I’m more surprised any triathlon related company wants to work with him in the first place.
The snakeoil companies I get.
The idea that spending 100 dollars on wood, 2 hours of time, let alone purchasing a circular saw, and having the space necessary for a construction project, just goes to show he’s a bit out of touch with reality, when you can get this Rad cycling desk for a hundred bucks cheaper than the wahoo one.
Or, set up your damn ironing board like I did when I was broke, and new in the sport.
The idea that spending 100 dollars on wood, 2 hours of time, let alone purchasing a circular saw, and having the space necessary for a construction project, just goes to show he’s a bit out of touch with reality, when you can get this Rad cycling desk for a hundred bucks cheaper than the wahoo one.
Or, set up your damn ironing board like I did when I was broke, and new in the sport.
You’re right - I’m not broke, but I use a 10$ music stand in a horizontal position. I can’t fathom spending the money on the Wahoo table.
I currently have the trainer in the bathroom/utility in our downstairs apartment. It has great temperature control and is isolated in terms of sound from the baby upstairs. I use the washing machine and water heater to arrange fans and media. Don’t need to spend any money. Previously used paint containers stacked on the window in front of the treadmill to watch the laptop. There’s always a way.
I get what taren is probably trying to do but it’s a small industry/world and he should be careful when slamming companies within the area.
The idea that spending 100 dollars on wood, 2 hours of time, let alone purchasing a circular saw, and having the space necessary for a construction project, just goes to show he’s a bit out of touch with reality, when you can get this Rad cycling desk for a hundred bucks cheaper than the wahoo "
Absolutely not coming to Tarens defense, but this post is WAY more out of touch then he is. Also not debating the validity of rads stand, but lumber fir this would absolutely not cost $100. Maybe $30 max at current prices in the states. Also any home depot or lowes will cut all your lumber to the size you need for free, no need fir a circular saw.
All you need is a screw gun or hammer.
So all in, maybe 30-45 minutes of time if you don’t really know what you are doing.
(Excluding travel time to get the wood)
The idea that spending 100 dollars on wood, 2 hours of time, let alone purchasing a circular saw, and having the space necessary for a construction project, just goes to show he’s a bit out of touch with reality, when you can get this Rad cycling desk for a hundred bucks cheaper than the wahoo one.
Or, set up your damn ironing board like I did when I was broke, and new in the sport.
You’re right - I’m not broke, but I use a 10$ music stand in a horizontal position. I can’t fathom spending the money on the Wahoo table.
Music stands are the way to go.
“It’s oh so expensive, even though I had one, now let me build this one to show you how to do something cheaply”
That implies I already have invested the money on a park tool laden work bench that I re-purpose for household work? Who’s out of touch? There’s option on Amazon for less than $50 for this solution and it only takes a mouse click. Or, you could just use a dining table chair and a spare box you have sitting around the house like I used to for years before I chose to afford the RAD Cycle desk.
You want to know what’s funny in all this even? Saris makes a desk that costs $110 more than the Wahoo desk.
As a bit of background, I found Taren’s channel pretty cool a few years back as he was an age-grouper rolling it with the rest of us and a lot of what he posted rang a chord.
Fast forward a few years and I won’t relive the whole debate about what his channel morphed into as there is plenty of commentary about that within this forum.
However…his post today confirmed that he has completely lost it…
Back in the day he happily spuiked Wahoo products. I have no idea if he got the gear for free.
Today he posted a video on how to build one’s own Zwift / Indoor training stand. The opening of the video states that the Wahoo stand was to big and expensive and the Wahoo fan he used was also pretty expensive…so he posted a cheap solution to avoid the expense of Wahoo products.
His video basically said the Wahoo offerings in the stand / fan space are not worth the money and his home build solutiuon was the way to go…
Before posting this I took a closer look at his video and noticed he’s on a Tacx trainer now…Wahoo no more.
The FIRST thing Taren needs to work out is not to burn bridges. He’s aligned with a number of companies and I suppose is making some coin off these associations.
Free advice Taren…why would a company invest in your channel if there is the risk of them being thrown under the bus if the arrangement ends?..which they all eventually do.
Welcome to the internet where the are a million “hacks” for getting around spending money (even though these hacks take hours and are ridiculously inconvenient).There are people with multiple times the followers of Taren who worship the master paying them.
Maybe $30 max at current prices in the states. Also any home depot or lowes will cut all your lumber to the size you need for free, no need fir a circular saw.
All you need is a screw gun or hammer.
So all in, maybe 30-45 minutes of time if you don’t really know what you are doing.
