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Looks like we got a little sago boner going on. Super stoked to see this thing come back to life! Also feel really guilty for digging its brother out of the other planter after making it almost 20yrs.

Got my 2nd Pfizer shot yesterday. Knocked me on my ass this morning. Chills, aches, just general shitty feeling. Starting to feel better now, though.

startling other trail users is bad. but if they get startled because they are wearing headphones and did not hear your honest attempt to get their attention. good... good.

Good, good. https://youtu.be/iN7_O-2Kixw

I had a bear bell that is basically a bell dangling from your bars like Santa Claus. It gets very annoying when you’re just cruising around and there is no reason to be making noise. I use my bell for blind corners and to let people know I’m there if things are hectic. I much prefer to say “excuse me” or something if they are aware. People with headphones can usually hear the bell but I’ve had to throw juniper berries at one numb nut on SATN one time just to get his attention. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Feisty Blonde from HopFusion. Upon first sip of this stuff I was really impressed, but there's something about it that just keeps me from wanting a second one, possibly the honey flavor. A friend of mine couldn't get enough though; so I suppose to each their own. I must say 8.27% for a Blonde is impressive, but I'm going to pass on picking this one up again. Might be worth at least trying it if you like a lighter beer but with some kick.

Mine is drooping a bit - should I be concerned?

I have a pretty big and heavy hearted announcement. I’ve lived within a 10 mile diameter bubble in north Austin my entire life... with my lease ending on 5/27 after 5 years of being in my south round rock duplex, I went under contract yesterday to buy my first home. In Brevard, North Carolina!! I love Texas so much. My whole life and family Is here, cat mountain, all my friends and the awesome Texas mountain biking community is here. But Austin is changing and I see more success in my life on the eastern horizon. With some quick action, and the grace of god, I landed a 4bd/2b w 4 car garage on 2 acres in Brevard, North Carolina! Literally minutes from pisgah national Forrest, and epic trail systems right in my back yard. Not to mention, the east coast is littered with lift access bike parks! Im not walking away from Texas, but rather expanding my life and growing! @victoryracingevents is live and well, and will continue Texas operations and oversee cat mountain, with a few logistical changes. I love you all. This is so hard for me and bittersweet. my mom has always told me “you can’t win if you don’t play” I’m all in and sending it in full faith of my future to the other side of the country. I could write a novel, but i won’t. Just wanted to tell everyone my big news. I’d really love to have a race or at least a big group ride at cat mountain before I move, In celebration! Stay tuned for more details. my new house has an abundance of space, and pisgah is an absolute mountain biking Mecca and destination. I hope to see many of you up there one day! Stay tuned!

Yeah, those annoying bells some of us have on our handlebars. I have them on every bike I ever ride. How else are the wonderful people listening to amazing music with ear buds going to know when to snarl at me as I pass them on our shared trails? Seriously, the looks I get because I dare to use a bell to get their attention after *on your left*, and *rider behind you*, and *HELLO!*, etc etc get no response. So, who else *bells*?

Rode road bikes for so many years it just became "on your left". Road bikers don't typically encounter hikers.😁

I think many trail walkers have no idea what that means. I'll say "excuse me, coming up on your left" or something similar. It's annoying when you have to yell. And when they act startled I'm thinking, no shit, turn down your headphone volume idiot.

Something isn’t adding up will the J&J vaccine. The national media are reporting that it is being paused due to 6 cases of blood clots within 2 weeks of people taking the vaccine. Being that they have already administered 7 million doses that would mean less than a 1 in 1million chance of getting a blot clot with the dose, which is much less than the 1 in 500,000 chance you have of getting struck by lightning. Not to mention that a blood clot is common complication of having COVID 19. So I’m not sure what the logic is unless they FDA and CDC is not disclosing something. I can’t wait for this chapter to be over it’s turning me into a conspiracy theorist😂

3-4 days after my second Pfizer shot and not a single issue. Arm was sore for about an hour. The biggest downside of the second shot was having to skip a beer on Saturday night. Made up for it since then.

