CBBaron

Glad you got it fixed.

Running with a chain to tight will prematurely wear the chain, sprockets and bearings. 

Get your owners manual out and read it. Basic maintenance items like the chain and oil you should know how to do yourself. Its easy, doesnt take much time nor tools. Probably could be handled with the included tool kit in a pinch.

Craig

My wife is actually considering making our own food for the guy. I'm not too sure about this idea - so if anyone has any thoughts on it let me know. She's been doing some reading up, and you can actually end up saving some money and also get to know the protein quality (chicken/turkey/whatever) that goes into the grub. Anyway, interested to hear if anyone knows anything about this.

My pup gets raw. I read up a bunch on the nutrition requirements and put together a pretty easy fairly balanced diet. But she is a small terrier so food costs are low no matter what she eats.

I get whole chickens from Costco for about half her meals and a small variety of organs and meats from hare-today.com for variety and extra nutrition. Its fun watching an 8lb puppy crunch through a whole raw chicken leg. Amazing the power in those tiny jaws. Shes about 16lb now (18months).

With a large breed dog you have to be extra careful about your calcium ratios to ensure they grow at a good pace. Also keep them lean!!!

Craig

repost

Your picture orientation is doing nothing for the guy

He looks lean for a lab or pit, I'm guess its some other mix entirely. Unless you know the pedigree it can be hard to tell. 

Very nice looking dog. I love the look of those with the sleek black hair (even if it does photograph brown ). 

I'm sorry I cant help with a home as the wide wont let me and the daughter is allergic

So how big is he? Looks pretty small.

Good luck.

Craig 

I can do big bike rides (gravel and unmaintained roads) but the Strom is not a trail bike, especially in my hands

I would be interested in riding occasionally if most of the rides didnt start 3 hours of slab from my house

Craig 

Sooo who wants to trade me a TE

nothing available on my roster.

I like the 3/4 length jackets for the pockets and coverage (Im tall so regular jackets barely cover my belt) however I dont think they are significantly warmer.

Heated gear is where its at. Gloves first then jacket or vest. Much less bulk than insulation and all day comfort in cold temps. 

Craig

fixed it for ya.....

 

Northern Michigan's roads aren't as bad as down south, must be the amount of traffic.  Nice to know about Pa tho, was planning on a ride up that way.  Bad roads take most of the fun out of it for sure. 

I disagree, bad roads make for a more interesting ride. 

Thats why I ride a Strom and search out the gravel and unmaintained roads

Depends on what you wanted to out into it but for a cheap fixed fork it's 70ish , prolly another 70 is you do what Craig suggested. I'd suggest taking to a bike shop and having a good cleaning and adjustment done ~100. Pedals -$20 If you can't do repairs yourself your paying a bike shop so there's a few more dollars

Then again if it moves when you pedal it and stops and your just using it for paved paths who cares just ride it as is.

Um ... Its missing a crank arm.

Thats the part I was saying needed fixed. I do that kind of work myself so not sure the costs for a shop. But assuming you need a new BB and crank its $30 - $150 depending on quality.

Another $10+ for pedals and its rideable. 

If you want to do the work yourself get a basic tool set like this.

http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product_10053_10052_524452_-1___202586

cheap pedals http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product_10053_10052_174917_-1___202530

Craig

understood, im going to look @ rapelist as well, see if i can find a deal on a used bike. I'm trying to be a cheap ass lol

 

for example: http://columbus.craigslist.org/bik/4023032779.html

 

I can swap ou the break cable myself, not sure about shock adjustment tho

Full suspension just adds weight, parts to break and robs power for a paved trail ride. Cheap suspension is worthless for anything.

That Rock Hopper would be a decent bike for trail or even light off-road, once its fixed up. 

Looks like it will need a new crank arm and likely a new bottom bracket (bearings the cranks attach to). These both require special tools to install, though the tools are not expensive. 

A rigid or front only suspension is what you want to look for. Hyrid (700c) or comfort (26") bikes are good choices for paved and gravel trails.

Lots of good choices out there used. 

Avoid Huffy, Murray, Mongoose, or any other brand you would find at Walmart or Target. Old Schwinns are OK newer models range from junk to decent.

Trek, Giant, Jamis, and Specialized are all pretty good. Lots of other brands in both lists, dont be afraid to ask.

Craig

For the little trail riding I do I just went to dicks and got a diamond back hard tail with disk brakes. It is a little aggressive for bike path riding but works. It has handled my fat ass in the woods without breaking so far. I might have to get my front shocks upgraded though as they bottom out under bigger drops and small jumps. But I think most cheaper bikes are not going to be rated for my weight in the shock area. LOL! Do they make shocks for 240-250 pounds?

Probably not a bad suggestion. 

And yes you can get forks for your weight, no problem. Any of the decent adjustable forks should be able to accommodate. But you are probably looking at the $500+ forks. Nothing you are going to find on an entry level bike. Probably best to upgrade to bike if you are interested in off-road. A decent bike will make significant difference in your fun off-road.

Craig

My girlfriend and I r considering getting bikes, price range is $100-150 per bike (prob used) unless anybody can attempt to talking me into justifying spending $200-300+ on a new one. We have about 8-10 miles of trails where I live. I prefer a hybrid bike, with at least a front shock. I'm not to knowledgeable in this area beyond that.

