AustinBike

"Too much front brake" is an even better story 😉

Vintage only really works on wine

Yeah, that was because I was cheap. Bent an x9 pretty early in life but straightened it out. Bought a replacement knowing that one more bend and it was gone for good. Carried around the replacement in anticipation. My fear was that if I put the new one on I would bend that one pretty quick too, so I was leaving the old one on as a sacrificial lamb for the next rock strike. I find that I am pretty cheap and any time I finally replace a part I think "man, I can't believe I rode like that for so long" but then I keep doing it. Idiot.

Worst part was I think I still have one in my pack. The key is not carrying it but REMEMBERING that you are carrying it.

Final assembly on the trail. With a rock. Taco’d my chainring on the second ride 😞

Thanks, I have a friend with a cutter. Waiting on Seth's fork at this point. That is the pike off of my FS bike and will probably stay but I am waiting until I have all of the forks paired up with the right bikes before I start cutting steerer tubes.

It's a Verhauen.

I question the 60 miles of BCGB. The best “real” estimate I saw was 45 miles. I think to do 60 you’d be covering a lot of trail twice. And I ride it once, if not twice a week.

Oh, also, I have bikes. If you ride a large you can take my full suspension, the hardtail is a medium.

Don’t blame me for the rain. Hardtail is finished.

Some bluebonnets on my urban ride.

I’m only good for one a day. Tip your waitress, I’m outta here.

Designed by and approved by dentists the world over.

I had that happen a lot on my single speeds. Literally had a crank arm come off and throw me to the ground. Loctite took care of the problem.

I can do a more laid-back GB ride, but there will still be some technical features that need to be dealt with.

What is your skill level on technical? On Monday - Wednesday I have no commitments and can ride anytime. Thursday I have my annual physical so I could be ready to ride from ~11:00 onward. If you want a flow good time I would not recommend the Greenbelt as it is more technical and can easily overwhelm a person. Walnut Creek is the flowy place in town. I can pick you up at the shop and we can drive to the trailhead so you don't have to muck with a rental bike on a rental car. Ping me if you want to ride and we can work out the details. BSS is the best place to rent in town.

That is a good tip. The fact that I don't need to re-dish the wheel is a huge benefit. Looks like on eBay a Fox is ~$450 and a Pike is ~$350. It is looking like it might Pike in the upcoming months, gotta write a few more articles and build up some fun money so I can start shopping. But if a local option showed up I would be interested in pulling the trigger now.

I have basically addressed creaks by checking the following: 1. Make sure skewers are tightened. Especially the rear. 2. Check your seat. Pedal hard standing up. If the creak is in the seat it can either be in the seat rails (connection to saddle) or in the rail connection to the seat post. Or it could be in the seat post connection to the frame (pull the post out, wipe it clean inside and also the post, then reinsert. 3. Check your front crank ring bolts. 4. Check your cassette. 5. Check your pedals and also your shoe connection. Pedal without your shoes clipped in. 6. Check your headset and handlebars. 7. Check your pivots. I put this near the end because it can be a real PITA. First make sure they are all tight. If they are you may need to take the frame apart and clean them out if there is dust/dirt in there. 8. Check your bottom bracket. Everyone always blames this one first, but it is typically the last thing that I check on. Running through this list will help you familiarize yourself with the bike. Then, when you take it into the shop (for most likely #8) you've eliminated all of the typical first check items and they'll do a better job because it will be narrowed down to a few places. The worst thing (I am guessing) for a wrench is to have someone drop a bike off with "it creaks" and know they are going to spend way too much time and make way too little money on the job. It's like dropping a car off at a dealer with "it is making a weird noise sometimes."

29. Unfortunately everything from Fox that is available is 110mm (boost), I am thinking eBay is going to be the best option but was hoping to find someone local.

Ed, you may remember an old mojo that we used to ride with that went mtf but moved to Oregon before the process started. Planning to look her up when I get out that way again. I think you hit the nail on the head with "mismatch". A lot of people think that these issues are so cut and dried, but it's really a million shades of grey and lots of in-between situations. So many of us take these things for granted.

Telescopic fork operation does provide (financial) advantages over linkage forks. Pretty sure the $1300 linkage fork would be more than the cost of my hardtail, all in.

Looking for a non-boost (100mm width) Fox Factory 34 or Rockshox Pike. 130mm with 15mm axle. Yeah, still rocking the old stuff and loving it.

I agreed to go to an event tonight back when the weather was crap. Regretting it. But I got my lap in this afternoon. Beautiful weather. Perfect trails. Get some!

Probably the "Robert Kraft special"

Put a notice up on my site, hope we can drive some volunteers for this year's race.