Passed a guy on inner log loop at Walnut last night. He was doing super slow. I called out that there were three people behind me but I guess he didn’t hear because of his headphones. My friend who was behind me startled the guy and he ran straight into a tree. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think some people may not actually know what the full phrase is. I say the whole phrase, "passing on your left" to prevent this confusion on their part.

is there a remote lockout option?

I have a timber bell and the best feature is you can lock it out.. Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

I have a bear bell (which you can switch on or off) on one bike, which is handy on the Southies. Otherwise I just holler - often pretty loudly - usually causing the blockage to jump like a startled deer and bolt one way or the other, often with dogs scattering in all directions.

Except, wasn't he trying to actually surf with it? But maybe that was after his sand adventure. Anyway, @Jessica and I keep threatening to take our fat bikes down for some beach riding, but other plans keep getting in the way. We did quite of bit of frozen beach riding while in the north. But I wouldn't take a skinny tire mountain bike into loose sand just because it wouldn't be fun, nor is it great on suspension bits. But a mid-fat or fat bike tire is a bit of fun. And so long as you're using a dry lube, there's not a lot of danger of gumming anything up too much. What we really want to do, is figure out how to rent a large paddle boat, and get ourselves and our fat bikes over to Matagorda Island for a long fat bike out and back. There used to be a ferry a few years back, but apparently it burnt and sank. Now the only way over is by personal craft.

I have one on my commuter bike and constantly tell myself I'll put the extra on the mtn bike, so this is a good reminder to do that. The one on the commuter bike gets a fair amount of use, but walkers with ear buds are a constant problem. Sometimes they hear the bell, sometimes they don't. I really worry for women who use them while walking/running on trails or anywhere really because their situational awareness is zero.

The Timber Bell is "automatic."

I've been reading about this. standard clipless pedals are around 55mm from the crank to the center where the cleat goes, varying about 5mm. you can get wider pedals with longer axles, but that's usually overlooked in the industry. road cranks are typically right around 145mm wide, so a pair of 55mm pedals will space your cleats at 255mm with little room for adjustment. mtn cranks are usually 170-175mm wide, so your stance is more like 285mm. so if you put the same pedals on your road and mtn/hybrid/touring bike and ride in the same shoes, you have to pedal with a stance that is 25–30mm different! that's a big jump and certain to cause some problems. there are other factors, of course, and road/mtn style riding are often very different. individual bodies can adapt to different widths to some degree, but not every rider has the same level of adaptability. the industry is just starting to address this with pedals that have a wider stance. my goal is to find a stance that works for my body and apply it to both bikes. I suspect that the gravel bike with it's narrow cranks would fit better if it was a bit wider, but that's a vague theory that needs testing. I just know that the outside of my knees hurt after long rides on the gravel bike and that is making things un-fun.

I definitely start with the greeting, but some people only hear the bell.

I should hold off on the crankset. I need to figure out a few things first, and I am willing to experiment on my own to do this: saddle position. I think I have this down, but some camera work and a digital goniometer will give me more confidence. ideal crank arm length: I'd hate to buy a 175mm crank and then realize that it's way off and I have mutant legs that would be better off with shorter ones. q-factor: part of my issue is aching knees on the lateral side (outside). from what I've read, that's a sign that my knee is wiggling left-right through my pedal stroke because my cranks are too long or the stance width is off to a high enough degree to hurt over many miles. cleat/ insole wedges can help if applied correctly. wider cranks or pedals with wider spindles to widen your stance might be the answer. the cranks on my mtb are 175mm wide, plus the center of a SPD pedal places my cleats at at 285mm apart. on my road cranks, the same setup puts my cleats at 255, 30mm narrower! I would think that would have an effect on one's pedal stroke. After I feel confident with the biomechanics of my fit, I can consider if I need a different chainring interface. that seems far less important now.

