Yes, we are now in Bizarro World

 I don't live in Park City anymore, but I still get email updates from PCEF - the Park City Education Foundation. Today I got this gem:

So, if I'm reading this right, the students learned to "design an engineering solution" by... purchasing something off the shelf, rather than designing and building it?

I'll keep that in mind when driving across bridges when I'm in my golden years, I guess. 

If you want to buy this overpriced bike, don't bother me about it

 This happens periodically - someone emails me with a long list of detailed questions about a 2nd hand bike on the Pro's Closet.

Here's the thing - while I have nothing against TPC (it was started by an old friend and racing buddy of mine), it's a pretty hideous middleman in terms of pricing. And that overpricing reflects me personally receiving...zero dollars. 

This bike that just popped up on some targeted ad is a great example. It's a used hardtail that's a few years old, with entry (Z2 fork)/enthusiast (Notubes alloy wheels) level parts. It's not built custom for you. It's got no warranty.

Brand new, from me, this bike would cost at most $4500, and probably quite a bit less (I'm too lazy to dig into the entire parts spec). It would be built specifically for you, in your favorite color, with exactly the parts you want, with a warranty. And I would... make a profit for my hard work!

TPC originally priced it at a hilarious $4000, and has now marked it down to a mere $3400 or so (plus taxes and shipping of course). 

But that's not the subject of my rant. My rant is about people emailing *me* asking for advice about how the bike will fit them, how many miles are on it, etc, etc. 

Guys, I'm not the one selling the bike. I make zero dollars from anyone buying it. I don't get paid to answer questions about used bikes, and this is my job (or, well, retirement job at least). Want more information about the bike? Call TPC, not me.

Guest recipe, and some bike pictures

 I like the part where James warns about burning out your food processor motor. That's a proper WW style recipe!

Hummus Jowdy

Hummus Jowdy
Ingredients:
• 1-2+ medium to Lg cloves garlic peeled 
• 1-2+ tsp salt
• 1 reg size can Chick Peas / garbanzo beans (drained & rinsed)
• 1-2+ Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
• 1-2+ Tbsp Tahini - ground up sesame seed paste (can buy in bulk bin from central market or Whole Foods. Small jars are good too, but there's one in a metal can that is not worth it).
• 1 lemon - juiced, can include pulp
• Water as needed for desired viscosity 

Options:
• substitute chick peas with black beans & lime juice in place of lemon juice
• Or 1/2 of both beans 
• Can add stuff like sun dried tomatoes, basil...
• A bag of dried chick peas or black beans equals 4 cans of beans, cook in slow cooker
• 1/4 tsp cumin per can of beans adds some flavor

Directions:
• put garlic & salt in food processor & chop fine
• Add all other ingredients 
• Blend till desired smoothness, may need to pulse food processor so your motor doesn't over heat.
• Pour into a bowl, drizzle evoo on top, sprinkle with paprika
• Serve chilled with veggies, chips, crackers, Arabic bread...

Since the mixture can be thick, it's easy to overheat a food processor & thus bust the motor.

In other news here's a 36er, first one in a couple years. Seems the "craze" has ended... more on the PITA fork some other time.

Screw it! I'm restarting the blog!

 Nobody is reading, I'm sure, but what the heck. I went looking for recipes today (TL;DR - the kids hate all the food I like) and realized that I liked the blog a lot better than my stupid IG account. 

So, anyway, it's been 8 years. I have 3 kids now. I live in Breckenridge (which might be the unfriendliest place I've ever lived - we're moving on this summer) instead of Park City. I kinda sorta retired from bike building but I still do build bikes just slower especially when the skiing or bike riding is good. I coach skiing. I'm heavier and slower and older than I used to be but I still love the heck out of riding bikes.

Maybe soon I'll do another recipe but with young kids it's been a lot of mac n' cheese and veggie fake chicken strips and such for quite a while. Less alcohol gets consumed these days, too, so drunken rants may be few and far between. 

The bike industry is still just as silly as ever. For 2 years during Covid everyone said, "When this ends there's gonna be a metric f-ton of too much bike parts and bikes!"

Then they went and ordered 1000 extra sets of AXS and got them all right at the same time as everyone on earth realized the bike they already have seems fine for a few more years. 

Yeah. Don't call it a comeback...

The new Waltworks.com is here!

Check it out, I have an actual website!

It's still a work in progress (thanks for all your hard work, Giff!) but it's a big step up from my black page with a few bits of text.

There is a new blog at Waltworks.com and I will no longer be updating this one, but I will leave the blogger site in place as an archive of the last decade or so (!) of bike building, recipes, and general geekiness.

Please also note that for RSS feed folks, I'm working on making that happen with the new blog.

Ron - done

29 with clearance for 27.5+ seems to be all the rage these days. Fun way to have 2 bikes in one (though IMO the 27.5x3, 29x2, 26x4 bike is the way to go if you really want the Swiss army knife effect!)

This one is an all-arounder with Rohloff capabilities as well as the usual stealth dropper, loads of tire clearance, etc.

Still all fluxy

I can't resist putting curved bridges on these bikes with big tire clearance...

Get your high country rides in!

...because the dogtooth maple are already changing here in PC. Fall is on the way!

Thanks to Luis for the photo of Mt. Guyot.

Won't someone please think of the children?

Actually, I'm not joking. Come make your voice heard tonight at the Richins building and help convince Summit county to put a safe off-street pedestrian/bike crossing over/under I-80 at the Jeremy/Pinebrook interchange.

Details here.