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So picked up this badboy today courtesy of CBaron! Needs a little TLC but should be up and running in the next week or so! Intended to get signed up for tandem class tonight but the USA cycling website doesn't like my phone and internet is not set up at my new house yet! Will be a go once I get to work in the am!

Skip to 0:01. That's when it starts getting good.

Here's a video of a test ride of a small change we made on Sticky Icky at Spider Mountain. The trail rose up quite a bit at this point and led to a small root drop and was sloughing off the downhill side, so we gave it a full bench with a slight rise leading to a boot-able roller. We also touched up the catch berm below this, re-cut the bench after this, and built up the LH berm. This trail crosses a small doubletrack a little later after a hard left turn to a steep descent down the embankment. After that, you had to make a hard right turn back onto the trail. The embankment and turn was on privately owned land, and the owner asked us to move it, so we back the trail up a bit and built this, which lines up nicely with the trail across the road. We even armored the trail below and built up the catch berm. There are multiple lines down this new section. Here's a video of a rider testing that next exit to the road. Here are a before and after picture of the bermed turn. If you ride it this weekend, look out for more changes, as we have done some bench and flow work from top to bottom. The work will be completed by the race!

Take that tire off and use a vice grip with some electrical tape on it. Bend that baby back and keep on riding. It will not have the same structural integrity if you hit it again in the exact same spot, but it will ride normally. I cannot count the number of times I have just bent my wheels back into shape. Yay aluminum!

As a seasoned stoker, I can admit that I cannot shake the urges/instincts/habits that I've developed over a lifetime of riding "half bikes." The real magic happens when the stoker can put their trust in the captain and just provide power and balance. While pedaling the same cadence is dictated by the chain-joined cranks, just as rewarding/therapeutic is shifting weight at the same time/coordinated. There is nothing that will jack you up more than trying to counteract mis-weighted leans in a corner. You schmucks trying this for the first time will be in for an education. If schedule permits, I will attend these shenanigans just to watch your faces as you finish a lap.

Locks are to prevent relatively honest people from succumbing to the temptation of easy pickings. Since the advent of cordless power tools with cutting wheels nearly every lock can be defeated in less than a minute by an industrious professional thief. With this fact firmly established, other methods of security, such as disassembly and storage inside the vehicle or taking it with you into a building are the only options remaining, short of hiring a security guard. Familiarity breeds contempt. Doing the same thing successfully over and over in no way changes the fact that bikes are easily freed from the various locks currently offered. Effective security will never be convenient. The people selling the locks are as guilty as the thieves in the way they sell "peace of mind" knowing full well that their product is only the slightest of deterrents.

Went out there yesterday and made my first laps on PP4.0. I was pleased with the result and I've got more to give...just not exactly sure how much more.

I don't have time to watch lengthy videos like that. Can you summarize what is in those videos? Cool stuff.

For any teams that are going out for testing/training...please oh please post up when you do. I would love to spectate and or pit crew!!

SO MUCH THIS! The challenge for the FGPP event on a tandem will be developing an on-going rhythm of working together through the 100+ turns. The bike (because its so long and flexy) itself oscillates with every pedal stroke. There's a timing in this that will need to be woven into each successive undulating turn (x 100+). Those that figure this out will do well and take home all the MONEY & LADIES....those that don't will get mocked and laughed at.

Jay raced in this back in NorCal. This is about as exciting as it's going to get. The Jump Stage is only topped by the Stoker Beer Chug Stage.

I'm pretty sure my strava must be broken

Pretty much this Someone has to see the irony of paying 2-3k for wheels that are less reliable than aluminum without any real true weight savings. You have to add tire inserts, and DH carcass tire only to have them ride rough as sh*t in the end. Once you add all the shite to keep them alive, saving 100 grams doesnt matter..... Oh wait! Zipp is making carbon wheels that ride like aluminum now🙄 Never again

Wife and I didn't ride but we could have as the park is still operating during the race. We spent a night in Montreal, another night in QC and stayed in chateau richer for the races. The whole area is into the MTB race and everyone is really friendly and supportive of visitors. The park was great and it was surreal to hang out with the riders and journalists for the day and then again at parties at night. Bottom line the whole experience was beyond awesome and i cant recommend it enough.