This matches my impression of this beer perfectly. I thought it would taste stronger with the kick but it just didn’t do it for me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I can share an experience from the Parmer Location - but it's definitely not a complaint. I took my backup bike in just to have the brakes bled and pads changed. They told me to pay in advance and they scheduled me for a few days later, stating that I could keep riding the bike and just bring it in the day before my service appointment, which I thought was cool. When I brought the bike back though, the guy couldn't find my ticket in the computer. No big deal though, he just asked somebody else for help. I got a text early the next day saying the work order was complete, which was again very cool. I headed over there to pick up the bike, and the guy told me I owed $55. I told him there must be a mistake as I had paid for the parts and labor in advance. Turns out they put a much more expensive pad on than what I had told them to put on, since for my backup bike I really don't need anything more than cheap resin pads. They hemmed and hawed a bit, I suppose trying to get me to believe that I really needed the higher priced pads. Ultimately though they were either going to have to swap them out or eat the difference in price; so they just let me keep the nicer pads at no additional cost, which was the right thing to do. The service itself, although something most of you probably do yourself, was done fine. All the other stuff I just write off to working the kinks out of a new system.

You can't generalize service, it's a per tech, per location thing.

The Trek stores' service department is no better. Gave them another shot bc of change in management and ended up having a terrible experience. Time to learn how to do everything myself I suppose.

The ice storm created some serious havoc at our place. This represents about half the firewood we’ve cut so far from downed Live Oak trees/limbs. My guess is we are only about 10% of the way through cleaning up our property. There is as much or more Juniper down as well. In addition to the effort of cutting up firewood and stacking it, the ends of the branches represents even more time and effort to manage.

I've heard too many Trek warranty delay horror stories over the last several years to even consider one. And that tracks too, since my Gary Fisher was Trek/Bontrager owned nearly 20 years ago...and I broke it 4 times, and each time it was about 7-12 week turn around. No thanks.

Like Dorothy sleeping in the poppies.

Black(out Drunk) and Blue(bonnets).

Wheel base looks kinda short

The Research store now has Trek signage. I'm kinda curious as to how long the Trek train can keep going. I'm also curious if they can sell enough bikes and parts along with service to keep the doors open. I owned a Trek road bike years ago but wouldn't buy a Trek now. I think that their bikes are somewhat underwhelming especially for the price you pay getting a bike spec'd with house brand parts. To each their own though I guess. P.S. I also will never own a Specialized just because of their predatory business practices.

Sounds delicious, and very similar to a dish I regularly order - Bistec a la Mexicana - at our favorite local Mexican Restaurant, Los Reyes. They include cooked tomato "fragments" (not diced) in addition to the peppers and onions, and upon request top with ranchero sauce. No cheese, but I'm sure you could have that added. For me it fits my low-carb diet really well if I just eat it off a plate with small helping of rice and some charro beans.

This is a family tradition picked up from a roadside stand somewhere in Mexico by one of my uncles. Leftover grilled steaks here get diced. Chop up some bacon, drain some of the fat, add chopped onions and peppers (bell, poblano, or hotter if you want), add the meat, finish up with some white cheese (asadero, Oaxaca, Chihuahua, mozarella, etc.). Make tacos (flour tortilla) out of it.

For those of you who like to turn up the heat without sacrificing flavor, I highly recommend this sauce. I never use steak sauce on fresh-off-the-grill ribeyes, but because we're always getting the family packs on sale at Randalls, I usually end up with a few that go in the fridge and then the microwave days later. This stuff has been the ticket for that! Today I covered the left-over steak with this stuff and ate it along with a big bowl of fresh, cold watermelon for lunch. Fabulous!

It was a smash success. Good weather, good trails, good ride leaders for the organized Saturday morning ride, good group of attendees. Everyone had a great time. Well maybe not Barry. Maybe he'll post a picture.

I felt fine yesterday after the shot arm wasn't even sore. Got some mild chills last night woke up with a mild headache and arm is sore. Like @AntonioGG said this is kind of a booster for me because I had covid. Should be GTG.

Work up with a slightly sore arm and nothing else. Jab #2 is done. 7 days and the cake is baked, I can start riding in groups again. Oh, and all of that other stuff in life.