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Do you enjoy living in central Texas? I know everyone has their non-bike reasons for living here, but it sounds like you're stuck in the wrong place! I went on a ride today specifically to look for difficult pedaling terrain. I can't get enough of it. The more rocks, switchbacks, and ledges, the better! An e-mtb would be a boring, expensive, laborious experience for me.

I do. I enjoy the challenge of a climb, a tight switch-back, pedaling over a rock garden, up a ledge, etc. I'm getting to the point where I'm enjoying hucks and little jumps and berms and such, and it's a lot of fun, but it's not all there is for me in MTBing.

I used to do Ladera Norte on a 42x16 singlespeed. We all do dumb things.

Doesn't make it wrong for anyone else. E-bikes are NOT for me, but I'm not going to judge others for wanting one.

My pain cave is the Kona on the Wahoo smart trainer. Finding the hills in watopia to do over and over again.

From TX, and I like Austin so I make the best of the trails here. Having said that, once you've lived in the mountain west, flatlandia is a hard pill to swallow. 3 years till my youngest graduates and we're on the move again. I have a buddy like you that loves techy climbing and the trails here. Does the worst of it in the middle of the summer, on a singlespeed. Total paincave freak. Took him down a lift trail In NM and he broke his leg within 5 minutes. Different strokes. On the e-bike tip. When I was in Toronto they had a ton of e-bikes for commuters along the waterfront leading downtown. It was really cool to see and think thats where they are most useful. The fat dude running up behind me on peddlers with a coilsprung e-peen....notsomuch. edit. forgodssakeitspedalingnotpeddling

This is a damn perfect hip jump. Well done to the builders and so freaking amped for this😎

Did you do the Lake leatherwood shuttle?

I am going to make SO MUCH MONEY when I start putting motors on board. No one ever thought of that!

This video would never have appeared on GMBN, but that was EMBN.

I stopped at the beginning when he said an ebike "definitely allows you to do more riding." Uh, no. The limited range is my primary disappointment with the concept.

When Opal’s closed I lost any reason to even get within 100 yards of Frys. Their pushy sales staff with little to no knowledge and the “we know you’re trying to steal something” attitude was enough to make me hate that place. Good riddance. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's big enough to make a fun indoor park.

Someone should turn those empty shelves into some sweet jumps.

That's what I consider outer. The bottom right is where I normally start. Not anymore though.

There's some truth to this^ We all take a trip to the cave but in different ways. Mine as of late usually involves ragdolling down a hillside🤣 Wife and I are similar when it comes to hobbies. When something becomes work, and not fun, we usually walk away. Yes I can also say waking up at 5am to shovel your sidewalks and driveway only to come home at 6-7pm to do it all over again, builds resolve.

Correct. And you start from the upper left entry. After finishing inner log.

That's something I've never actually asked. What's is outer and what is inner? I considered the one highlighted to be outer:

That's me! I think there's something a little wrong with everyone, maybe more than one thing, this is one thing that could be said is "wrong" with me. I don't know why I keep doing things that put me in the pain cave. I think the common theme with riding up hill and riding hard things is the feeling of perseverance. Same with riding on an awful rainy and super cold day. I've read that people up north get that feeling of putting up with winter.

sounds like something I would do. I have zero interest in anything that involves wearing body armor, riding something with a motor to the trailhead (of course unless I have to drive a car several miles of highway to get there. gotta have time to ride the trails, not just to the trails), or that sort of thing. I've only had a vague, passing interest in owning a full suspension bike, and tried a few times to enjoy having more than one gear on my bike. it never stuck. when I was younger, I rode BMX and gravitated to the flatland discipline while most of my friends were trying to huck themselves across 20-foot doubles (I helped dig though). the last time tried to clear a box jump, I nearly broke my ankle and had to use crutches for a week. mountain biking covers a diverse set of interests and goals, which is why I cringe at the notion that "no one likes pedaling" or "everyone" wants the latest in every conceivable technology to avoid a challenge and is willing to sell a kidney to get there.

This is not meant to be contentious... So please don't take it as such... But isn't bicycling about peddling? I love going downhill as much as the next person, but I can't say that I've every thought of hating peddling. I kind of just enjoy all aspects of bicycling.

I just had to pull out my derailleur hanger alignment tool after I ate shit on the gravel bike yesterday. I invested in it about 6 months ago and have already used it 3 or 4 times, which would have been $90-120 in new hangers.