My experience is that aluminum just bends if you roll out with too low of a psi and kiss a rock. Yes you can bend it back with a pair of pliers, but it is forever ugly and weak. Carbon is super strong unless there is a layup defect. You can feel the rim kiss the rubber and know your psi is a little low. On my stans, that same feeling resulted in a bent lip. It stays so unbelievably true compared to aluminum until you ding enough spokes to really screw things up. You ever cracked an aluminum rim and ridden it a lot? As long as you are holding air, you can pretty much ride cracked carbon home. We cracked specialized rim and still had to do a few rides/ races on it before we had it warrantied. I’ve gone out way low on psi (laziness) and pinch flatted tires and slammed square edge ledges. The rim barely has a mark. Aluminum would probably be dead. I’ve ridden dirt wheels. Dirt components built me up a few wheels and they have been fantastic. I do not have the current rim offerings from them, but I will replace my bontrager’s with them soon. Buy from Patrick! He is awesome. Regarding PSI... I maybe went a couple of pounds lower when switching to carbon. It allowed me to slowly find the ideal psi without fear of bending the lip. I run 24-26 rear depending upon tire size. Front is 21-23. I’m a hair over 190 in my gear and my bikes are 22-25 pounds. All my tires are 2.25-2.35. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The City of Cedar Park has approved KOM Trails to bring their machines and expertize to Peddlers Pass at Brushy Creek. The service agreements are signed and work is scheduled to start on April 22nd. In case you don't know who KOM Trails is, they're a local trail building company that's had a hand in the amazing work done in Bentonville, AR and many other trails around Texas. The Brushy Creek trail system is their home trail which they helped build and are still trail stewards of it. I've been working closely with KOM on a plan of action, you guys are going to love the changes. Once completed, Peddlers Pass will be the first Machine Built Flow Trail for Mountian Bikes on Public land in Texas (that we know of). The trail route and direction will not change. During construction, different sections of the trail will be closed while work is been done, please respect these closures and don't ride around "trail closed" signs or tape. In conjunction with this work we are coordinating with Austin Ridge Riders and the Parks Dept. to have two big volunteer days, Saturday, April 27th and Saturday, May 4th. to wrap up the project. These volunteer days are vitally important to finish in a timely manner. If those days don't work for you, come out anytime during the week of April 22nd and we'll find something for you to help with. I'll be posting updates here and in various Facebook Groups. Finally, I'd like to say a huge thank you to The City of Cedar Park and especially Curt Randa the Parks Director for embracing Mountian Biking and partnering with us to create a truly unique trail.

Marks is actually good because while there are creek crossings, they are all basically armored with rocks. There was one I stopped and jumped over but for the rest of them they were rideable.

Zen-like is right. We only rode Flat Creek once, Pace Bend once (race), and the Super D (race) at Rocky Hill once. We were (are) good enough friends and had ridden half bikes together enough to "know" each other, I guess. I can imagine that dedicating some time to practice on a course with your partner could yield some surprising results. Just jumping on blind with someone for the first time..........that's going to be a steep learning curve. Anyone that practices, even a little, will blow away the (possible) competition.

Crashes....I liked to call J my airbag.

Yep, you and Jay probably spent more time in a variety of different situations than Travis and I. However, Travis and I spent 8.5 hrs together on the bike in one day. By the end of the day, we didn't even really have to talk too much. We'd gone through so many repetitions of (verbal) "shift", "easy", "level", "pedal", etc.... that we (mainly him because he has no controls) were dialed into the automatic rhythm of what was needed and coming next. Its a very synchronistic and zen-like state. I suspect none of you newbs will get there by the FGPP! 🤣😜 -CJB

No, you are right. But, due to the socks with sandals he is immediately disqualified.

minor bunny hop at 0:17

I've ridden Warda, RHR and Walnut on the tandem with no real issues. Thus, I've assumed PP just wouldn't be a problem. However, thinking about it further, there actually may be a few turns that will give 2 people, sitting aboard a 400LB rig, with a 6' wheelbase, some issues! It won't be impossible, but it won't be easy either. I'm certain it won't make it over the wood bridge(s). But I'm UN-certain if the rollers and whoops on the latter half will be a problem (via high-centering). I tend to think it will be ok....report back when you figure it out 4fun! 😉 I'm glad this seems to be picking up some more momentum. If I can get my stoker (sherpaxc) to travel back into town (from Kerville) for this, then I might just jump into the fun. Later, CJB PS- SOMEBODY GO BUY ANOTHER TANDEM.

161 corners per lap that require some measure of steering input and body English. It’s like the Nuremberg Ring for MTB.

I want to try it.

This was the hardest I’ve laughed in days.

On a positive note if were the only entrants we can claim a pro/open victory!

Jumps are G2G.

It's going down! Like literally we will go down in the books as idiots. Cheers! Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

It was hard to leave and come back to tejas in august for sure. We'd have to tap out on any place with a winter cold enough to freeze the st lawrence😨

Shit just got real!

Yep, and if it does have coverage, check the deductible. Many HO policies have a 1% of home value deductible, so if your house is worth 200k, that's a 2k deductible, which may not cover much. Also check to see if it covers replacement value or actual value.

Seems similar to my experience for the Canadian GP one weekend and Jazz Fest the next weekend while the world cup was going on (must have been either 2002 or 2006). I loved it up there.

So as of 8:05 fully committed to the tandem cat! The water is warm we need a couple more groups to jump in!!

having a good homeowners policy is a beautiful thing sometimes. check to make sure yours has coverage.

Awesomeness. Pure Awesomeness. Done and Done.

This! My 2nd hand Knox came with a few dinged spokes, and a few that were not a match. I started breaking some spokes, the tensions were uneven. I replaced all the dinged spokes and all the non-matching spokes, tensioned it even and it's perfectly true. With aluminum, I find that once I'm having to replace spokes or true the wheel, the spoke tensions are going to be off for the rest of the life of the wheel. That means either loose spokes frequently, or broken spokes now and then in my experience. Sorry about your troubles Seth. Thanks for the warning on this company. I'm considering a new set of wheels for my SS and I've got Knox and Dirt Components on my list now.

I rode these conditions today. BC34D933-1445-4947-B1F1-2C5723988CDC.MOV

@riding again, did you build this?

landscape - portrait is not going to handle the magnificence of the bosom.

Portrait or landscape?

Being a goofy MTB fanboy at MSA last summer. Nino and Luca Shaw .

I’ll see your bluebonnet bike photos and raise you one bluebonnet bike photo with groms. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No! Who else am I going to live vicariously through?

Today's ride, nothing special but beats being at work. Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

Hopefully not a new rainmaker. Giant Trance Advanced Pro 1.