mack_turtle

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.

Get the helmet that fits your head the best. To date, nothing but Giro helmets fit the shape of my head. I tried a few of the Bell, Kali, and TLD helmets that other people like and all of them fit awkwardly. That's because people who like those helmets have skulls that are shaped differently from my skull.

Asking for recommendations online is a pointless exercise. You need to go to a shop and strap some to your head until you find one that fits.

12 hours ago, TAF said:

How do we access it from the Austin end?

yeah, that's a problem. I will pay more attention next time I drive past it because the satellite images on Google are out of date and the city does not seem to have it marked anywhere. it seems to just start at the airport.

interesting development. Pinion gear boxes have always intrigued me. I guess a few small companies have made one (Ghost comes to mind), but it's not gone mainstream yet. Domahidy did a pretty good job of shaking up the industry with Niner, so maybe he can do it again. no derailleurs to fiddle with, just change the oil in it every year/ 6,000 miles. the handlebar/stem is interesting too.

http://www.viral.bike/

shortly after I got married at the tender age of 22, I noticed that my priorities shifted. I was big into the punk/ hardcore music scene in Indianapolis. all my college friends were in bands and not a week passed when I was not at some show any night of the week sweating my face off in a mosh pit. I look back on that fondly, but after I moved to San Antonio and got married, I had little interest for involvement in "youth culture." I had a social life, but it quickly became smaller. I went to one punk show in my seven years in San Antonio (and that was to see Gorilla Biscuits, and "old school" band), instead of the constant stream of shows I can't count in high school and college.

I rode BMX exclusively and despite riding quite a lot (SA has a great BMX scene and endless fun ditches to ride), I never really became a part of that culture. I was always on the outside. that's part of the reason I lost interest in it and started mountain biking- I could do that alone and have a lot more fun, I was not trying to prove anything to anyone, and it was generally a more mature crowd when I did do anything social on a mountain bike.

I think mountain biking is become more popular among a younger (read: more youthful) crowd, and what the author describes is evidence of that. that's is a good thing and a bad one. it's bringing new energy, a lust for experience that most of the old farts (I'll round 40 in a few quick years) don't have. think of what you were like when you were 15-25 years old. many of us were frenetic balls of energy that had to constantly move to keep from dying of boredom. that's the new breed of mountain bikers- not because they are bad people, but because they are young, just like all of us were at one time. with that comes loud shitty music, flat-billed hats, cans of Redbull spilling out of dually trucks, enduro bro brapping culture that we see today in some places. I predict that most of them will chill out shortly and then they'll be the ones complaining about the whippersnappers behind them and whatever cultural milieu it represents. it's a cycle. 

I don't know if we see as much of that in Austin though. I don't think the terrain here is conducive to "shredding" the way bros see it on Pinkbike videos, so it might be delayed at least. Can anyone chime in about what they see when they leave the state, say ColoRADo, like the cool kids spell it?

has anyone ridden the bike path that goes out past the airport along 71? it goes pretty far from the city and ends up at Southeast Metro Park, from what I can see on the map. the bike path is not marked or labeled on the map at all, but you can see it clearly on the satellite picture. I am all for riding pavement for the sake of exploring and I always find ways to include dirt in those routes.

I run SATN trails off and on. sometimes I don't feel like fooling around with bike gear. lace up shoes, grab a water bottle, and go.

I have a CX bike that gets ridden on gravel races and around the city, especially when it's wet outside. it's gotten a lot of miles these past few weeks!

my office has a gym that I visit for about 30 minutes most days. I suffered lower back pain about a year ago and found that core work like planks, russian twists, lunges, squats, bridges, etc help a TON to stabilize your body. that makes you a better rider all around and helps with endurance, not to mention mitigates back pain.

I love working on my bike and sometimes mess around unnecessarily. this leads to bad things like rounding off bolts and losing small parts. the struggle is real.

There are not enough real gravel roads to really do that in Austin, but you can link together Walnut Creek South, Ladybird Lake Hike n Bike, MOPAC service Road, Shoal Creek, some VCT, Circle C, the Veloway, etc with low-traffic roads if you plan carefully. I have done a few in-town 50 milers that way.

I would think that with a bike that new developing problems, they would take care of it with no drama. A three month old bike should not have any substantial wear or issues unless you've ridden it across the continent and back already.

Square taper cranks require a special, but inexpensive tool. I doubt that that interface is the problem, but those bolts should have been torqued to about 29 ft-lbs. It could be the pedals or the BB. After building dozens of new bikes, I have found that bottom brackets are frequently installed incorrectly and bike shops rarely check for that.

Where do you store you're bike? Has it been exposed to rain and wet conditions?

I would ask the shop to take a look at it, assuming there would be no charge for a follow-up tune on such a new bike.

Check that the pedals are tight first. I've encountered lots of noisy bikes that just had loose pedals.

If not a shop, I, and probably lots of other people on here, have the tools and skills to sort you out at home. I am in Southwest Austin and have a garage full of tools gathering dust.

Does any part of SATN have trail stewards?

I've noticed a few spots and local trails that are low and get muddy. When and how should I protect a low muddy spot by dredging up rocks out of the nearby Creek bed to armor it? Is anyone going to be pissed if I start doing this on my own? Does this count as cross-fitting?

I have a heavy, sharp machete that wanta to work. What part of SATN needs it the most?

here's a super high-tech rendering of what I need to do: drill/ tap a third hole in the sliding dropout about 10 mm in from where it is, then remove the additional material from the mounting tab. I need to at least drill and tap that hole with enough precision to get the bolt in straight. I am basically trying to shorten the mounting tab so that I can slide my axle forward enough to remove a link from the chain. (cue long debate about chain stay length. spoiler: I want mine shorter, because.)

you can see that the Paragon equivalent (blue background) has a much shorter tab, so it should be fine. my frame has room for 3" tires, and I am running 2.25-2.3's, so there's plenty of room in the frame. if needed, I can shave some material off the axle mounting area to clear the dropout part as well.

anyone have access to equipment to modify a small aluminum part?

is that actually a 31.9 seatpost or 30.9?

5 hours ago, Urb said:

Chairlift won't be open until Bartman is allowed back on the site......

RIP chairlift.

damn, my '80s/'90s parents would have spent most of their lives in jail for the way they let me roam around. I didn't get into (much) trouble and they always had an idea of where I was and with whom I was hanging out, but they trusted me and our neighbors to be relatively safe. on the other hand, I knew some kids who. it seemed, had parents who didn't much care where their kids were and what they were doing. I think that thirst for exploration is what led me to mountain biking. I never tire of finding new places. in fact, the technical skills of mountain biking are just a fringe benefit to the satisfaction I get from exploring and covering long distances.

if you're board games, the downtown library has an extensive collection of rad board games that you can borrow. the games cannot leave the building though, so you need to bring some friends, find a room or a quiet table, and play while you're there. they have a lot of the "expensive," complex games like Pandemic and Settlers of Catan that are tons of fun but you might want to try them out once before buying them. the library also has a cafe with a bar downstairs now, so it's a great way to spend an afternoon with friends. I don't think many of my adult friends play a lot of video games but opening a bottle or two of wine for a late-night session of Dominion is a blast.