Meh. I mean how many more of these coaches and GMs do you need to tear through, to realize that maybe this ain't the biggest issue.
Coaching is big, and coaches can be like the weather, but I'm not sure coaching is the root cause here. Culture and conditioning is the biggest, I've been saying it all along.
This was the Shanaplan.
I think they need some trainer help more than anything. Conditioning and strengthening. Then yeah I'm not sure the whole top 4 plan really paid off. Time to address that (was time like three or four years ago, but hopefully people realize it).
Cap wise they aren't in great shape still, so they'll need to do something. Culture is a big issue here as well, as it is with most the Canadian teams. Ownership that doesn't give a shit about anything really, because the people will lap it up no matter what. That shows.
I think peak madness is I'm sort of shopping for a 20 or 24" bike for my little guy, and they are all right around the 1k mark for anything with a few gears. Might look to the bmx market for his next one honestly.
Last year I bought a pretty high end Enduro dirtbike, it's street legal too, but it's mainly for offroad. It was a previous year model holdover, that I purchased for almost $2,000 less than my mountain bike cost.
Maintenance is obviously an expense, I need to change the oil in it every 15 hours or so, easily done by myself and it costs about $35 for supplies. Tires are probably the biggest expense, I'm averaging a set of tires about every 40 hours, that's let's say $260, so a once a year expense roughly. A suspension overhaul, done once every couple of seasons, is about $450. Chain and sprockets will be $500, but it'll be a few seasons for me before that needs done.
What's infuriating about this, is the mountain bike remains just as expensive. A suspension overhaul and tune up is currently about $700 in local shops. Parts remain expensive. A bike chain and sprockets are just every bit as expensive. It's a fucking bicycle, the dirtbike has literally hundreds if not thousands of components, whereas the bike has like what, 10 to 15? I mean overtime, the motorbike will obviously cost a bit more, but holy hell why is this even a conversation?
I mean I wonder why bikes are not selling (/s)!? My mountain bike is from 2022, and it's going to be my mountain bike through 2032 at this rate, whereas a decade ago, I was getting a new one every three to four seasons. Cycling industry marketing and greed has always been an issue, but it's out of control again. With tarrifs and current world wide events, this is going to be the death punch for a bunch of them, and it can't happen fast enough.
You should send it to the White house
Anycubics support has always been trash. There's whole groups about it. I had a little bedslinger from them, it was sort of ok for what it was, but it was wildly inconsistent day to day, and they pretty much drop any sort of updating or support for their products day 2 after release. I spent a lot of time dialling that thing in, but you'd get something tightened up and dialed up, and then three other issues would rear their head. It was like playing wack a mole. Their idea of support is you have to kiss up to this specific person on their Facebook groups and hope they play along and respond back to you, because they don't often answer emails and when they do it's basically just a feedback loop. Then it's just back and forth. I ain't got the patience for that stuff anymore.
I only want the higher end stuff now.
I think toolchanging is where it's going to be too. Just want to see what's out there in a few years after some development. I'm just sticking with AMS right now, because it's largely foolproof. But that Snapmaker stuff is definitely pretty impressive. Cant wait to see where that goes
It depends on what you want out of the hobby honestly. 30 years later, I just want a printer that works, without fuss. I've done the customizations, I've done the firmware flashes and attached third party controllers. But I'm a huge fan of my Bambu P2S, because it just works. In over 300 hours I've only had 2 failed prints. I haven't done one iota of really anything to it. Plugged it in, and the things just been chugging away. Lots of parts availability, locally and online (which is huge). Lots of support available locally too.
My previous printer, an Anycubic coincidentally, used to take like 4 or 5 false starts before you could finally get a good first layer.
I get the hate, I get that people want customization and what not. But some people just want shit that works. That's why I look at Bambu as the McDonalds of 3d printing. It ain't that healthy for you, it's a scourge on the planet, but it also tastes kinda good and it's a guilty pleasure from time to time, right?
Yes theres Prusa and all sorts of other printers that are good too, don't take this the wrong way. Run your own journey for sure. But I'm running mine too.
I remember when I was a teenager and those things were all the rage (mid 90s). I wanted one just because they were alternative.
Fast forward a whole bunch of years and I'm pilfering the supply closet at work, and happen to stumble upon a slightly dusty, but functional and genuine OG Microsoft split keyboard. So of course I just had to.
Let's just say that keyboard is back collecting dust in that exact same spot. The ergos of it were okish, like your hand naturally rests like that. But even just that little difference of layout messed my muscle memory up way too much. And you are right, hitting some of the function keys was too alien.
This person was in jail, literally in jail, because he was blind and he accidentally walked onto someone's property.
That's tantamount to accidently stepping on a sidewalk crack and breaking your mother's back.
A life, an actual human life, has been wiped out now because of the sequence of these events. Like how fucking cooked is this place?
Dan McLean only walks on golf courses, and only during council or committee meetings. He actually maybe strikes me more as a cart guy though, come to think of it.
I would normally agree with you. We live in a prime mountain biking area though, and I want to get them started young as I want them to start accompanying me on trail rides, and I want my eldest to start racing in U8. I don't think I need to spend 4k on them to succeed like some people are, don't get me wrong, but I want them to have decent enough equipment to have a good start.
No disrespect to rubbish bikes though. I rode lots of rubbish bikes as a kid. They still will too I'm sure.