mack_turtle

Did you punch either of them in the throat?

a local pack of rogue deer built the trail, some bike riders just started following it. were the deer supposed to ask permission? I assumed they already did.

What do we do for belligerent people who know better and therefore don't need education?

serious question- what would be an effective way to educate the public about not riding muddy trails? 99% of the people who ride are not on a message board like this or connected in any other to social media. how do we get the word out? on some of the well-established trails like Walnut, Brushy, or the main trailheads for BCGB, it would be totally possible to put up signs. for the more dispersed stuff with unofficial trails, this is probably not an option.

Putting my phone in a runners belt means it's right in the middle of my lower back. If I land on it, which is already unlikely, a broken phone will be the least of my worries. It's in a sturdy case as well. Backpacks get heavy fast. I prefer to spread the load using shorts pockets, frame and saddle packs, a belt. Hydration pack is mostly for carrying water. 3 liters of water weighs over 6 1/2 pounds, so I avoid piling that and a bunch of other weight just on my back if I can avoid it.

Medium Jandd frame bag takes up about half of the front triangle of my frame, so I can still fit a water bottle on the seat tube. The Jandd bag can also hold a 2-liter Platypus bladder with the hose attached to my handlebar. On short rides, I wear a thin "runner" waist pack that holds my phone, ID, a multitool. Then I carry a bottle on the frame and a Back Bottle in my jersey pocket. On longer rides, I just shove everything in my Osprey Raptor 10. I will easily drink 3 liters of water in less than 3 hours on a hot day.

they should go back to playing football- a round ball, usually black and white, that is kicked with the feet and every other part of the body except the hands and arms. the game is played by athletes with skill and grace instead of brute idiot strength by overweight men.

no, ruts on trails suck and having access to trails yanked out from under us sucks even more. there's no "actual mountain biking" when the trails get shut down due to erosion and poor little birds. yes, I have seen plenty of areas where nasty, deep ruts form on trails near me. that's not a trail feature, that's asshattery.

yeah, i want to try some of those boney headsets. any particular recommendation? I did have more fun with some music pumping in my head some days, but I can't find an earbud that stays in my ear but does not block out sound from outside.

perhaps they were unnecessarily rude about it, but good for that person for saying something. You should thank them. most people are too chickenshit to to possibility of confrontation with the doofi that blatantly ride muddy trails. If no one says anything at all, the ignorant public just destroys singletrack without concern for how it affects others.

sorry, but the plain and simple objective fact is that riding trails with headphones makes you a doofus. I have come to that conclusion based on my own experience as a doofus and a rigorously scientific sample pool of dozens of encounters with beheadphoned doofi. however, that was not why I brought up the topic. interesting tangent though. and yes to Mucky Nutz. keep most of the crap off the stanchions of your fork to avoid premature fork death!

we had the discussion in an email group and he identified himself to me. it's someone who knows what they are doing and did not, in fact, need a lecture from me. I didn't recognize him in that context and I started the whole thing a bit confrontational, which I think was justified given the soggy condition of the trails and the damage we've seen when idiots plow through it. I'm kind of a confrontation guy when the situation calls for it. we discussed it like civilized adults instead of belligerent MAMILs in the woods and it's fine now as far as I am concerned. moral of story- don't ride muddy trails and if you find yourself on a muddy trail, think about how bad it looks when someone sees you dragging your muddy bike out of the woods. don't be surprised when they are pissed off at you for riding mud because, no matter what you think you were doing right, you look exactly like one of those jackasses who rides muddy trails.

The person I confronted today contacted me. He said he rode into the trail to check it out to see how muddy things were, didn't get very far, then turned around. I saw him on his way out. chances are, he didn't do any real damage. no big deal in this case. however, a) duh, of course the trails are muddy. it rained yesterday just like it rained every other day for the past week. no need to check if the trail is muddy- it is obvious. just stay out. b) don't respond defensively when someone confronts you for doing (or even appearing to do) something stupid. I did my civic duty for the mtb community by confronting someone for riding muddy trails. you're welcome. "I don't need a fucking lecture from you" smacks of defensiveness.

