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The festival itself was fun. I had some good times watching the events like the bunny hop contest, the whip off, the last man standing contest where you can't go outside the circle or dab, and the Big Wheel race. The best part was the demos and chatting with people I follow on YouTube. Lenosky was super nice, Jeff Kendal-Weed sat down at my table and ate lunch with me. He was very friendly and down to earth. Mo and Hannah were friendly but having to deal with having to talk to everyone there. Understandable. Heather Munive was getting hit on by every dude there. I felt bad for her. Normal Mountain biking guy (300+lb) was really fast, he passed me on a trail ride like I was standing still. I wasn't there to meet those people, I could care less about that aspect, it was just a small venue and you almost didn't have a choice about it. The bike demos were great and kind of surprised me as a bunch of the big names were conspicuous in their abscence. Both Trek and Specialized were not there. Giant was there but stuck in a back corner. Revel was up front and probably the most popular at the festival. I got to ride the Rascal and it didn't dissapoint. The rear end rode the fine line between short and just long enough to provide some stability at speed. The Gates Belt Drive crew had a booth they shared with Zerode and I got to ride one of those. It worked absolutely amazing but was heavy as hell. There was a bit of drag from the drivetrain when coasting, but not enough to make a real difference. The biggest drawback was the weight. The Haniwha Trail I rode was right around 38 pounds with only about 150mm travel and not that burly of a build. The Pivot Trail 429 was awesome. Great on climbs and going downhill. The biggest surprise for me was the Polygon Siskiu T8. It's just over $2,000 and kept up quality wise with bikes over triple it's price. Climbed very well, stable on high speed descents and would do very well here in Austin. It handled square edge hits better than the Zerode and as well as the Pivot. It was a bit heavy(35 lbs) and the Tektro brakes sucked. It comes with tubes so going tubeless will take some weight off right off the bat. The brakes were the only thing I would have immediately changed component wise besides contact point things like saddles and grips. The trails themselves were crazy good. The best trail marking I've seen. World class views around every corner. I rode three different trail systems, Adobe Jack, Mescal and the Scorpion to Pyramid loop. The Mescal to Canyon of Fools loop was so freaking good. Loads of janky off camber slickrock on Mescal to a killer descent through Canyon of Fools that went through a 6-7 foot deep ditch where there were a ton of wall rides, whoops and g-outs. My next favorite was the Scorpion to Pyramid loop. Do this one counter clock wise. Scorpion was a solid blue trail that basically loops around to the backside of Pyramid mountain and joins up with the Pyramid trail. Nothing too crazy tech wise and has a bit of climbing as it loops around to Pyramid proper. Once you get on Pyramid, the easy going blue very quickly changes to a gnarly black descending trail. Holy crap this was fun. I spent a solid two hours sessioning a steep maybe 3-400 foot descent. There were some parts of it I still couldn't clean. Adobe Jack was a trail loop/system that was rideable from the festival itself. Solid blue with a few black parts. It reminded me of a red rock version of the Lakeway and Steiner Ranch areas here with less flow killing switchbacks and more slickrock. This is where the guy from the Norml Mountain Bike youtube channel passed me on a climb like I was standing still. Here I also got to meet an (former now based in Flagstaff) Austin guy named Hojo. I had met him a few times years ago on trail work days and he recognised me as I was pulling a stick out of my wheel next to the trail. Nice guy. All in all I think it was well worth going to. Bring a bike as the demos may be all out when you get there. When the festival opens, there's a mad dash to all the bike tents and you may not get one in the size you need. After that it's a crap shoot depending on when the riders before you return their bikes. The food was fine, there was a good mix of band and all the vendors had a bunch of stuff to give away. The trails themselves were world class. It's also much higher in elevation than I realized. Most of the trails were over 5,000 feet which is on par with Denver. I was super gassed that first day with headaches that night. Nothing an asprin and a trip to the dispensary can't solve. The next day was fine. Food there was fine but overpriced outside of a few places. The pizza at Pisa Lisa was good, the tortas and burritos at Tortas Del Fuego right across from Thunder Mountain Bikes were killer. Cheap too. The Coffee Pot was a good breakfast diner.

