It's fall and it snowed today. I've been riding 80-107 Km every Sunday all summer and today I can't. I'm losing my mind sitting here looking out the window at the snow and not riding. I've got a great fitness base built up and I don't want to lose it over winter.

I hate spin bikes because a) the pedals are fixed to the flywheel so you can't stop pedalling like you can on a real bike and b) I find the resistance to feel fake compared to a real bike and the load doesn't automatically adjust as you go up a hill or down.

So... I'm thinking of building a trainer bike to ride during the winter. I'll base it on a Schwinn Spinner Pro, which uses chain drive. Instead of using the flywheel, I'll install an eBike hub motor on the frame and use VESC to control the load.  The motor hub will have a freewheel on it so the hub can spin while the pedals are stationary.

I'll tie system into Google Maps or another cycling route app so that I can cycle a route and have the VESC controller vary the load according to my speed, incline, etc.

I'm an EE. I do a lot of embedded controls work.

I've got a rear wheel stationary trainer that I dislike using.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions or advice for my project ?

Thanks

I'm having a very hard time getting Brave (the browser) to run properly on F44, Plasma, Wayland, Nvidia 580 drivers and GTX 1070 or 1080 video cards.

I'd love to hear from someone who has it working properly.

Thanks

$ dnf list brave-browser
brave-browser.x86_64 1.94.117-1 brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com_x86_64_

$ dnf list akmod-nvidia
akmod-nvidia.x86_64 3:610.57.04-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates

$ kinfo
Operating System: Fedora Linux 44
KDE Plasma Version: 6.7.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.29.0
Qt Version: 6.11.1
Kernel Version: 7.0.14-201.fc44.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 32 × AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT 16-Core Processor
Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (62.7 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

I know it says X11... I'm running in X11 right now because I've had so many issues in Wayland.

I need a running compact SUV hauled to Calgary before the middle of Sept.

PM me if you are interested in doing it.

Thanks

We've recently hiked King Creek and Sarrail Ridge. Both of these hikes have some steep dirt sections that go straight up the face of the inclination. We navigated them up and down without issue but saw other people struggling on them.

The trail often gets pretty wide and worn in these steep sections as people search for easy(ier) routes up and down. This makes the trail susceptible to water erosion during rain events, which further damages the trail.

What I am curious about is why these trail sections don't have switchbacks instead of the straight up route. Take Sarrail Ridge, for example... the far lake route goes straight up a drainage channel in an avalanche path. Meanwhile, a hundred meters to the right of that route (when going up) is what looks to be an open area with plenty of room to make a switchback route up the face. Doing so would require digging a ledge into the face.

Is Sarrail Ridge an "official" hike ? If so, who decided that the current route was the best one ?

What would stop a small army of volunteers from creating (digging) a new, switchback trail to get to the ridge ? Would it be illegal to do so ? Whom would one ask about doing such a thing ?

Thanks

We hiked Sarrail Ridge yesterday, Wednesday, August 19th. The lower rope on the roped section is in very bad condition.

The outer sheathing on the lower rope has completely worn through where it goes over a piece of tree, leaving the inner cords completely exposed. It is only a matter of time before the inner cords wear through as well and the rope fails. Furthermore, the outer sheathing on many ropes provides UV protection for the inner cords, which are not UV resistant.

The lower rope should be replaced before it breaks, possibly injuring someone. I can't make it back to Sarrail anytime soon but I would contribute money to purchase a rope to replace the existing one.

The upper rope is in OK condition but ends a couple meters before the lower rope. It would be better if the upper rope was a bit longer and also a bit thicker, but it works for now.

On another note... I was surprised (shocked) at the number of people not wearing proper hiking shoes coming down from the ridge and many with no poles as well. Sarrail is a very steep hike above the roped section and doing it in running shoes and no poles probably makes it 5x harder than with proper equipment.

Clarification: by not proper hiking shoes I mean they are wearing street or court shoes or a non hiking runner.

One of the people coming down the trail said they saw a man take a pretty big/bad fall earlier in the day. Stay safe out there !

It was an absolutely perfect/gorgeous day yesterday at Sarrail, except for a bit of haze. We live in a beautiful country.

Brave seems to have a new behaviour - when I open Brave, it (sometimes) closes the URL I had open and displays a message asking if I want to reopen that URL. I have about 10 seconds to OK the message and then it disappears, losing the URL that I had open.

The text at the top of the message box is "Get back your most recent tab".

I find this an extremely annoying behaviour. If I want to close the URL I had opened, I'll close it myself !

