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Went over to the WC to do some lopping and trimming in the little section of trail between the cyclone fence and the left turn into Mark's Art and also the section to the right if you don't turn into Mark's Art. While working, I heard a bike coming so I stepped off the trail. The guy got right up to me and sneezed the wettest sneeze humanly possible just as he got even with me. Seriously, it raised the relative humidity and he had both hands on the handlebar so it was all just out there. Then another guy wanted to show me a picture of a mushroom on his cell phone in case I could identify it. No, just no. So, social distancing was not 100% successful. Anyway, this leads up to the real point of my post. There are a lot of people out and about on foot at Walnut Creek and I'm assuming every other trail system and also people who don't usually ride, like (no disrespect) guys in baseball caps on 26ers. It's spring; everything is growing and the sight lines aren't great. There are many, many more people hiking, walking, strolling than usual and for the most part they aren't alone. I know this because I could hear them talking, even if they didn't make the turn onto the section of trail where I was. They may be walking single file or side by side, there may be kids and/or dogs. They may have zero awareness that mountain bikers even use these trails. The guy who was trying to ask me about mushrooms had on big headphones and I've noticed a few people with ear buds talking on their phones while running. Save cxagent from agita by being extra cautious controlling speed when you can't see what's around a corner being ready for anything being super considerate of and courteous to your fellow trail users, even if they are oblivious

You could do what I did. Contact the local bike shop and ask if they need work. If they are slow - take them that project you have 'been meaning to get to' but have not. If they are busy, tell them to contact you if they need work. I can sit on the project a little longer since it has waited for over a year already.

Bicycle industry folks joining the fight. 99% certain my next set of hubs will me I9s too.

I had to google "agita". I pushed those same recommendations for years. I thought those were appropriate before the pandemic. Maybe people will pay more attention now. But I am happy to report - Its no longer *MY* problem. After 5 years I have passed on my patient and politically correct hats. I am glad someone has stepped up to wear them.

I’m headed out around 10am and beside myself with giddiness. It’s gonna be grade A bewbs....annnd then rain thru Sunday. Waaaaahhh waaah waaaaaaaaaaaahhhh... but TODAY!!! WE RIIIDE!!! or Ride, Drink, and be Merry, for tomorrow it rains. You know... something like that

He's just slamming Citizens United because that's a travesty. In my opinion, Citizens united made some people have more than one vote as far as influencing government. In fact, it's exponentially more power through lobbying rather voting. The stockholders and executives get more representation than a regular citizen and that's outrageous.

I’m going to be “that guy” and say it: They should shut down the parks. People are idiots and taking too many risks. Personally I’ve seen an uptick in people riding trails out here at Brushy without helmets on. Meanwhile, I’m 3D printing face shield components 24/7 to meet hospital demands.

My new flares are AWESOME! Hit some random things today on my wander around the 'hood route. MUCH more stable than skinny roadie bars. Getting rid of all my 42/46cm bars that are useless. Flared for the Win

Preach brother!!! One note about this Austin curve, it's based on reported symptoms not actual tests. The ones for actual tests are a little lower until they catch up to demand. Edit: crossed above and also to say I think curves based on actual tests without showing testing percentage of the population per day are useless to infer progression. However, many places are giving up on testing and just call it based on symptoms. My brother (an M.D.) is on a Dr. forum and read a report from an ER in New Orleans. They have very specific symptoms and how the disease manifests itself and they are all experts by now with each having seen hundreds of patients to call it COVID19. Steady 20 per day is "good" and that is consider a flat curve. You can't infer R from this curve, but you can make an educated guess we are in a good place and that the distancing is kicking butt. Actual infection numbers are 5-10x higher than the reported numbers. This is definitely more infectious than the flu, and definitely more deadly than the flu. I think the death rate will start converging to <1% once they can test everyone to see whether someone had it but never knew it. For some countries it's really bad though with >1% death rate even after testing is catching up.

YEs, I've been having this debate/discussion with some of my friends. They're talking about how much the rates and percentages are off and that its being used to 'scare people'. But my retort is that you can't deny the ACTUAL number of people filling up the ICU's (and dying) in Italy, NYC & Louisiana. The death rate or infection rate is of very little concern for me. I'm much more concerned about lowering the curve (and hoping/planning that my time to get it will fall outside of the bell curve). I don't want to be competing with all the other resources that would be needed to triage people during the proceeded chaos. Because, I do tend to think that most of us will get it over the next 8 months. Later, CJB

In Bruges: Found this at the back of my DVD drawer after thinking I lost it during the last move. A dark comedy about two hitmen, Collin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, hiding out in a small Belgium town. The comedic parts are hilarious, and the somber parts are heartbreaking. Lots of symbolism/philosophical content throughout. I don’t know if it’s streaming anywhere, but it’s worth a few dollars for a digital rental IMO.

