Just bought this used on marketplace and it has some terrible pedals on it so I need an upgrade, however I’m not sure what color I should do if any, so I figured I’d just ask for opinions on what would probably look good, side note the paint is metallic and almost turns purple from different angles in the sunlight so I had initially considered purple pedals
Last month I posted here recruiting for my PhD study developing an acute and chronic scale measuring mental fatigue in sport. First off, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who took the time to fill it out. The responses have been brilliant and a few of the comments made me see the problem through a different lens, especially as my background is in climbing and weightlifting so seeing it from a runners perspective was really helpful. A few people also asked how the questionnaire was put together and what this round is doing, and I should have laid that out from the start. Full references are in a separate comment below.
Where the items came from
The scale is being developed following Boateng et al.'s (2018) framework for scale development, which is a detailed primer explaining how to develop and validate scales in behavioural and health science. The starting point was a wide search of the literature. I pulled items from two main sources: 16 measures of mental fatigue and mental load used in the general adult population (identified through Diaz-Garcia et al.'s 2021 systematic review), and 19 measures used in sport-specific contexts (identified through my own systematic scoping review of mental fatigue and mental load measurement tools in sport. I am looking to publish this soon). On top of that I added items developed from my readings of six papers that describe how athletes experience mental fatigue and what drives it (Van Cutsem et al., 2017; Martin et al., 2018; Pattyn et al., 2018; Russell et al., 2019; Gantois et al., 2020; Habay et al., 2021). That gave me a pool of 462 items.
Those 462 items went through a deductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) at the latent level to identify the underlying domains, which reduced the pool to 105 items. During a team review with my supervisors, it became clear there were two distinct constructs that needed separating: acute mental fatigue (the momentary state right now, before or after a session) and chronic mental fatigue (the longer pattern that builds over weeks and months). The five themes that came out of the analysis were inputs contributing to mental fatigue, motivation, perception of effort, decisional balance, and the influence of mental fatigue on behaviour.
Expert review with subject matter experts
The next step was getting six subject matter experts to review every item. The panel was deliberately mixed: researchers in mental fatigue, an exercise physiologist, a cognition specialist, someone with scale development expertise, a professional coach, and an athlete as end-users. Putting athletes on the panel was important, because items that make perfect sense to experts can land badly when you try to use them in a training context. Each item was rated on appropriateness, representativeness, and clarity using Hardesty and Bearden's (2004) sum-score decision rule, and items that didn't make the cut got removed. Some items were reworded based on expert feedback (for example, "tiredness" was changed to "fatigue" across several items to keep the construct clean). That process left 43 items for acute and 51 for chronic, which is what's currently being distributed.
What this round is doing
This round is about dimensionality and item reduction phase. The data from everyone who fills it in goes into an exploratory factor analysis, which takes that wide item pool and works out which items group together and load cleanly onto meaningful factors, then cuts the ones that don't. The finalised scale is a much shorter and captures the underlying structure without the redundancy. The goal is well under 20 items total across both acute and chronic. Although I am at the mercy of the analysis as to what the final number will be.
As such the current length isn't an accident. Starting wide and cutting based on real participant data is the only way to do this properly. But I'm fully aware that it makes the experience heavier than the final tool will be, and that's a trade-off I'm asking participants to accept to achieve high rigour.
I received feedback that some items felt unclear or hard to map onto their own experience. I want to be upfront that this is useful information. Items that don't sit naturally with athletes tend to be exactly the ones that don't load cleanly in factor analysis. So, they should be removed through this process naturally.
What comes after
Once the analysis is complete and the scale is reduced, there's one more round after this focused on validation, looking at concurrent validity (does the new scale correlate with established measures of mental fatigue) and test-retest reliability (does it produce stable results across time). I'll be writing this round up as a paper either way, and I'll come back here with a summary including which items survived and what the final scale looks like. Happy to answer questions in the comments on the methodology or mental fatigue research in general too.
For anyone who hasn't filled it in yet, the link is below. It takes 10-15 minutes to complete and will help us get 1 step closer to understanding how work impacts the sport we love.
https://derby.questionpro.eu/t/AB3vCJoZB3waVr
Cheers.
Cam
My MTB bicycles can use some new street tires, the old MTB tires have some dry rot.
These bikes are all 26" MTB from about the 90's; so far i figured out that a folding tire is good about 1.9". i am not tooo fussy as this is just pleasure riding and exercise for me, so nothing high end necessary.
