AustinBike

4 minutes ago, Teamsloan said:

It's off the wall, but I wonder how this would do. Supposedly very active during climbing, but no bob.

Polygon Bikes Xquarone-ex9

Huh, single link enduro bike from Indonesia. Wonder how long they last...

Interesting design but looks clunky/heavy. But the real make or break on this will be whether they actually get distribution/service right. Indonesia has not really been a hotbed of global expansion. They are awesome at technical and make a nice hub for many companies in the US, but they have not really taken over in any perceivable way. Maybe it's the Dutch in them 😉

Looks like we dodged the rain. Hoping to be there for the early group if I can get some work done ahead of time.

The upside is that I found a better way to cross. The normal spot just upstream from the chain by the big rock is waist deep or more. Go about another 200 yards upstream and it is only calf deep. One of the crossings close to spyglass is above the knee. I hate wet shoes.

7 hours ago, Seths Pool said:

wasnt it perfect weather all weekend?

I rode lap 1 this morning (Southside, includes some of the highly technical, yet unmentionables) and there were still a couple spots where the rocks were wet. Could only imagine what it would have been like on Saturday morning, just after the brief shower. While most of the trail was great on Saturday, it's not about the whole thing, it's really about those first 7 miles where someone could get really hurt.

Also, in unrelated news, the water is freaking cold.

Because they are electric powered, they fall into the "not allowed on the trails" in my book. While everyone says these guys are cool, I encountered one and when I said "I don't think you are supposed to have electric vehicles on the trail" he let loose with a hell of a lot of expletives about bikers, and YES HE COULD ride anywhere he damn well pleased.

So, instead of asking all of us what we think, we should probably be asking the city what the ruling is on these (yeah, slippery slope...)

I am fine with them as long as they are following the rules, but my experience has been that encountering one on the trail is WAY different than coming up on another bike - harder to get around, harder for them to maneuver and highly likely to end up spilling the rider when trying to pass.

Yeah, looking sketchy right now, give it 24 hours. 

Heard the south side was wet, but the north side was excellent (above the main trail which was muddy).

Ed floats above the trail.

This is a great idea for long bike trips. I am doing the BCGB Death March this weekend and as a leader I am thinking about how to pack first aid items. This would have been perfect.

6 hours ago, Ridenfool said:

IIRC, the rules clearly state that no more than three new parts can be added/assembled per week to restrict the natural rain reaction to only being raised to an overcast/cloudy condition.

No more than one new part per any 24 hour period can be added.

Any previously used part may be added at will with no effect, unless it has been restored/painted/refurbished to a "like new" condition, then it will count as half a new part towards the rain reaction index for that rider.

There are some allowances for starting a screw or bolt, but not tightening it, and, for holding a part in place to measure or inspect fit will not contribute to precipitation unless photographed and/or viewed by more than three riders.

That might be my cadence. I have a new wheel set (technically, eBay) and a couple donated parts. The rest come from my parts bin.

I am just building one and I have most of the parts, so mine will not count for anything except some cloudy days.

Hmmmm, pork torpedo is watching this with interest....

Too wet, no R. 

However, if you want to I, there will be some people congregating at Austin Beerworks around 5:30 or so.

13 hours ago, Anita Handle said:

Flat Rock Ranch charges for access and still garners great volunteer support. They have a standard deal where you ride for free on the day that you work, you get a free day for so many hours and can earn a year pass for another level of volunteer work. I've hit enough hours to earn a year pass before. The Dreissesses are more like family than a business that I'm working with.

This is exactly how it should be done.

13 hours ago, Ridenfool said:

I've been at RHR with others at volunteer work days where Grey cooked barbecue, provided beer, and gave volunteers instructions on how to redeem a free day pass next time, all in gratitude for their efforts.

My question would be who made the offer?

Did anyone bring it up with them after doing the work? This would constitute a conversation, which if it never happened might explain the disappointing outcome. (though there is something to be said about anyone managing something like this taking the steps to assure folks get their due.)

If what you relate happened at any venue, I could easily see how getting volunteers back for more would be a hard sell. Nobody likes feeling taken advantage of.

I agree that any private enterprise should not depend upon volunteer efforts from their clientele as an ongoing aspect of their business model without offering some sort of compensation such as free access passes or something similar.

This was quite some time ago, probably 10+ years ago. I'd have to dig on mojo to find the approximate details and I don't want to have to clean all of the spam off me when I am done. I was planning to go, then dropped when I heard we got nothing, not even a future comp ride. If memory serves correctly, the situation was eventually rectified (not sure if it was before or after the work was done.)

My point was that "spend your time helping build the trails you ride" is a compelling value proposition and "spend your time building my trails so I can charge you to ride them" is not as compelling.

I would have gladly put in a few hours of trail work in exchange for a 1-day pass (essentially meaning that I work at way less than minimum wage) -  may seem like weird personal economics, but in reality it is about principle.

14 hours ago, Tree Magnet said:

Let’s do the math real quick and see how this is going to work. Can $50 per person support a trail crew required to build and maintain enough trail?? Is it going to take volunteers to make this work??

To maintain the trails out there they need a full time trail building team of maybe 3 people? Let’s say they pay them $30k per year (no idea). That’s $90k in just trail support.

If they get 200 riders per weekend average for roughly half the year, that’s $260k. That’s leaves $170k to pay for all the remaining staff, lift, expenses, taxes, yada, yada. Obviously I have no idea if that’s enough but I can’t ride right now so I’m compelled to type something in about bikes. Damn weather.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here is the bottom line on this:

If your business requires unpaid work from your customers in order to maintain financial viability, then you don't have a problem with trail work, you have a problem with your business plan. I've talked to dozens of companies that have business plans that include "and then this miracle happens" and that is how they get to profitability down the road. The problem is the miracle never happens. 

