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I made it over to brushy to play around on this today. Turns out it's more of a bump jump than I realized. https://photos.app.goo.gl/5ySmMy9xsQYeVetX9 If you get the timing just right it feels so smooth: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jq6LMHy7RAsEYbqE7 Even if you don't, it's not that bad, but kills momentum: https://photos.app.goo.gl/i8c9dYsyNZcV2WUd8 Thanks for encouraging me to film this... I've never really done that before, it was cool to see what's really happening 👍

I can echo CBaron. All the talk in the past encouraged me to for a heart scan. Family history and what-not. It was a no brainer for the money. However serendipity ensued. I went to my 1st appointment back in June and they actually wouldn't see me even though they accept self referrals. The reason was because I hadn't been to a doctor in about 13 years. So I had to find a doc. That all went good. No issues across the board. However..I did the poop in a box test instead of a colonoscopy for obvious reasons. Well that came back positive. Went in for the procedure and they found 6 polyps. Then I was able to get my heart scan and the results were real good. So Mr X.. your preaching about heart this and heart that encoured me to face my man fears and go in and get checked out. You literally saved my ass because no way in hell would I have ever done any of this on my own and if I hadn't gone for the heart scan and got rejected then the polyps would never have been found. Thanks man. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Nice! Now you have me really itching to get back on a bike; this is going to be the first thing I do... or maybe I shouldn't... that's one of the reasons injuries never completely heal for me, lol. Edit: BTW, I ran today, lots of riders out. I'd like to remind those with less experience, when you come up on someone going the opposite direction, whether on bike or foot, and there is room for both to safely pass, always move to *your* right... I had 2 different guys go to their left, the same direction I moved (my right), with near collisions. The first guy, I don't know why he did, it seemed like a bad judgement call on his part, but the 2nd guy was an obvious case of target fixation; I could see it in his face... which brings me to a related tangent point; always look where you want to go, never where you don't want to go... whether it's a person, dog, big rock or a drop-off (understanding that for some of us, the latter 2 might be where you *want* to go). Remember: if you look at the dog poo, you will wear the dog poo.

Rode BCGB and hit a few places that I have not ridden for a few years. Wow. What a difference. Too often we get caught up in riding the same lines and the same trails. When you try something you have not been on in a while it's pretty cool. Maybe you want to shred your queso, and then you realize that you haven't been on that trail for a long time. My advice to all of you: remember where you used to ride and try that again.

Not sure if I came up with this on my own, but I've been clamping the tire on either side of that last ~10" using a pair of plastic spring clamps - see sketch. They squeeze the beads together/towards channel and prevent the bead from backing out if you let go before seating. Sometimes I still need to use a (pedros) lever, but not too often and it's still easier. My main concern with using a lever is tearing my rim strip. Another bonus is you can flip it over and 'stand' it on the clamps when adding sealant.

Most importantly, you were on a bike. And today rocked.

Props. I think I would die if I did this.

Had relatives die and also come back from the dead due to cardiac arrest. Shit is real AF. Mark Weir really messed me up, and opened my eyes how it could happen to any of us. @TheX congrats on the anniversary and glad to have you and @Cafeendriding the dirt rather than in it.

We have an official name for the new trail at Brushy Creek, "Bob Ross". It still needs some final tweaks before it opens. I think sometime within the next two weeks it should be ready. This trail will connect the end of Double Down to the Start of the Rim Trail. You can walk it and get a sneak peak.

Today is the 7th anniversary of surviving my heart attack. This is obviously a big day for me. I got lucky and was able to walk away with 5 stents. A bypass is obviously a LOT worse. If you are ignoring any symptoms, don't. If you are living a less then healthy lifestyle, get regular checkups, it can literally save your life. If you are living an active, healthy lifestyle, good for you! I was already an active cyclists and gym rat. The doc that saved me in the ER says that probably allowed me to survive it. I wasn't getting regular checkups prior to the event, but I am now. You should add a heart attack to your reverse bucket list, the one with things you NEVER want to do. Thanks for listening, I'm sure no one cares about my problems, but please do what you can to not end up like I did.

I laugh at myself doing this sometimes when I get momentarily disoriented as to where I am. Laugh, because maybe it's a trail I've been on dozens of times. Doing something "backwards" or at night, "It's all new trail."

I spent some time doing the bi-directional trails in the reverse direction from what I always did. Felt like a stranger in a strange land.

This^ I get bored of trails pretty easily and like to switch things up often as possible. Even though a lot of the trails here are similar, they change quite a bit due to erosion and use. Went back to san marcos and was all smiles with what they'd done out there since the last ride. Also go back and forth between flats and SPDs on our regular trails just to try stay sharp.

