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I finished all trail East of the first creek crossing including the ‘exit trail’ consisting of Debs drop. Also finished the trail along the other side of the creek and about half up the other side. Hope that helps.

This was eye-opening for me. it makes a lot more sense than the typical marketing copy I see. most say things like "get a bike with the handlebar stretched out ten feet in front of you and the BB dragging on the ground and you can shred everything!" they often leave a caveat that you have to "adjust your riding position" or something similar, but I have never had anyone really break down what that means. NOW it makes some sense to me. I'ld like to see more of this. I am definitely stuck in the "old school" attitude. I rode a long, low bike for over a year and it made me start to hate mountain biking. I could not adjust and everything was terrifying and out of control, no matter what I did. I just felt like I was lost, swimming inside the bike with zero control over it. all of my riding technique came from riding BMX, though. I see a lot of people around Austin riding "old" style bikes and killing it, but this video makes a compelling case for making the transition.

I've seen lots of funny event related things. Reaffirms my faith in humanity with how clever people are. But this one made me laugh until I cried.

he should have just hucked off that ledge and moved on.

The new vs. old riding style is only made possible by the advancement of the dropper post. I'd argue this was more influential than geo, although you can't really separate them as it has been a total evolution. The old school get behind the saddle and buzz your butt was the only style because there was a seat right in the way. I bet you could put a dropper on an old school bike and ride it with more modern techniques to a pretty good benefit. We used to have session-y rides out at City Park pretty often back in the days when ride calls actually happened on Mojo. Those were fun.

Tuck and roll and you'll protect your head. It's like being able to put your seatbt on fast enough if it looks like you'll crash your car.

I think we are starting to flatten out. My fear is that we make the "all clear" call too early and just jump back to climbing again. Looking at Travis county numbers, more than half are in the 20-39 age group: https://austin.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/39e4f8d4acb0433baae6d15a931fa984 Not sure is this is because we skew younger than the rest of TX or because younger people are more likely to be outside and interacting instead of staying home.

Karate Monkey loitering in my apartment complex. -cls

It should be part of your regular routine to keep your brakes working well and make them last longer.

Your welcome. My handchainsaw just didn't have the umph to finish it off, and since nobody was on trail, didn't have any help.

Maybe it's for demonstrative purposes, but it looks to me like dude is exaggerating each style. Especially the new style. Even with a very modern geo bike, I try to stay back from the BB a little, but not so much that my arms lock. And I'll roll basically anything. One example was the 2018 Big Bend fest, the "remember where you are" stair steps on the Rincon and Epic Loops where I was the only one on the advanced rides that did it, while some dude was standing at the bottom yelling at me to be carefull.

Your form looks fine. You're not too far forward or backwards, and are fluid enough to react if something goes wrong. The drop techniques demonstrated in the 1st video seem a bit extreme on both sides. He's super stiff in both examples, and to me somewhere there's a middle ground between butt dragging and doing pushups. To each his own. The biggest mistake is getting too stiff on the bike, and that applies to drops, corners, climbs, slow and high speeds. I was, and can still be guilty of it when I get in a little too deep with too much speed. Started on "old school" 2012 tallboy and developed some bad habits, particularly cornering. Had a pretty severe washout at high speed in NM that had me concussed and seeing spots because of it. Had to relearn my technique once I started riding the LLS kona stuff.

Some people are just like to argue. Let them argue with another person who like to argue. While they are busy I can do useful things. Like get leaves off the trail.

Pretty much how youtube musicians collaborate these days.

Midnight Special on Point Six. -cls

I'm actually a lot better than I used to be...I was notorious for letting bikes fall apart. There's a photo somewhere on the forum where @Seths Pool gave me shit about a rotor I let get paper thin...after I gave him the rotors (for non bike purposes, one assumes)! But that was a really old rotor, and that disregard has changed significantly over the last 12 or so years. I take care of my bikes and my wife's bikes so she only has to worry about riding. Each MTB ride at a minimum sees a drivetrain wipe down and re-lube, and a quick frame inspection, (since I've broken so many) and a spoke check. For less regular things, I try to keep on top of chain changes, but I'm changing them out about as regular as as I change tires, which keeps my rear cassette from wearing prematurely. I go through tires at a rate of about 6-8 weeks/1000-1200 miles per pair, so I'm changing those out about every other month. Usually the tires go faster if I'm riding GB or GW more often. They last longer if I happen to be riding WC too much. I also use a tire change as a trigger to push grease into my lower linkage Zerk fitting. Like I said above, I clean up pistons when I change brake pads--so 2-3 times a year. And I seem to be either breaking or just plain wearing out rear derailers at a rate of about 3-4 a year. The wife and I both currently use 11 speed E13 cassettes on XD hubs, and those are noisy bastards if you don't keep on top of them. So about every 4-6 weeks I have to pull the cassettes off and thoroughly grease them. And I change housing and cables maybe twice a year. For even less regular things I work on them when a need presents. I'm not going to do even a regular PM on most things unless they present as an issue of some sort. My bearing change over the weekend was because I had play in the suspension. And the bearing change didn't fully fix it, but I did find a worn axle. SC put in an order to send me a new one (free of charge and shipping!) when their warehouse guys go back to work. Where the old me creeps back up is forks and shocks. I don't enjoy that work and I don't look forward to it, so sometimes these things really get away from me. Like currently my right fork stanchion is leaking a bit, and has been for a few weeks. I know eventually it'll stop leaking, so maybe I'm just waiting for that! No, I have the rebuild kit, I just have to do it. But for the shock, I'll probably send that off for rebuild. But first I'll try to score a low cost backup shock to use during the rebuild.

Great! One more thing for me to neglect...

