My wife has long wanted to get into photography and after learning about the long discontinued (10 years) Sony NEX cameras, I decided to start there and complement her with a good set of lenses that would be used even through camera upgrades. Of course, being me, I looked for massive discounts and was willing to buy used.
I’m all in on the the Heliot Ramos bandwagon. I’ve decided he’s my favorite baseball player and we’ll see how his career pans out. Right now, however, he’s on fire! (Note: the fun featured image for this blog post was generated by DALL-E/ChatGPT from text prompts)
Even though his BABIP (.414) is unsustainably high, his strikeout rate isn’t pretty (28.7%), and he’s had an up and down minor league career, here’s why I believe:
His WRC+ (offensive production compared to peers and leveled across playing environment) is 172, or 72% better than the average player. If he had enough plate appearances to officially qualify among league leaders, he would rank 8th in MLB.
Speaking of qualifying, it takes roughly 350 plate appearances for WRC/WRC+ to stabilize – basically if he’s still producing after 350, you can reasonably say, this is real. Today, he’s at 160 after 37 games.
He was a top talent, drafted 19th overall in 2017 – he’s not coming out of nowhere. He has also had a WRC+ of 130 this year in AAA before getting promoted (and staying) to the big club. I’ve gotten to see him play both in Sacramento and San Francisco.
His walk rate is solid at over 10%. His strikeout rate is 30% worse than average, but his walk rate is 26% better than average. In general, he’ll walk, strike out, or hit it hard.
He is a positive offensive and defensive player. He’s a good athlete – can run, throw, hit, hit for power.
He’s young (25 later in the season) and perhaps there are big holes in his swing that pitchers will start to pounce on. But I believe that because he’s had to earn his time through ups and downs (7 years in the minors), he should be mentally mature enough to figure it out.
Anyhoo, let’s move beyond self-justification and onto collecting! I started my collection of 37 Ramos baseball cards and a signed baseball, including 2 low serial number jersey cards, an autograph card, and 1 rookie card rated PSA9, for under $100 and all purchased in the last week.
This is a part two of sorts from My Only Thought’s from the 49ers Super Bowl Loss. It’s official, to me anyway: the run is over. (I’ve taken a news break from the 49ers the last couple of months and will do the same for the Warriors and basically all of sports.)
This team was better than last year’s team, and had more wins but for a group of 4 Hall of Famers over their peak, we can clearly see this team can’t get better from the core. To go out to the Kings the way they did last night, they don’t have the switch either. They basically didn’t have anything left. They were basically healthy, after a year of good Spurs-like minutes moderation. The Kings were missing two huge players in Huerter and Monk.
Sometimes it ends, and that’s ok. We’ve hit the end. Here’s what I’d do, as painful as it is.
Let Klay go. He’s going to get a huge deal for an up and coming team, like the Magic. He deserves it. If he wants to take an undermarket price to stay, the Warriors should agree.
Let Chris Paul go. He was here to help organize the offense when it was too much on Steph. In the Kings game, it’s clear he wasn’t enough. Like Klay, he can be of more value to another team.
Draft Bronny James with their second round draft pick and challenge Lebron to come for a lesser salary. I’m not sure where this pick is and if the Lakers might take Bronny with a #1 to keep LeBron.
Andrew Wiggins played well in the last two months and I think he’s not lost anymore. But he was really inconsistent the last two years due to personal and physical problems. If there’s a solid trade package that he can be put into, let him go, but his salary is OK.
Pay Kevon Looney’s partial guarantee of $3M instead of the full $8M. I love Looney but he’s become Roy Hibbert-ized for this generation of basketball. Warriors need to create full financial flexibility.
What remains:
PG Stephen Curry
C Draymond Green
PF Jonathan Kuminga
SG Brandin Podziemski
SF Andrew Wiggins
SG/SF Moses Moody
C Trayce Jackson-Davis
PF Gary Payton II
Bronny James is on a 2-Way. Only Steph, Draymond, and Wiggins make significant money. LeBron has a player option next year, so he can just walk or the Warriors can package Paul/Wiggins to the Lakers / other teams in a trade. I would prefer LeBron take less money (he has said he would and this would allow the W’s to pick up another player) and the Warriors keep Wiggins. Pick up depth with the remaining cap flexibility – either wing or big. I do like keeping Usman Garuba as the developing third big man – he proved he could was a NBA-ready defender in Euroleague as a 19 year old.
It’s not yet known if the Warriors will have a #1 draft pick this year, and they could trade that for help (they have enough youth) or use it if they have it.
This all started with a desire to ride off-road a few years ago. When COVID came, quickly followed by a move to Colorado, I was primed to be another road cyclist converting to safer adventures away from four wheel vehicles.