The only decision i need to make is Big Box store or from Amazon; seems Amazon has a good selection of folding types...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0F5HPBXQ2/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08QZFR57Q/
these are just some that MAY be good, along with zillions of others. anyone try this recently? brands to look at or something missing that we may need to know concerning street tires on old MTB?
Mullet link, new wheels and tires, new shorter cranks.
Recently, I’ve been searching for a good pain of mountain bike shoes. I take a size 13 wide and was concerned about a tight toe box. Read about the Lems and how people said they have a natural feel. I took the chance and ordered a pair of the Moss as my size was back in stock last week. They arrived Friday and when I tried them on, they were super comfortable. Went for a quick ride in the neighborhood (street ride) and they felt great. I was using just regular sneakers before these. Went out on Saturday for a 10 mile ride. My feet were comfortable, secure, and were not hot (it was 101°). I’ve read that people were concerned about the soles and how they would be on flat pedals. I thought they gripped the pedals really well. Much better than the Nike’s I was using. Went out again today for a 7 mile ride and my feet still felt great. My last pair of mountain bike shoes were clipless Adidas shoes when I had clipless pedals. Glad I went with the Lems. Just wanted to share in case anyone else was thinking about these shoes.
Are there any experts that can tell me exactly what they think this frame is? Feels great, just no branding on it.
Stumpy S5 with the 650 lb coil because I'm a large person.
Was riding today when i thought about this idea for a mountainbike gearbox. It uses a cassette and a gear, but instead of a derailleur the upper gear(middle axle) moves along a splined axle to shift. The power flow would go through the pedal input->cassette->chain->upper gear->belt drive->output axle->output gear. Output axle is attached to emotor.
My goal with this design is to:
make a design that isnt as heavy as the pinion gearboxes,
has the motor connected directly to the rear wheel without a ratchet(the ratchet would be between somehere between the middle axle and the output axle), thereby allowing for regenerative braking or slowing down with the motor reducing brakepad wear on long decents.
Moving the weight to the center
Belt drive to the rear wheel
Fully enclosed to protect from debri and allowing oil bath
Feel free to comment if youve seen a similar solution somewhere else or if you have any thoughts about this
Sorry for the ugly drawing, i dont have my usual technical drawing setup since im not at uni atm.
Looking at picking up a Transition Smuggler Alloy. How is everyone’s experience with the Psylo fork? Debating between this bike or an Ibis Ripley AF with a base Pike fork, and the new Deore drive train. I am getting hung up on the budget entry level Psylo fork and can’t pull the trigger. But I can get the Smuggler for $2950. Where as the Ripley AF is $3599
Is it worth trying to get this tool? Will it make the at-home repair that much better compared to just trying an adjustable wrench and a piece of metal? I don't really care if I can't run tubeless in the wheel or not, I just want to be able to get air in the tire and get riding again with dropping money on a new wheel or trying to restring my own, even if that means throwing a tube in it
Is this worth $1800? USD What would you pay? Seller says it’s a 2016 which doesn’t seem accurate. Any guesses on year?
Fuel ex 8 medium frame.
Decided to go for a ride today even though it is hot here in Maryland. Passed a guy biking with a dog running behind him who was clearly panting and not happy. Thought to myself what an idiot but not much beyond that. About 5 minutes later I came across this girl clearly suffering from heat exhaustion. I gave her some water but she physically couldn't get up. It was impractical for me to carry her out due to how far out she was.
Called animal control and the park rangers whom I met at the trail head. They were able to get to her before anything worse happened. The owner got a hold of me who was the guy earlier on the bike, but he has to deal with animal control before getting his dog back. For God's sake use some common sense when bringing your dog out biking, hiking, running, or even letting them outside when the weather is hotter then hell.
Hi everyone,
I’m completely new to mountain biking, but I’m keen to get into it properly. Because of that I’d rather buy a used MTB than spend ~£60 every time I rent one for the day.
I’m pretty set on getting a Voodoo Bizango since it seems to be one of the most recommended beginner bikes (and one of the cheaper options).
My issue is sizing. According to charts I should be an XL, but most used bikes I’m finding on Facebook Marketplace are Large.
For context:
So I’m wondering if a Large frame could still work for me, given my proportions, or if I should hold out for an XL.
Any advice from people who’ve been in a similar situation would be really appreciated.
Is this a good MTB? I’m new to mtb and I currently have a XC, I have Scott Scale. I have a bike park near me with both downhill and trails. And I feel my current bike is holding me back.