Cedar Park had a "kaleido-spoke" festival on Friday night. It was an impressive event for being free. Great for kids.

I've been off the bike since January 1 this year with a shoulder injury. Riding any bike in any configuration is agony... until now. As I'm working my way through rehab, this is my new ride. Built around a Univega beach cruiser I found at Yellow Bike, I ditched most of the parts and started over. I had to buy the bottom bracket adapter cups and a shim for the handlebar, so I've spent less than $25 on it.

Singlespeeds are stupid. I'm going to buy a FS e-mtb and be done with it. What should I get? See ya on the trails next week! Or rather, you'll see the back of me as a brap away. [Edit: happy April 2.]

Beat me to it! The visuals are great, but the smell is amazing.

Damianita and Annual Pennyroyal for those keeping score at home.

🤡 Their first ride will be intense.

Gotta take care of our peeps.

If you haven't been out on Sub Ninja in recent weeks, get out soon. The dirt was amazing today and bluebonnets have taken over the areas from the fires last August. It's beautiful.

Amazing. Life returning after the fire.

Another great year for bluebonnets at Muleshoe!

Wear long socks.

A little fun in Northwest Arkansas. Today should be the last warm day here for the remainder of my trip. It has been warm and muggy but also crazy beautiful! Dogwoods and columbines are blooming.

I just saw this on MTBR: This is an interesting take. I had not considered the "finesse" that you can get from a bike that is just not present with an e-bike. So much of my riding over the years has become much more about feeling the bike through tight obstacles, rock gardens, etc. My Orbea Occam is exceptionally adept at helping me finesse my way through features, to the point where I often tell people to give me a little space because I have the ability to slow a climb to insanely low speed to slips through the appropriate line instead of just getting a head of steam and trying to power up something. The singlespeed really taught me this skill but the Occam lets me literally track stand in the middle of a climb or a rock garden and sneak through with the least effort.

when I worked at REI, every Diamondback bike we assembled came with a "fork direction" sticker, but it was not affixed to anything. I started collecting them and now I have a decent stack. I like to keep one in my pocket and stick it to forks at Target, Walmart, Academy, etc. There was a fat bike at Target with a backwards fork to which I adhered one of these stickers, and I came back to check on it every few months. it was still there, with the backwards fork, for several months.

They pulled the mask off and it was poison ivy. And he would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

Kudos to @St.Bernardo!!!

Thanks for the pics, it inspired me to get on my bike after more than a week off. I guess fire activates the seeds because that is where the bluebonnets are epic. Also, at red horn having a beer outside and what kind of jerk plays smashing pumpkins on his laptop for everyone to hear? People suck.

After riding yesterday we got back to our campsite and I promptly locked the bikes to a picnic table before realizing that I didn’t have the keys with me. Fortunately the camp host texted the LCRA maintenance guy that night and he came by camp the following morning as I was finishing my second cup of coffee with his new bolt cutters and cut the padlock for me. It is always a little disturbing to see how easily a lock can be removed.

Did you see any cool EVs? 😄 seriously, thanks for the report! It’s on my list of places to visit but I’ll probably avoid crowds…and you know who, please don’t litter this thread with that stuff. I just made myself laugh, hope others got a good chuckle too.

