AustinBike

Yeah, I was not recommending a motorcycle at WC. Although I have seen several over the years...

I'm gonna take the counter on the rain comment. Back in the day I remember CP being the trail for riding post rain, I even remember being caught in a storm mid-lap and finishing with no issue. But the last time I tried it (~1-2 days post rain) is was a sopping goopy mess. Definitely not easily rideable. I actually found that WC was more rideable than CP after rain, sadly. There are other trails, non-mentionables, that are better post rain. And, depending on how well you pick your route, the greenbelt is amazingly resilient in some cases. But that is ONLY for people that really know how the trail reacts to rain. If you aren't aggressively monitoring both rainfall patterns and routes, then stay away from BCGB after rain.

Good strategy. Out here it is now almost 50/50 on bike vs. e-bike and it feels like the shops are primarily selling e-bikes, so the regular bike base is stagnant to shrinking. But with 2-3000 feet of climbing, it's reasonable to consider a motor. I swapped from 32x50 to 30x50 and it was a nice little upgrade. My hardtail is 32x42 is a bit of a push on most trails. I think you'll find the lighter bike with the more aggressive gearing will be a significant upgrade for you. I think you'll do fine on Monarch Crest with your new bike, a lightweight XC bike should do fine.

Glad to hear you are back on the right path. Heart/circulatory stuff is never fun. Was flying from LAX to ORD this afternoon and the alert came on "is there a doctor on the plane..." Interestingly, there was a convention in Chicago and the plane was full of cardiologists, so everything worked out. I have to be more careful based on my cholesterol. My cardiologist has me on a strict regimen, and since I moved to CA the post ride beers have dropped substantially, it's different out here. Stay healthy and remember that the key is being able to ride again tomorrow.

Sounds like a good R&I, sorry to miss it. Will try to hit one in the fall when I am in Austin.

You guys need to put the effort into it, it can't die. While my trails are off the charts great out here, the Thursday night post ride really sucks. My wife and I joke that the Strava PRs that everyone is bragging about is how fast they can down their beer and get rolling. I really miss 2+ hours of hanging out with everyone and having a beer, but that just never happens out here. This trail is closer to my house than Walnut was, actually probably closer than BCGB, it is one of our regular Thursday night ride locations: And I still carry a bit of Austin for the post-ride activities, even though there is never enough time for the beer to get warm before people are heading out: You can't see it, but the Pacific is right over those peaks, we're right above Malibu.

I've seen 3 pacific rattlesnakes since getting here about 6 weeks ago. It's gonna be a long season.

California phase 1.0: Two bikes mounted (low) and next is building the other two in boxes (a Kona and a Vassago) and mounting them high, as the alternates. At this point I REALLY miss my old garage but the fact that it was 70 today and I worked in the garage all day tells me I made the right choice. Workbench is still stuck in transit for another week, but I can manage. The trails are out of this world.

Take a look at Microshift. I bought one for my singlespeed so that I could have gears when I travel. Microshift is compatible with Shimano cassettes. On Amazon you can get a brand new shifter and derailleur for $92: https://www.amazon.com/microSHIFT-Advent-Rear-Derailleur-Compatible/dp/B0CX47S75Y https://www.amazon.com/Microshift-Advent-Trail-Trigger-Shifter/dp/B08778S7T9 It's a tad clunkier than Shimano which tends to be pretty smooth, but overall I have been happy with them.

As a T-mobile subscriber I am thrilled by this. As a person who actually likes democracy I am terrified by this. Startlink is owned by Musk and at this point I won't have anything to do with the person who is trying (and generally succeeding) to dismantle democracy. The current shitshow in Washington tells me that I don't want to be an enabler in any way. I'll stick with the more limited Apple functionality. It works for sending messages, which is all I need. Overall internet access is limited but I download trailforks maps so that I don't need connectivity. I just want a way to communicate with people in an emergency and Apple allows for that. A couple more years and this will be even more integrated/functional with the cell providers, that is the direction it is all heading.

You're welcome. Putting the house on the market in the next 60 days and heading out west. But with Trail Forks and other resources, it's unlikely that a site like this would ever grab any traction out there. We filled a gap for the early days of the internet, but, like so many other sites, eventually the 800 pound gorillas came in and did a better job of keeping info relevant. It's a big boys game these days, which is fine. More time for me to focus on riding.

In a state where ~95% of all land is privately held, I've given up on expecting that we'll be getting much new trail.

And, if someone is interested in taking this over, I am going to be moving out of Texas early next year and AustinBike will close up shop unless there is a local person interested in maintaining that site as well. The site runs on Joomla 4 which is going EOL so I could transfer domain and give you a full backup, but eventually it would need to move to Joomla 5.

Used to drive through there on our way to fishing trips in Canada. Beautiful.

It is an inconvenient 2 day day (2x11 hours) or, if you are stupid, you do it in 3 days. Did 3 out and 2 back both times. Both suck. But the problem with 3 days is bringing the bikes in and out each night and getting to the hotel early and then having wasted hours in the hotel. Did the math and in the month we were there I rode ~560 miles and did ~60,000 feet of climbing.