 

I was able to find this on Amazon - but it seems to be too good of a deal to be true - and now that Schwinn sells their bikes at Wal-Mart, I question their quality.

http://www.amazon.com/Schwinn-Protocol-Dual-Suspension-Mountain-26-Inch/dp/B001IANSJ6/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=3Q4XO3VNRL250&coliid=I57OLZRXVM4L1&psc=1

 

 

I am going to go look around at a few local bike shops today to see if they have any deals. Any helpful suggestions are highly appreciated.

 

Do not get "full" suspension. 

 

At that price range the suspension is mostly for looks and "feature" set. It will be much more effective in bouncing you up and down and robbing the power you are trying to put into the pedals.

"hybrid" bikes usually refer to bike path bikes. They are mainly targeted as comfortable, easy to ride bikes for smooth paved or gravel trails. 

I would suggest a decent used hardtail MTB would be a good place to start for off-road trails. Entry level models will be in the $400 range, so you may find so older used versions at half that.

 

Craig

 

Isn't that a single shot black powder rifle?  I would imagine that 99 out of 100 shoppers at walmart couldn't load and fire that gun if their life depened on it.  Even with all of that non-black powder ammo sitting on the shelves.  ;-)

I think you way over estimate the average Walmart shopper.

So why is it "Ohio Rally 13 feet" (usually 2013 is abbreviated as '13)

Looks like fun. I think circleville would be a hoot in any class.

Craig

Some good suggestions for wineries. My preference is Debonne winery (7743 doty road madison oh) which also includes Cellar Rats Brewery. Sweet wines for the wife and good microbrew for me.

Grand River Cellars on 528 in Madison/Thompson had a nice outdoor patio for dining and usually has live music on the weekends.

Craig

I'm not understanding how it creates traction for cars, but removes traction for motorcycles. It gives a place for water to run off and allows the tires to stay dryer. This principal of physics doesn't care what form of motorized conveyance you happen to be piloting. Traction is traction.

It improves traction for cars under very wet conditions. But makes bikes handle oddly under all conditions. 

Im sure it probably improves traction for bikes in heavy rain also, but not many bikes are hitting these curves under those conditions.

And its probably true that ODOT doesnt care much about bikes. We make up a small percentage of the traffic and there is not enough stats to show whether the grooves help or hurt. They probably reduce the accident rate of bikes also as riders slow due to the odd handling. ODOT could care less about making a nice curve for us to ride

Craig

50Gb is nothing these days. There are plenty of thumb drives, SD cards and other devices that can handle that kind of data. As mentioned above for portable use get a flash drive. Thumb drives are probably the cheapest and most flexible.

Back up your files at home with an external hard drive. Now you have two copies and pretty good insurance against a loss.

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2

How many do you have signed up?

I might be interested if you still have room?

Craig

making it mandatory to not be able to work your phone while in the car is dumb. public beatings and humiliation for causing a wreck while fucking with your phone, on the other hand, is much preferred and should be sold as PPV.

Agree,

The only time I even think of picking up my phone while in the car is when I'm in the passenger seat. 

And that is often on long family trips where I want to have the option to check email, txt messages, where to stop for lunch, etc. I do not want to be locked out just because I am moving.

Our in dash nav system already locks me out even though a passenger can easily operate it, and that is my biggest complaint about it. Luckily I can usually access my phone to do the tasks I would prefer to use the nav for.

Doing any of these things as a driver is just stupid, and very selfish!!!!

Sweet looking bike.

No funds or room for this or I would consider. 

GLWS

Craig

negative, you need a stator that will runs lights.  which will be another $250+

$100 from this site.

http://doctorenduro.com/index.php?main_page=dual_sport_conversion_honda_baja_kit

Seems like it is $600 for the kit including stator.

Craig

Chain life heavily depends on maintenance and use. Ride only on dry days and lube every 500 miles it will last a long time. Ride lots of dirt roads and in all kinds of weather with the occasional lube and you might be replacing the chain with the oil

Mine is closer to the later

Craig

But I do want to avoid building a $2,000 XR100...  I'll have to do some research on how much the street parts would actually cost.  If it's under $500 in modifications, i am confident I can find another $500 XR100 to mess with.

Baja designs kits are about $500 if you want plug and play. I think that includes about everything needed, but I havn't put one together yet. You can probably do much better if you want to build your own system. 

Craig

I have been thinking of doing the same to an XR100 or similar bike. I think it would be a fun little city and play bike. But even rural highways are going to be scary on something that small.

Old Ninja 250 s are not hard to find cheap and are about the smallest cheap bike that will do 80+ mph.

Dual sports always seem to command higher prices than other similar street or off-road bikes. If you need 80+ then KLX250s, WR250R, DRZ400 or CRF250L are the smallest ready made dual sports. The DRZ is probably the easiest to find cheap as its the oldest but as noted they usually are not very cheap.

Craig

Leasing works if you drive a reasonable yearly mileage and want to always have a new car.

Buying a used car and/or keeping the same car for 10+ years will be better financially for you.

However there is something to be said for getting a new car every 3 years and having all repairs covered under warrentee.

Ofcourse buying a depreciating asset is going to cost you money, but so will leasing that asset. The leasing companies are out to make money so that means you could do better by buying and saving their profit for yourself. However if you are talking a new car every 3 years you are going to have to work to do better than the lease. 

Craig