n_maher

I forgot to add that I'd like to do at least one long ride with my older brother. I've got a route mapped out for us in northern NH that's a little under 80 miles with 4700' of climbing or so. Late July, early August would work out nicely from a training perspective.

Agreed, great thread and a good place for us to keep each other motivated and on track. For me: 1. 2,000 road miles. This is going to be tough since I'm not going to count anything ridden on the trainer this winter, just actually ass-on-pavement miles. I have, in a good year, 7 months of productive riding (April - October). 2. 12-18 good MTB rides. I'm hoping to get 1 a week in but that's unrealistic if I'm going to meet goal #1 and not end up divorced. 3. End this season a little faster over longer distances than I did this year. The record this year was essentially 20mph for 20miles. I don't have a target figure in mind. 4. I want to participate in at least one full century, would like to find a metric century for earlier in the season and maybe ride one day of the Trek Across Maine with a coworker. I'd love to do the whole ride but I don't think I'll have the time to commit to something like that this year. 5. Get 5+ pounds under 200. I cracked the 200lb barrier briefly last year, I'd like to do better this time around. I've had a really hard time finding time and energy to work out lately (been sick off and on since early November and so has most of the family) but I seem to be turning the corner on that front and will hopefully be able to get back on the trainer shortly to not lose every bit of strength/endurance I gained last year.

It was rain all night but appears to be changing over to snow now so we'll see what therest of the day holds. The kids are at daycare so we can try to clean up the post Christmas mess (and relax of course).

I transformed the tractor from summer to winter mode in prep for the 6-10" of white bullshit forecast for tonight.

Very nice review, Tyll.

Merry Christmas, Headcase.

Sweet Jebus, Jeff. They're highly regarded from what I've read, which isn't much. My object of lust is one of the titanium lugged, carbon tube bikes that Independent Fabrication makes. We'll see how many miles I manage to put on the Roubaix is year. The goal is 2,000, which is going to be tough but maybe the light will help with that.

Nice progress, Vicki. Me - got lots of cool bike stuff for Xmas including a new helmet to replace the horrible stinky one from last year and a Niterider 650 light.

Excelent. They're three of my favorite of the year and I thought you'd be likely to dig all 3.

Happy Birthday Guys!!

Thanks Pak.

in my world that's Hop, Skip and go Naked.

Happy Birthday Ken!

Don't know what I'm getting yet but I'm happy for your good fortune CJ.

I'm semi-delinquent in my gift giving, arg! But both exchanges are at least partially in progress despite the queen not sending me her address. Heh, I have my ways and she'll getting a package early next week, hopefully at least part of which will arrive before Xmas.

My S3 updated to 4.1.1 yesterday. Some interesting chagnes, not sure if I like all of them yet but it's nice to see stuff getting pushed out, even if it isn't the latest and greatest.

Yay Vicki!!!! Here's to hoping that you're well and truly on the mend. Like Aerius I wear full fingers because the trails I ride are congested enough that if I didn't my hands would get torn up. I tend to wear either MTB specific shorts with a liner or bike shorts with baggy shorts over the top 'cause that's what I like to do. I have actually found that baggies can be a problem though and will be lookin at other styles for next year's season. I actually picked the Jekyll up from its first tune up yesterday. The shop ended up having to disassmeble the rear suspension arm to correct a shaft that was improperly installed by C'dale. This was evidently at least part of the reason for the clunk that I was experiencing when I first picked it up. Everytime I look at the Jekyll I crack a smile like a kid on Christmas. Can't wait to get back to road and mtb riding in 4 months or so...

I love how I would have pretty much crushed anyone in the first round of the playoffs. That's so typical of how these things go for me.

A bit of searching in the original head-fi thread seems to indicate that the gain of the standard (19J6-based) SSMH is 15 so if you build a balanced version you're going to have a gain of 30 which would be insane.

Honestly, if there's something that you really want but can't find online I would simply engage a proxy to buy it at a local shop, have it partially assembled and then prepped for shipment to you.

The Roubaix has a sloped top tube so the measurements that you're looking at are not going to be the same from bike to bike. I'm pretty much the same size as you maybe an inch taller but the 58 Roubaix is a great fit for me. What sites are you looking at that are telling you you want something in the 53 to 54 size range?

If I remember correctly the gain is pretty substantial and not adjustable on the SSMH so going balanced would not only defeat the purpose but might render the amp useless. I checked Pete's article and can't find a gain spec'd but you might want to look into that issue a bit more before sinking more $$ into the project. One of the more technically inclined here can probably look at the schematic and figure it out for you but I'm not your man for that.

If you rode a 58 and it felt good I can't imagine you feeling anything but cramped on a 54. How tall are and what's your inseam?

Mike, Remember that your riding position, especially seat height will probably be a lot different on your MTB compared to your road bike. I ride with a significantly lower seat heigh on the MTB. Even on a FS bike you don't want to get whacked with a seat when your flying downhill (I need a dropper post, thx for the reminder) and you should be spending a significant amount of time out of the saddle anyway. But it's a nice looking ride and yes, the newer FS bikes are huge. It's crazy how much bigger the Jekyll is than my FS Gary Fisher.

Ebay used to be one of the few sources for the 4-gang Alps pots. I'd avoid the motorized ones unless you really want a motorized pot. If you want I can check at home, I might have a spare 4 channel pot kicking around that I have no plans for that would be reasonably priced.