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I was bit by a guy but his dog was nice about it.

I’ve never ridden any of the trail on the traditional first loop, which includes the big Black Bear climb but I rode 20 miles of this years first loop and it was CHOCKED FULL of magnificent narrow alpine single track through pine and aspen forests. Very much worth a visit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There were moments a couple days ago I might have seen fit to use an e-bike ... 😅 and still, I persevered and rode (hike-a-biked) on. In the greater scheme of things I feel more disdain toward an inconsiderate Stravasshole giving all riders a bad name by their treating a shared-use trail as their personal race track than I do toward someone riding pedal-assist in a responsible and considerate manner.

I’d give a Bongthlon a whirl.

Well you could get lucky like me! When I face planted and broke my nose a couple of years ago, it permanently fixed the deviated septum that I had suffered with my entire life. Suppose I should go full-face now to protect the fix!!!

I actually dont care if someone does not wear a helmet. That is totally their problem. I'll do me. They do them. If they get hurt. Meh Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

I'm not sure anyone (including myself) would consider me "able-bodied" at this point, but I am still capable of riding a non-e-mtb. Every painful morning I wake up, I look more forward to the e-mtb w/pussification. Oh, and I'll flip you off too when I'm stopped on the trail adjusting my sports depends 🙂

Some gutsy riding!

Good call. I always do that "...how would this play in my news feed?" test. It's kept me from going on vacation and leaving the kids at home on more than one occasion.

Wow, if you haven't been out to Suburban Ninja for a while like me, you're in for a surprise with all the new trail. Cafeend gave me a tour yesterday and by the end, we couldn't even figure out how we made it back to the main trail. So freaking cool! Get out there and get lost, you'll be glad you did! Stop at The Peddler bike shop and give them some thanks. It's so awesome we have something like this in our backyard.

Uh, no. Every trail has features that some people like and other people don't like. If those tree gates are so bad that you have trouble riding them, go to a different trail. This is being written by a guy that raced real Enduro (not bicycle enduro) for years. I could go thru a tree gate that just wider than my knees at 10 to 15 miles per hour. With a little practice I bet I still could. On a mtb - it is SSSSSSOOOOOO much easier.

They actually have done this and they did it several years ago. They call it "suspension" and "shocks". It made the sport more fun and let more people do more things that, before the introduction of that technology, were not possible for them. I'm not trying to be a smart ass. I'm just illustrating that things are relative. Are dropper posts cheating? Are carbon bikes cheating? And the guy had a good point about "if you're not racing then does it matter?" I think the only real argument that can be made against mountain ebikes is whether or not they more adversely affect the trails. But these things don't have throttles. I don't think they are capable of rooster tailing a shower of dirt like motocross motorcycles can. No more so than a regular bike railing a berm can that is. And it's not a problem with them weighing more. They weigh what, 20 pounds more? I know for a fact that I weigh 20 pounds more than the majority of folks out there on comparable bikes. So that can't be an "ebikes are worse than regular bikes" argument. Don't be a weightist!

This is exactly the reason I'm on my SC 5010. Modern geo, but short CS. I'm into low, slack and long front ends, but short CS. I'm not interested in any trail bike with CS over 17". I don't even think I'd be interested in long CS for a dedicated DH bike--I don't "need" that stability, and popping of ledges is just more fun when it's short. Maybe long CS on touring bike, but that's it.

AKA hang on and let the suspension do all the work. Just buy a motorbike already and get off my lawn!

Why do I have a picture of the Beverly Hillbillies in my head when I read this? Black gold...Texas T. Here's hoping you find the one 4" x 4" of rock free soil in the entire park.

You know how you can tell someone rides a single speed...they'll tell you😂

If these are shoes and pedals that you have been using without any issues and now have issues it could be a long term overuse/fit issue that is now just showing itself. Like what Throet said try using some flats and see if the problem recedes if so then you know it's most likely shoes. Also shoes will start to break down over time and need to be replaced. I had a pair of road shoes that I had a similar issue with they were fine until one day I started getting hot spots on the ball of my foot, turns out I drove the cleat bolts up through the foot bed of the shoe and these were not cheap shoes $300 Time carbon shoes.

So no payouts in the Beginner category? Does $65 get me beer? I figure someone has to ask ...

And to toss another idea out there, it may be cleat placement. About 10 years ago I started running, which changed my feet and caused numbness on some rides (using SPDs). It was a more general numbing across all my toes, not as specific as yours. IIRC I moved my cleats heel-ward just a couple mm, and that was enough to relieve whatever pressure was going on. Hope you get it figured out.

Me too. Strangest thing. Happened with a groin injury too. I could barely walk with it but could ride no problem.

He’s out, but I believe he was due to be deported — if Bart didn’t hunt him down first.

I just flew to Portland with Alaska airlines. $30 first bag for my bike in a standard Evoc bag. Great service and direct flight from Austin. Easy to bike anywhere in the Portland area. Hood river and Bend are not too far. Lots of short flights from PDX to NW cities including Vancouver. I looked at bike flights but that was 4 days pack before flight for $100 each way. Bag has to be under 50lbs and 115” lineal inches to count as regular luggage.

I love a great Saison, but I should have know better than trying this. By far the most bitter beer I've tasted - horrible! Unless of course you like bitter, sour beer. Fortunately I only bought one bottle.

You may want to buy a 12-pack of good IPA and then invite the forum over to your house to show you how it is done. You'll learn something in the process. Apparently free cold beer is a mating call in the bike world and it will attract people quickly.

