Froze said:Bob what TI bike do you have, because my Lynskey is not flexy at the bottom bracket and drivetrain, nor is it torsional flexy, but it rides comfortably so maybe on the vertical aspect it probably flexes.
I do get big write offs but I also have big expenses, one of my buildings now has a water leak UNDER the slab I just found out yesterday. The water is not getting into anyone's apartments but I couldn't figure out why the one 4 unit section was using salt (for the softener) 3 times faster then the other 4, and they both have the same number of people, in fact the front 4 that doesn't use the salt as much all have washers and dryers for each unit, while the back 4 do not. So I checked around thought I found the problem with a leaking outside valve but that wasn't the issue, especially when I later found out that the outside valve didn't pass through the softener! So I then checked for leaking faucets and toilets and there were none, so I called the softener guys and they were the ones that said I have a leak probably underground! So I called a plumber and he agreed, now we have to find it and figure out the cost, but it may be a huge cost, the plumber seems to think the insurance company will pay for it? I don't know so I have to call them on Monday to see.
So just like my previous business I sold, all businesses have their ups and downs, but overall this rental business will do better than anything I could have done with an IRA or a 401K. Plus the value of stocks in mutual funds can go up and down. I knew people in 2008 who were retired living off their 401k's (plus SS of course) had to go back to work because their funds weren't enough to support them after the collapse...and that was just a small collapse! Imagine a large one!! Worse comes to worse, I can sell the buildings, put the proceeds into some mutual funds and live off the interest, maybe not as much money to live on as the rents would pay, but I wouldn't be uncomfortable either, but then there's that risk of a market crash that does make me uncomfortable. Whatever I do it's going to be a gamble, but I think the rental business is less risky, not free of risk but less then mutual funds. For right now and for the foreseeable future it's rental property for income.
He doesn't have a ti bike and never did. His rides are all on a video game. Like it is a big deal to do the Death Ride in California. Except for the altitude, the actual climbing isn't that hard. The length is the problem but if you start when you're supposed to there's no problem. All of the guys swaggering around with Death Ride jerseys or jackets are the newbies. Our club used to do round Lake Tahoe every single year. Up until they started acting like jackasses we also used to do a little more than 100 miles from here to Aptos and back the next day. Seattle Portland is I think 220 miles and you'd start in the dark so that you could do the entire double in one day. Two years ago our club did an alternate route for the Best of the Bay and the double had 8,000 feet of climbing I think. But PansyBob gets his information from bicycle magazines.
Normal riders wouldn't think that a titanium alloy bike is flexible. I had an Oval Master Colnago and no one could call that flexible and the pro teams that used it only complained that it was a little heavy (less than a lb I think)
I went to l'Alpe d'Huez for Armstrong's fifth win and the second he started talking about riding it on a video game I knew he was just another phony.
Since I have had a serious concussion long after I wrote that paper I know that your "medical authorities" were full of it as well. A large group of us were pulling off of a bicycle path and going through a parking lot. The guy next to me said that my speedo magnet was making noise so I bent over to adjust it. My head wasn't 2 feet off of the ground when that carbon fiber fork exploded apart and dropped me just that 2 feet. I was knocked out for over 5 minutes. The bones in my brow ridge were broken right through the helmet. And I had the worst sort of concussion you can have though thankfully it wasn't in the hemisphere that would injure my thought processes.
When Bell was developing the helmet I went to their facility and they showed me what they were doing. They explained everything and we worked out the figures of what they were doing. Do you understand that? These devices are designed to protect the skull and my skull was cracked from a 2 foot fall. The modern standard is that they ONLY protect the weight of your head in a 6 foot fall. If there is any weight of your body behind it they are useless. When was the last time you hit your head in a fall that didn't carry some body weight behind it? They are not designed to prevent concussion and there's no way they can design one to do so. Such a helmet would be wider than your shoulders.
So your "medical authorities" have statistical evidence that has been tainted with improved reporting and bad statistics from earlier assumptions.
I have said this before - you should wear a helmet, but just because it protects from minor injuries in the most common forms of bicycle accidents - simple fall-offs that do not involve a motor vehicle. If you are hit by a car doing 35 mph you have a one in four chance of surviving. If you are hit by a car doing 45 or more you're dead. That lady that pulled though the stop sign hit me at less than 10 mph. It broke all of the components on the bike, bent the frame slightly and broke my helmet and gave me tons of road rash as I rolled off of the top of her hood and sore muscles for two weeks. My toenail is only half grown in. And you think that an inch and a half of Styrofoam is going to save your life?
