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Beyond good times in AZ

Had some youtubers swing through town. They hit me up for a local ride. I had about an hour and a half to show them a ride. I probably should not have allowed certain trails to be filmed, but oh well. I kind of got caught up in the moment to show them a fun ride.

My first thought when I ran across this photo is....damn, I'm certain that guy does not have kids. LOL Cheers, CJB

I’m pretty sure the rain this weekend is my son’s fault. Per my recommendation, he sends his sincere apologies for the rain this weekend. Cheers, Shaner

I just finished 9+ months of working 50 hours/week and completing the police academy at night/and Saturdays. Passed my TCOLE exam yesterday! I don't have a lot of time off currently or before I start with the PD, but I have these dates to possibly get up to AF and leisurely stroll down the mountain and drink cocktails in the evening. Anyone want to share expenses (caveat: I have to know you and like you). I'll ride every blue on the mountain, but don't want to get balled up and injured, so just purely a fresh air trip.....no PR's for me since I've not been riding AT ALL.

Clyde’s maiden voyage. Sorry @RedRider3141 but it had been ordered for a couple of weeks already.

Post-ride fallout after a humid early morning venture today.

I shall call it Mini-me! All this rain has enabled finishing my son's bike build earlier than planned! He's still about 6-10 months from being tall enough to ride it on trails, but he super excited about it!

They said it was "humid" here and I had to laugh. Made the right call to take the bikes into the city with us today. The the wife made the right call to stop and get a beer. Half Acre Beer's Daisy Cutter and Revolution Brewing Anti-Hero. Technically you can see a bit of the bikes over the railing, past the flowers.

Done and dusted

I bought this set of four interlocking floor mats for <$10 at Harbor Freight. they're about 10mm thick. they're just the right size to be cut in half and trimmed down to fit in the drawers and I'll have a few extras. Here's the SAE drawer. I drew one line with a yard stick along the bottom and started laying out the sockets with even spacing. it's not perfectly square, but it's close enough. I mapped them out on the "back" of the mat so it will look clean when I flip it over. I have some space left over, which might hold some hex keys or something: I've cut out about half of the the socket pockets. this took some trial and error, but I found this to work: put the box that the toolbox came in on a table top. it's four layers of cardboard so you can jab straight through and not worry about dulling the knife on the tabletop or scratching up the surface. extend utility knife blade all the way out (about 1") and start jabbing. cutting out each square takes a steady hand, but you can kind of saw through it to keep from sliding and slicing too far. flip the mat over and carefully cut out the rest of each square nice and clean. ^this socket fits perfectly in this spot. when I flip the mat over, it looks like this: bonus tip: for the very small sockets, cut the hole out about 150% of the length of the socket. they way, you can fit your finger behind the end of the socket to pry it out. you don't want the fit to be too tight so that the sockets fall in and are a challenge to dig out of the pocket.

I like the concept behind that Tannus, but can't get comfortable using insert and tannus in the same sentence.

Newish bike is finally finished. After replacing frame through Intense and Rims through DT Swiss, adding a new Fox 34 Grip2 Factory fork, and a few other bits, my replacement parts came in a little over $3K. A lot of money for sure, but I think replacing the frame and rims through the manufacturer was a good move since there is no sales tax on accident replacement parts, and a similar build on a new bike would probably be $6K plus tax. Besides, I've always loved my Primer! Huge props to @Chief for his expert build work! New Parts: 2018 Primer SL monocoque UD carbon front and rear triangle assembled with original carbon upper link (new bearings), i-BOX lower pivot (new bearings), titanium frame hardware Invisiframe Custom Fit frame clear, glossy frame wrap DT Swiss XMC 1200 Spline Rims (30mm internal) laced to original DT Swiss 240s Boost Hubs Shimano XT RT-MT800 Centerlock Brake Rotors - 180mm front / 160mm rear Continental Trail King Shieldwall 29x2.4" front tire, Continental Mountain King Shieldwall 29x2.3" rear tire Rimpact tire inserts 2020 Fox Factory Float 140mm Grip2 Boost Fork - 44mm offset RaceFace Turbine 50mm Stem with 35mm Clamp Renthal Fatbar Lite Carbon Bar - 760mm with 20mm rise and 7 degree backsweep Transferred Parts: Fox Factory Float SV EVOL, 200mm X 50mm Shock Shimano XTR Brakes SRAM XX1 11-spd Shifters and Derailleur SRAM X01 11-spd Cassette RaceFace Next SL Cranks, RaceFace BB, MRP 30t chainring SDG Bel-Air 3.0 Black Microfiber Saddle w/ Orange Base Ergon GE1 EVO Factory Grips Spank Spike Flat Pedals

