AustinBike

Having ridden a fully rigid steel bike on this trip I am starting to think that maybe I need a dropper for for. Might be time for a pine. If I can't have shocks, at least get me some clearance so I can do the switchbacks a little better.

Leaving NM tomorrow, gotta be sure to stock up on beer and chasers before I leave.

Was midway through my ride and turned a corner right into this guy.

It was well over 5’ long.

Luckily it was a gopher snake. After I washed out my chamois I continued on.

This trip has not sucked. Dale Ball trails, Santa Fe, NM.

3 hours ago, Barry said:

Maybe you ought to move to North Cali, Washington state, or PNW then? Sounds absolutely like your preference. Nothing but gravel roads up, and singletrack down. 

So is SoCal. The places we are looking are loaded with tons of trails and tons of gravel opportunities. The fact that it is 72F most of the year is not a bad thing either.

4 hours ago, mack_turtle said:

I really enjoy Mike Ferrentino's writing in general, but this is pretty spot-on.

https://nsmb.com/articles/the-luxury-of-hypocrisy/

Great article.

And after the Liverpool match is over this afternoon I'm going to be calling shops here about renting an e-bike. For my wife. So that we can ride at the same speed for the same distance. Not on trails. I'm all in favor of that, it's a valid use case. But even though I know I could rent an Orbea ebike and hit the trails, that holds no interest for me.

The short answer is that if you cannot manage the subtleties than you kill the category. This is an issue for the industry. They could have worked out the details amongst themselves, come up with some good marketing and marking for the bikes, and come out on top. Instead they chose hands off and let someone else decide.

It is like crypto currency- the “true believers” didn’t want anyone telling them what to do. Now they are facing regulation. Either accept that your product is part of an ecosystem and try to work with people or just ramrod it through. It’s your call.  Too many people took the latter.

You are not wrong

Saw this on a trial this morning.

Shuttle me up baby!

21 hours ago, Barry said:

But how can you climb up Windsor and think Cairn Me Up was anything other than a cake-walk?

Yeah, it was a climb but nothing like Winsor. Gonna try the lazy option and take the shuttle up this morning to explore the trails at the top of the ski hill then just bomb down Winsor when I am done. May do another up and down before I leave, especially since my crank had to be swapped out and I went from 34T to 32T.

21 hours ago, notyal said:

 

Hit that last year. A grind of a climb up Cairn Me Up, but doing Jagged Axe was worth it.

 

Nice! Being on a fully rigid bike with 2.4's really prevented me from even considering that stretch.

Droppers are the biggest game changers in the sport.

Yeah, normally I put bonito flakes on my congee in the morning in Japan, so the beer had a faint taste of breakfast for me.

Imagine a trial that wipes you out after just one segment. This was a great ride, met up with some Austin guys and rode it for a couple hours today. My cranks broke on the way down. Might head back because so far I only covered ~5 miles (10 miles out and back) of the 45 total miles.

Luckily I brought tools with me on this trip, but unluckily I did not bring cone wrenches. Tightened up my rear hub out in the yard at the hotel but was not going to tear it all the way down without a workbench and all the right tools. Also swapped tires, all of the street riding was chewing up my tread and on the trails today there was not a lot of grip.

Lesson for the future, always bring more tools than you need.

A Japanese IPA made with bonito flakes? Yes, please.

Today did not suck.

Even ran into another Austin rider on the trail.

Took a drive up to Los Alamos, where there is a lot of history. Found a great little brewery. The vines above the table were all hops, some even dropped onto the table.

And with and IPA called Hoppenheimer you can’t go wrong. 

Can't decide if this is a random bike picture or a critter sighting:

Prairie dogs on the morning ride:

They do all pop their head up and look around like you would expect.

Phil’s grease works as well under the collar, on any dropper.

Second street brewery, Santa Fe. Fish and chips along with the alien burger. Let’s just say that if you burn a ton of calories in the morning, you can do whatever you want for the rest of the day.

I’m not saying this is the best beer ever, but it is a great beer after a morning ride at 64F.

If I have to buy another dropper I would definitely grab a PNW, no questions asked.