mack_turtle

I am curious about how this turns out. I once bought a used frame with an extremely loose headset cup. The previous owner had ridden with it loose like that and told me his bike shop said it was fine, which is BS. I reinstalled the cup using Loctite 609 and that seemed pretty solid.

I can't believe people still tolerate SRAM brakes. If I bought a bike that was 99% perfect but came with SRAM brakes, they would go in the trash and be replaced before they could cause and problems for anyone.

Mine is spinny compared to most of the ASSes I know. This topic came up a few times previously and supposedly some are riding Lake Georgetown, 4C, etc on 34x17 and such nonsense. I've ridden everything with 32/20 previously and anything I had to walk probably would have also been walked if I had a big ol cassette on there. I mostly ride SATN and Walnut on occasion. Might go to 32x21 if I plan to ride something new/ techy and if I don't have to try to keep up with the monsters who push big gears. 38x16 on my CX bike with 35mm tires for roads and gravel races. Singletrack quickly overwhelms that bike but it seems some trails too. Everytime I ride BCGB, it's with a bunch of ridiculously skilled people who I hold back or I get lost/ injured riding on my own.

On a related note, any videographers looking for work? I know a state agency that is hiring.

34x20 on a 29x2.25 tire at the moment. I tried a few different gear combos and that one is just spinny enough to make it through chunk, climb long hills, and not get totally left behind when trying to keep up with a group of gearies. It also allows the shortest possible chainstay length in the slots on my frame, which I like because wheelies.

I don't think the OW on trails has any more potential for problems than any other trail users does. Dog walkers, hikers, people on any sort of bicycle imaginable use these trails. If anything, those fat, flat tires will pack down loose stuff. The problem is human behavior- sanitizing trails and hogging trail space, in this case. It does not seem that OW riders are interested in sanitizing trails... for now. As the use of OW and other similar motorized vehicles (including e-bikes) beckons more and more people further into the trails, the inevitability of sanitizing draws closer. Unfortunately, education ("leave that shit alone! Walk it or ride it but don't change it!") is the best defense we have. RA, thanks for posting that thought about B-lines versus cheater lines. I never thought about it, but there's a difference between intensionally creating a shittily-designed line because one lacks the skill to ride the main line and is too lazy to walk it, and a well thought-out, secondary line to create variety and an option for less skilled riders. A good b-line can mitigate cheater lines, but we should not need them in most cases. Again, human behavior.

Swinging a weed whip is a real workout! Die ragweed, DIE!

Check the air pressure. Is it losing anything?

I jumped over a snake while running a trail near Whirlpool Cave early one morning. I didn't even register the snake, but jumped instinctively. I walked back and saw it was a big ol fat one. I tossed a rock at it and it coiled up and rattled at me. Saw a rattler tail on a mid-day ride in Circle C. It was leaving the trail so I stopped and waited a while to be sure it was a ways into the grass before passing. I've seen coral snakes on two occasions near Dick Nichols and in Circle C. I lived near Atlanta, GA a few years and snake sightings were far more common. Related- riding Firehouse in SATN this week, I was separated from my Tuesday night group and kept hearing sounds behind me. No other riders nearby, just rustling in the trees behind me like a large animal moving around. Really spooked me. I started imagining ways to fight off a large cat with my bike.

I admit, part of it is the aesthetics of steel frames. I have a ideal form in my head of what a bicycle is, and most of the modern aluminum and carbon options look more like space ships. I prefer to buy Earthling bicycles, not Romulan ones. Screw Romulans and their silly haircuts. I might feel differently if Klingons got into the industry, but they never seem interested.

You'll have to borrow one some time. Ride a similar quality aluminum hardtail the same day for comparison.

Have you ridden a non-shitty bike made from quality chromoly? It's a tactile thing that is hard to define. Kind of like the feeling of new shoes or a fresh skateboard deck under your feel.

What's the context of that data? What country? Also, "bicycling" means pedaling around the block on whatever bike people happen to have around. It's also what they might have told a pollster they do. I know a lot of people who are "into" various activities but actually participate in them once every few months.

I didn't realize the difference between the Honzo and the Big Honzo is 29 vs B+ wheels. Is that correct? either way, it looks like the alu and carbon ones don't have sliders. The steel one does, as did the titanium one, which appears to be out of production. Probably the same frames with different wheels sizes. I base how a bike fits on how it handles when standing and wrangling it, which is why long reaches and steep seat tubes don't do it for me. Distance from the pedals to the grips is something I know does not work unless it's within a centimeter of my preferred position, which can't happen with available parts and a reach much longer than 430mm. I only point this out because the trend of super-long bikes does not work for everyone, so it's worth considering what works for you.

Town Lake, Shoal Creek, VCT, lots of stuff along Slaughter Creek, Walnut North, Walnut Metro, Walnut Creek South, etc can all be linked together by roads and bike paths. I want to find a way to link it to Onion Creek/ McKinney Falls, but I have not figured that one out yet.

The Big Honzo is aluminum and does not have sliders, so setting it up single speed would be sub-optimal. FWIW, the Honzo has a crazy-long reach for its size. Good if you're into that kind of thing, but at 5'9", a small Honzo with a stubby stem would still feel big to me for the way I like a bike to fit and handle.

Most modern hardtails can be set up 29 or B+. You can squeeze 29+ tires I to a Karate Monkey if you really want to. Singlespeed is a bonus if you're into that (which I am).

The main difference with the Stache is the super-short chainstays, compared to the Krampus. If you put the same length fork that the Stache has on a Krampus. The BB on the Krampus might be a tad higher and the reach about the same.

I've been riding for the past few months with a water bottle on the frame, a Back Bottle in my jersey pocket, and various ways to carry spare bits and phone. I settled on a REI Trail 2 waistpack for carrying spare bits and phone. This was fine for 2-3 hours in moderate heat, especially if I can find a water fountain on my route. on Sunday, it got quite hot and humid, so I went back to my Osprey Rapor 10 with the 3L bladder 2/3 full. man, that sucked! I really hate the weight and awkwardness of the backpack. I need to get a second water bottle on my bike to avoid that for most of my rides now, or try a lumbar pack that carries water. my frame has two places to mount a water bottle, but one is under the downtube where it's sure to get splattered with dog shit.

I do some of these "mixed terrain" rides around town on a cyclocross bike. they end up being more pavement than gravel because there's just not that much gravel in town. however, if you can find segments of relatively tame singletrack, you can string together some fun rides.

I had good luck with some non-tubeless DT Swiss X430 rims, 2-3 layers of 1" Gorilla tape, and WTB Cross Boss 35mm tires in their TCS flavor. I tried it with some other tires and it would not work, but the TCS design fits very tight on any rim. It was tight enough to seal without an air compressor and with a little sealant help. I/we failed to notice you have a 130mm spaced frame. It MIGHT be possible to fit a mtb spaced wheel in there if you play around with spacers on the axle and then correct the wheel dish. I refuse to ride anywhere off-road with tubes any more. Gravel races on CX sized tubeless tires is the way to go.

Narrow XC mtb rims and Panaracer Gravelkings. I have a CX bike with Stan's Arch EX rims and a 35/32mm GK combo. I run them at 35 psi or so and I am 160 pounds+. Works great on tarmac and singletrack. Not sure how well a ghetto setup will work as I have seen few of those blow off the rim. WTB tubeless tires have a really tight bead, so that might help.

I think that is a bit dated and depends on the situation. In some places, asking a downhill-headed rider to stop would be dangerous.