I like gravity because i hate pedaling. Ill do it as a necessary evil because that's the only option here. If/when we live in a state with open travel again, I might buy a moto for expedition riding and camping etc. An ebike will never be an option for me as I can do way more with $10k, than ride around on a battery powered bicycle.

I decided to get back on the bike after a couple year break by going to Spider Mountain today. What a blast! Even if you're not a hardcore weekend rider, there's still plenty of room to grow. I've never downhill ridden before (at least not without having to pedal uphill at some point), so this was the fastest I've been on a trail so far. It was an absolute blast [emoji16] I was a little worried about my entry level bike holding up, but it seems like the new pedals and tires I got last week did the trick. Gloves helped too. I'm not normally a gloves guy, but they were certainly useful on that trail. Sent from my LM-G710VM using Tapatalk

No. Ride with people who know to learn. Otherwise - guess.

She’s about 5’5”.

Nice try Sierra Club.

On a serious note, it was a new experience on a bike. If you can call it that. I get one ride a week to get my exercise in and after the ride Tuesday I felt like I wasted my ride. I wasn't the slightest bit winded. Pedaling the bike was less about pedaling and more of just giving it throttle. The bike has the typical bosch system which has 4 power levels. I used the 2nd lowest setting most of the night which was probably too much in most places. I kicked it up to Turbo only on the zero tech stuff. There were a couple times, like Bambi, I had to pedal hard to keep the pace because the system has a 20mph governor. Any speed above that and you're on your own. I also somehow accidentally hit the power off button on E-spank and had to slog that heavy thing for a while on my own. I didn't want to stop the group just so I could turn the power back on. It was a chore to get through the twisty stuff. Maybe part was getting used to a different handling bike, wide bars, different tires, etc... I was slower in the twisty stuff on this bike compared to my normal bike. Going up technical rock climbs was a breeze. During the ride I felt that the extra momentum you carry with this bike necessitates more robust riding gear. If your toe/foot his a rock or stump while pedaling it's going to be an ouchy. I've heard the argument that someone would want to put their slower significant other on an Ebike so they could keep up easier. Perhaps on the road, but I wouldn't want my wife to ride this bike on a trail. It certainly seems to have a higher potential for injury. It was a fun experience. For me, I'd rather ride my normal bike. I still have this at the shop until the ORbea rep comes to get it so if anyone wants to ride it tomorrow swing by in the morning and grab it!

I subscribed to Rich's channel a few weeks ago and have really enjoyed his content. His instructional videos are among the best I've seen. He created quite a stir with his "Drops How To" video a few weeks ago and then released a follow-up video to clarify around the controversy while demonstrating his prescribed technique on some monster drops in Bentonville.

Thanks for the input. Last years times were posted on a board next the start chute, but we didn't make an announcement they were there, so i don't think anyone knew. We'll make it clearer for the next race. The things that make this race different to other XC (cross country) Mountain Bike races are: 1. The course is shorter (2.8 miles), normally the XC races are 10+ miles per lap. 2. The racers start one at a time vs. a mass start at other XC races. Typically, everyone in the same category lines up together and starts at the same time. The Peddlers Pass race is similar to the format used at Enduro's or Downhill MTB races. 3. Your racing against the clock vs directly against other riders around you. Your able to focus more on your riding/speed vs what other riders are doing around you. 4. The racecourse has many more corners and features per mile such as berms, rollers, bridges, etc than other XC races, so bike handling skills (corninering) play a bigger part than other XC races. There are 161 corners in 2.8 miles, that averages out to a corner every 92 feet. Over 100 of the corners are bermed, I need to go and count the exact number. if you want to go fast on Peddlers Pass, you've got to get comfortable cornering fast on berms (sometimes it's hard to overcome the natural instinct to tap the brakes when flying into a berm) and learn good flat cornering technique. I'm not a fast XC rider, but I have been able to catch up to fitter/faster riders on Peddlers Pass by having better cornering technique than the person I'm trying to catch. 5. Full Gas on Peddlers Pass bridges the gap between XC and Enduro racing due the combination of race format, fitness, number of trail features, and cornering skills.

If you are otherwise capable of riding a regular bike and you use an e-bike to brap through trails, passing riders who are fitter than you, you're an asshole. You might be an otherwise nice person but for that moment, you're an asshole.