback that offered some of the bikes at 40% off and some road bikes for 50% off. If anyone is interested, feel free to pm me - I can't give you the account information as I have to use my school login to get onto the website but I can purchase something for you and have it shipped directly to you if you like. $480 was about as much as I was willing to spend on a bike only if I were getting a pretty good deal as I doubt I'll be doing anything close to the mileage you guys are doing. A road bike is well out of my budget. I don't have any particular reason for going after this bike other than they offer a 40% discount off the listed price on their website. Anything else on their website you'd recommend Brent? Most pavement and the occasional weekend trail. I will not be tinkering with the bike at all - no upgrades planned.

Any thoughts on a brand new diamond back recoil for $480? I don't know anything about bikes. Listed at $800 on their website.

Heh. There are frozen seed cultures in 3 different locations across the united states (sister has some in NJ), mom has some and I have some as well. In 14 years it's never been needed, thankfully.

It's essentially this but with a few additions. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/yogurt-marinated-grilled-chicken-366453 Cumin, deghi mirch, tandoori powder, paprika, liquid smoke, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, yogurt. I'm not sure if the yogurt is the difference because my mom gets some culture every time she goes to India from the bakery in our home town and brings it to the states and makes yogurt every other day at home. Basically a little portion of it is set aside as the seed for the following batch. Haven't found yogurt that tastes nearly as good or creamy in America.

Lunch - tandoori chicken cooked in yogurt. My grandma's recipe. Came out fantastic. Dinner - sous vide brisket cooked at 145F for 24 hours. Lost a little too much volume I think. Very tender but not as juicy as I had hoped. I got the spice mixture just right this time so going to tweak the Cook times for next time. Julie typically doesn't like brisket but she loved this one. We had with wheat mountain bread and cherry/jalapeno bbq sauce.

Dania Beach Pier.

I didn't want to get chastised for suggesting this but it's what I had in mind all along. I still use it for med school. Works a lot better than any schedule app I've used. Allows me to see the whole month and all my classes in one go. Tasks get marked off as the week progresses.

I can't remember the last time I laughed this hard. Thank you for sharing this.

http://home.woot.com/?ref=so_gh_hm_2 Thoughts?