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The question I always ask is, "do they harm the trail experience for other users." Say, a 4 wheeled ATV on singletrack, for example. But even in large groups these folks seem fine and they don't interrupt my experience any more than a hiker. The only caveat is if they start moving roots and rocks out of their way to more accommodate their equipment or skill level. That's when it woudl be a problem.

The early morning of, it rained and made the opening third to half the ride just muddy enough to be damaging and certainly too slick and dangerous considering the route. Thanks to dry air and a lot of wind, the trail was fine by noon-2pm, but that was too late to delay a start. The last thing I want is for anyone to come away with an injury of any level from one of my events. It would have been irresponsible and a black mark on my budding race company to proceed. There is a liability issue to consider as well as though the event was fully insured through USAC, it still can put everyone involved in a bind should someone get hurt and file a claim. March 10th is the next window. Fingers crossed for bone-dry conditions.

Conditions were fine but a person making a decision for a large group of riders is wise to be conservative and has to make a decision about moving forward with enough time to allow participants to make alternative plans. You and I as individuals would have encountered good conditions but we also could have made a different decision at the moment we left for the ride had conditions worsened. So I respect Todd's decision.

Mine is piqued. Seth, Wes, and Eric. Don’t feed YouTube trolls and move on with your life. If he bothers you that much, just comment “cool story, bro” on each of his comments. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There is a special place in hell for these people.

He is probably low on blood sugar. I'd start him on a Tootsie Pop now. I hear it takes quite a few licks to get to the center.

My daughter spent the night at a friend's house this weekend, and she went for a bike ride on a borrowed bike. When she got home she wouldn't shut up about how crappy her friend's bike was. "It had a coaster brake and didn't even have gears!" I've created a tiny bike snob!

Did they owl bear a sealed letter? Maybe you've been accepted to Hogwarts. Jealous! This is now the most exciting thread of the year. Keep us posted!

I would not convert it to single speed. Instead I would replace the wheel to a cassette hub and put on a better drivetrain. The hub will be lighter and the shifting will allow your kid to pick the cadence that is most comfortable to them which helps them keep up with you. I second mack_turtle. Unless you're progressing to bigger lift access trails, a rigid fork with higher volume tires will improve the ride better than a suspension fork will. The loss in weight is the biggest difference maker as they don't weigh enough at this size to make use of a forks damping. The spinner forks get good reviews and get closer to working at that rider weight, but IMHO it's really just extra weight that your kid then has to push around. Instead, if you're just looking to spend $200. Get a carbon rigid fork like this...CarbonCycles. If I measured correctly, the 39.0 cm length will closely match the axle to crown measurement of the stock Hotrock 20" fork. You'll need to get a front disc brake though...TRP Spyke. And then you'll need to lace up a 20" disc wheel (but you'll already be lacing up a new cassette rear hub too) so...Circus Monkey hubs & Sun Ringle Envy Rim. Woah, that got expensive didn't it? My son has a 20" hot rock that I've turned in to a 1x9. He loves the gears. I have not taken the suspension fork away because what I just typed above is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a bike he's going to outgrow rapidly. Instead, he loves riding off the curb and asking if I saw the shock squish...which it actually does. 🙂

It was the right call. When you have the safety of the riders and the trail to consider, how could you make any other decision? If it had gone down and all those riders had ripped up 50 miles of BCGB, there would be no going back. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

New Austin sucks.

I hadn't been to a frankenbike in a while, and I have a couple old MTBs to get rid of, so I'm glad you posted the link.

It will not be the same even if we found all of the pieces. I have heard back from the TCC that it was not them. I have heard ZERO complaints about putting it back. So I will put it back. With rebar and construction adhesive. I can make it hard to remove. Not impossible to remove, but harder :-) Kind of like repairing a tree somebody cut down - it makes it clear it was no accident that it was put back.

Oh shoot... I thought it was this month. Thanks for the heads up, I would have been setting up at Bike Farm wondering where everyone was.

I rode lap 1 this morning (Southside, includes some of the highly technical, yet unmentionables) and there were still a couple spots where the rocks were wet. Could only imagine what it would have been like on Saturday morning, just after the brief shower. While most of the trail was great on Saturday, it's not about the whole thing, it's really about those first 7 miles where someone could get really hurt. Also, in unrelated news, the water is freaking cold.

I like all of the above...should I just go die now?

Getting ready for Frankenbike this coming Saturday. https://frankenbike.net/frankenbike-austin-162-saturday-march-30-2019-10am-4pm-at-austin-bike-farm/

"Sequence". Funny. All spots along the trail head(s) are safe to park. YMCA is safest for afternoon/evening parking.

