u/schtom

I bought some Oakleys with road lenses (can't quite remember the name now) which had a much wider nose slot which made them feel better and as if they had better coverage. They seem to be more focussed on fashion rather than sports (with some crazy lense shape). Ultimately what I found was they just weren't as good as proper sports glasses when it came to airflow/fogging. I then got some Oakley sutros (first ones i tried originally) that had the bottom gap mentioned in this post. When actually using the sutros in a riding position the bottom gap issue disappears honestly and they were far better. Even when walking around normally in them it just didn't bother me and overall I think it is the intention of the design to optimise for a riding position.

Anyway, don't overthink it too much like i did honestly unless they really obviously don't fit haha. If anyone tries on any normal sunglasses theres usually light leaking in from the sides etc so it's not abnormal, it just takes some getting used to when its only from the bottom.

In terms of best quality lenses Smith and Oakley blow everything else out of the water IMO fwiw.

I have this issue on my gravel bike but not my flat handle bike. On the gravel bike I’ve resorted to attaching a small bar to the handles and having it below the handlebar (the type that gives you extra bar space for lights etc - v cheap on AliExpress). Allows me to have a second contact point for attaching the feed bag in front of the bars.

Obviously an issue if you’re also running a bar bag

Get a spreadsheet split into functional groups for stuff like sleep system, cooking, water etc. weigh your stuff or use the manufacturer stated weight.

It will become very apparent where the major weight savings are. You can even come up with much lighter alternatives as you go and track them and then do a cost per gram saving field to guide your most worthwhile purchases. I just did a round of this today (probably do it once per year)

At that kind of weight I think a huge amount of the weight savings will be free, just by leaving unnecessary stuff behind.

Watch some packing videos on YouTube to get some ideas (albeit some of those guys go so far they are sacrificing basic comfort and enjoyment aha)

They do the job and are cheap but the materials they use are thick and heavy. I’ve bought plenty of Chinese stuff and still use the newboler small top tube pack, front fork bags and the frame bag (although I may change that for my next trip). The waterproofing works well.

Both newboler and rhinowalk have released newer bags since I bought mine both trying to become a bit more premium I believe so ymmv.

If I was buying for myself today having more experience I would buy something pricier and better quality but if you’re starting out and aren’t sure if you will continue then they aren’t terrible

Same I can’t believe I managed to buy the release just prior to that change haha

Didn’t make it up to mancora. Everyone I have met says it’s a party town which may or may not be what you want. It’s a long long way to go though unless you are going over the border or have other stops you want to go to en route

Huaraz is great if you like hiking. Highlight of Peru for me. Probably need a week there total so you have time to acclimatize before any big hikes though.

Huanchaco is a surf town about half way between Lima and mancora. Very quiet with some good beginner surfing and lots of more challenging stuff. Also not far from Chicama (longest left hand wave in the world.

I did as a loop from Lima > huaraz > huanchaco > Lima no bus is more than 8 hours I think

Newboler have released a knock off AliExpress version of tailfin recently. I have 0 idea of quality though as it’s so new I haven’t seen anyone mention it.

Ortlieb quick rack is pretty nifty though and what I currently own

Saw your other comment about mostly wanting breathability in the tropics rather than full stargazing mode. The xdome is still good for your use case as you can leave the door open and it’s actually still shielded from most of the rain on that side due to the overhanging doorway and just do the partial roll on the opposite side so you can allow air flow. This should reduce the rolling you would need to do in a hurry while still providing some instant rain protection on the top and allowing a through breeze.

I haven’t tested this out with my 1+ yet so can’t confirm the level of top coverage you would have but it’s something to play around with. Also the design allows you to keep the inner dry if it’s already raining while you pitch.

