AustinBike

And, ideally, I would like an Apple Watch, but the battery life sucks. They need some multi day battery life and quick charging. I plug the Fitbit in while I am showering every day and it stays in the 80-90% range. Left for Chicago for 5 days and accidentally forgot the charger. It was ~85% when I left and ~25% when I returned. I don't need apple at that level but I would love to have 2 days of life and maybe a 1-hour charge. The biggest reason to want the Apple Watch is being able to actually read texts on the trail. Right now the Fitbit is unreadable so when I get a text I have to stop, open my pack and pull out my phone. Pain in the ass, but I need to stay connected most of the time.

I use a Garmin 510 on my bike. The battery is getting old (~3-4 years now) so it no longer lasts a week, I get about 5 days on a charge still and that is pretty good. Bluetooth back to the phone means it never leaves the garage.

On my wrist I have a Fitbit Charge 3. That gives me calories for the day (my primary goal) and also tracks my sleep. I believe that the Fitbit will also track my rides if I let it but the reason that I like the Garmin is that it gives me something to look at and push myself during the rides. For riding I have a goal of 14 miles per day average so I know that if I am feeling tired I need to keep going if I have taken a couple of days off that week. Also, watching the average miles per hour it is good to push yourself to try to make it to the next 1/10th MPH mark. Little head games to keep the ride interesting.

Sundays work better for me, Saturdays are typically greenbelt days.

Bump, it's Tuesday....

As an unrelated side note, thanks to mack turtle for providing a great tour of the southie trails yesterday. We did about 18 miles and hit a bunch of stuff I have never ridden before. There is a ton of stuff down there, I need to ride it more often because I was totally lost - I know I had ridden parts of it in the past, but really had no idea how it all fits together.

I have a dog trailer, not sure he would be happy with that trail.

I should be there @ 8 as well.

Everyone. Is. Different.

The lack of context is stunning. But expected. This is like saying "there are lots of cars out there these days, what are the best ones, without narrowing the field to how you drive, how many people are in your family, what you are looking for in a car and what your budget is. A new Mercedes and a 2004 Hyundai are both viable answers. There you go.

17 hours ago, Haught Diggity said:

You guys are normally really concerned with not making the trails easier, and leaving the risky spots as they are.  Why the change of heart in this case with that small drop?  I appreciate Peddlers Pass by the way! (18:00 PR)

There is a balance here. On trails that are more "public" and that includes Brushy, you have to balance between not dumbing it down and making it safer, especially on sections that are not marked as dangerous. PP is really safe and would be an easy/green with the exception of that spot. Several have been hurt. So you do something about it. Deception, on the other hand, is not intended to be easy, so if a bunch of people get hurt somewhere there is not the same level of involvement to "fix" things for the novice rider.

It's all a balance. The city is involved with the trail and condoning the building, so I would rather see some work done to make an easy trail more accessible; if you fight them they might just shut the whole thing down. It's all a balance.

In for a social lap tonight. Brining an additional 10 pounds on me from a weekend of eating deep dish pizza. Time to put a couple extra pounds of pressure in the tires.

My house is whiskey tango foxtrot

James at City Limits http://www.citylimitcycles.com has built all of my wheels for a while now, he is awesome, top notch, never needed a true, just right the first time.

Sampling a gift from my sister who was in Wisconsin yesterday. It makes the crappy wifi almost tolerable, can't keep the Man U game streaming for more than about 2 minutes.

I got 8000's (XT) for ~$160 from Merlin, front and back.

7 minutes ago, AntonioGG said:

AB, Did you find something?

I just saw a pic of this on Bicycling magazine and looked it up.  Looks like a perfect solution for you:

 

https://crustbikes.com/products/clydesdale-fork/

Nope, don't need anything that heavy. Señor cabeza de papa is pretty light.

Still looking but haven't found anything yet. More likely to be getting rid of a bike (selling a hardtail) than adding one at this point. Buuuuut if a cargo bike showed up....

1 hour ago, AntonioGG said:

What trail are you doing?  Are you having to go into Wisconsin?

