Chief

It was a good ride yesterday guys! Even with the slight bit of rain.

I'm a believer that if you want to become a better driver you should spend some time on two wheels on the road, whether it be a road bicycle or motorcycle. It teaches you to drive for everyone around you.

Drivers ed in the northern states IS called the winter

I don't know. I ride my hardtail pretty much the same way I ride my FS. My back isn't really an issue with the hardtail as much as my legs. The hardtail works the legs a lot more due to them being your rear suspension. In actuality I get more back pain on my FS probably due to the fact I spend more time on the saddle. I think the type of hardtail you ride may have some bearing on skills. Steep geo vs slack geo. My hardtail is classified as all mountain it has a slack head angle 66*, Short chain stays sub 17"and low BB sub 12", 29" wheels 140mm fork. I guess that's why I don't really notice much difference between my HT and FS. It's basically a hard tail version of my FS. I bash through chunk on it pretty much the same as my FS. I will say I can do more miles on my FS than on my HT. Now back to the OP. Like people have said don't do any upgrades if it's a basic entry level HT. From what you posted it sounds like it will be a little while before going to FS might happen. If you're considering a FS bike get some demo time on 4 or 5 bikes you might be considering and go from there. Keep in mind the more bikes you demo the more confusing your choice will be. Do some research and choose the ones that will fit your riding style and terrain best. Any of the new FS bikes out there are all pretty good there's not really any that would be considered bad bikes. You're getting into this sport at a good time, most of the issues people had with FS bikes years ago have gone away the suspensions are much better as is the geo. It used to be anything that had more then 120mm rear travel was a slug to pedal around the trails not so much the case anymore.

Rained hard here last night. Trails are probably a no go.

I might be out there a bit later. Have a couple things to do first.

I would imagine miserably humid. Trails should be fine though. They were good yesterday.

I've heard of a lot of cars being broken into at Brushy. Kinda sucks. Fortunately I ride to the trail:)

It was good just to be on the bike again. Thanks guys.

I'd be up for that!

Yes it does!

Oh and I feel sorry for all you guys that have to got to redundant early meetings that resolve nothing:)

We miss you too!

Ride was not as good as Thursday. Trails were fine but humidity/dew point had my tires wet the whole time making it fairly slippery.

Go get some!!!!

1/4 Notch and DD were perfect this morning. We riding tomorrow?

Yeah I noticed new lines being worn in some places. There seems to be one that reconnects with Preplunge cutting out the trickier parts of the trail right after the Altar also one at the ledge after the bridge as you start to descend. I blocked that one this morning with some large rocks that I'm sure will be moved next time through. Also plenty of rutted sections caused by the many assclowns that can't stay off wet trails. On another note the trail was perfect this morning and I had it all to myself. Was surprised no one was out this morning didn't see a single person on the trail. Conditions were Tata's no puddles or standing water except at the Picnic drop in point, dirt was moist and tacky air was cool. Amazing how much easier it is to ride when the humidity drops off and the air gets cool. Feels like cheating:)

They are if you're Uncle Fester! I should say Gomez Addams. Either works.

You can't fix stupid!

My wife bought our puppy one of those kiddy pools and it's got 3-1/2 inches of water in it. It's on an open patio with no trees. It rained like a mofo at my house and I'm about a mile and a half due north of the trail. Gonna be a few days before GTG. Hopefully this cooler air sticks around for a while between it and some sun the trails should dry pretty quick provided we don't get any more rain.

That's a sweet bass!

I think our parents looked at TV the same way we view video games and the internet. As pointed out it's our responsibility as parents to help our kids maintain a balance between school, chores and free time. I was always looking for something to stimulate my mind without even realizing it. I started taking mechanical things apart at a very young age. I knew at about ten or eleven years old that I was destined to work with my hands and have done so all my life, but that's the way things were back then. You either did well in school and went on to college to be some sort of "professional" or you worked with your hands. Technology is such a huge part of society today that letting your kids use it and figure it out is not such a bad thing as long as there are set boundaries. Like ATXZJ said the streets are actually a lot safer now then they were back in our day. With everyone now carrying a video camera 24/7 it's a lot harder to get away with nefarious activities. As far as the internet goes that's a lot more dangerous than the streets in my eyes. It's up to the parents to decide what their kids should or shouldn't be doing and to be willing to impose discipline when needed unfortunately I see a lot of parents who could use a little discipline themselves.

Clipless VS flat is kind of a moot point for me. Coming from years and thousands of road miles with clipless pedals there is not much of an advantage to clipless on an MTB in my opinion. We are not physically designed to pull up on the the pedals on the upstroke while sitting and it doesn't really generate that much power. Standing is a different story you can generate a fair amount of pull when standing. For me on the road bike the clipless pedals were more to get a really good round pedal stroke which is important for efficiency. A round pedal stroke on an MTB is almost impossible due to the terrain being rough and the features you encounter. I tried clipless when I started riding MTB, my bike tried to kill me a few times so that ended the clipless thing for me. When I went a good set of flats with grippy shoes I realized that I get about the same pedal stroke when I'm sitting as I did with the clipless. The flats helped me progress my skills faster then clipless because I wasn't thinking about not being able to get away from my bike in crash situations. As far as the original comment I looked at those pedals and read his agenda just didn't think it was that revolutionary. JMO.

We had no choice but to get outside. There was very little to keep me in the house. When I was a kid cartoons were only Saturday until like 10:00 AM, no video games although my buddy had an original pong console but rarely played it. We had more fun building forts, riding bikes, playing jail break or just exploring places in the woods we had never been to. Parenting has changed so much from those times. My parents would tell me to get the hell out of the house and play outside don't bother me! In the summer I would leave my house at 7:30 in the morning and be gone until it got dark. Now parents are afraid to let their kids do anything without supervision. Hell we didn't know what supervision was we learned our lessons the hard way. Surprised I survived sometimes. Did a lot of stupid things when I was a kid. I learned to ride a two wheeler with no training wheels at 4 years old. That was my first taste of freedom and I loved it, been riding ever since.

A lot of times the ticking is just a dirty contact point between the bars and stem. Cleaning and repasting the contact points usually works.