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Here's the one that I built for my 10.5 yr old. It was a long-waited hand me down from his older brother. I put a 10spd drivetrain on it and also added the 152mm Suntour 1x cranks. Got a sweet deal on a SID fork (dropped 1lb that way!). I've got Stan's Crest wheels and Shimano disc brakes still awaiting install. But it works pretty dang well as is. This is a post-ride photo of us from South Boundary this August.

^ says the guy who just bought a shiny new carbon trail bike and already upgraded it with more carbon. The rain is coming, but hopefully not today.

TBH, XC racing has never been an interest to me until i got to see a world cup in MSA last year. Short track stuff is super fun to watch. I cant even imagine the mental strength it takes to get up that last steep climb on lap 7 when you're half dead. As a spectator, park yourself on a big climb and watch the pain. In some ways it's just as impressive as the huge DH road gaps. DH crowds and riders are way, way, way more fun to be around though.

Yeah the short track stuff has my piqued my interest. I may give Dirt Remedy series a try. It's a bit like CX which turns out is a lot of fun. I've only seen the pros when they came to Flat Creek. I went to the creek area to watch the women race. That was pretty fun.

Sometimes if it's just Nino racing or if Mathieu Van der Poel is in it, I fall asleep. But the women's was a much tighter championship fight. What I like about XC is watching the tactics on pacing, and just the sheer speed of how they climb, and how big a drops they make on XC bikes. But I just loved the end of the men's downhill at Snowshoe. That was some crazy good riding by the top 5 guys, with very different styles.

I always use alcohol when I am working on my brakes but I am careful not to spill it on the rotors 😁

Had to use a VPN to watch worlds. Here's what little pics I took as we were having too much fun to f@ck around with a camera. Good times out there for sure! Fast Frenchie Swiss shark XC gotz drops Drunk AF Sweeper says forget ebikes when you're chasing the fastest xc riders in the world.

Got my bike, got my clothes, got the foam tiles and I didn't get a ride in earlier. Now it's guaranteed to rain!

I love Lake Georgetown, such a variety of trail types, plenty of rocks to keep you busy, and nice views of the lake from various points along the trail. It is brutal to ride in the summer, though, and it's not something I generally do these days. Once it's cooler, though, that makes the trail considerably more bearable. I have not personally done more than one lap in a single sitting, but I don't think two would be too bad as long as it's not hot and you have plenty of water. Three laps would definitely be a challenge, but still doable as long as you don't push yourself too hard during the first two laps. I also usually ride clockwise from the Cedar Breaks parking lot. Doing it this way you get the hardest sections of trail out of the way first on the south side, you can then fill up your water and take a break at Tejas, and then complete the northern section of trail (which begins with several miles of easy singletrack, although it's exposed to the sun, which is bad in the summer). I don't think the trail flows as well in the opposite direction, so I don't ride it counterclockwise very often. I'd still like to do an entire lap at night someday. 🙂 It's definitely possible to make wrong turns in several areas, so improved signage would be a great help for those unfamiliar with the trail system. Right now there are only mile markers and signage at the trailheads. ..Al

It's rough in the summer as it's super hot but there is water at every camp at least. I generally do the loop a few times a year, but I usually go sometime late fall - early spring. Bummed to miss the dragonslayer this year but will be travelling to AZ for riding during the last two weeks of Nov. If you want to do the loop, that's a great event to try it on.

I'll weigh in as well. I live right by the Hielscher greenbelt and have 5-6 (maybe more) routes that I rotate through regularly on the SATN (which is just freaking awesome!). One of these is from my house to Slaughter Creek via the north route, one or two laps there, and then back via either the north route or, more often, the south route to the median on 45 and then home. The climbs on both return routes annoy me because they're not very interesting, and both are steady, mostly wide open climbs. I can do both, but I often end up walking a bit just for a brief respite between laps at Slaughter Creek and the more interesting parts after the respective climbs. That's more common in the heat vs. when it's 20+ degrees cooler. Not complaining at all because I feel incredibly fortunate to have this wealth of trails right outside my front door, but I can certainly understand folks not liking those small stretches of trail.

Just for clarity, I'm not saying that any of the hills out by Slaughter Creek are horrible or worthy of an e-bike assist or shuttle or something. I'm just saying that exposed climbing (any climbing) next to a road sucks in my opinion. There is no barrier there and you're often times less than 10' away from a car going 60+ mph heading straight at you. Not fun IMO and if Slaughter Creek was an awesome trail, I'd totally do it and not think twice. As it stands, of all the trail on SATN, I'd say that the Slaughter Creek trail is some of my least favorite. The North social tour had some amazing trail on it but that whole section to and from Slaughter was just a grind FOR ME.

Yeah, that climb is nothing, on either side. I assume he's talking about something else? The water tower climb is considerably more effort than the one in the above photos, but even that one's not horrible (unless maybe you're climbing it in the middle of a hot summer day!) ..Al

Austin started having $2 beer when a brewery from CO expanded and became an Austin brewery. So, Austin has $2 beer that is Austin beer that's actually Colorado beer. Clear?

This was a few years ago. Speaking with Greg and Grey about them, apparently they roam between several ranches out there.

If you are there I will take some too

That one is even easier as it's more gradual... 😄

You'll need to move that hill for the B line

Ran with 760 again, grips at full length. When I got to that tree gate I was so far back that I think my taint now says Ardent, but I slipped through without catching a bar end and toppling. Pics below for scale. Looks like a lot of room, but you have to consider speed as well. Amazon has a 760 carbon on the way, will be here Wednesday so I have time before bentonville.

Maybe my best night time experience was rounding the corner after fat chucks head into Karaway I think, near the water station up there. And running into a heard of miniature donkeys. What a site, they just stood there, we slowly road thru them and continued on. Yes night riding is a whole nother experience, one of the best!!

Just make sure the wrench is clean😉. I usually tape the jaws on mine before touching any rotor.

I love these. Already have some from HF for the garage, but I’ll take more! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Watched Snowshoe (XC and downhill) and Hardline on Red Bull TV this weekend. For the XC races I just fast forward to the last few miles though.

How about when you get a dry leaf caught in your tire and it sounds like a rattle (or at least what you think a rattle sounds like)?

RIP Ric: