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I have held off telling people about this new trail - until now. It is starting to come together and we will need volunteers soon. So here it is. In 2017, Travis County hired a landscape architect to survey and design some new trails at Reimer's Ranch. Our very own MTB trail builder, rider and instructor Jake Carston helped with the design work. The attached PDF file shows the overview of that trail design. The design sat on the shelf for a while. ARR got a grant from REI to start building those trails. That process has now started. We will be building two of the 5 trails shown - marked I1 (Intermediate 1) and Return. These are intended to be Flow Trails. There is not enough elevation to call them Downhill Trails but there is enough to get a good flow without a lot of peddling. We have surveyed the planned trails and picked the I1 trail as the one we want to build first. It has great topology for fun and interesting trail. We have met with Travis County (land manager), REI (funding source) and KOM Trails. We want this trail open for Cranksgiving so we want to get KOM to do the biggest part of the flow trail. ARR will be building the return trail (how you get back up hill). This looks like it will come together and be ready in November. To have it ready in time, ARR will need volunteers to build the return trail. Work days will start in September to avoid the summer heat. Racers can plan on getting their PayDirt hours early this year. Keep an eye out for work day calls and come help build our new MTB trail! And make sure you thank Travis County, REI, KOM, and ARR for making it happen. 2017-03-31_Reimers Flow Trails.pdf

Better solution!

Pardon my mediocre riding ability and inability to get tons of air. Still working on those things. 😅 But had a blast at the bike park and can’t wait to go again. There’s footage of the new trails in there. I think I rode everything except for the double black.

I will say this about tires. The thought of casting new tires aside or giving them away was never fathomable for me because I just couldn't come to grips with the waste. Last week I had a brand-new Magic Mary 2.6 and Nobby Nic 2.6 in my garage waiting to be mounted on my long-travel bike for Spider Mountain. Instead I reasoned that I should at least get one experience at Spider Mountain with the stock Bonty XR4 Team Issue tires that came on the bike because they were still relatively new. Suppose I shouldn't blame that decision on the predicament I face now, thousands in medical expenses and 6-month recovery time, but I'm fairly certain that big ol' Mary would have hooked up on that loose turn and possibly prevented me from washing out. Moral of story - tires matter when it comes to your safety.

I wish I’d thought about that! I did resort to the can in my pocket when I broke my ankle, but this looks better! have you upgraded your crutch tips? The stock ones are scary in wet surfaces. Just because you’re not riding doesn’t mean you can’t be upgrading stuff!

I've held off on making an announcement on this because we are essentially still in a beta format. However, this thread and topic seems on point, therefore I figured it might prove useful to some of you who are contemplating custom builds and want to play around a bit. I've been working for this company for the past few years and we recently brought on @Teamsloan to help us move things fwd. You can create a profile and then save build lists, set pricing searches for specific parts, and share your builds with others. Later on I may give it its own thread, but for now feel free to jump in and you can give feedback in our forums. https://cyclingbuilder.com/ Thanks, CJB

Some people forget how to use IMHO.

I don't compromise on anything except maybe time. If there's a bike I want, I might wait until there's a deal. There is a pleasure in owning something and knowing you got a deal on it. There are a lot of other areas in my life that I don't care much about yet spend a lot of money on compared to bicycles - house, cars, health insurance....but none of these brings the pleasure of a nice bike, or keeps me strong or healthy. I built the last five bikes from the frame up with new parts.

I don’t get out there too often, but I really enjoy riding reimers. Count me in for dig days in the fall.

Now I understand what they mean when they talk about using alcohol as a crutch. 🍺

Necessity is the mother of invention!

That might be a GT Zaskar. And I hope you also bought yourself a helmet. You might want to meet up with someone who knows the beginner trails in your local area first, and get use to the bike and how it handles on the trail. The one thing you don't want to do is head out to harder trails and perhaps injure yourself right at the very beginning of your riding experience. Which is not uncommon, unfortunately. One of the cool things about trail riding is all the different types of terrain you can encounter. But... It takes time to learn how to ride it all safely. And enjoy it. What area in Austin are you located?

For those folks who don't like Shimano drive-trains, is this based on the older 9 speed stuff? Did you ever use the shadow rear deraillers, or specifically the 11 speed clutch deraillers? IMO it isn't as cut and dry as the breaks, and preference between Shimano and SRAM drive-trains are largely personal preferences now, unlike a couple of generations ago when SRAM was clearly better.

Ive had numerous bikes over the last 30 years of riding (holy shit that doesnt seem possible 😞 ) The ones Ive regretted is where I bought the bike and thought I'd adapt to a frame geo or size and over time that bike turned out to be one that wasnt so good for me. Might have been a good deal money wise but not riding wise. So wont compromise any more on frame size or geometry. Same with fork,, I dont need to latest greatest or very best but they are so pricey that I try and buy with a nicely specd fork or shock. I know how I like the cockpit setup and those parts are affordable and easy to come by so doesnt matter to much to me as Ill end up swapping bars and drivechain out Brakes must not be SRAM , has to be XTs or SLX , Shifting must not be Shimano, must be SRAM but easy to buy and swap.. Dont care about cranks, pedals. Stems and bars , dont care because I have enough laying around that I like. When I feel the itch to buy I just change things around a bit and that scratches the need

Same. I thought a jaguarundi was similar to a jackelope. About 20 years ago I stopped at an old gas station somewhere between Dallas and Austin that had one hanging from the wall. I went inside to pay and a lady was ahead of me. She was very interested. When she started asking questions, the guy behind the counter gave me the "shhh, don't say anything" look. When she asked if they hopped or ran, and the guy replied "a little of both" it was all I could do to hold it in.

There is something to be said for consistency!

Without a lot of pedaling? Not interested. Flow trails are boring.