AustinBike

I rode up Bishop's Lodge road and cut in at the bottom of Lower Winsor (first arrow). Then I did the climb up Burn which was aptly named (second arrow). At the top of the Ridgeline, I could have taken Saddleback north but opted for Juan south (third arrow). That dumped me out on 475, where I rode up and down to Dale Ball (squiggly line off 475) where I did a little 2-3 mile lap then headed back down into town to the house. 20 miles, 2100 feet of climbing.

There is an extra 1000 feet, not 100. I did not do a good job of locating the trail I was looking for. In retrospect I was on it, so I may go back. Did Winsor over to Dale Ball. Took Juan across.

Shuttled up to 10,000 feet, then rode my 36T hardtail up to the highest point at 11,000 feet. The down was way more fun.

One of the locals hipped me to an off the map trail, did 1600’ of climbing to get here, great views.

While on vacation I realized that my rear brake pads were almost completely worn out. I have Shimano XT brakes on the bike. Bought a pair of Shimano G03A pads at REI and was barely able to get them into the slot. I did not have any piston spreader tools with me (or a bleed kit) and I know that you are not supposed to use metal tools in trying to spread the pistons so I used a Park Pedal Wrench with a rubber coating to try to spread the pistons. Ultimately I could only get them spread enough to get the pads in but it was still too tight to get a rotor between them. Ultimately I gave up. Ended up at the shop later and for $30 I have fresh pads installed for the rest of my trip. Is the proper technique here to open the brake reservoir and then try to spread the pistons? My guess is that I have done some lever bleeds while the pads were worn down and most likely the system has too much fluid in it so I could not get the pistons spread wide enough. (I watched them do the install but they did not seem to touch the levers at all. As for tools, I see that Park sells a piston spreader and a pad spreader. Are both essential, is one more important than the other?

Yeah, he had an older blue Hammerhead 100X, I borrowed it when I cracked the frame on mine. He's out in CA now. I plan to ride with him in the future.

My wife is loving hers. We’ve sone some lighter gravel rides on this trip and she can keep up with me and sometimes even pass me. She calls it mountain biking. It is better for me to not argue the point. Just wish I had brought the singlespeed, but when I ride the mountains I am happy for my meager gears.

When in Rome:

After a pretty healthy trail climb…. Also, I had to wear a heavy jersey, it was in the low 60’s when I departed.

Just point your sausage at the sun.

I see some real serviceability issues, primarily based in the idea that this thing is not going to be widely supported, at least initially, so who will work on it if there is an issue? One of the real challenges with electric bikes today is the servicing. At least with "conventional" e-bikes, the derailleur mechanism on the rear wheel is a "known quantity" for the servicing so that leaves only the simpler e-power drivetrain as an outlier when service issues arise. But this thing integrates the power drive train and transmission into a single unit. While that uncomplicates the rear end of the bike, it massively complicates the drive train. What good is a bike when it hits the shop for repair and the repair takes significantly longer or costs significantly more? In light of recent supply chain issues, you'd be hard-pressed to find a good scenario for integrating a very technical niche product into a bike. That is a recipe for more time sitting waiting on repair versus enjoying on the trails.

Just keeping it Tesuque.

That is a standard 720mm carbon (amazon) bars with Ergon grips.

Temperature in the 70's right now. Morning coffee at 58F. The travel bike is now a Vassago and the Pike loves to eat up the trails, not so much on the gravel here, but the trails love it.

Today did not suck. Riding for our place.

If you still have that full squish box in about 18 months, ping me 😉

The iPhone 14 satellite capability is pretty rudimentary but give it another year or two and smartphones will have true satellite capabilities for standard texting. We are literally at phase one of this trend. My guess is that by 2025 we'll be looking at a completely different world and the one-off market for things like this Motorola device will be swallowed up. The market will split into rudimentary, very durable devices, and smartphones. Anything in the middle will be dead.

Be very careful with some of these tools. When they say you can text, you need to see whether that is normal texting through normal text apps or only texting between their apps, meaning the person you are connecting to needs to have their app installed at the time you send the message. Some have that limitation. Also, how much info can you send?

I think I still have a 720 somewhere on one of my bikes. My widest is 760mm, never seen a need to go beyond that and the number of tree gates I can just squeeze through is still high enough to merit not going above that.

Saw 2 Sur-rons on the greenbelt yesterday. Not sure how far they got, in my mind these guys were definitely in over their heads. This is part of the problem that we are going to face as mountain bikers. Some bonewipe is gonna knock over a hiker or break their neck. And the city will crank down indiscriminately. This risks trail access for all of us.

Cardmalbec

My Black Box is full of wine.

I use a hip pack in the middle of the summer, bottles for the other 6 months.

I had one of those. It wasn't supposed to fold, but when the frame cracks... 🙂

And despite having industrial-strength AC inside the house, Herr Glücklich prefers to sit outside in the hot screen porch.