mack_turtle

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.

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.

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.