u/talldean

I live in Pennsylvania; there's two or three Epic pass spots I can drive to pretty easily. Was debating taking some private lessons this winter to skill up, but then looked at what they're charging, and... whoa.

$536 for three hours doesn't seem, ah, reasonable. ($416 for two hours.)

Should I be looking at other resorts, or is that just what they cost now?

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Edit: reloaded page again, and it dropped to $128, which seems *far* more reasonable. Nevermind/website was effed.

Whenever you rent a car, you pick dates, rental company, location(s), and car class. The car class is something like compact, intermediate, full size, etc.

When I do this from Hertz, and fly into SFO, I generally have Hertz Gold... which means they then say "hey, just pick any car from over there". There's a bunch of different cars in that pen.

Is there... any reason in that setup to not pay for the smallest class of car? If you're getting a random pick, what's the incentive to pay more?

(I've given up on Hertz, because I don't *fit* in a random pick; I'm nearly 7' tall, and there's only two or three classes of car I fit into, which is generally "compact SUV" as the preference. But I'm still crazy curious on this one, as their rentals, they're weird?)

I've spent 15 years at FAANG, IC and EM/Director roles. I am at least okay at those jobs.

What I've never in 20+ years is work for a startup, and I'm debating that path in the next few months. Would be hiring a remote US-based eng team to take over a contractor-built prototype, productionize/stabilize it, then grow features over time.

Any best thing I should read or learn on starting from scratch? Is there a book or two on startup CTO roles?

I have a pair of low cut boots that I quite like - they fit, and I can put a lot of distance in them, because they're fairly comfortable. The sides aren't quite stiff enough, though.

I'm debating epoxying a nylon strap around the top of the boot to really lock in the ankles, to make up for the medium stiffness.

Anyone ever added a strap onto an existing boot before?

For the warm up weights, two feature requests.

1. Allow some way to say "just lift the bar". Tons of people do their first warmup set with a 45 lb bar, no load on it, and there's no way to put that in the template, so you have to do manual work every last time you have it add warmup weights.

2. Allow 5% increments, not 10%. Lift-the-bar, 60%, 70%, 85% is my usual warmup... which can't be represented here either, because it's either 80% or 90% but not 85%.

Mods, take this one down if it's not allowed, but also could be interesting to have a weekly for-sale/trade thread.

For sale: I have a pair of Bont Slipstream inline boots, 195mm mounts, size 300mm (EU 47 or 46.5, unsure). White with black trim. I've worn them four times, but yeah, not a fit for me, so selling them.

They're less than a month old, I've heat moulded them twice, once full boot, once just the ankles; as it turns out, my ankles sit high, so these aren't going to mould to fit. My new plan is custom boots.

If anyone wants pics or would be interested, glad to chat. I'm in the US.

I'm gonna go from Pittsburgh to DC, leaving either Monday, or sometime next weekend based mostly on the weather.

What would your call be? :)

Curious if anyone has strong thoughts - and a reason behind 'em - for either getting Suzuki side cases on a V-strom 800, or putting on the Givi V37 side cases.

Suzuki's (the ones that look like the Givis, not the boxy ones) $150 for the bracket, $900 for the bags, $1050 and done.

Givi's $290 for the mount, another $80 if I want to remove the mounts from time to time, and $550 or so for the cases. $820 total.

Hell, SW-Motech, $340 for the pro carrier, $545 for the aero cases. $885.

Which one should I squint hardest at?

Heya, I've owned a bunch of bikes in the past, and half of them have been the 650 V-strom. Best single-bike. ;-)

But I traded the last one, got a BMW S1000XR, and... well, didn't love it. I liked the cruise control, but the seat was worse, the engine cooked my legs, maintenance was high, expensive, and at a shop 100+ miles away, and the thing was loud, while I didn't ever need the full horsepower that bike put out. So yeah, I learned here that cruise control is nice.

Hurt my neck, sold the bike, and... well, fixed the neck, so looking for a new bike. If I had unlimited budget and time to ride, K1600LT or a Goldwing, but I do not have either unlimited budget or time.

So I'm squinting at the V-strom again. The 800 is entirely new to me. I'm trying to figure out 650 vs 800. I'm 6'8" and 250 lbs; my weight wasn't ever a problem on the 650. I ride 2-up maybe 5% of the time, and yeah, that was rough on the 650.

What should I be thinking about on this one?