I think Brave does this so that it can display the Brave opening page, with the Privacy Stats and advertise the Brave Rewards.

https://preview.redd.it/dz4tk1zyt7kh1.png?width=955&format=png&auto=webp&s=82183f9b1536b38248634493ca999d052432c727

I bought a new pair of Keen Voyageur hiking shoes a few weeks ago. They are fantastic as far as comfort and grip are concerned but the sole is beginning to become delaminated from the rest of the shoe. I've done 6 hikes for about 6000m of elevation with them. A quick search on Amazon reveals that other people have the same issue with these shoes.

My previous shoe was a Scarpa with a pretty hard Vibram sole on them. They held up pretty well but don't have anywhere near the traction the Keens have on steep/loose surfaces. I feel like Spiderman in the Keens. I'd like a shoe with similar grip that will last.

What brand/model of hiking shoe are people using and how are they holding up ?

Thanks.

*15th, not 14th.

I'm looking for a good hike for tomorrow, Saturday, August 15th. Something that won't be too muddy or greasy after the rain.

I've recently done Nahahi, King Creek, Wasootch Ridge, Galatea Lakes and Wind Ridge.

Suggestions ?

Right now our short list is Lady MacDonald, Grotto and Prairie Mountain.

How slippery would Lady Mac be ?

I'm taking a friend hiking tomorrow, Saturday, Aug 1, 2026. Calgary is supposed to go to 32C. Banff only to 24C.

Can someone recommend a good medium difficulty (~700m) hike near Banff or away from the heat of Calgary ?

Thanks

My beloved Scarpa Zen hiking/approach shoes have reached the end of their life. The soles are literally worn through and I've glued the toe back together twice now. I need to replace them.

Where do Calgary people buy hiking shoes these days ? I'm a MEC member from way back but I'm loathe to support them because I lost a bunch of share money owed to me when they were bought out during COVID.

Has anyone bought shoes online and can recommend the vendor ? I'd like to support a local Calgary business but almost nobody stocks a size 13 Men's shoe these days.

Advice ?

Thanks

Why can't AliExpress implement a proper search function that works on phrases ?

Right now if you put a phrase into the search box it returns all the matches for both words, individually. Total PITA. Am I missing something ? Is there a way to search for phrases on AliExpress ?

I'd like to give a shout out to all the weekend cyclists cycling west of Calgary on Highway 8, 22, Old Banff Coach Road, etc.

It's great to see everyone out riding with big smiles on their faces, enjoying the fantastic weather.

Kudos to the community for how helpful everyone is if they see someone pulled over on the side of the road.

I'd also like to thank the motorists for driving in a safe and respectful manner when they pass cyclists.

Ride on !

Edit

For those not aware, there are some great roads for cycling west of Calgary. Many people are out cycling to Bragg Creek, Springbank Airport, Springbank Road and just around in general. For those wanting to partake, the journey generally begins at Old Banff Coach Road and 85th Ave SW.

I was using a polygon as a construction object to create a polar hole pattern. The nice thing about using a polygon is that I could re dimension the construction circle and the diameter of the hole pattern changed in one operation.

As outlined in another thread in this sub, I found a bug with using a polygon so now I am using a polar pattern in a sketch.

The polar pattern in sketch works and it puts my hole circles in the correct position. But how do I (easily) adjust the hole pattern diameter if I want to change it later on ?

The only solution I see is to delete the existing pattern and regenerate a new one. Is this correct or am I missing something ?

Another issue I have with the sketch polar pattern is that even if I have my original object fully constrained and I select "Apply equal constraints", the resulting generated copies in the pattern are not constrained. Am I missing something ?

I'm probably much better to do this in Part Design than in Sketch.

Thanks

Update

I did my polar patterns in Part Design.

https://preview.redd.it/yoituv9s7hdh1.png?width=767&format=png&auto=webp&s=cb3eae45968aaa68fd669ebf69a7b45e114ec7b5

I am creating a hole pattern with 10 4mm holes on a 51mm dia. I am doing this by creating a polygram as a construction object and placing the hole circles on the vertices of the polygram.

https://preview.redd.it/upvg46cegadh1.png?width=1533&format=png&auto=webp&s=9908b2f84fe84896095d8b240fd9aa006e725f58

To place a circle on a polygram vertice, I select the vertice and the center of the circle and then Make Coincident from the Sketcher toolbar.

It works for the few couple circles but once in a while it will delete a vertices or two from the polygon (10 to 8, for example) or it will delete the entire polygon.

If I undo the operation with Ctrl Z and try and untry a few times eventually it works.

Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug ?

Update

Submitted this. https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/issues/31355

I have some complicated sketches. I'd love to be able to annotate a sketch with a note that reminds me where dimensions come from, etc. The note would be ignored when the sketch is used for geometry purposes.

Right now I go back and forth between my sketches and my design notes. It would be great to have notes consolidated right in the sketch.

Is there a way to do this ?

Does anyone else see the value in doing this ?

Update

https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeCAD/comments/1uwgs83/feedback_on_my_addition_of_notes_to_sketches/