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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/07/2019 in all areas

  1. Let's make a pros and cons list. Flats: Pro - Feet come out easily Con - Feet come out easily Clipless: Pro - Feet don't come out easily Con - Feet don't come out easily
    5 points
  2. I saw a car with muddy bikes on the back so I ran them off the road then tossed them in town lake to help clean them off.
    5 points
  3. Is anyone else starting to miss the Chinese spam bots?
    4 points
  4. Your comment above matches mine. I prefer clips almost everywhere, all the time. Even riding downhill at Angle Fire - I put my SPD's back on. ( I rode up with SPDs and liked that feeling better than flats when I took the lift up.) I went back to clips because I like them better than flats. I probably like them better because that is what I am used to riding. Yes - it is a circular argument. This is how I look at it - I ride for fun. So I do what I enjoy most. Everybody else should do what they enjoy most. I promise I won't make fun of your preference if you don't make fun of mine. ETA - I can ride my SPD pedals unclipped. I cannot ride my flat pedals clipped in. YMMV.
    3 points
  5. the main area where I think clipless are better is when you need to generate that last bit of extra power to get over a feature. For me that happens all the time. If you are riding on the road they also help you to use different muscles as you pedal.
    3 points
  6. The highlight of my MTB life was starting to go OTB but clipping out both feet hurdling the bars and landing standing up / running away as the bike wrecked behind me. I did not look back at the explosion because at that moment I felt as cool as Chuck Norris. I can clip out almost as fast as taking a foot off to dab but less inclined to do so unless alarm bells start ringing. For example I never drag the inner foot when the bike is hard over. I feel the loss of cool points in my soul for not being able to perform this move. It should be possible with clips but more research needs to be done. For science.
    2 points
  7. lost my footing a few times on rocky terrain. otherwise, good shoes and good pedals + time to hone technique means I have 50X more confidence on difficult climbs where I would be afraid of stalling and falling over with the bike and 1% decrease in the last ounce of power to get over something difficult. the bonus is, when I lose traction or momentum, it's effortless to get off the bike and walk, and hop back on and start pedaling again. starting on an uphill and trying to clip in is a huge PITA< especially when you only have one gear on your bike.
    2 points
  8. Think I'll skip any R&I plans and look forward to a Thursday Oskar Blues ride at Walnut. It should be reasonable for one day on Thursday before Friday's downpour.
    2 points
  9. I didn't know there were such a thing. 'bout time! Still, I'm diggin' the flats, and seeing videos of riders doing the things I like to do, or want to do, while riding flats tells me that it is only me holding me back and not the pedals.
    2 points
  10. Out there right now. Bad news. Outer log loop has mud. Even in places that should be dry. Based on the fact that people worked hard after the rain I vote to not muck up their work. Oh, and the log loops on a 35cm tire are a bitch.
    2 points
  11. Thats true. And its good that this doesn't have to be a run-no-matter-what type event so that the promoters can make money back thing. However, the other angle here is that theres a chance these types of things get canceled because its slick enough (but not trail damaging) that it could become 'dangerous' for the avg rider. Heck I think the last time it was postponed due to weather conditions, 2 riders here on the forum went out and did it without incident. So there's a still somewhat delicate balance to making these decisions IMHO. Later, -CJB
    2 points
  12. I alway feel like I'd like to ride flats, but all of the "the only places" people seem to miss being clipped in comprise like 90% of my riding. Seriously, in this thread alone, we have listed rocky uphills, rocky downhills, jumps, drops, quick bursts of power, and the road.
    2 points
  13. Also, you'll be amazed at how much doing this helps your riding overall, in addition to making it 10x easier to stay on the pedals through rough stuff.
    2 points
  14. Lower the pins for now. You may raise them as you get used to it. I had to switch to flats for the instructor certification class. I was STUNNED that I did not lose as much as I thought I would. The two areas where I prefer clips are like crazyt said when I need that last little push to get over something or a short run at a climb where I need to generate power quickly. The other place is when bouncing thru a rock garden or bumpy downhill. Clips held my feet on the pedals while my bike and body bounced around. On flats I keep bouncing off the pedals. And yes, I recognized this is problem with poor rider skill.
    2 points
  15. I do miss clipless when trying to clear a climb over "stuff". It seemed to give me that little bit extra. That's it though.
    2 points
  16. Put in 10 miles at Mary Moore Searight today. Hardly any mud problems at all. Slick rocks were the only challenge. I had never ridden over there soon after a rain event. I was super surprised how good it was. Slaughter Creek was too high to cross anywhere, including the dam, without getting feet wet. Not a big deal, but the south bank of Slaughter Creek does have some fun stuff.
