Ridenfool

Took a spin out there today and the trail is in excellent condition. The first woods section is windy and has just enough ups and downs to keep things interesting. It is always a treat. Exiting, I weaved through the Longhorns laying down imitating that bull Lyle Lovett sings about chasing the shade all day. The banked turn at the bottom of Gas Pass (formerly "Shit Yer Pants" trail) was new to me. I have to remember to carry more speed next time. Climbed out of the creek after a while and then came back down Mule Trace. Caught a refreshing light rain while in the Oil Well pasture. After that it was across the suspension bridge, up Palisades, on through Roller Coasters and done. After hitting the bike wash and loading up I noticed how one of my beers, a Shiner Ruby Redbird, seemed to be in distress and getting warm. Being trained in beer first aid this was concerning to me and I felt it needed immediate attention. So, I bought a frozen Longhorn Sirloin to toss on top of it and get that crisis under control. It was close I tell ya, real close. Warda always delivers a fun trail, mostly because it is a different kind of fun, it is well maintained. I've been riding out there since just after it opened. That was the first MTB trail I rode, and that set the foundation for, shit, a quarter century or so of riding at the first MTB ranch in beautiful Wardy, Tejas.

No no, that is just for carrying all the necessities. For camping you'll need tandem Bobs.

Bluff Creek Ranch might be dry. I was watching the weather radar off and on today and it seemed like they didn't get much, if any rain today. Will call in the morning to verify. Saturday Morning: Their website's latest update indicates dry trails.

There's always a BOB trailer ...

If the dillo were unrolled it looks like a part of what I imagined and described in the Logo Poll Thread for this site.

That is a kewl logo you have for the avatar.

Wookie Word of the Day is "Wet" for Friday and more precip forecast for Saturday. 😧

Yeah, I dig the Pee Wee street cred they give me. After riding with them for years, trying to ride with straight bars is like a form of torture now. Those AB posted are bent about the same, as are the Surly's on that link. I suspect that any of those would be an improvement over the status quo.

For anyone suffering numbness the Ergons are great. That didn't quite do it for me. The next step was purchasing On One Mary bars. These are the most comfortable bars, as they allow hands and wrists to interface with the bar in the most natural position. If you extend your arms and let the hands show you where they want to be that will be the way they land on these bars. I've run them on three or four frames now, with the Ergons. The occurrences of numbness has been reduced significantly and control is improved as well. Hard to find in the colonies, but well worth looking for, or place an order for them from the UK. ... and no, they are not carpet fiber, they are Aluminium (UK speak).

So, what you're saying is that when your legs will no longer cut the mustard and this puts you in a pickle ... you cut the mustard open?

I have two pair, one as a backup whenever I send the other one in for warranty replacement. Best loppers I've found for carrying on a ride.

Okay, I just have to ask about the Mustard. And, the folding Ti loppers, which I can't seem to find on Fiskars site. I do find a Gerber folding lopper, but it isn't Ti, nor does it have the gearing that Fiskars loppers use to amplify the force. As a confirmed lopperist, the 15" Fiskars carried with a handle slid into my pack's waist belt while riding has been the go-to for many years. A folding Titanium lopper sounds pretty kewl, especially if made by Fiskars.

"that" "that" "that" No problem

I may add, always include along with the TP a waterproof vessel in which to contain it. Rain, or otherwise soaked TP (even if by then dried) is not nearly as useful as the variety which has remained dry since purchase.

A first aid kit, with tweezers for cacti thorns. and .... TP BETTER TO HAVE AND NOT NEED THAN TO NEED AND NOT HAVE

We don't need no stinkin' website forum to be Mojos, do we? (Austin VooDoo was but another red-headed stepchild there anyway) I don't think so. Remember the Mojos! Remember the Meat Weapons! (spoken with the same intensity as Remember Goliad! Remember the Alamo!)

I followed the link and enjoyed the magazine. Turning the pages like the old-fashioned paper mags of yesteryear was easy by clicking the mouse on the corner of the page, scrolling the wheel, or using the arrow buttons on the keyboard. It seemed to be a very user friendly format. I'd be happy to view more mags presented online like this. Blogs are cumbersome for me when I'm not following every new installment as they appear. The chronological format renders the past entries deeper into the void, unless the blogger provides some easy way to find things. Maybe I'm not looking at the right blogs, but this magazine had some good content, I even enjoyed some of the ads. Thanks for posting up the link.

Didn't mean to be a Debbie Downer as the trails are still as fine as frog hair overall. There are more miles of trail at RHR than ever before. You just have to bring your own eats and drinks while practicing forgiveness on the gravel mining ops and avoid going all Edward Abbey on them.

