New England B.S. Thread

Oh I know, I have a 2011 TRD Rock Warrior with am aFe super stock intake, and Corsa catback with black tips. Sounds awesome, gas mileage right now isn't so great.

Proof that it isn't always a shit show, but not the greatest

 

That's not a bad average for the 5.0 on Fuelly. With my '13, I was at 17-18 commuting but could push up to almost 20 if I was careful. That was the 5.0 with the 6 speed. I started dropping the economy because I added a cap, carried tools, swapped to 20" wheels, etc. I think I was 15-16 MPG by the time I traded it in. The 5.0 was a fun engine to drive though, especially after I tuned it. I doubt the tune added any power since it's a naturally aspirated engine, but it took the lag out of the gas pedal and gave the tranny a wake up call so it would actually stay in the proper gear. Made it more fun to drive around town and much better towing.

 

Yeah I mean the way I see it, all the data on fuelly is at least enough that it takes all that stuff into account on both vehicles to get a good comparison. If you're loaded down with 500lbs of tools, you know that you will have worse MPG but you'll get just as much worse on both - I really like that site.

If I had a full size, it would have been a 5.0 F150 with the 6 speed without a second thought. But after bouncing the tacoma around the trails a bit, I'm happy I have that ability

 

That was the primary reason I didn't go with a Tundra. I was seriously considering a double cab TRD Off Road Limited. It would have been roughly the same price as my F-150. But, I drive 25,000 miles per year and a Tundra would have been over $100/month more in fuel costs.

 

Jealous. I've been relegated to one 35# kettlebell, weight vest, and a bikeerg. Plus jump rope obviously. Been doing lots of running/ burpees/ pushups. Lots of 10K bike erg with every minute or every 2 minutes on the minute bodyweight or kettlebell stuff mixed in. I miss a barbell.

 

That's not a bad setup. Everyone has been posting little equipment workouts to do at home. Pat Sherwood's personal IG if full of workouts right now. Comptrain has been posting some good ones too. I did the United in Movement workouts last week, they were pretty good but I think I am spoiled by Linchpin's programming.

I have a rack, barbell, 260#s of bumper plates, DBs up to 35. I'm looking to upgrade the rack and barbell to Rogue ones since right now they are just cheapo Dicks Sporting Goods ones, but they definitely get the job done. Also looking to get a C2 rower.

 

Fellow StarWars fans: My daughter spent her day painting the picture below on a 10x8 canvas board. She’s a freshman at URI and asked me to post and see if anyone was interested in purchasing it. Does $50 + shipping sound fair?

 

I did the Sherwood OG 400M run, 20 burpess, 400m run, 19 burpess...down to one burpee vested. Its just about an hour of terrible cardio. His stuff is good. So simple, super difficult.

We got the bikeerg a few months ago to use when we couldn't make it to the gym and to do 2/3 a days to train for the 100 mile trail race me and a bunch of my idiot friends were supposed to do before it got cancelled.

Been doing lots of kettlebell one arm OHS squats cause my shoulder mobility is terrible, so hopefully it improves by the end of this nonsense.

You can do just about everything with 260# of plates besides deadlift a decent weight. That's pretty legit and makes me jealous. Our gym loaned out equipment for free for the duration of this stupidity, but i got stuff in the lottery i basically already have instead of the barbells and plates I wanted.

 

Yeah I can do everything with the stuff I have. I'm less of a skeletor runner that I was last year, but still a skeletor runner. Yesterday was 6 rounds of pull ups, squat cleans and push jerks and I was only using 85# on them. Could've upped it to 95# but missed the speed that was intended in the workout.

 

Anyone up for the midnight bike run for the boston marathon? I've never done it, just learned about it actually. Hope to have my gravel bike set up by then!

 

What is it? I was going to guess the marathon route, but then you mentioned a gravel bike.

 

Yes it's the marathon route.

....To get into my bike history....

