AustinBike

You head down through the neighborhoods and cross the river. Near Zilker I stayed on the Zilker side of MoPac and hit the sidewalk. I went straight down the frontage road sidewalk on MoPac, over the new bike bridge then dropped in on the mopac frontage heading north. Then I swung the left turn onto 360. Pretty straightforward.

Parking is fine, no issues at all.

I would join in. My road bike does not have gears so I would end up being on a mountain bike, I'll hang as long as I can but would probably drop because I can't keep a road bike pace. Today I had a leaky back tire so I did have to stop and pump it up a few times. The only rest breaks were top of courtyard and top of jester, both were only 5 minutes.

There will be an Urban R&I this Tuesday because the trails are too wet (I did a bit of WC and places that are always dry were wet, didn't even bother with some of the normally wet places.) Starting point will be Ramsey Park: https://goo.gl/maps/R6o5vkTK1dw on the south end of the park. There will be a 4:30 group that will do some local riding for an hour, swinging back to the park for a 5:30 pickup. From there we'll swing down the Shoal Creek trail to the lake, do a short loop, then head back up to the park, getting back between 6:30 and 7. From there it is a half block walk to the Draught House where there is plenty of outdoor seating and Tuesday night beer specials. You can also bring your own food, so if you are hungry you can stop at the new Rudy's on Lamar and pick up BBQ to go. There is usually a food truck there as well.

A few Thomson faceplate breaks. One was not covered under warranty, some of the others were.

Unless you are bringing a kid with you. The kid was rocking it (Sinwolsan, South Korea).

Well the trails suck but that doesn't mean that I can't be on a bike. I went out to do the veggie buffet - all of the streets, none of the trails (except for the 1/4 mile that I stole at WC.) To be fair, I did not do the little section to/from St. Ed's because that sucks. I had started out with a goal of just doing the big hills, but after I got started it all just fell together. Was not planning to do the whole thing but it worked out that way. Some interesting data points for the the nerds in the crowd: 1. Burned ~1800 calories just doing the road portions, I would imagine the trail portions double that, so fill your tanks appropriately 2. Courtyard was about 80 calories of effort. 3. I was burning ~6 calories a minute. On the trails I typically hit 8/minute. 4. For you keto people in the crowd, I had 3 eggs with cheese, ~12 pepperoni-sized pieces of salami and a handful of wholegrain (homemade) crackers with peanut butter for breakfast. That held me. I ate nothing and only drank water. Got home and was hungry, but not famished, could have gone a few more hours without eating. 5. The weather was perfect. Overcast, occasional light drizzle. Huge difference from my earlier rides in the upper 90's/lower 100's. Overall I feel like being able to just jump in and do this today means I am in good enough shape for the real thing. I'll be out of the country for almost 3 weeks before so I will need to step up the training. A trip to Bentonville should help get me back in shape. I might do another of these next Monday if anyone wants to join me.

Let me just call it: the R&I will not happen at WC this week. I will be more diligent about posting an urban alternate if the skies clear for Tuesday afternoon/evening.

I run these (aluminum) on my urban singlespeed: https://goo.gl/images/mdMwAA

What? Is everyone gonna just let this slide? Mojo ain't what it used to be.

Maybe this belongs in the ghetto thread, but when you break a handlebar in the middle of a ride, find a stick that is about the same diameter as the bar. Put one end in the bar and then stick the broken piece on the other. It will not bear any weight but it will allow you to steer your way back to the trailhead.

Next week, once it dries.

I was once having a sketchy SRAM X9 that I thought was going to give out on me. But I was so cheap that I was hesitant to put the replacement on as I had once sheared off a 2 hour old derailleur so I was waiting this one out (for several months). I tossed the replacement X9 in my pack and forgot about it. Fast forward several months and someone takes out their derailleur on a rock on the greenbelt, at about the furthest point out on the trail. Laughingly they say, "hey, does anyone have a spare derailleur...?" Cue up the sound of my camelbak unzipping. As for practical stuff, I always keep about a dozen zip ties in my pack. Different lengths. And electrical tape, wrapped around my pump. I also keep a shock pump most of the time, I really shouldn't but it has saved several people over the years.

Looks like the trail could use a week off. Urban ride ending at black star. Ping me if you want details.

OK, we will not have that. Plan b is an urban R&I, if anyone wants details ping me.

I'm the same way. As an XC guy I am too much of a wuss to be hitting those things at speed. And let's not even think about wooden features.

Yeah, I rode with a mutual friend yesterday on their brand new ibis and they mentioned that they were bringing the process to the US. They really loved the bike. I not not sure if I would take an $800 delta over Taiwan, but would be more interested if it was $800 over China. Taiwan generally has really good quality control and oversight relative to china. China is still the Wild West and you really need to ride herd over your processes there.

Looks like today is going to be cloudy and humid. That does not portend well for this evening's ride. Will try to do some recon this afternoon since I am around all day.

I don't think so, but you can do whatever you want. Typically the grilling starts ~6:45, so there might not be anything left by the end of your second lap, but if you want 2 laps, go for it.

Yeah, luckily the rest of us do not ride like him. If we did, every shop in town would be shut down 😉

Attacking stuff might be part of the problem. One of the things that I find on really long rides is that it is not worth burning up all of your energy on trail features. I find that I can probably clear ~80% of CP on a typical ride, but on the EB I walked a lot more than I normally do. For instance, the bench climb burns up a lot of energy, and for what? I rode it until my body said no mas, then I hopped off and walked the rest of the way. Wasn't worth burning my energy there. But, I am also the idiot riding up Jester when other people walked it (for the same reason). But I just wanted to get out of the sun.

$800 for a lifetime warranty is *probably* not a bad thing. Except that we don't break frames like we used to; not even sure if I ever heard of anyone breaking a Devinci so far...

I plan on it. Probably going to do the early 4:30 lap and then catch up with the 5:30 group.

I believe there is a difference between carbon bars for XC riding and carbon bars for DH riding. And, i’ve Ridden with people who have snapped Aluminum bars. I remember Bizzaro walking his bike out of RHR after a hunk off a bridge.

Do you need me to post up the 2 breaks of my Gary Fisher, the crack on my Hammerhead/Titus or the 3 on my knolly? Yeah, frames still break, but not like they used to.