@ATXZJ 100% agree The greenest car there is, is the one you didn’t buy…I bought my EV when my 15yo Mazdaspeed3 (loved that car!) started having major issues. At the time it just so happened Tesla was shipping cars and not bending you over like Ford and Toyota were doing. I was also sick of ICE and their problems. As an engineer, I know reliability is increased when I reduce the number of parts. Also, I’m still a car guy and one hit of dual motor crack pipe and it’s impossible to go back to anything else. Call that my selfish treat when I try to sacrifice in a lot of other areas. I am not trading this car in 3 years. I’m in it for the long run just like all my previous cars. Similarly to cars, the greenest human is the one that wasn’t born. No arguing the greenest car for the average Texan is a PHEV. For other places (geo or hydro) it’s an EV. A gas F150 is greener than a Hummer EV. You are halfway there in finding facts. Keep digging and crunch the numbers yourself don’t just believe your sources. For example I agree with you for me with PEC it doesn’t make sense to buy my own solar panels, but that’s because the system is rigged. They pay at 5.3 cents/kWh while I buy at 9.3 and they pay me the same 5.3 cents even if they are buying from dirty carbon peaker plants at $1500/kWh. In Texas solar would make a lot of sense in the summer because it’s locally generated and locally used and reduces peak demand from dirty coal plants. It’s also not necessary to worry about storage either because most people will be using more than hey produce when it is more needed. I have had thoughts to run for the PEC board to change this rigged system. It would make much more sense to encourage distributed solar and buying at 9.3c/kWh You’re a car guy so you must know the Engineering Explained channel. He has a lot of factual content with whiteboard calculations. I encourage you to watch his videos on all kinds of automotive subjects. As to the earth’s climate cycles and regurgitation of George Carlin’s “the earth will shake us off like a bunch of fleas” yeah fine but global climate destabilization and the push to fight the tipping point is about saving humans not the earth in a geologic scale. to bring this thread back on point, e-bikes are good. I am definitely considering one for commuting.

@14:49 is the real reason our government wants us in EV's. Lord Elon himself explaining that totally solar cars are not possible. The whole green movement is just another grift being propped up by lobbyists to extract our money. Is climate change real? absolutely. Do we have an impact on climate change? yes. The real question is how big of an impact? how is it measured? All we see are people crying we need to do something about climate change right now! The earth has been around for 4.5 billion years the Industrial Revolution began 260 years ago, to believe we've had a significant enough impact to cause significant climate change in that amount of time seams ridiculous and most likely is. Currently the earth is greener than it has been and even greener than it was 20 years ago which is a good thing more trees more O2, trees are the natural air scrubbers of the planet yet we continually cut trees down for the sake of progress and money. Like @ATXZJ mentioned the earth has gone through many ice ages and many warm periods and will continue to so totally disregarding us. Every so often the earth turns into a blender resetting itself and eliminating most of the life on the planet in the process, we have no power or control over any of it. And if we did we would f**k that up as well.

I went to Korea and toured the LG Solar Plant there, they have a 'gun' that launches frozen ice balls (hail) at the panels simulating..... Storms in TX to test their durability. So a very high quality LG is designed for hail, a medium quality Polycrystalline probably cant take it.

Hail don't care.

Way too many calculations to pay attention😁

You guys are silly arguing over whose industry has a better/worse record of pollution. All industry is horrible. Nuclear has a bad history too (Uranium tailings superfund site in Moab leaching into the CO river for example, all the nasty mines with colorful pools around Leadville and surrounding areas, etc.) but any mining (for any metal), any extraction, and any production has horrible records period. Plastic industry uses oil AND produces tons of waste. Electronics industry also produces tons of waste. Humans are the worst though. Individually we suck for our own convenience. As far as EVs being practical, our family has 3 (different vendors), and we share a single level 2 charger with no issues. We have also done long trips (I'd only pick 1 of the 3 for long trips, maybe 2). I've had it add 1hr per 500 miles, and that's if I compare to my youthful self cannonball style minimal stops (fuel stops = bathroom stops = snack stops (diet coke and snickers, minimizing fluid and food intake). The real life is that with a wife and a dog and/or kids, you are stopping way more often than the 400miles most fuel tanks will give you. The Huracan is a bad example btw, with 21.1 gallon tank 18mpg EPA legal speeds (forget it if you're going cannonball speeds). Using ABRP I calculate 50.5 hours NYC to LA for the EV including stops. The Huracan will take 42 hours at legal speeds + 8 fuel stops (calculating 1.1 gallon reserve so real 20gal capacity which is generous...) at 10min each (per your numbers) for 43.33 hours. So over 2800 miles the EV adds 7 hours in cannonball mode. for 2800 miles and essentially 2 days driving Our driving is 95% city, so it seems silly to burden my choice of cars with something that may happen 5 times a year (for myself, those that are doing the van life or the traveling life of course will need fuel vehicles). Did you know that the most efficient/quick method of long travel on an EV requires short and frequent stops to get the highest rate of charge (up to 1400mi/hr). Most non/anti-EV people think you must completely discharge the battery then fully charge it to continue. The last 20% of charge takes too long, so you end to operate 20-80% which is fairly fast charging. Micro-fusion reactors may be the interim answer if we can solve the mining and disposal issue. Fussion would be the ultimate answer.