I had 7 bikes. Sold off a few. Never used my road bike - have a dog now, it feels wrong to go out for a 2 hour bike ride and leave my puppy cattle dog at home without getting exercise, so I pitched that. I don't want to do 25 miles on a mountain bike, and plan to get a gravel bike (no suspension, 1 by, etc) which is kind of an "in between" from a mountain bike and road bike. I want to use it to go to and from work sometimes, and I do run with the dog (I hold the leash and bike, she runs alongside or in front), so there's enough times I'm on the road and don't want to wear and tear the MTB, and don't want to have the road-use drag and weight of a hard tail. So, I will soon be getting a "gravel bike", which will be my most street-worthy bicycle.

 

Gotcha. I'm in a similar boat. I have a full suspension mtn bike, a hard tail 27+ bike and a hybrid bike that has the skinny road slicks but a mountain bike style seating position, no curled handlebars but comfortable to put some miles on. None of mine are high dollar bikes, just purchased for the need at the time.

 

Is KHS a decent brand? My ex left it behind when she moved. Looks like a 29" mountain bike with skinny road tires on it.

 

My 7 bike stash:
1. Giant Road Bike Defy
2. Motobecane Road Bike old school, rat bike basically, got it in college to ride
3. Motobecane gravel bike (I already have one!?)
4. Motobecane 29er MTB hardtail - love this thing
5. Hoffman Bama BMX
6. Schwinn women's (wife's from a few years back)
7. Giant Road Bike Defy (wife's).

Down to:

3. Motobecane gravel (need to pitch this one)
4. 29er hardtail, needs some work but I like it. Don't think I'll end up soft tail, for how much I actually thrash it, not worth it. I do more XC and am happy with the hardtail
5. BAMA BMX - might pitch this, don't ride much anymore.
7. Wife's bike

#3 was my dad's old bike. It's nice, but a 3 by and V brakes. I'm looking at pitching it and getting a 1 by with disc brakes, aluminum frame and fork. Never heard of them before, retrospec amok. Mechanical disc brakes. I ride in the rain and snow a decent amount with the dog.

They're as good as any nowadays.

https://khsbicycles.com/category/2019-khs-models/road-19/gravel-road-19/

I'm guessing you might be looking at a gravel bike? Or do you mean it has a flat bar and 3x gearing but skinny tires?

https://khsbicycles.com/05_flite_220_flat_10.htm

 

It's the ultra sport 1.0.

 

The one I called a hybrid is what you said, 3x gearing, flat bar and skinny tires. When I google'd 'gravel bike', mine doesn't look like the results.

 

Way entry level MTB, basically for mom and dad to ride with the kids in case it gets a little bumpy. Not a bad bike, for sure, but not a tremendous bike.

Oh yeah, bikes used to be: MTB, Road, Hybrid, Cruiser, BMX

I went onto the site for I think GT a few weeks back and there's like a million different "types" of bikes now. There's the "real" gravel bikes you saw which are drop bar race bikes. Urban/Gravel is what I know a gravel bike to be, flat bar or drop bar, not picky (I am going for a flat bar, I'll probably get a wide bar to keep a consistent size between the MTB and gravel).

 

Alright, @taco-houla let me pick your brain. I used to bike a few thousand miles a year in middle school/early high school. About 50/50 road and trail--trail typically wasn't anything too extreme. I have a Giant Boulder (heavy steel frame, no disc brakes) from the mid 2000s that would need some work at this point. It has a newer derailleur and rear sprocket but needs brakes, pedals, tires are not original but are starting to dry rot due to age, etc. It probably has 8000 miles on it.

I was thinking about buying something one step up to get back into it--nice enough to push me to use it but not too expensive in case I don't. I looked at a Giant Talon 29 3 or a Trek Marlin 5. Any opinions on those or something else similar?

One thing I like about the Giant I have now is the super tall 1st gear in the rear. It was very helpful for some of the steeper trails.

 

Flip a coin. Whichever your local bike shop has. I'm not a fan of internal cable routing, I like to have mine zip tied outside, but that's just me. I know the Shimano Brakes and Avid brakes. I have avid brakes, hate bleeding them, so I'm switching to Shimano soon. I don't know Tektro that much, looks like they use the same oil as the Shimanos, so no worries there. My Avids use DOT5 and it's a PITA to bleed them.

Both have a good mech set, brakes, wheels and tires, and crankset. Neither is a bad choice in that price bracket, so whichever bike shop you like better.