I am riding Palos Hills. That is THE mountain bike trail in the Chicago area. The emphasis is there to say that it is both the best trail in the area and the only trail in the area.

As for Wisconsin, I have ridden Kettle Moraine, but that is essentially Walnut Creek with better shade.

Rented a "mountain bike" to ride today in Chicago. Basket. Seatpost shock. Fat "comfort" saddle. The funniest part was that I brought shoes and pedals (riding a trail tomorrow) but they did not have a pedal wrench. Even funnier was that the plastic pedals had hex bolt and not standard pedals. The girl had no clue and asked if the pedal/shoes that I had was some new thing that they are doing now.

Let's just say that I used to do this ride all the time when I lived here, but in the ~25 years that I have been gone they have really done a good job on the lakefront. Literally no elevation, welcome to the midwest. Did about 12 miles and then turned around to head back north and got hammered by a headwind all the way back. But the weather played nice today.

In Chicago to beat the heat, picked up these two IPAs. Revolution's Anti-Hero (green can) is one of my favorites and I always get it when I am up here. The other one is a short run called Hop Butcher (yellow can) that is pretty good as well. Considering that Chicago used to be called "Hog butcher to the world" the name Hop Butcher is pretty cool.

1 hour ago, Ridenfool said:

Makes me recall the thong rider in SA that was on Mojo. He rode everywhere, to work, or trail, wearing only a thong. I'm happy to have never had to witness that first-hand and still wish nobody had posted pics.

I have ridden behind him (and drank night train at his house before a ride...in the morning.)

Not as bad as the 2 thong guys in Austin (north and south).

4 hours ago, throet said:

I've never wore pads and likely never will, but don't believe that if I did I would feel any safer. Maybe that argument would hold true with complete body armor, but I have to believe that only a small percentage of MTB injuries would be prevented by knee pads or elbow pads. And I'm not talking about scrapes and bruises, which don't concern me. I've injured shoulder/chest, ribs, toes, fingers, neck, face, and now hamstring while mountain biking. None of these would have been prevented by wearing knee or elbow pads. 

Next time you go for a ride try this. Shoes, helmet and a swimsuit. Nothing else. Let me know how much safer you ride 😉

I can tell you that I am more aggressive in the colder weather with layers and long sleeves relative to hotter weather.

I like that it clearly says "one way" on it. I've never run into someone going the other way, but I'm sure that it will happen eventually.

16 hours ago, CBaron said:

 

We were discussing this topic in a different light the other day at the office.  The comment was that Spider Mountain's terrain is really no more difficult or challenging that significant part of the BCGB backcountry trails.  Therefore, is there really a need for FF helmet and other extra gear?  The conclusion we came to (and the similar one that I apply when riding my MX bike [say, especially at CP where I ride both MX & MTB]) is that of velocity.  At Spider Mtn (and on an MX bike) you seem to be traveling at such a greater rate of speed, with just a touch of the throttle or ease of the brake lever, and your velocity increases dramatically.  YMMV

 

Later, -CJB

I have another angle on this.

I don't own pads, I don't wear pads (that may change one day, especially for a place like Bentonville.)

My reasoning is pretty simple. In my mind, having pads will encourage me to take more risks. I believe I am more likely to crash with pads on because I am doing something that is outside of my comfort zone.

There are those that argue that to have fun you need to always be outside of your comfort zone and always need to be pushing for more. I disagree with this position. I have a ton of fun riding at my skill level and I do push myself, but I take smart risks, not stupid risks. I believe pads would encourage stupid risks so I stay clear, for now.

Bentonville. Slaughter Pens was my favorite set of trails. There are so many places to choose from to ride, you will never be short of choices.

Sarcasm does not work as well in Texas. It is grown in the midwest, by the time it gets down here it has wilted a bit.

2 hours ago, Nando said:

I love it, and at that price, a good deal. But, alas, that’s about twice my budget.

Nando, what is your budget? I might have a nice steel hardtail with some decent components (SRAM x.0, Chris King wheels, etc.) that I can get in your budget. We should talk.