Here's a photo... Wife got a video of me taking it outside as well. So here's what happened. On the way to the wildlife center I had it in a box and started to hear some noise from the box from its wings and nails and I suddenly relalized that I'd been hearing similar sounds coming from around my apartment for a few day. This fella must have been in my apartment since maybe Friday when I opened the patio door. But I remember thinking that it was just some paper or maybe plant leaves moving from the wind or AC. It never occured to me to look for what was making the noise. If this is the case, then it must have been dehydrated and hungry, which why it wasn't into flying off when we got it outside. Strange thing though, while I was inside getting info on what to do, my wife was outside sitting next to it stroking its head, and she said it was just sitting there in no way agitated. Anyway, the folks at the wildlife center were great and seemed to know exactly what to do. I asked if, when it was ready for release, I could come back and get it to let it go where we are, but they said that's exactly what they do and that they would prefer to do it themselves as it would give them a chance to look around at its habitat. Thanks again for the help folks... Kind of weird waking up with an owl in your living room. Bamwa... Here's a photo...

This and God help us if we start seeing the scooters out there...with their helmet-less, selfie stick wielding, wayfarer shaded, scarf-with-short sleeved shirt wearing, cut-off skinny jeaned, Toms footed pilots. *Sorry if you like Wayfarers, skinny jeans, or Toms.

You can donate sneks now?!

+1 We've taken a snake to them. We donate to them regularly.

Right , Wrong or Indifferent, The east side of your trail would be pretty cool for those dirt surfers

Okay... Someone just told me about Austin Wildlife Rescue and I called them and they said bring it to them and they'll take care of it.

Maybe try these folks? https://www.austinwildliferescue.org/

Of course, hit up Ska Brewery among others in Durango. And as others have said, yes, Phil's World is worth the trip.

I've actually seen them enjoy the challenge. I've seen them sessioning stuff at Walnut.

I've already posted about this elsewhere. I think these guys are good as far as I'm concerned. My experience when meeting them is positive (goes to show we all should strive to make a good first impression!) Their big fat tires are easier on the trail than some of our tires. Unlike people on scooters, these guys are actually working out. It looks to me like surfing on trails which I think is awesome.

Conditions were perfect everywhere in hindsight, except on one of the early trails that is fully shaded. When I prerode, the dirt was perfect, but off camber 45 degree rock faces would send knee caps and chainstays to an early demise. I’m man enough to admit that there were several rock faces that looked good to ride until all of a sudden they weren’t. It ended poorly. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Over the years of experiences with Garmin products used in making the maps for Rocky Hill, and later adding them to MTBProject, I've had several run-ins with uncooperative supporting software from Garmin as well as other compatibility issues. I have bookmarked a number of sites for conversion of file types, as well as have ascended the steep learning curve on Garmin's Base Camp to get to the point of finding many of the features that make map creation easier, and which, for whatever reason, Garmin does not provide as part of the default tools. (you must go into View and enable them) I can relate to the hair-pulling necessary to get info from and to their devices as well as headaches involved from sharing it with other applications. This should all be much easier to accomplish. Even something as simple as using a custom route for road navigation created in Base Camp is, for whatever reason, different between two of their Zumo GPS units. In one you can upload the route you design and it will follow it exactly as you create it, with prompts for turns and lane placement at intersections. On the other, it will reroute between waypoints however it damn well pleases. The only way to force that unit to follow a created path is to save the route as a track and upload that. Which then loses many of the features like turn notification, POIs, etc. that navigating by route includes. There have been many, many "What were they thinking?" moments over the years I've used Garmin's products. And, they are "the best" in the industry.

Somebody didn't read the CAVEMAN part of my post. I got it working. Thanks for the help. Now to remove the Garmin Express from my computer again. I don't like that it runs itself anytime I start the computer, reboot the computer, or connect a Garmin device to the computer. Any time it is running, it appears to be sending data to Garmin. That is why I removed it completely from my computer in 2013. People think Facebook is invasive of their privacy??? Garmin has Facebook beat. Both have been removed from my computer.

I pulled some rocks yesterday but noticed a bunch of new work today. Thank you very much trail volunteers!

Peddlers was really nice. Great work on the new stuff. Was good getting out today with GF, she got to ride her new squishy

You just named the trail in my mind How is the Horny Peddler? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ugh, is that rock sitting at the bottom part of the upper ledge? I know this spot well. Kind of surprised it took someone this long to...modify it. ..Al

Wrong. Thank you for not riding wet/muddy trails.

Also, Seth scared me into doing away with the carbon bars and I replaced them with the Spank Vibrocores everyone was raving about a couple months ago.

Be careful though - while routine maintenance has an immeasurable effect, repairs certainly have a marked effect. The amplitude of the effect is directly related to the rideability of the bike before and after the repair. Replacing a worn grip might bring a couple of clouds, replacing a non-functioning drivetrain however, can have a similar effect to a new bike - especially given the delicate rain situation we find ourselves in these days. Climate change is real - and it's caused by mtn bikers.