You can pitch it with the fly and inner attached and roll back the fly so it’s only connected at the top while the rest of the tent is connected via the inside clips. In rain it could be faster to just unclip the inner from the poles while rolling down and attaching the outer. Can then go inside the tent and re attach the in er to the fly. There are various videos online showing how to achieve the partial usage of the fly

For realtime updates of road blockages:

https://transitabilidad.abc.gob.bo

Otherwise I was watching Bolivian news on YouTube for announcements and ChatGPT is quite helpful for getting more information in English and putting it in a wider context

Edit: website seems to require your location to be in Bolivia to work. VPN allows access if outside the country

Seems like they’re planning to block busses on all major highways out of the cities also - I think going to uyuni and crossing from the salt flats would’ve been fine if I went today but it’s okay I can still do the salt flats from chile anyway and it takes the uncertainty out for me - bus booked out of Bolivia now so can’t change my mind anyway

Yeh it’s more of an issue if I end up somewhere and can’t get out in several days - I think I’m going to go to chile today

It may have calmed down by then but who knows

It may have calmed down by then but who knows

Yeh the flights out of Bolivia are so expensive I’m trying to avoid this option

I think this evening is possible but overnight busses from tomorrow could start seeing issues the blockades are scheduled to start on the 5th

I was just about to make a post asking about the effectiveness of these kind of SEO approaches and then this popped up!

I am a web dev very much not an SEO guy and want to start tackling SEO in my current project.

Are there any technical changes you made/have implemented on your site that are effective for improving SEO? Things like SSR for text you want to get picked up by crawlers.

When you say generating content pages is that to say you are not actively writing the content on them but drawing comparison data from a database and sticking it into a template/writing content with AI and automatically creating pages? If so is there a possibility of it harming SEO? I have heard that it can cause a site to lose ranking if you are pumping out insane amounts of pages per day/week etc. or creating “low quality” content (stuff that follows a consistent template I would assume but I’m not entirely sure what a crawler would consider low quality)

Really interested in this topic and trying to build an idea of what to start implementing when I get back to working on my project

I just ordered the 1+ having previously bought the 2 (because the 1+ wasn’t available at the time). The 2 is quite large packing wise and has a huge footprint. For potentially having people join a couple times a year I would get the 1+ for yourself and if/when someone else wants to join you could spend the money you saved on a nature hike cloud up 1 which you could lend out and have as a backup for yourself

Belkin gan charger (70 or 100W versions) - the head changing is great

Yeh it may be more focussed on the speedgoats than the whole product line

I’m considering some challenger 8 rn anyway

You can look for them on the run repeat website to look at stats including breathability

Nike, north face,, merrel all do reasonable looking ones with mid to high grip

On cloud look good but the grip seems to be crappy from the look of it

Hoka also but I’ve heard they have some durability issues

Altras are super comfy for me but mine fell apart in less than 4 months of travel

Thanks for the feedback!

Interestingly someone else requested a visualizer last time I posted about this so it seems people want that more than I originally expected. I will definitely give some thought to that but it’s quite a labour intensive feature to implement (albeit not too tricky I imagine) so it will be a while before anything resembling the whatbars one would be ready.

The phone view currently is pretty shocking agreed aha I need to compact the data in a sensible way and possibly provide a limited view for smaller screens. Turning on and off column visibility may be desirable also.

Surly is already on my list for a data update but thanks for the other alt bar suggestions. If you’ve got anymore you’d like to see let me know.

As far as specs on website go I would definitely recommend anyone check on the sites before purchasing something, but I’ve found in the past it’s a nightmare figuring out what exists to begin with and being able to compare quickly across brands is useful.

Also a pain point lots of people probably find is manufacturers measuring bars differently. Stated widths could be: center to center, outside to outside or drops to drops. Different terminology used for flare/outsweep etc so it aims to give a quick way to get a consistent comparison by compiling that data upfront.

I did a short bikepacking trip where I flew and took my carbon bike with me (flew). Ended up taking some trains and ferries etc. Ultimately I wouldn't do it again, I would take an alloy bike or buy a steel one. Any performance differences are basically irrelevant on such a long trip if you aren't trying to set records.

For me I was constantly worrying about the bike getting banged about (and not showing the any signs of damage until a big failure!) and also carbon bikes are just obvious targets for theft because they are obviously expensive. One night I had to chain it by the wheel only in an unsecured basement of a hostel in a Rotterdam (no hotels in the area would allow the bike in the room or in a secure storage etc etc!!!) and I was worried the whole time.

With alloy and steel they can take more of a beating, show up damage much more easily and don't tend to look as expensive IMO (even if they are). Worrying about the bike for multiple reasons really takes away from the enjoyment of the trip.

Edit: Having said that plenty of people have done it with carbon, I just wouldn't unless I was sponsored haha