Instead of budgeting the cash for 3 trail builders they could instead start a program where you can do trail work and get free comp passes. 4 hours of building trail gets you a one day pass. This business has high fixed costs, high semi-variable operational costs (i.e. opening the doors and running things even if nobody shows up) and almost non-existent variable costs (i.e. one more riding showing up this weekend literally costs them almost nothing.) With a program like that you could get trails built AND preserve your capital for running the business. But, instead they are trying to sell $200 season passes that ran through mid April. 

This is a marketing and PR problem, if they had a "trail crew" program in place and were very vocal about it they would be getting positive headlines from the community now. And while you're at it, throw in an occasional "hooky Friday" and open the trails only to the build crews as an added bonus. Make them feel wanted. Way better than tying up capital on building trails today.

10 hours ago, Ridenfool said:

Some forward-thinking purveyors of products and/or services might see this as observations and feedback from their customers.

For years people riding at Rocky Hill have come to enjoy the trails with the attitude that because they pay for use that someone else should maintain the trails. It has always been a challenge to get volunteers there to help out. Most of RHR's business comes from Houston riders. When the occasional call for volunteer help goes out most who have shown up are coming from Austin. Moral of the story, the largest user group is also the least likely to pitch in to help with maintenance.

This is at a place that offers basic trails through the woods, totally unlike Spider Mountain who targets a specific user group with promise of lift access flow trails.

With a facility offering this and asking five times the price to ride there compared to other private riding areas, it doesn't seem all that far-fetched to expect that SpiderMtn have in place a plan to keep the trails at some minimum state of repair. I suspect their experience with other similar MTB resorts should pay off, though the trail surface here may be made of different stuff that requires another approach than what has worked for them elsewhere.

From personal experience I can whole-heartedly share how taking on the mantle of responsibility by volunteering to maintain trails that others pay to ride will significantly cut into the volunteers' riding time. Though there is much satisfaction to be had from the creative process, and pride to be taken in the work completed, and for those who can Zen out while doing trail maintenance it can be therapeutic. 

These "complaints" seem valid and based upon observable facts regarding the perception of value from a paying user's perspective and it would be foolish for any business to dismiss them out of hand.

 

My issue with RHR was that they once asked for volunteers to do trail work and then offered nothing in return. They might have offered something later after people complained but I was long gone from that conversation. 

Yes, if you charge me, you need to maintain the trails. If you ask me to maintain you need to be real clear up front about what I get in return for my work. I do free trail work on free trails, if I do trail work on a paid trail hen I expect they are going to comp a ride or do some5hing for the volunteers. 

I totally clicked on this because I thought it was an O. J. Confession. What a let down. 

Thanks for the trails, glad I was able to turn a shovel or two over the years with you. 

Yeah, no kidding. Gonna be an ugly week again.

Yeah, today did not suck. 

17 hours ago, cxagent said:

My experience is a Presta chuck is a waste of time and money. I bought one. It is too restrictive to seat even the friendliest tubeless MTB tire / rim setup. If you want to seat a tubeless tire, pull the presta valve core and use a standard Shrader tire chuck. That is the only way I have put air in fast enough to seat the tire on the rim.

Yes - that means you have to put the presta valve core in with air coming out the valve stem. If you don't keep a good hold on that core, the air will blow it across the garage where it will never be found. If you let all the air out of the tire before trying to put the presta core back in the tire sometimes comes back off the rim.

I have tire pump with the tank. I still have to take the presta valve core out to seat the tire. But this works at least as good as the compressor and usually a little better. But I still use both methods.

YMMV

I have no issue with a Presta chuck, I made my own:

http://www.austinbike.com/index.php/repairs/109-repair-building-a-low-cost-presta-air-chuck

But I always pull the core before putting Stans into the tire. Never had the core get blown across the garage, but I have a bag of them so losing one is no big deal. I find the best tip is everything time the core is pulled out, clean all the Stans gunk off of the bottom rubber stopper.

13 hours ago, Ridenfool said:

If they have them sign the same sort of liability waiver that any MTB ranch uses the land owner should be protected.

Yes, you wanna bet this does not happen? I am guessing that the $10 fee is designed to keep out the undesirables and has not been thought through totally.

My guess is the waiver could be just as problematic because they might be forced to have the locals sign the waiver as well and that would suddenly create an administrative morass for them.

Think about this scenario: outsiders are forced to sign a waiver that absolves RP of liability for injury on the trail, but residents are not required. Then a resident is injured. And they sue. In court it could be established by their lawyer that the organization understands the liability issues and is choosing to indemnify in certain circumstances and not other. Again, I am no lawyer, but it seems like once you break out the waiver for some you need to do it for all because waivers are tied to actual use of the trail, not the fee.

52 minutes ago, Anita Handle said:

I quite enjoyed hiking there even though it uses copious amounts of cedar stair steps to deal with the steepness and poorly routed design. Not a lot of places in town with this amount of elevation change and nice scenery. 

But it is theirs to control and they don't want the riff raff in there. 

Once they start charging they will have the unintended consequence of a lawsuit. I'm no lawyer but I have to think an open trail provides slightly more protection from a lawsuit than a closed trail that takes money. The first time someone falls down one of those cedar steps the lawyers will clean up.

If only they allowed bikes...

Imagine a dozen mountain bikers with full armor, 8" travel bikes and full face helmets showing up with Hamiltons in their hands. I'd pay for the look on their faces when someone says "hey, we are willing to pay, what's wrong?"

In.