Double Chucked it.

I'm drinking Knob Creek Rye on the rocks on our virtual work happy hour on Webex.

If you HAVE to pedal to keep the front wheel up, then you haven't found the natural balance point yet. Front wheel needs to go higher. Once you are in the natural balance point you should be able to stop pedaling and the front wheel shouldn't drop. It's also much easier to control the bike left to right and it doesn't want to flop to one side like it does when the wheel isn't high enough. I've been practicing wheelies almost every day (when it doesn't rain) for the past 10 months or so. I'm not great at it, but it's definitely easier to find that balance point when the bike is already rolling fast. But the biggest thing to remember is that if you have to keep pedaling and pedal faster to keep the front up, you aren't at the balance point. Same goes for if your front wheel keeps flopping to the left or right really easily.

Not even Covid 19 can sustain prolonged exposure to Slayer.

Nice vibe! I'm seeing more of their stuff on Napster and will definitely check them out.

related — https://www.pinkbike.com/news/not-so-fast-how-dropper-posts-created-steep-seat-tube-angles.html

And here it was thinking it was just me. Shoot...

yes and yes. heels down and weight the BB, giving the lowest COG you can achieve. the picture on the right is almost comical.

And my suggestion for the official 2020 theme song. I think the 2 Bash & Pop albums are my favorite CDs from the past few years. One of the guys is Tommy Stinson from The Replacements and the stuff sounds like what the 'mats would sound like if they were still playing now and Paul was vaguely sober from time to time.

I'm not saying that I have a massive home network or that Stereophonics are a favorite of mine. So there is no way that if you were to DM me an email address there wouldn't be a link to a ton of great Stereophonics demos, acoustics, lives and whatnot. Totally wouldn't happen. Yeah.

I THINK my technique is holding me back, but I don't know that for certain. I'll need to make a video or pay/ take a favor of someone to actually analyze my riding style to see what I am doing right and wrong. It's not a big enough deal that I am going to buy a dozen different bikes (no one brings hardtails to demos), and I am not even racing. I just want to have fun conquering difficult terrain instead of stalling on climbs and white-knuckling descents.

Took me a second to realize you meant an actual train and not a train of bikers.

I saw the people up there on the trestle. I have seen that before and if you are dumb enough to do that , well tell Darwin I said hi I think I might ride at night again to avoid. I dont care that people are using the trails really, but some are outside their pay-grade for sure. Now some folks have been super nice on the trails and get out of the way and are aware.

Really appreciated getting turned on to this band. I'm so stuck in my classic library that I often overlook stuff that's come out over the past few decades. I've discovered a bunch of new stuff from this thread as well as from various mountain biking videos that include cool tracks. Finally got around to listening to a bunch of the Stereophonic stuff and tagged these as my favorites.

I've been riding the hike and bike on my gravel bike and I'm dumbfounded by the number of people without helmets. Saw a mother with three young children and a tag along not one of them had a helmet.

I have seen people with camelbacks and no helmet and think WTF. But the ones that really pique my interest are the people with elbow and knee pads with no helmet. Can't figure out that risk model.

By the way... I am blown away at how many Barneys are riding their bikes with reflectors and no helmets on DD or 1/4 Notch. I saw a girl , less then 5' tall riding down the Bailout from 1/4. No helmet. Flip flops on a 29er. Point being please be aware there is gonna be alot of people out on the trails that are above their pay grade. I'm all about them enjoying the trails. I get parents being at with end with kids and looking to get the kids out. So no judgement really under the circumstances but please be aware these folks are out there so we as riders should be extra careful. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

So glad I took two hours of my time today only to piss people off. Lesson learned.

we shall see. fingers crossed we get a little good luck here in CTX https://www.kxan.com/weather/weather-blog/why-friday-could-be-coronavirus-spread-turning-point-in-austin/

On our first Chihuahuan Dirt Fest, two of our rides in BBRSP were led by Texas Parks and Wildlife bike cops. They were both incredibly strong; they carried a lot of heavy gear all day everyday while on patrol. I've also seen Highway Patrol bike patrol guys being trained, getting ready to head out from the Highway Patrol main hive on Guadalupe @ Koenig. There are Highway Patrol bike "troopers" who patrol the state capitol and the Governor's mansion.

Ok Im done with you! Go Fuck Yourself!

Dicks are his lays potato chips.

Fyi, I’m not a trail steward. Just a volunteer and poster of trail conditions.

Recently fell down the Delta Empire rabbit hole. God damn this person is a good drummer. I'm married to a drummer-ish woman and have a ton of respect for what it takes to actually play these bastards.

Awesome. Those leaves are super slick unless you stay real high on the berms. Of course in central NY leaves were a huge pain every fall. But we had this one local guy who mounted two leaf blowers to an old hardtail, one on the front, one on the back, and it did a spectacular job of clearing the leaves off the trails. He called it a trail zamboni.

After looking at the video above and seeing the internal operation of the caliper (which I was never completely clear on), it seems I should be using mineral oil instead of Phil's on the pistons. Next time!

I do every time I change pads. I push one piston out, clean it up, and lube it with Phil's. Then I do that 3 more times. I'm sure my neighbors wonder wtf I can be doing to spend all that time in the garage at a bike stand. But then, so does my wife.

There's at least 1 cop on a bicycle in ATX that I'd hate to have chase me!

That scares me that I don't know which tree this is. I've probably barely missed it a lot of times. This is on the west end of Picnic where the two drops and one roller are, right after the root drop?

I watched this yesterday. This is awesome. I imagine this is a little bit like WWII was with everyone pitching in:

I miss people. And I am an introvert.

I miss drive thru margaritas

From the I-Gram from Peddler