I bought an entry level hardtail mountain bike, ventured out once into 15 degrees F and snow, but never had much of an opportunity to explore further in Colorado as I soon moved back to California, and found myself a 30 mile drive from actual mountains.
I then became obsessed with the idea to build out a top of the line gravel bike at a non-top-of-the-line price. And so started this appeal to my loves of research and deal hunting.
The total cost of the build, was $5,126 or the equivalent of $4,736 before local taxes.
I built a 2024 Giant Revolt Advanced Pro weighing 17.9 pounds (8.1 kg) with pedals (or 17.1 pounds without (7.8 kg) if you want to compare it to the standard way bicycle companies and retailers list bikes). 1×13 speed with Campagnolo Ekar, a Cane Creek suspension stem paired with a Ritchey WCS Venturemax carbon handlebar, and a Light Bicycle XC930 wheelset that weighs just 1142G with tubeless tape rolling S-Works Pathfinder 42mm tires that have widened to 46mm.
While $5K is a lot of money for a bike, this is not quite on the upper end as bikes go. Keep in mind that Giant’s own top of the line build, the Advanced Pro 0 is $1,500 more at $6,500. Other than lacking electronic shifting, I think my build is better.
If we’re going against this nine bikeGravel Race Bike throwdown, this build would be the second or third lightest bike and the second cheapest. To be fair, my build would also be the only mechanical shifting bike.
If we’re talking about adventure bikes, my build would be the lightest and 4th cheapest of the nineteen in contention.
I realize that price to weight for a bike says very little about if the bike is actually good, so let’s go further into the specific components.
I don’t race, but I still want a fast bike, a bike that would be good enough to be great in a race even if its rider was not.
The Revolt isn’t aero, but it’s received wonderful reviews, including Bike of the Year from Bike Radar in 2022 and Ben Delaney’s mention as his favorite gravel bike of 2023. Delaney’s thoughts mean a lot to me because unlike most people, he’s basically tried all the bikes and been successful racing many of them.
The Revolt has a much more relaxed geometry relative to dedicated gravel race bikes like the Cervelo Aspero 5, making it comfortable as a general adventure bike and perhaps road endurance bike. You can optimize performance for smaller (up to 45mm) or larger (up to 53mm) tires with its flip chip. It has a ton of mounting options for bikepacking and the top tube bag as pictured in my build.
Overall, I felt the Revolt could somehow be and do everything for both racing and general adventure and yet this premium frameset only retails for $2100! The best offerings from Specialized, 3T, and Cervelo cost from $3,500 to $5,000.
I have a gravel event in April, so I’ll be using 42mm (46mm actual width) S-Works Pathfinder tires for that. I’ll then try a double century (200 mile event) in May with 35mm Continental GP5000 AS TR road tires as I use the Revolt as a road endurance bike. Expect for me to give ride impressions from both styles of riding in the future. Even though I could easily run the bike slammed for looks and slightly more aero performance, I’m trying for a more relaxed approach first to see it how feels.
I bought the frameset from Clubhaus in New York, which shipped it to me for free with no sales tax. I really liked working with Effy – he answered all my super annoying questions and even got on calls with me. He didn’t ignore me post-purchase either.
Late last summer, I bought my second pair of wheels from Light Bicycle, a 37mm external width ultra wide, 1150g ultra light, non-aero tubeless hookless wheel set.
Light Bicycle also sells a gravel-focused wheelset with 30mm external width. Here’s how those two options stack up:
From watching recent trends in road cycling, I felt it didn’t make sense to put 40mm+ tires on 30mm external width rims. I thought a even wider rim would make the actual tire-on-rim width wider, providing more traction in the dirt without adding extra weight, facilitating lower tire pressure, and avoiding the lightbulb effect with tires that are significantly wider than the rim they’re on. Since I’m completely new to gravel, I was worried my thought process was dumb but I asked around to get enough confidence I wasn’t stupid and that the XC rim (normally for heavy duty mountain biking) would hold up great for gravel. Conventional wisdom and bike industry standards say it’s not a good idea, but since I started riding in 2016, common tire sizes on the road have ballooned from 23MM all the way to 28/30mm. These last 7 years have seen a huge shift relative to the decades before them and I would not be surprised for gravel wheelsets and tires to make the same jumps soon.
I know that aero gravel is becoming a big thing, but I’m just not sold that 40MM+ width tires on 40mm depth wheelsets are actually all that aero. (See Rene Herse and Hambini) I agree that deeper wheels look nicer, but I think the wider tire sizes being run by most people negate most of the aero effects. Now, if you’re a high level racer cranking up massive watts to overcome the slower speeds of dirt riding, there’s probably some positive net effect there, but I’d rather have my ultralight wheel set – deeper gravel wheel sets are typically 1500G or more, nearly a .8 pound gain on my XC930s. On the road, I can average 20MPH riding solo for a couple of hours on relatively flat California valley roads, but I doubt I could get above 18MPH on dirt with the same depth (46.5 mm) aero wheels.