DD was fine but not ideal. Snail was a mess and needs more time to dry out. I didn't even try Rim. It's funny how you get on the bike at 6:30pm and head to the trail with the wind in your face flying down Little Elm. You're thinking, "this is going to be a sweet ride". Then half way through DD and you feel like you're in a tropical rainforest. You're now thinking to yourself, "why am I still sitting in the saddle with this feature right in front of me"? Still, you get through it, get home, slam a couple of Hopadillos, and have no regrets about getting in some exercise. Not sure I'll be doing it in Jul-Aug, but for now, life is good!

This section is called Pick Up Sticks.

Ugh! I'm already regretting my decision to move forward with that rebuild. I've seen multiple posts online where folks illustrate how some of those imperfections can be fixed, and others who simply state that they aren't a big deal. Found another video where the Kashima coated stanchions were replaced with much cheaper black stanchions, which I'm sure would not make the least bit of difference for me. Oh well, costly lesson learned I suppose. Anybody interested in a freshly rebuilt (by Fox) 2017 Factory 29 Boost 34 with brand-new Fit4 damper and brand-new Kashima coated stanchions for $500? Available as soon as it arrives back to me, and will supply paperwork as evidence of the work being done.

If you want to see the walk of shame you should have seen me at Bike Farm last night. Having to show them those bearings to get a replacement. I did not even bother to clean them up, I deserved that punishment.

Staying with the old guy theme. As a older skater it's so cool to see another icon like Cab into MTB. He and No way Rey riding together is just freaking awesome!!

This would make the Enchilada Buffet infinitely better, I always hate the Spicewood Springs portion.

Super exciting news for old spicewood. Legit trail from 360 to St Eds. Here is the link for Community Impact; can't find the digital story: https://editions.communityimpact.com/view/864435178/ The city plans to use this property, combined with an adjacent 11-acre plot of land currently under eminent domain proceedings, to build nature trails with creek access. These trails will help connect the existing trail systems between the 47-acre Bull Creek District Park and the 80-acre St. Edward’s Park to create one continuous Bull Creek greenbelt that runs through some of the unblemished nature preserves left in Northwest Austin’s pocket of Hill Country.

Whoa, this shit's for real! 1st ride yesterday afternoon and I was blown away! Rode road to TC and flats were a little awkward, with a weird dead/gap spot at the top of my pedal stroke. Really only went away if I was pushing my cadence or going up hills - though it was smooth climbing seated or standing (standing so long as was in big enough gear). Sounds like that's pretty common and I should adapt in short order. Though I did feel it some on way back. Trail was phenomenal! While still some of the gappy sensation on flat stuff, it made a huge difference climbing and let me cruise through rocky/loose stuff. I could climb really well seated, which is my preference for traction, and I just didn't stall out on ledges. When needed, I could stand and power up and over far more consistently than the before times. I could keep my weight back, which is something I have to work on as I sometimes find myself leaning far enough forward that I lose traction and while making it more trouble getting the front end up (great combo ;-). Another great 'use case' was through baby head-type sections, especially at the top of tricky climbs, where you can really lose momentum trying to crawl over them, I could just keep pedaling. My legs really felt less tired too, especially quads. I kept same tooth count as my round, though I did feel like I was often riding in a higher gear because...I could. Basically, every bit of absoluteBlack's 'Why Oval...' was true for me! Fuck alll y'all for not getting me on it sooner!

Man, I think I would have strangled Mr Chatty. His girl is a saint. -CJB

I was accused of vaxx-shaming today. I was buying a guitar amp, and the guy saw my tattoo and got pissed claiming that I did it to shame people into getting vaccinated. At first I was going to explain the real reason, but the more I thought about it maybe that's not so bad. I told him if it shamed even one person into getting vaxxed, it was worth it. He wasn't amused, but I was.

put that sucker on the wall and call it art 😀

This should be an interesting experiment 😆

Does he have one of these? I never got one as a kid, although I wanted one badly. I think that had a profound impact on me as an adult.