You are not wrong there. But when I see a barney rider ,, sans helmet riding past the warning signs at Brushy or Greenbelt or the Nut.. they just obviously are making a choice and your argument is not going to sway them no matter how correct it may or may not be. The older I get the more I learn my opinions dont matter and if they choose to not wear a helmet they and their family can deal with the consequences. I choose to wear one and that is what matters to me. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Pedernales is one of my favorite local trails! It is certainly one of the best trail systems in a Texas State Park, the best I've seen although I haven't ridden a few well known parks in the state. Juniper Ridge may not have a lot of climbing but a full loop out there has a decent amount of climbing and sustained effort from traversing oodles of rock gardens. I'm usually pretty beat after 18-20 miles. Tree gates are a contentious debate but I do think everything out there is doable with wide bars (780mm) with some body english and technique. There's no need to insult someone that doesn't like a certain feature type, amirite? That said, the trail is what it is, so it is best to appreciate it that way and learn to deal with the sticky spots.

That's not too far from what one shop owner/rider mentioned to me in frustration with the manufacturer maintenance intervals. FWIW, I should have mentioned I put 10k+ miles on my Talas before I had to replace the CSU. I never used the full bottle of shock oil I bought. I doubt I serviced it 10 times. If I'd wiped things down I might have never had to have the CSU replaced. That's why I think just changing the lowers oil every 200-250 miles or so and rinsing the foam rings is fine.

Never understood the appeal of drinking gin straight or on the rocks. Probably cuz of the time I stole a bottle from my Dad's stock and guzzled if with my friends. It's only been gin & tonic since then!

I've never wore pads and likely never will, but don't believe that if I did I would feel any safer. Maybe that argument would hold true with complete body armor, but I have to believe that only a small percentage of MTB injuries would be prevented by knee pads or elbow pads. And I'm not talking about scrapes and bruises, which don't concern me. I've injured shoulder/chest, ribs, toes, fingers, neck, face, and now hamstring while mountain biking. None of these would have been prevented by wearing knee or elbow pads.

I may be interested in one of these!

With the advent of lighter full face helmets, I can totally understand someone using one on every ride. I mean, you wouldn't ride without a helmet at Walnut, right? Because you might crash, right? So is your face not terribly important to protect?

So I took my (leashed) dog out to hike the trails today. I stopped and looked at where I fell off the bike, and...nothing should have caused this. I was WAY off of the line I've taken 100's of times. Straight up bonehead move. I guess it doesn't take much of a loss of focus to screw up.

Awesome! Make sure you spend some time on the skills area (drops, jumps, skinnies etc) in the center pavilion area. Then you can come back after drinking the kool-aid and push for one at brushy! 😉

Here’s the profile from our ride.

I can leave them out if you want to swing by. I'm in NW Austin. Or possibly meet at BC Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

I was worried it was an alien probe dealio and nobody wants to be probed by an alien.

My left foot went numb in many races. Basically half of the ball of the foot and a few toes. Two things: There is a nerve in my foot that gets pressed in certain dress shoes, and when I walk around barefoot too much. I try to wear shoes more. Switching to a high end XC shoe has helped tremendously. When it goes numb now, it’s usually because I need to back out the adjustment by one click on one of the BOAs. Super stiff soles are amazing. I can’t believe I waited so long to get really good shoes. I run Lake MX237 wide shoes. The width in the forefoot may have really helped with stopping the numbness for me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You don’t realize how much work your ankle does to keep you balanced when walking. When you’re riding your ankle doesn’t rotate like when you’re walking.

I agree that people should try different things. But after they have ridden a trail, I think they should make their own decision if the want to ride it again. I find that a trail I may not like today is epic another day. A lot of that depends on what condition I am in. Right now I think Walnut may be too challenging for me.

Kittens might make good tacos, who knows? Baby goats do, after all. (queue the resident @spicewookiefor professional input) How did I get to that you ask ... E-bike is essentially a bionic set of legs for a rider. Makes a less muscular rider capable of doing things that require more strength than they can produce. Whatever strength they input is amplified at some ratio determined by the program. If the above is true, outlawing E-bikes because of concern over potential damage to trails, or any other concerns along those lines would be equally applicable to any rider with high leg strength as well. All other arguments for outlawing them, made by riders, seem to be more ego-based. "Why should they be able to do something that I had to work hard to achieve?" being the primary complaint I read from that camp. Regulation for preventing bruised egos isn't a good idea. There's just too many ways to bruise a fragile ego to account for them all through regulation.

That'd be the best day of my life

Ha! I removed it. We live in an incredibly sensitive world, so I'll hold off on the noose 😉 I can see the news headline now...

I had a Pitbull rear brake too. Cool looking but horrible in every way!

$200 for a pro to fix it. You can save a lot by not having it finished to match. Leave an ugly carbon wrap for all to see so he can think about taking care of things in the future.

The newer Shimano brakes are not without there own issues. Wandering bite point and pumping up for braking.

Yeah, that still hurts a little. 😆 Maybe someone will flag that Oak branch on Mulligan before I get back out that way. 🙂

Post up if you need help getting this installed.

I'll gladly buy you some beer if you wanna help me service a fork or two 🙂

Hey Seth - This is BAD ASS!! So good to see you getting into the game and having a race event company is another level. Excited for you man and I'll do my best to attend and support any way possible. If you need some volunteers, let us know. You've certainly given enough of your time to the trails people ride around here.