These XC930 wheels cost me just under $1300 and are laser etched to celebrate the birth of my daughter. Ignoring that level of customization, which isn’t available from most wheel brands, these wheels are easily, at least in spec, the match of $2K wheels from more known Western brands.
I consider Campagnolo a brand for the super wealthy bike enthusiast. I never thought I would ride a Campagnolo groupset.
The groupset retails for $1700, but last year I saw that new sets were selling for under $900 on eBay. Even though Ekar was mechanical shifting, I liked that it was 13 speed (Shimano and SRAM were 11 and 12 speed), it was the lightest gravel groupset around, and it may have the best braking performance among gravel groupsets.
Ekar also looks great.
While I love electronic shifting, an alternative from Shimano or SRAM would not have been available at the Ekar price and I would also miss the benefits stated above. I saw this as a chance to get the best of mechanical groupset technology at a great price. An un-Campagnolo-like price.
I have no bike handling skills that I am aware of, and I was worried about fatigue from riding in the rough. Carbon components help with compliance, but when I read people’s impressions around suspension stems from Cane Creek and Redshift, I wanted one for my build. The impression was that it was a real game changer as a shock absorber for one’s hands.
At the same time, I wanted to keep the original specs of the Revolt handlebar/stem system that had won the bike so many accolades, and those bikes came with a 60mm stem for size small frames. Neither Cane Creek or Redshift had such a short stem, but when Black Friday came around, both had nice discounts, and Cane Creek has the smaller stem option at 70mm.
It’s about 140G heavier (.3 lbs) than ultralight options, but I felt the performance benefit was worth the weight.
The decision around the Venturemax handlebar came from wanting something light weight with flared drops (wider in the bottom than the top) for improved handling in the drops and a flat aero section for hand position on climbs and normal riding. I also liked the more aero position of having hoods turned inwards.
• Drop 102mm (-23mm)
• Reach 76mm (+4mm, or +14MM if including added stem length)
• 24° Flare (for 52.5cm width at the drops)
If you look through the rest of my build, you’ll notice titanium screws and a number of other decisions for aesthetics.
Overall, the frame’s Forest Green color is complimented with red/pink and gold through the build. The wheel’s spoke nipples mix florescent green and red to reflect my daughter’s nickname, Strawberry.
A few more items I want to note: • The S-Works Pathfinder Pro tires are super fast, super durable with good traction and one of Ben Delaney’s favorites. They expanded from their 42MM official width to 46MM on my wheels. They’re low weight for their width and I can run them at low pressure and feel comfortable on a wide variety of rough terrain. I didn’t want to have 4 different types of tires that I’d need to switch out constantly. These tires are also a good deal at $70 relative to high end road tires that are typically $100 each. • Since this bike was for gravel riding, I was worried about paint damage and looked into paint protection options. Invisiframe looked like the best deal for complete frame coverage. The work to get it installed is very hard and time consuming. In fact, even though I worked on it for hours (do it in sunlight so you can see imperfections easier), I still left some problems. Invisiframe was awesome, however. When I asked if they had a few extra pieces they ended up sending me a whole new set because I messed up half the install. It wouldn’t be so obvious to someone a couple feet away, but it was obvious to me because I had worked so hard on it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the second set perfectly done either, but it was better than the first time. When I moved the frame into outdoor sunlight through my garage, I tapped the frame’s rear wheel area into a wall or door and some of the paint chipped off. Yes, I chipped the paint in the process of trying to get the paint protected. Idiot. • I got the Apidura top tube bag because it is much easier to access when riding compared to handlebar bags and thus better for eating while riding. This bag can screw into the Revolt frame instead of using straps, it’s thin to avoid touching my knees, and people regard it very positively.
Notes around Building up the Frame
Putting this bike together was more than just the research, I wanted to build it all myself as well. With all the parts I gathered, I was aiming for a light, fast, and very comfortable bike that could go on a wide variety of surfaces and ride fast on all of them.
I was able to figure out most stuff on my own, but did end up getting some help to cut the seatpost and steerer tube as well as to fix the shifting. While I can’t say I ultimately did it all myself, I feel I learned enough to which if I did it again, I could do it all myself.
A few more notes:
1) The Giant Revolt Advanced Pro frame was a bit heavier than I expected. I was hoping to achieve a 17 pound build, but missed that by a pound.