I guess my Turbo Levo SL purchase caused it.

It is still quite steep though. It will not be quite the fun Chamois Hagar would induce. As much as I dig the CH, I just can't see me paying that much for a carbon gravel/touring bike, when I don't even like the concept that much. I was thinking...you could go much cheaper with a custom steel frame built to the CH's geo, but maybe add some track-ends for more fun options, or even shorten the CS. You could even add a Lauf gravel fork and stay way under the CH price.

If you use a suspension fork with the same A to C as your rigid fork it will steepen head angle at sag and steepen it even more under braking and compression. I personally would go with a fork that has an A to C that is the same or slightly more as your rigid when set to desired sag. I would go +13, -3 steepens head angle. Stock head angle is also a factor.

I've not been inside a store in over two weeks now. I picked up a prescription for my cat yesterday and the pharmacists has the door locked, met us at the door when we called him. If you're on the south side, Brodie Lane Pharmacy is great little establishment I can recommend for stuff like this. I need to pick up a single item from an online order from Lowes when I get notification that it's ready. I think that's the only real contact I have needed to have in a long time. getting groceries delivered is new to me and it kind of sucks. selection is limited, it's more expensive, and 1/3 of the stuff I order doesn't make it into my cart. I tip the drivers heavily though. I'm not spending money on anything else right now, so why not? I have been outdoors around people on trails and sidewalks quite a bit. SATN is a lot busier than normal. I have seen woefully under-biked people on obscure parts of trails. I am not racing anyone, so I don't mind stopping to chat and tell them about the trails, from a distance, of course.

This would be my second choice from the Chamois Hagar. Adjustable geo via fork axle flip chip. Cinelli King Zydeco.

My last office job had "unlimited PTO" in theory, but in practice there was always peer pressure not to truly take advantage of it. I believe the companies that have that are just using lip service. As to Citizens United, I'll believe that corporations are people once Texas executes one. Oh, and also, churches should pay taxes. Especially not when they are flouting the law and infecting their parishioners.

I have been on the streets unfortunately. My bigger concern on the trails is not some bonewipe sneezing on me, but crashing into me and requiring a trip to the ER. I don't want to be consuming medical resources unnecessarily. Between several medical issues going on right now, I am pretty much writing off 2020 for mountain biking. Normally someone buys a bike and the rain keeps us off the trails. Who bought something that brought this on????

Agree with this. Maybe I can go back to riding St. Eds without having to deal with loose aggressive dogs and clueless owners and people parking halfway onto Old Spicewood Springs Rd.

I agree with this. .... said a guy who lives at Brushy.

Another option, and it has been done, I just don't recall where, is to close parks for automobile traffic. No driving to it, no parking. ...said a guy who lives at Walnut.

Walnut?

So where are the good spots to hide the bodies at Walnut?

On the bright side (of not being able to get yeast) I've got sourdough starter ready to go and I'll be attempting my first sourdough ever.

OK, am I the only one who thinks that some of the new "rules" need to stick around: 1) Specific hours/days for elderly/sick/disabled get priority shopping 2) EVERYBODY outside! 3) Families forced to eat together, game together, actually speak to each other 4) Alcohol delivery/pickup with meals. Hell yeah. Just this one. That is all I want to keep. 5) Parents all of a sudden realize how shitty their offspring are to TEACH for our UNDERPAID teachers and being grateful that elementary/middle/highschool is not daycare. 6) Work from home: This shit ain't hard with technology. I'm right now in the garage on the computer, listening to Metallica on pandora, and GoToMyPC app running answering emails. This needs to happen more often!

Oops. On the bright side, I retired recently so I had no job to lose.

That's pretty bad ass. I hope that we see a resurgence of American manufacturing after all this just for the national security aspect of it. Of course, that will last until people forget about this crap and chase the dollar again.

bright side: I work 7:30-4. instead of spending an hour driving home after that, I can change clothes and be out on the bike by 4:15 most days.

Now that I fixed my handlebar problems I 100% agree. I really enjoyed picking the lines very carefully on my GG bike at the discovery well cave preserve. I was also able to ride to the trail faster than I could on a MTB. I’ve been also known to ride my road bike with 28c slicks in other trails as well. You just have to be more careful when cornering but it keeps you on your toes and makes you forever laugh at all the pointing that goes on at little gravel piles during group road rides.

Same here. We had "time away" that you got shit for every time you used it, and were also called while on vacation to be told things are going wrong in your absence. Didn't Germany pass a law making that illegal? Ultimately, the company used the recession to take as much away from us as possible, so i just stopped caring and took as much time/called in often and blocked calls. Never again Yes and abso-fukin' lutely I'd love to pull the lever on exxon mobile

I had a gravel/cx bike and it's one of the few I regret selling. Did a few rides on the granite walking trails around my neighborhood, but spent most of my time on SATN and a couple times out at brushy and san marcos. Riding a gravel bike on MTB trails is pure fun with a few moments of terror thrown in once you start carrying speed. Makes some of the mundane green/blue-ish trails come to life. I caught myself giggling like an idiot more than once. Will definitely buy another one.

I would certainly ride it at Walnut and SATN. Brushy would be fun too, but for a different reason. My problem is that my wrists start killing me if I do too much tech without suspension. That's why I think the Lauf gravel would be good for what I'm looking to do. It seriously took my wrists 6 months to recover from two different rides I did at Brushy with my Monstertour.

This is what I worry the most about (same with my wife who is an epidemiologist). But your take is spot on. Mask plus regular distancing. For me, I went to the store with no mask. I'm just hyper vigilant to hearing coughs, sneezes, seeing runny noses, noticing when people touch their face (did y'all notice how much we touch our faces before?). I also got some packages and open them with bare hands and no mask. That just makes me extra vigilant about how I do this and what I touch. I fear if I start wearing gloves and masks and get too comfortable I may screw up. I have N95 (used, b/c I'm cheap and just re-use them for sanding and dusty projects) and a dual cartridge respirator but so far I've not felt the urge to use them. BTW, that N95, you can see how much you touch it and your face if you're working on something that makes your hands dirty. I agree with the other takes. If and when we get the all clear to go back to work, masks may be a consideration, but at that point, I'm still going to be really vigilant about what I touch and how often I wash my hands. For anyone that's sick or is sneezing or coughing from allergies they should just WFH. I don't think we can go back to normal where coughing for weeks during allergy season in the cubicle farms was acceptable. edit: I should say I wasn't a germophobe, but I've been really sick with the flu in the past, and with 2 kids and then having big races on the calendar, I was already super careful about avoiding getting sick and being extra annoyed and actually telling people to go home when they're sick even though I'm not their boss.

Mid-day to and mornings(preferred) is definitely your best bet. 3pm to 7pm is a MADHOUSE.

Color Out of Space — Nicholas Cage and Tommy Chong in a campy sci-fi horror technicolor nightmare. It's every bit as ridiculous as it sounds. I streamed it through Hoopla for free. This was a relatively goofy take on a genre of sci-fi that is better exemplified in Annihilation, so if you're into cosmic horror, that's a good place to start. On that note, Annihilation is based on the first book in Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy. If you like to scare the poo out of yourself, read those. They are only slightly scarier than reading the news. (Borne was good too. Equally twisted.)

The CDC guy on the news just now finally came out and said the reasons behind the "don't wear masks" mantra from before. First, they didn't want to deny medical workers supply, and second, they don't want to give people a false sense of security. So in reality the solution is to wear masks AND social distance and wash hands etc. What the wearing the masks help most with is to contain the people that are contagious but asymptomatic. This condition can last over 48 hours before symptoms start to show.

This is a very telling report for those who still believe that only the old and sick are at high risk. The report from the UK details the first 775 reported COVID-19 ICU cases compared to the ICU cases during that same period for patients with non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia. The numbers are eye-opening to say the least. ICNARC COVID-19 report 2020-03-27.pdf

I was on the hike and bike trail trying to get around some bonewipe with headphones riding in the middle of the trail. Kept ringing my bell, nothing. Then I yelled "hey" and he finally heard me. When I passed him I said "you need to turn that down a bit" and he said "you don't own the trail" like some smug asshole. To which I replied "either do you" and all the people around got a good laugh.

Be there for sunrise then. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Deception, Snail and Picnic are amazing right now. Really cool breeze too.

Did someone call for and Old White haired asshole?

And on the other end of the spectrum there's this. No wonder I can't find any damn coffee filters!

The freedoms thing really concerns me. This is going to be way beyond 911 in terms of damage to our collective psyche as our "enemy" is no longer people with brown skin from the middle east, but now is invisible, and potentially within each and every one of us. Free market economy is a myth anyway. If it were real, all those f@cks asking for bailout money would have been eliminated from the marketplace three recessions ago.

They will all be first-born children. -CJB

Mmm! 🍺

Believe it or not, this is only the second time I have rolled over to dumptruck. And I think the first picture of it. Yesterday's ride.

Fred Schmidt, an 83-year-old mountain bike racer/cyclocross/gravel grinder guy, knocked out a century yesterday in the Waco area.

At 12,000' in Colorado last summer