It's a massive grift. That's what greedy people do. Even Michael Moore and Oliver Stone have realized this. My wife who was a massive greenie, has changed her mind about nuclear after being exposed to more information. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_the_Humans https://www.nuclearnowfilm.com/ Solar is also a joke and more and more people are realizing it. It would take me almost 20 yrs to recoup the outlay for solar at my house, and we see over 300 days of sunshine. How outdated and broken will that platform be when and if it's ever paid off? Care to scale that model up to a national level under government contracts at the taxpayers expense? Hard pass. The massive solar unit taken out in Nebraska by a hailstorm was proof of how flawed this system is and admittedly was oddly gratifying. Wind is equally unpredictable and flawed. All of which will require batteries to store energy during downtime and fossil fuels to back it up. Depending on the source, there's not enough rare earth minerals to accomplish going green by the timelines laid out, if ever. There are companies claiming to make efficient batteries out of more available elements but I'll believe it when I see it. Seems like most things, a lot of vaporware. By all means, build an aircraft powered by solar, wind or batteries. Battery powered ships? LoL Those are your high polluters using low grade fuels. Not my 2009 Tacoma or my stove. As a 30 year car industry guy, electric cars are toys, and aren't practical. How unpractical are they for most Americans? Two cars can drive from NYC to LA obeying all speed limits and laws. One an electric car of your choice. The other, lets just go extreme and use a Lamborghini Huracán STO, a road legal RACING car. Even with its high fuel consumption, the RACE CAR will arrive first because fuel is available practically anywhere and takes less than 10min to be back on the road. In what magical universe is a full blown race car more effective at making it cross country than electric, yet this is being crammed down our throats. There are two practical options: Nuclear and synthetic fuel.

sigh. I really didn't want to address this but, to protect what little reputation I have, I am compelled to do so. I am not sure why I am having to endure TAF's unrelenting wrath. It started with his suggestion for a cleanup of a particular spot in the SATN. I didn't immediately jump on it and make it happen. He has been very angry at me since. I'm not sure why he didn't organize this event himnself if it was so important to him. But I'm amazed that he accuses me of "doing nothing for the community." The irony being that I would be willing to bet that there are less than five people in town that have given as many hours to trail building, maintenance, organizing clean ups, putting on community building events, and participating in other's events too, (ARR etc), as I have. For example, I've used Strava to track my walking miles at trail work for eight years now. I average over a hundred miles a year. That includes just walking to do hours long projects at single spots. It would be fun if Strava tracked all time hours at each activity too. He wants The SATN Facebook page to be an open forum. Well, that is not why that page was created. It is only for information dissemintation. There are at least two other local mtbing Facebook pages that are designed for open discussions. So his ire about that perplexes me too. I have nothing against the man. This all just seems so strange to me.

Still in Patzcuaro, Mexico. Yesterday’s ride was 10.2 miles with 1,510´ of climbing.

I checked it out yesterday. Pretty great for what it is ~ 9 mile xc race loop with basically zero rocks. You can get super fast on some of the straightaways. lots of nice turns. And plenty of challenging berms. On the back side there is a section built by KOM with some pretty cool features, but i found it hard to carry speed through. i would need to session it before i really trusted those berms. This seems to be Todd Eric's baby for now. He said its his buddy's property. It is not generally open. He's been opening it up Saturday morning's when Todd can make it out there to supervise. They need to get more tires on the dirt to help bed in the trails. There is a group on the facebook that seems to have the most up-to-date info.