I had meant to reply to your post a while back, and running into an article finally prompted me to. I grew up listening to whatever my parents listened to as I've mentioned before (Beatles, Mexican popular music, classical music, Mexican classic ballads, etc.) At some point I got into Rock music: Queen, The Police (though they sound more like Jazz in their early days), David Bowie, etc. At some point I was all into the hair bands: Cinderella, Ratt, Poison, Motley Crue, etc. I never got into Black Sabbath but I did like Deep Purple. 8th and 9th grade I had some heads in my apartment complex and we rode the buses together, and they got me into Metallica. I loved it. Maybe 10 years later I ran into a school friend whom I hadn't seen in 10 years, and we both remarked how embarrassing it was to have like Twisted Sister. I guess it was right at the time for us being tweens. At that point we were in San Antonio (a much harder rocking town than Austin IMO), Guns-n-Roses and the start of Grunge, I still remember 99.5 KISS ads for Soundgarden at the Sunken Gardens Theater. It's all an evolution in taste. 35 years later or so, and I love the old Black Sabbath. To think of how early they were (I bet most gen-x don't realize how early they were) is just amazing. I would recommend you re-visit Black Sabbath. Here's the article that prompted this post: https://www.theringer.com/2021/1/14/22230652/metallica-black-album-enter-sandman-history-podcast PS I still think Jethro Tull winning the first Grammy for Heavy Metal over Metallica And Justice For All is a travesty. Fight me. With that: PS

Never tried, but if they're compressible enough to compress with clamps...

Let’s make it at the ymca then, for me it is just as good.

Cool, 3pm skatepark? I’ll be in a honda element with a green Diamondback bike

I was planning on riding at 3pm today. Happy to spin with you.

I had no idea how bad I felt for years prior. Once my arteries were working again, I realized how stupid I was to work out harder, and just push through feeling like shit at the gym or on rides. I just figured it was me being a po0sie. I was an idiot.

Yeah James (Balentine) is the guy. He built several wheelsets for me and they all stayed true for their full life. I'm not the craziest rider so I may not be the best judge on this, but I think he does awesome work. https://www.velofix.com If you are on Facebook you can find him directly, otherwise go through the Velofix site and make sure you are dealing with him.

One thing this thread has taught me is how much mountain bikers like Heavy Metal. I'm really not sure why after growing up in the 70s I never caught on with the heavy metal craze of the 80s and 90s. I thoroughly enjoyed the hard rock bands throughout the seventies, but the line between Hard Rock and Heavy Metal started to blur for me some even in the seventies with bands like Black Sabbath, who I never liked in the same way I liked Zeppelin and Floyd. As the Eighties rolled around, my musical tastes veered more into 80s Alternative, although still enjoying the carryover rock bands from the seventies. Some bands, like Van Halen and AC-DC, seemed to blur the lines for me even further, although I enjoyed many tracks from them and others like them. Then there were bands like KISS and Twisted Sister that I just ignored altogether, but I suppose technically those were classified as Shock Rock. Would love to hear from some of you head-banging metal fans on what makes that sub-genre special for you, and whether you equally enjoy hard rock or just tolerate it while yearning for something heavier? Found this article that tries to break it down some. Suppose in the end it doesn't really matter - just listen to what moves you (literally and figuratively). Just curious. Hard Rock Vs. Heavy Metal By: SandraVahtelUpdated September 15, 2017 The close similarities shared by hard rock and heavy metal can make it difficult to identify their differences. Both genres have similar, even at times overlapping, origin stories. Musically, they both include loud guitars, pounding drums, driving rhythms and often vitriolic vocals. However, each genre has its own defining characteristics, from its place in the musical lexicon to the technical specifications of its musicality. Origins rock star image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com The 1960s saw the birth and popularization of rock and roll by way of such bands as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Kinks. Though certainly controversial at the time, the early sounds these bands produced were light and poppy but gave way to a whole host of young musicians armed with guitars and a love for the blues. History vs. History Taxonomically speaking, the classification of hard rock has existed longer than heavy metal, but not by much. Led Zeppelin is often credited as the original hard rock band, followed by such acts as Cream, The Who and Deep Purple. Though similar in sound and scope, and most assuredly influenced directly by hard rock, the origins of heavy metal music trace back to 1970s bands like Black Sabbath and Steppenwolf. The burgeoning of the movement signified a turn from the more melodic hard rock genre into exactly what the name "heavy metal" suggests: heavier sounds and darker themes. Musicology Because hard rock’s musical influences root themselves firmly in the blues, its main musical components often include virtuosic guitar and loose, swaggering bass and drum lines. The genre's most famous guitarists include the likes of Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend and Jimi Hendrix—all standout musicians. While hard rock remains complex and melodic, the musical composition of heavy metal remains simpler, and obviously louder, and features less blues influence—especially in the way of syncopation. Often quite muscular, a heavy metal band’s rhythm section features three main characteristics: speed, power and precision. Fans and Commercialism Some bands—especially Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath—often find themselves lumped into both genres, which causes confusion for those trying to differentiate hard rock from heavy metal. To cut through this confusion, taking a look at other, nonmusical factors can help separate one genre from the other. Many heavy metal bands, because of their less-accessible musical attributes, rarely find commercial success, with the possible exception of a band like Metallica. The same principle does not apply for many hard rock bands, such as Van Halen and Aerosmith, two of the biggest-selling artists of any musical genre, who have won fan bases much broader and much more mainstream than those generally enjoyed by heavy metal bands. Cult Followings Though hard rock has a large share of devotees, its fans lack the type of rabidness often exhibited by heavy metal fans. Many metal bands are assigned a “cult status," thereby making many of their fans, in turn, de facto cult members who adopt lifestyles parallel to that of the bands’ images. Heavy metal's fan base, often considered a “subculture of alienation,” largely comprises young white males who adopt a certain fashion and boast of a separation from the rest of society.