Took a spin out there on Labor Day. I hadn't been on those trials since Spring. Over the years there have been changes going on, some good, some bad, some could as easily be judged either way. Overall, the conditions were great. At the end of the Summer bake everything was dry and felt good under tire. The fact that temps equated to air-conditioned riding was nice as well. I rode out to Omar's and bailed. got in 14 or so miles and it felt good. Mostly. Riding out there these days as just another trail user, after having invested heavily working on those trails, has left me with a perspective bearing a distinct bias about how I think things should be. That isn't my place in the picture there and dealing with my choice sometimes confounds me. Over the past few years I've seen many of the challenging creek-crossing sections on Off the Lip, Longhorn Loop and TrisCross have been bypassed. Still I find myself preparing for a grunt tech section and then realize it just isn't there any more. Some of these had good reason to be bypassed as erosion had taken its toll, others offer enough value to the trail that, to me, they could have been used. Cutting a smooth line through the woods to avoid them was only a form of sanitizing and wasn't very creative. Still, I am grateful that someone is out there doing work. Granted, a few of the sections still offer the choice of taking the old or the new path, but I don't find this sort of design intuitive, particularly if there is no signage to let a rider know that both go to the same place. Events carve the route those riders used into what appears to be "THE" trail. On the other hand, these new sections flow very well and that can be good. Admittedly, I found myself following these new sections on my ride as a few attempts on one or two of the old lines revealed they are overgrown. Then, there's the gravel mining that continues to threaten RHR trails. Those cat-skinner operators tend to not look at where the trails are and either cut right up to the edge, taking away that "riding through the woods" feeling and turning it into "riding through a recently leveled parking lot" feeling. Or, they just cut right through the trail and it is interrupted or eliminated. There were a pile of tall pines pushed from a gravel operation that have fallen across a section of Longhorn Loop just after the 9-mile bailout. There is still a lot of fun trail out there, but having ridden there for a couple of decades and put heart and soul into those trails for about ten years of that, I find myself saddened over the losses time brings. The magical place that once sported a Saloon, the Rocky Burger, live music, trails, no fucking bulldozers, with a community from all walks of life that congregated at RHR is but a fond memory of a perfect riding spot and a fun place to just hang out, drink a cold one, and watch a sunset. Nostalgia just ain't what it used to be. Come get some RHR while the getting is still good.

Got the new drivetrain installed after some back and forth obtaining the right parts. Note to self: Shimano sells a shifter that won't bolt on to a handlebar unless you have other Shimano stuff bolted there too. Ordering the correct part the first time would result in faster conversion. Taking advantage of the air conditioning outside today I tested the 1x11 (Juan El Eban, get it?) on familiar trails and found that the range of 11-46 coupled to a 32 up front provided everything I needed to have a great time. Plus the added bonus of no longer having to keep in mind which ring I'm on. That aspect was liberating, as now I only have one shifter to deal with and felt no lost love for the parts removed. Sorry, front derailleur and shifter, you'll have to accept that it is over between us. Hands down, this is the best $180 I've spent on the bike I can recall. The fact that as we age, recall becomes suspect, further exemplifies how losing the other shifter is a win-win. The shifting is the most crisp and positive of any rear derailleur I've owned. The combo of clutched derailleur and narrow-wide ring was flawless. In addition to the front derailleur and shifter I also removed a dual step chain roller that was no longer needed. It is a very clean machine now. Also filled the left-hand shifter's vacant spot with a Knog Oi bell. An amazing low-profile dinger that fits snugly between grip and brake, almost disappearing behind the lever for the X-Fusion dropper. Gotta love a tidy set of controls.

A couple to ponder Gimpy riding a big wheel bike at Fruita Chicken Enchilada

Both of those are nice, but they need something to make them unique in order to leave an impression that will lead people to ask, "Where can I get one of those?" Consider the BikeMojo logo and what qualities endear the design to those who see it. It is funky, full of detail, and a little off-kilter, like many of those who participate there. Maybe an Armadillo with a Texas state-shaped brand on its hind quarter and a mountain biker perched high on its arched back, one foot down, seat lowered, hands on bars, checking the view before rolling on. No matter what, take your time, try as many different ideas as you can. When the right one is before you it will let you know.

Forum name change suggestion Austin Mountainbike Forum Reunited ... aka; those Austin MFRs just thinking out loud, move along, nothing to see here

It would be good to carry on with established traditions.

I like to think of it as having had a really good BM. A BikeMoJo Movement.