Thanks. Let me know what he says.

Don't forget. You were promised 620mile range teslas within two years in back in 2015. There's laundry list of empty promises and grift that techbros conveniently ignore. I guess I just lack "faith". Go ahead and keep supporting a regime with a long history of totalitarian behavior and human rights abuses. Social credit score? No thanks. Oh. And they are also the largest polluter in the world. #winning https://chinadialogue.net/en/business/new-three-china-solar-cell-lithium-battery-ev/#:~:text=China accounts for more than,than 20% of electric vehicles. I don't see many green washers calling for downsizing the us military and cutting their budget. That would get their dick slapped in the renewed red scare world we currently find ourselves in. How much money does Elon receive from the GOVT again? https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2022/10/pentagon-climate-change-neta-crawford-book/ Let's not forget this little incident that I also don't hear the greenies calling for the end to conflict. In fact I just see yellow and blue flags on their social media. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-47290-7#:~:text=It is estimated that more,contributing to global warming1. This EV BS is just a way to shift guilt and blame onto the public and not the real drivers of pollution. The ruling class will never change their ways, and will keep the plebs arguing about absolute nonsense while they line their pockets. It's all a grift and like any other organized religion, I'm not buying what they're selling.

I have a buddy that has a Kuat Transfer V2 Rack with a 2" receiver. Hardly ever used, probably less than 10 times. If you are interested ping me and I can put you in touch with him. Here's more info on the rack: https://www.rei.com/product/187294/kuat-transfer-v2-2-bike-hitch-rack There is nothing wrong with it, but they have 2 e-bikes and need a heavier duty rack to handle the extra heft of a battery bike.

I don't know about the LG solar Panels but a neighbor/ friend recently installed the "indestructible" Tesla Solar Roof 1 month before our last hail storm that peppered my roof and chimney and the Tesla Roof was completely destroyed. Yes...

It should be interesting watching as the disruptive technologies converging demonstrate the flaws in such a perspective. Grid scale solar and battery deployment have proven themselves around the world, regardless of subsidies. "Peaker Plants" that would have been spun up for high demand and in critical emergencies remain dormant, rather than being able to charge exorbitant rates. Battery storage can respond in milliseconds to trouble. This is how these systems have become the dominant choice for power in a scant few years in Australia, Europe, Pacific Islands, Asia, and the Americas. https://www.torquenews.com/video/tesla-big-battery-australia-pays-itself-25-years-huge-profit https://cleantechnica.com/2023/09/12/solar-power-europe-predicts-eu-will-reach-its-renewable-energy-goal-3-years-early/ https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/business/india-adani-green-energy-plant-climate-intl-hnk/index.html Regarding hail and solar panels. I was just reading about how it has been found recently that Solar panels oriented vertically, rather than horizontally, with panels facing both East and West actually produce more power than do those facing skyward and South. (Northern Hemisphere perspective) This offers several advantages, the least of which is that hail is unlikely to be a problem. They can be erected in place of a fence, they can have crops planted by tractor between arrays, they can more easily be installed and serviced, and they produce more power each day than horizontal systems. https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2023/11/15/mysterious-higher-energy-yields-in-vertical-pv-systems/ https://spectrum.ieee.org/agrivoltaics Please, do explain in some detail just how this grift works? Provide detail that includes cost/benefit analysis for near and long term. This would be helpful to set straight all of those who studied the problem long and hard on every continent and came to the conclusion that this was the best option. I'm sure they will be grateful for the knowledge. Who is taken to the cleaners when the money spent on grid level energy projects creates near "free" energy going forward, as maintenance costs are minuscule in comparison to legacy power generation? Who was taken for a ride when renewables helped eliminate the EU's dependence upon Russian oil? Maybe the Russians? How are the Pacific Islands that have installed Solar/Battery systems to replace generators and no longer have to import expensive diesel in order to power them having the wool pulled over their eyes? And these synthetic fuels, do they require fuel or electricity in order to create them to then burn them, once, to make electricity? How is that more efficient than taking electricity from the sun and putting it directly into batteries from a source that works day after day after day? In the face of the abundant evidence to the contrary any such argument that these renewables are a scam appears to be completely unfounded. Lastly, for a comprehensive presentation on the convergence of disruptive technologies and how, historically, such disruptions always play out, watch this 5 part series. See if it offers a perspective that illustrates the path ahead.