    2 points
  17. Why all the bitching about wet trails, puddles of mud and slick rocks? If you love riding mountain bikes in Central Texas on a perfect January day after tons of rain, then suck it up, go for a drive, and find some granite. I rode 3 hours yesterday at Reveille Peak and would’ve done a lot more if NFL playoffs weren’t on.
    2 points
  18. Besides bikes and flying things I do a lot of guitar building/wood working. This is a neck-thru Flying V made with maple and purple heart. I used Steinberger components for a headless design.
    1 point
  19. A bunnyhop is a bunnyhop. "J-hop" is what Juggalos on walgoose BMX bikes call a bunnyhop because they've been huffing glue and don't know any better.
    1 point
  20. One of those is called an English Bunny Hop and the other is called an American Bunny Hop. I can't remember which is which, but I'm going to assume the J-hop is the American because it's better and, well, 'MERCA!!!!!
    1 point
  21. it should not be all that hard to remove grips and put TOGS on. even with slip-on grips, they can slide off. most people leave a gap between their brake lever and the end of the grip (unless you have itty bitty sausage fingers), so there should be some room for the TOG to fit there.
    1 point
  22. I ran them for a couple years on my Karate Monkey. I liked them. They're not life changing or anything, but they give you a different hand position on longer rides, while still maintaining enough control to handle unexpected bumps in the trail. Basically, on tamer sections of trail or on the road, I end up riding with my thumb over the bars pretty often. The TOGS make it so you can ride with that grip in slightly more technical bits of trail, and make it waay harder to accidentally slip over the top of the bars when you hit that rock you didn't see. Now that I'm on a bike without them, I find myself missing them more that I thought I would. Next time I switch grips on my Stache, I think I'm gonna put them back on. You should try them IMO.
    1 point
  23. I agree with cxagent, run the pedals that make biking more enjoyable for you. I know there is intrinsic value with flats in some aspects, like, "if you can j-hop with flats, you're probably doing it the right way". But I found that the learning curve wasn't justified by whatever general riding benefit flats were supposed to have. For others, this may not be the case. I definitely don't agree with the way Bike James overhypes flats but I don't doubt that he can do more than I can with him on flats and me on anything.
    1 point
  24. Yeah, I get it. But I'm trying to figure out if I want to take my grips off, move my bell, possibly move my brake levers in (considering that this area is all wrapped in road bar tape) all for an experiment that I'm unsure if I need. -CJB
    1 point
  25. My confidence in sketchy shit went up considerably with the ability to get off the bike no matter what. I've had too many instances with clipless where I wish I could have unclipped, but the circumstances didn't allow it. These usually ended with my spilling blood or otherwise experiencing pain. It made me less likely to try something. Instead, I'd unclip, stop, and walk it in many cases, rather than play the odds. The realization of how this latent concern about getting unclipped gets in the way of developing skills, for me, was the most significant reason for moving to flats. I broke a wrist ten or so years ago because I was unable to get out of the pedals and fell down slope. Not something I want to repeat.
    1 point
  26. I've tried flats and didn't meld with them very well. I also had a ton more pedal strikes since my bike has a fairly low bottom bracket. Along the lines of "the only places" where people miss being clipped in, I'm wondering the opposite. When you ride clipped in, where do you miss having flats? The only time that I want flats is when I'm practicing wheelies and manuals. Also when I am practicing proper technique for bunny hopping. So, skills development. I don't see myself jumping over the bars when endoing since I am either fairly committed to a line when I attempt it and any endo will happen so quickly that I wouldn't be able to spring forward OR I'm thinking that I may need to hit the eject button and therefore I'm already prepared to unclip if I need to. I've ridden some nasty narrow bench cut technical singletrack with exposure and always felt like I was able to unclip when I needed to. I know some folks like having flats in those situations but for me it would just increase the likelihood of ever needing to get off the bike since I feel more likely to catch a pedal. So, for those that have switched to flats, what is the benefit for you?
    1 point
  27. There is a precedent here with the EB that never was (2015)? One of the things that I love about this event is that it's a ride put on by riders for riders. I think that we've all seen a race destroy a trail because it was scheduled to take place despite the trail conditions. If it's too muddy to ride the trail, I'm not riding it and I would expect everyone else involved to have that same approach.