I was just out on a road/ gravel trail ride around Circle C. I avoided the actual trails (32mm tires are not much fun on the rocks anyways) and crossed paths with a guy who was emerging from the south end of the VTC behind Walgreens on Slaughter. he looked like a "rider" with a nice FS bike (Specialized?). his bike was caked in mud, so much mud that he was carrying his bike out of the woods. I decided to address him directly and the exchange went something like. me- kinda muddy back there, eh? mud dude- [nothing, can't hear me because of the headphones] me- [louder] kinda muddy back there eh!? mud dude- [pulls out one ear bud] yeah, it's muddy back there! me- it just rained, of course it was muddy back there. you should know better than to damage the trails when they are muddy mud dude- I don't need a fucking lecture from you! [plugs ear buds back in and proceeds to scrape thick mud off his bike.]

Revilie Peak Ranch, right?

Roads. Paved surfaces. Walnut Creek South. Town Lake Hike n Bike.

ride it into the ground as-is. when you really need to replace something, or have some extra $$ to spend deal with it a little at a time. weight- fork, wheels, and tires might be the best bang for your buck. tires on entry-level bikes can be surprisingly heavy, and all that spinning weight makes the bike feel heavier. cheap forks are heavy! cheap rims can be very heavy and are difficult (nearly impossible sometimes) to convert to tubeless. those three items would likely be a big performance improvement in addition to taking some weight off the bike. keep an eye out for used stuff. use the classified section on this forum too. you'll end up with a pretty badass bike. however, you'll also spending a lot of money that you will never get back. at some point, you have to cut your losses and buy a different bike. selling weird custom bikes is a losing game. you can keep your old upgraded bike as a secondary bike (obviously many people like riding a FS and a hardtail), or put all the old parts back on it and sell it, keeping the newer parts that you bought for another build. I know how you feel about frugality. other cyclists hate listening to frugal people like us. my wife hates it even more. the only complete new bikes I have ever purchased were a $300 Redline Monocog (bike shop discount) and my cyclocross bike, which was something like 75% off on clearance for $500. I end up with two nice bikes because I plan carefully and perfect it to my liking, one part at a time, but keep it rideable the whole time.

yeah, it looks like Gateway trails is my best bet. hopefully I can find a way to cram my bike in the car and make it happen next time.

I'll be in Ft. Worth for a few days at the beginning of Nov. I'll have a company car that I can't drive around once I get there, but I will try to bring my bike (maybe the cross bike) and ride from downtown to some interesting route. Anyone know the gravel trails around the rivers there to suggest an interesting route? Is there singletrack worth pedaling to from downtown?

riding a bike with a motor in it would be more fun. think about all the lines you would NOT have to pick!

I thought about what I just wrote, and yes, for the average mortal, with all other things being equal, a FS bike is a more practical choice. when you start considering budget restraints, how hard and how far the average person rides, maintenance costs, etc, how hard you are willing to work to keep your body in shape, a hardtail is certainly doable. it's a compromise.

Personal experience- back pain is not because of riding a hardtail. Back pain is a lack of conditioning. A squishy bike will only mask the underlying problem of a misaligned spine, unbalanced and atrophied muscle groups (weak core, tight hamstrings, overdeveloped quads, etc.) and lifestyle habits that make it worse. I literally just spent the past 30 minutes in the gym doing prescribed exercises to undo all the damage that a lifetime of sitting at a desk and only riding bikes for exercise has done to me. Yesterday I saw x-rays of my spine that were taken on Tuesday. It's not FUBAR but it's FU. That said, a squishy bike is starting to look really nice to me lately.

which Rockhopper level did you buy? Spec makes several bikes at varying prices and components levels under the Rockhopper name. if you bought the base model, upgrading it might be a waste of time, as you'll gradually spend twice what a nicer bike would cost up front by replacing it one piece at a time. these days, if you're going to ride trails like what we have in Austin, the market for a decent bike starts at $1000+. suspension is a tricky topic in Austin. depending on how and where you ride, some people think it's "necessary" and some avoid it altogether. I ride a 29er singlespeed with a rigid fork, sometimes with a suspension fork. that's the only mountain bike I own. I also shy way from the gnarly descents I have seen in some unmentionable trails, but I know people who also ride that stuff on a rigid singlespeed too. a FS bike would give you some additional confidence, but it's not going to make up for just riding enough that you gain skills and strength. However, an entry-level bike with crappy suspension and parts that break will hold you back to some degree.

FFS, are e-mtbs allowed on Brushy Creek? What would it take to get authorities on board with banning e-mtbs on every trail? Sorry BSS, I know you want to sell those Specialized motorbikes, but NO!

six years as a shop mechanic- I saw some DUMB stuff from otherwise smart people. the fact that you're aware of a bad noise coming from your bike and tried to solve it yourself is phenomenal. most bike mechanics like a good mystery. that's what I loved about it, anyways.