2) The steerer tube spacers only look good with Giant’s handlebar, which doesn’t come with the frameset. Using them with a normal stem opens gaps for dirt to go through, which I wasn’t comfortable with. It was not so easy to find options for alternative dust caps.
3) You can’t fully hide your cables because the Revolt has a standard size head tube. I had asked Effy from Clubhaus about this before purchasing, but was a still bit disappointed.
The real difficulty around the build was Ekar. I learned that setting it up could be a real pain, specifically around the getting the shifting right. I eventually took it to my local bike shop and even they had issues. It got to the extent I did not know if we could solve it because few people have experience working with Campagnolo or Ekar, and certainly no one in my area. In the end, I don’t know exactly what the fix was but I ended up compiling a guide to help future Ekar enthusiasts.
Thanks so much to multiple communities, and primarily the folks at Paceline, for talking through things with me.
Future Changes
I’m really happy with the build, and I’m not sure what I want to do for more weight/performance optimizations. Of course, I need to start riding it extensively first!
If I can get a 165mm Ekar crankarms for cheap, I’d like to do that as I ride 160mm on the road.
I could also get a lighter seatpost that’s still gravel/compliance oriented and a lighter version of my current saddle, but that’s probably about 160g (.35 pounds) of potential weight savings at $400 or more. Perhaps it’s inevitable I’ll make those changes but thinking about it now, I’m not so sure I care.
Last Friday afternoon, my family flew to SFO from Osaka with Asiana Airlines, connecting through Incheon. During check-in, we asked for a bassinet as we have a 4 month old.
The Osaka leg was no problem and our family of five (with three kids aged five and under) made it through. We got a bassinet seat, and the flight was short regardless.
In Incheon, Asiana Airlines truly failed us.
When we boarded, we realized we did not have a bassinet seat. We immediately told the stewardess, concerned. She asked us to contact an email address at Asiana. She didn’t clearly understand the urgency of getting on to a 10+ hr flight without some sleep assistance for our 4 month old, alongside having kids of 2 and 5 years of age on the same trip. I said that the email would not help us in this situation and we needed help right away. I stated that we had asked for a bassinet seat during check in and that we had received one on the connecting flight.
We sat down and waited. As a side note, we made sure to ask for the bassinet seat because on our flight to Asia, we had forgotten to ask Eva Airlines for one and they didn’t ask us either. In the past with Eva, they had always set this up automatically or at least asked us – it’s obvious right? If you have a child who is young enough to share a seat with a parent, especially on a longer transcontinental flight, no parent can hold a baby uninterrupted for that long. But Eva failed us so we knew we needed to remember to ask for the flight home. On the first flight, my wife and I were up for 12+ hours of the 14 hour-ish flight standing and walking with our baby to help her get some sleep relief. It was a miserable experience and and I knew we couldn’t do that again.
So we made sure to let Asiana know.
A few minutes later, a manager was brought on board to talk to me. He immediately said there was no record of the request. His tone felt like he wanted to show me that Asiana did nothing wrong.
I told him, we requested the seat, we had received the seat on the previous flight. He kept saying there was no record and that they could not verify. I told him he could easily see our seat on the previous flight and realize that what I was saying was true. But he did not care.
I asked him, let’s assume that what I am saying is true. That I did ask for such a seat and that their team did not record it. Would this be their fault? Or would it be my fault?
He refused to answer. He kept saying they had no record of the request. He didn’t care about “let’s try to help you somehow”, he just wanted to show me his team had done nothing wrong when there was a clear parenting crisis situation coming for me and my family in dealing with the upcoming flight. I had to interrupt him because he wasn’t just going to get me to shut up so he could leave. I kept asking the same question, would it be Asiana’s fault if I had truly asked and they missed it? How could they have missed it if I had received the request on the first flight?
He never answered. I asked him what can you do now to help us? He pointed back to there being no record.
I was so frustrated because all he cared about was implying that I had made the mistake because there was no record. He didn’t see the human side of the issue and see what we were facing as parents. He then stopped the conversation, saying, “I will not continue this conversation. I am walking away.”
And so he did.
My wife later told me that he was trying to tell me they had no more bassinet seats. But that really wasn’t the issue. The issue was that they couldn’t say, we don’t know what happened here, but clearly this isn’t ideal for you, let’s figure out some stopgap way to make something better. And to have someone walk away from me, knowing that because I was already on the flight I had no recourse, was classless.
I don’t think I need to tell you to guess how bad the flight experience was for us coming back. What made it worse was realizing they had some empty front row (non-bassinet) seats in the same class that could have been offered. My wife could have had more space to take care of our baby, stand up without affecting our flight neighbors, created less noise for others.
But again, Asiana Airlines didn’t care. They only cared that I was shown they had no responsibility. And once that was “proven”, they could walk away.
I Spit Hot Fire 