    1 point
  28. Like RidenFool said - I don't expect much change. Berms will develop on corners and trap water on the trail. The standing water will soften the trail tread below the water. The next wheel on it will make the hole little deeper. That little bit of the trail tread will end up on the water dam (berm). The puddle will get deeper and longer. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat again. At first we knocked the berms down. The moto guys complained about that. So we started creating drainage "cuts" and left the berm. The moto guys complained about that. Without going thru all the iterations - we leave the trail tread to them. I was cleaning out old emails over the holiday and found quite a few of those emails from the moto guys complaining about screwing up the trail. Interesting how you can watch exactly what you said would happen - actually happens. Eventually I expect we will have to create drainage and fill holes again. But not until there has been trouble. BTW - I am an old motocross / enduro (real enduro with motors) / hare scrambles / etc rider. I still have a couple of dirt bikes that are worth more to me than I could sell them for. So every couple of years I pull one out and ride. And I like to ride with one or both wheel "loose" 😉 My bike may have two wheels but I only use one at a time. Mountain bikes will do NOTHING to a wet trail like a dirt bike will.
    1 point
  29. I switched to flats about a year ago. Five Tens or Adidas Terrex shoes work well. it takes a few rides to get used to it if you've been clipped in for a number of years. I rode BMX (street, park, etc) for about 15 years before getting on a mountain bike, so the transition to SPDs was rough! switching back to flats was easy, even after ten years clipped in, because of all those years of experience and the shin scars to show for it.
    1 point
  30. For me this aspect of "better" was more a matter of developing technique than anything else. The more I ride the flats the less I miss clipless. I like the analogy of skateboard vs. skates to paint the picture of flats vs. clipless. I always preferred riding skateboard because in a pinch I could step off, and I couldn't get detached from the skates in a moment. Granted, clipless is better than toe clips, but flats with the combination of pins and the right shoes seem to be more grippy, offer a larger platform for my foot, and provide that critical "I gotta get off this thing RIGHT NOW!" option that wasn't always there for me with clipless.
    1 point
  31. I wear five tens, and so far they have worked well.
    1 point
  32. I'm not sure it was the shoes or the pins. Haha. I did order some five tens. I may lower the pins down a little.
    1 point
  33. You may want to consider some shin and calf protection, at least during the familiarization phase. Those pins will eat flesh and bone at the slightest provocation. Like while stopping and putting a foot down, walking the bike through a section that stopped you, etc. Early on after moving to flats I had an endo and was able to easily step over the bars and walk on down the trail as the bike crashed behind me. After that I realized I would have added another OverTheBarScarClub scar had I been using clipless. That sold me on flats. Still getting the hang of jumps, hops, etc with them. Too many habits left from being attached that just don't work with flats.
    1 point
  34. Sure I'll play …… saw this guy at BB King's in Nashville. Has a rack on stage with around 6-7 guitars of various sorts, including of course the cigar box.
    1 point
  35. I rode muddy, sloppy, splashy trails today. In full disclosure though, I rode them with the principle trail builder, so I guess I shouldn't feel too guilty.
    1 point
  36. Depending on how my day is looking on Tuesday morning I may take a ride up there to scope things out.
    1 point
  37. We need to get some of that Rocky Hill Ranch sand and spread it on the trails. It's guaranteed to destroy drivetrains when ridden wet.
    1 point
  38. There's always gravel! Plenty of that about.
    1 point
  39. I took great pleasure in seeing Kawhi getting booed and Rockets beating the Warriors last night.
    1 point
  40. You gotta just let it go. Let it go. Turn away and slam the door. ❄️ 🎶 Can't tell you how many veloway laps I did with that damn song stuck in my head.
    1 point
  41. Kid songs killed me. I can't tell you how many times perfectly good rides were ruined by some cartoon's theme song on repeat in my head. I don't wear headphones on every ride, but I do carry them just in case now. I had a single speed that I used to tow the kids around in a trailer. The eccentric bottom bracket creaked to the exact rhythm of "Down By the Bay."
    1 point
  42. The last song I hear before I get out of my car is the the soundtrack that rattles around my head all day on the ride. Last week I had Iggy Pop's "Lust for life" hit 1 minute from the trailhead. Score! But sometimes it is a slow song or something I don't like. That can create a crappy ride. My guilty confession is that I have a USB memory key plugged into the car and I can use to do a last minute save to my internal soundtrack. But it is K-pop. Somehow it always seems to be Hyuna's "Bubble Pop." Can't understand 99% of the words, but by god I'll learn Korean one of these days. It's the perfect palate cleanser for the earworm.
    1 point
  43. Fill out your darn waiver -- it's easy! The link is right here.
    1 point
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