When doing this, and we all do, make sure to buy something at the store. The store fronted the money to bring that product to you and they are taking the risk that you’ll try it on for free and then save $10 buying it online. Unless they are gouging the shit out of the price, I’ll usually buy it from the local store. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Our very own Hoss started out at noon today, heading southbound from Emporia, MT to Antelope Wells, NM. You can follow him on Trackleaders here: Hoss_Kleinschmidt - Tour Divide 2021 individual history by trackleaders.com Blog posts when he gets the opportunity: HossBoss | Team IPA Racing Enjoy following along, folks!

You know that hotdog doing the slow roll on the cooker at your local Sac n Pac? That’s what the chairlift at SM feels like in the summer. Have fun and congrats on the new career.

Mallard Lake, Bloomingdale, IL. Got in a lap before seeing the family today.

Sssshhhhhh, they're sleeping....

Someone is cruising in a new chariot and some doggie CBD so life is good.

None. Bill and I were just out here doing some trim work. Get out here now before the real storms come in.

Trip is booked and we'll be riding Sunrise, Tucson and Bisbee next month. Stoked for our first trip since the rona' and looking forward to getting stuck into some of these rough cut trails at sunrise. https://sunrise.ski/ https://twitter.com/SunriseResortAZ for now i can just watch the livestream🤣

I'm glad I came up here alone, I would definitely be too slow for a group. Rode some things above my paygrade this morning, but had a blast. Basically finished almost all of the trails in Slaughter Pen. Heading out to Coler after lunch. This is an amazing place, and I want to come back to do Back 40. I figure I can hit them all over three casual days. The more I ride here, the more I realize how good we have it within 100 miles of Austin. We really do have some amazing riding. Oh yeah, I think All American is what I imagined a *flow trail* would be. It goes from one end of Slaughter Pen to the other. Parts of it aren't even on the kiosk maps (north end).

Learning to fix your own bike is one of the best investments that you can make in the sport. Sure, you save a lot of money, but most importantly you save a lot of time. You can ride more when your bike is not sitting in a shop waiting for it to be fixed. If you like to ride, learn to wrench.

From left, clockwise: Nut Brown Ale, Happy Camper IPA, Santa Fazy Hazy IPA, Java Stout, and Pepe Loco Mexican Lager

Maiden Voyage! Rode Snail, Rim, 1/4 Notch, and Picnic. All GTG, albeit a bit greasy in some spots. Get you some while you can!

Sure. Already posted in another thread but happy to show it off here as well! Once things dry out, there should be regular sightings of it on the Brushy Trails.

Depends on amount, color, and tightness of spandex worn on said road bike.

Replacement rims from DT Swiss are looking sweet on my rebuilt primer! Installed some Rimpact inserts along with some new Conti tires. Might be a while before I get to ride.

I ride a hard tail. Everywhere. I have a few friends who ride Singlespeeds, everywhere. Ride what you choose. Underwhelming, overwhelming, is a state of mind. Later, CJB

Made it to Bentonville this week. Here are a couple videos of the drops on Drop the Hammer. Cased the big one bad on the first try. Can’t get the second link to show as a video for some reason. Randy’s Elbow is more intimidating in my opinion. https://youtube.com/shorts/hTsM8lcB3QM?feature=share

I got my hubs over to DT Swiss last Wed, and the new hoops arrived at my doorstep yesterday, laced to my original hubs and complete with tubeless rim tape and valves. The $690 replacement cost ($345 per wheel) wasn't too hard to swallow considering that I had beat the shit out of the original rims for 4.5 years. There were no questions asked and DT Swiss didn't even ask for the old rims back, which saved me considerably on shipping the hubs to them. Given that the $690 also included rebuilding the wheels and shipping them to me, I figure the actual rim replacements came at a cost of around $225 per rim vs. their $800 retail value. Hoping to get another 5 years or so out of these, but I did order some inserts from Rimpact that I'll install before I get crazy on them. Oh and yes - graphics are laser etched for some additional bling factor!