I view standards from a higher level. If a bike company is pushing a proprietary standard then there is a lock in - buy brand X I am tied to brand X for some small universe of parts. But my wheel spacing, wheel size, brake mounting, handlebar clamp, bottom bracket, etc. are all standard. I can change components far easier today than in the past. Now, bike component makers might have proprietary parts, but you have the choice. I can choose between SRAM and Shimano because they will both fit on any of my standardized bikes. But when I broke a Shimano brake lever blade like I did earlier this year, I could only buy Shimano. So what. I think the bike industry has gotten much more standardized, the bike component industry is still proprietary but I'd rather have proprietary at the $35 brake lever blade than the $800 suspension fork.

SRAM: "hold my beer" (b/c of UDH...)

Oh no, sorry to hear about your successful physics experiment! Hope you heal up quickly. I may try to get out there this weekend, assuming it hasn't rained too much before then (looks like we may get some rain on Thursday).

I agree that the trend does lean toward standards of one sort or another. there are often a few different standards, but you don't see every single bike company making its own specific size seatpost, bottom bracket, hub sizes, etc. new standards arise, but they are few and far between. the same could be done for mounting batteries and motors. IIRC, boost spacing was a collaboration with Trek and ... SRAM? the UHD is another example. If a heavy-hitter like Shimano or Bosch worked with Specialized, Giant, or Trek, the others would follow suit and we would have something that more closely resembles a "standard" within a few short years. I don't know why bike manufacturers keep shooting themselves in the foot.

As funny as that is true, a standardized replaceable battery would result in an economies of scale cost reduction and interchangeability between brands. The bicycle industry has a long history of only standardizing as a last resort.

I think most of the "battery materials mining is eco-unfriendly" stories are written by oil companies. Consider how fossil fuels are mined to provide the power to mine the oil, transport the oil, refine the oil, and then continuously mined to provide fuel that is burned and cannot be recycled for the life of a gas/diesel powered vehicle. Battery materials are only mined to create the first battery, after which 98% of the battery can be recycled into new batteries. As the supply of produced batteries grows, the mining needs will eventually be reduced. This is the part of the story rarely shared. As for the e-bike, I regret purchasing one with a 500 Ah battery. The most utility will be derived from having a larger capacity battery. Also, for extended trips a second battery can be carried along if necessary. Most are very easy to swap out. Batteries are very pricey though.

Listened to an interestig piece on NPR discussing the shift to battery-powered cars and the price paid by the people who live where the raw materials are mined and the ecological impact of mining those materials vs the impression that battery power is completely green and clean. But, I digress. These last few weeks, I've really started looking at e-bikes, knowing one is in my future. Advancing age + difficulty in recovering due to some health issues + plus the side effects of medication for those health issues -- I'm there. My main concern is how long a ride will a battery support because I'd like to use one for short, overnight bikepacking trips that would likely be on two-track or bladed roads with no options to stock up on water. Yup, we're talking SE Utah and SW Colorado. Thanks for the TREK Marlin link, it looks like a possibility, but I'll be looking around. A few weeks ago I did find a website on hardtail e-bikes, comparing battery storage capacity.

No, you are not being too cheap. Check out swapping the front and back. I have a a regimen for my tires, the good bike gets the new ones, passing down its tires to the singlespeed, and then the singlespeed tires go to the urban bike for the final grinding down. I get years out of a set of tires across multiple bikes.

LoL at hearing the crowd cheer when he gets into police reform. APD is short 500 cops so crime will just worsen regardless of what this pencilneck says/does.

I rode BMX Loop last week and there was a crew cleaning out all of the camps! Glad to finally have this trail back.

Let's take it back!