(Excluding travel time to get the wood)
Your estimates ($30 wood, 30-45 minutes) are pretty much spot on. I spent probably $30, 60 minutes and used a hand saw and corded drill to make this:
It can be done, and it is fun!
Ikea $35 https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/bjoerkasen-laptop-stand-beige-90467838/
Look at Taren’s Strava he barely trains. Not relevant in this community anymore.
That stand being that tall with such a narrow base of support would make me nervous. I have small kids and an inside dog to worry about knocking it over though.
I don’t think it’s a case of “doesn’t get it”, but a case of struggling for direction. I haven’t watched that youtube video, but it sounds like an attempt to emulate “Seth Bike Hack / Berm Peak” success formula. There are a of similarities with home chefs who start a restaurant and struggle with it.
Taren made a triathlon youtuber his full time job before he figured out whether it’s viable, how to go about it, and how to make it sustainable. Having to make a living off of youtube can be rather unforgiving, especially if you are a one person operation who doesn’t have deep pockets (ala GCN’s start). From what I know, the only swim / bike / run channel that’s run by one person that’s successful as a full time job are Seth Bike Hack / BKXC / Phil Kmetz (who was a pro downhill racer). And… it took them multiple years of doing it part time before building a view base, and having time to figure out what works what doesn’t.
The pressure of making a living, forces you to experiment with things and copy what works, which in the process tends to take away the authenticity and spirit of things. In short, it makes you copy what other people do (copying form not the spirit), and doesn’t allow you to find your own strength. That’s on top of dealing with the difference between a hobby, and when you the hobby your job.
To me, Taren seems to be someone who found triathlon as a hobby, was really happy when it helped him lose 60 lbs. On a high, made it his job (leap of faith). But then realized it’s much more difficult to go from OK to good, when compared to out of shape to OK. In term, realized his passion for triathlon is closer to having it as a bucket list hobby, but not a lifelong pursuit. That’s normal, I think most people on this forum (including myself) can only sustain triathlon as a part time hobby. However for him, he wasn’t an endurance athlete (aka. no existing relationship with industry / coaches / teams; imagine if slowtwitch was started by an AGer vs. Dan). But… it became a full time youtube job… what to do?
He seems like a great / positive guy, who’s bit off more than he though. Wish him the best of luck, and figure out what his life passions are.
As a bit of background, I found Taren’s channel pretty cool a few years back as he was an age-grouper rolling it with the rest of us and a lot of what he posted rang a chord.
Fast forward a few years and I won’t relive the whole debate about what his channel morphed into as there is plenty of commentary about that within this forum.
This is perhaps the most peculiar of things to hate on Taren for. Seriously, it looks like you’re liking for a reason to disparage him because, well, he’s Taren and therefore what he says is deserving of ridicule.
It’s not really a ridiculous topic. As someone who despises anything that’s ridiculously overpriced, I’m probably going to build one myself, slightly modified from Tarens version.
I don’t think it’s a case of “doesn’t get it”, but a case of struggling for direction. I haven’t watched that youtube video, but it sounds like an attempt to emulate “Seth Bike Hack / Berm Peak” success formula. There are a of similarities with home chefs who start a restaurant and struggle with it.
Taren made a triathlon youtuber his full time job before he figured out whether it’s viable, how to go about it, and how to make it sustainable. Having to make a living off of youtube can be rather unforgiving, especially if you are a one person operation who doesn’t have deep pockets (ala GCN’s start). From what I know, the only swim / bike / run channel that’s run by one person that’s successful as a full time job are Seth Bike Hack / BKXC / Phil Kmetz (who was a pro downhill racer). And… it took them multiple years of doing it part time before building a view base, and having time to figure out what works what doesn’t.
The pressure of making a living, forces you to experiment with things and copy what works, which in the process tends to take away the authenticity and spirit of things. In short, it makes you copy what other people do (copying form not the spirit), and doesn’t allow you to find your own strength. That’s on top of dealing with the difference between a hobby, and when you the hobby your job.
To me, Taren seems to be someone who found triathlon as a hobby, was really happy when it helped him lose 60 lbs. On a high, made it his job (leap of faith). But then realized it’s much more difficult to go from OK to good, when compared to out of shape to OK. In term, realized his passion for triathlon is closer to having it as a bucket list hobby, but not a lifelong pursuit. That’s normal, I think most people on this forum (including myself) can only sustain triathlon as a part time hobby. However for him, he wasn’t an endurance athlete (aka. no existing relationship with industry / coaches / teams; imagine if slowtwitch was started by an AGer vs. Dan). But… it became a full time youtube job… what to do?
He seems like a great / positive guy, who’s bit off more than he though. Wish him the best of luck, and figure out what his life passions are.
