Kyle

You were riding full time with a switchblade?

Thanks for the suggestions. I ordered a Recon and a MIPS Feature to try out. I think I'm staying away from Bell because the top half of the Super 3R is less comfy than the Giro helmets I've had.

I cracked my Giro Hex helmet yesterday and I figure I'll probably replace it with another Giro since they fit well and this is the second one I've cracked without noticeable brain damage. So I go on Amazon and see three potential replacements. All MIPS, priced ~$50, $100, and $150 (pictures may be out of order). I think I still have a concussion but I can't tell the difference. Is there an art to helmet selection that I'm missing? Does anyone here take helmets really seriously and have a suggested model I should look at? I have a Bell Super 3R also, but I'd rather not run it full time without the chinbar since it was $230.

BSS is fine I guess, but you'll probably pay the most out of anywhere. Everyone should be able to taken an online bike out of the box and get it rolling. It requires pretty minimal skills that you can learn from a youtube video, and you should probably have at least that much mechanical knowledge so you can inspect your bike for safety's sake if you're bombing trails around here.

Yes. The purpose is to take a bike on the trails and ride it like you stole it. Edit: Trust me, they're not going to expect the wheels to still be round when you bring it back.

What's with the barricade across the trail?

I watched a girl miss the bridge here and crash in the creek. She was on a first date with a roadie who put her on his spare carbon road bike with clippy pedals that she had no idea how to ride. It was bad.

I rode all of deception this evening and it was totally fine. There were a couple puddles in low spots but everywhere that wasn't literally a puddle had great traction and no mud. That transition trail from the jeep road to rimjob was ok, rimjob was ok, but the ditch was actively flowing so I turned around. I didn't try to ride Picnic or mulligan, they looked a little wet.

The rock is back on Squeeze Play but otherwise I didn't notice anything particularly moved around on DD yesterday evening.

Have you considered tungsten or depleted uranium?

I put carbon bars on my single speed to test out the comfort thing, and I don't really get it. I notice that they're more flexy but it doesn't translate into comfort for me. The carbon seat post is great though. Carbon bars probably break at a lever clamp because the clamp prohibits the bar from deflecting naturally and concentrates stress. I don't think it's necessarily a sign of over tightening.

I'm not sure about that exact shock, but there's probably just a single spacer. I'd take it out if there is one and see how the bike feels, and then consider adding a smaller one back if you need it.

Take the air can off and look inside for anything weird. While you're in there freshen up the oil and remove any volume spacers.

Those of you that eat every X minutes, what do you use to time your highly specific interval?

I think I was in pretty good shape going in, but I had never done a ride that long so I didn't have a feel for nutrition. I read that terrible hammer article and planned on 150 calories an hour, and basically started to bonk about 30 miles in, but realized it and started eating everything I could get my hands on and managed to recover enough to ride the remaining 40ish miles. I did the EB last year and planned on more like 225 calories/hour, and did OK but had some significant snacks at the aid stations and felt like I could've eaten more happily. If I do the dragon slayer this year I'm going to plan on 300/hr and have an extra 1000+ at the car just in case.

Before I did the nutcracker (LGT+brushy+connecting stuff loop) I read this article: https://www.hammernutrition.com/knowledge/less-is-best-the-right-way-to-fuel/ and it really fucked me up. It recommends 120-150 calories/hour, which was spectacularly not enough food. I have no idea how that is advice given by professionals.

5/32

I passed a few people on easy up and saw them next when I rode across the finish and they were already done. I passed a couple dudes in CP twice. Passed several people at Thumper and they were all hanging out at the aid station when I got done... it was pretty endemic. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, I know it's just a big friendly ride, but that was my experience.

Almost everyone might ride across the finish line but a ton of them don't actually ride the route.