I think this only addresses the “youtuber” side of Taren, which is, a mess. It’s such a mess that I don’t understand how high end sponsors touch him, but they just look at the reach and go “it’s worth it”. And by mess, I mean he changes his diet and hawks a new form of snake oil like every two weeks…which I don’t understand at all.
But Taren started playing the long game pretty early on in his Youtuber career, he established the Trainiac podcast which he somehow landed the best guests, to this day he seems to able to land top guests in Triathlon. Good for him, but he’s very nauseating. Then he started selling coaching plans to people for $50/pop that were written/co-written by his previous coach “coach Pat”. (Did Pat ever see any of that money?) Clearly he sold enough of those where he was like…“I should create a training platform that is even better than Training Peaks”. But he’s not developer by trade, he was social media marketing guy. Somehow some way he crowd funded the development of his platform…well he sent money to a developer that he didn’t know and lived in a different country…and then the work didn’t get done. Then his community crowd funded it again, and I think even helped code the platform. And that training platform grew to the point where he could pivot I guess…but it’s still connected to him whereas what Training Peaks or Today’s Plan connect to?
Anyways he grew his training platform to the point where he could pay at least five people. So to that, I applaud him, but he’s still nauseating and lost what got most people interested–The Everyman Triathlete.
Oh, wasn’t aware of the training platform / crowd funding. He could have partnered with training peaks / Sufferfest and had less backlash. It makes sense with the controversy here then. You open yourself to that when you are selling training / nutrition plans (e.g. vegan weightlifters who sell secretly formulated supplements come to mind). To me (and probably many people here), his credentials as a coach / dietitian seem rather thin…
I don’t think it’s a case of “doesn’t get it”, but a case of struggling for direction. I haven’t watched that youtube video, but it sounds like an attempt to emulate “Seth Bike Hack / Berm Peak” success formula. There are a of similarities with home chefs who start a restaurant and struggle with it.
Taren made a triathlon youtuber his full time job before he figured out whether it’s viable, how to go about it, and how to make it sustainable. Having to make a living off of youtube can be rather unforgiving, especially if you are a one person operation who doesn’t have deep pockets (ala GCN’s start). From what I know, the only swim / bike / run channel that’s run by one person that’s successful as a full time job are Seth Bike Hack / BKXC / Phil Kmetz (who was a pro downhill racer). And… it took them multiple years of doing it part time before building a view base, and having time to figure out what works what doesn’t.
The pressure of making a living, forces you to experiment with things and copy what works, which in the process tends to take away the authenticity and spirit of things. In short, it makes you copy what other people do (copying form not the spirit), and doesn’t allow you to find your own strength. That’s on top of dealing with the difference between a hobby, and when you the hobby your job.
To me, Taren seems to be someone who found triathlon as a hobby, was really happy when it helped him lose 60 lbs. On a high, made it his job (leap of faith). But then realized it’s much more difficult to go from OK to good, when compared to out of shape to OK. In term, realized his passion for triathlon is closer to having it as a bucket list hobby, but not a lifelong pursuit. That’s normal, I think most people on this forum (including myself) can only sustain triathlon as a part time hobby. However for him, he wasn’t an endurance athlete (aka. no existing relationship with industry / coaches / teams; imagine if slowtwitch was started by an AGer vs. Dan). But… it became a full time youtube job… what to do?
He seems like a great / positive guy, who’s bit off more than he though. Wish him the best of luck, and figure out what his life passions are.
As a bit of background, I found Taren’s channel pretty cool a few years back as he was an age-grouper rolling it with the rest of us and a lot of what he posted rang a chord.
Fast forward a few years and I won’t relive the whole debate about what his channel morphed into as there is plenty of commentary about that within this forum.
Durianrider
hah, I always thought of his channel as a vegan / body builder / anti-aging channel first, with a touch of cycling related rants, and thumbnails that look like a victoria’s secret catalog. I don’t get any passion / love for cycling in his video. I am not sure he likes cycling (similarly, I am not sure Taren really enjoys triathlons anymore). I do remember that durianrider does love bananas.
Durianrider
I checked the desk to see what this rant was about, and it was kind of funny that the ad on the side was VolTaren
The desk isn’t too bad
When is zwift pairing with occulus vr?
Been suggesting Medical Overbeds like the following for $66 for a half decade. They roll really well on the floor and could be used for myriad of other tasks around the house.
Been suggesting Medical Overbeds like the following for $66 for a half decade. They roll really well on the floor and could be used for myriad of other tasks around the house.
Yep. Have one just like it. Been using in for a few years now with no problems