mack_turtle

I will go ahead and say just that- I migrated from a VP Vice pedal to a Chromag Contact. the Chromag is a much bigger pedal and has a concave shape that feels much better under my foot. just take the idea to some extreme in your head. imagine standing on a 2 inch square pedal for hours. then imagine standing on a 6"x12" plank. which will cause more fatigue on your foot?

I have a full-length 27.2 Thomson Elite straight seatpost in my cyclocross bike right now. it's MUCH longer than necessary for this bike and pretty stiff for how I ride it. anyone have a shorter, more compliant 27.2mm seatpost they would trade for the Thomson?

Once I became aware of how frequently I rode with my toes pointed down, and how much better and safer everything feels with the heel down, I had to ask myself, How the hell did I not die a million times riding like that? If nothing else, riding flats part-time is a good way to build skills by exposing your weaknesses. I suggest trying them until you get confident on them, then switch back to clipping in if you get an bit extra control and confidence from them. In and under the impression that several skills instructors insist that you use flats for their classes, probably for the same reason.

Also, I am going to put SPD peddles on my e-mtb next time I ride Walnut. I'll give it a shot tomorrow because my dogs love running free in the mud!

It's exactly what it sounds like. You ride with your heels no higher than your toes so that when you hit a number, your foot is driven into the platform, thus increasing your connection to the bike. It's a natural and powerful connection to the bike. Do a quick internet search for "mountain bike heel drop" and you'll find a bazillion articles on the technique. When I complained about not feeling secure on flats for the first few rides, it's because I was riding with poor technique to begin with but was hiding it with cleats. Once I got used to riding with a technique that does not suck, I can ride with much more confidence knowing that I can make my feet stick when I want them to an come off when I want. No more wondering when I will have that lucky moment when my cleats don't release and I go tumbling down a hill full of rattlesnakes and poison ivy with the bike attached to me. Not I get all the sneks and poison as I run gracefully down the hill on my two feet.

yes, but the learning curve is fast. the transition from flats to clipping in is a lot harder than the other way. I started on flat BMX pedals and "graduated" to SPDs. I ate shit so many times while learning to use SPDs but eventually got comfortable with it. give flats (good pedals and good shoes!) three or four rides and you get used to dropping your heels, which is better technique anyways. I used to ride with cleated pedals with my toes DOWN until I forced myself to lose that habit, which was difficult.

I am riding in Adidas Terrex Solo somethings. they were about half the price of Five Tens and I can't bring my cheap bastard self to spend $150 on some sneakers. they have Stealth rubber similar to what Five Ten uses because Adidas owns Five Ten. the general consensus is that Five Tens make the best flat-pedal shoe out there. some people prefer a super stiff sole but none of the mtb-specific sneakers on the market have a sole nearly as stiff as most mtb clipless shoes. most of them are just built like a beefy skate shoe from the 90s. (Damn I miss my Emerica Templtons!) The guy who designed these pedals has a whole Flat Pedal Manifesto page that is quite compelling. he does not believe that you need a super-stiff shoe for cycling and goes into that theory in some detail. as someone who prefers to wear minimalist type shoes all the time, I agree with his premise. I'll let you all go read it yourself before you judge the whole idea. the pedal is based on that idea- that the pedal should support your shoe so you don't need a shoe that's so stiff that your foot can't move in it.

I dropped the SPDs from my mountain bike earlier this year. after ten years on SPDs, it was absolutely liberating.

these are old news, but it makes sense to me. I am using some very large platform pedals and I can see why larger pedals would provide a more stable platform to stand on and spread the load better. you don't stand on the arch of your foot, but you use your heel, so why should a pedal not support your whole foot?

I am not going to bother with rain gear. being soaked but warm will be just fine. soaked and cold, notsomuch. rain gear just gets swampy. flappy fenders would be a good idea to keep the flying much off your face, though. however- wet, sandy gravel roads and 35/32 mm tires- good idea or bad idea? not sure if those will get stuck in the dirt, or dig through it. CXers use skinny tires in mud for a reason, right? should be an adventure either way.

weird coincidence- I was rummaging around Yellow Bike and they had a box of various chain guides in there. the box was on the top shelf above the chainrings. I can't guarantee you'll find one that will work in there, but it's worth a shot. are you at least using a single-specific chainring? if not, a chainring that was designed to shift is going to be an endless source of frustration. a single ring is a pretty cheap item, so she might need to break down and purchase one.

I thought you said you were done being an obnoxious asshat.

pump your tires up a little harder than you would for trail riding. I am not going to give you any numbers, but they don't need to be rock-hard for pavement riding, but running them at trail pressure is going to bog you down.

I can't let this thread go without doing my due diligence in saying that KOPS is bullshit. If KOPS works for you, that's fine. the relationship between some vague place near your knee and the pedal spindle is mostly coincidental. any bike fitter who swears by KOPS as the end-all for saddle position is blowing smoke. it's utter nonsense other than a reference point. I know this because a fitter at a certain bike shop in Austin fit me on a mountain bike (and I paid for this service) by slamming my cleats all the way forward on my shoes so the cleat was under my piggies so that he could drop a plumb bob from some arbitrarily point on my knee and have it line up with my pedal. there is and was no scientific reason for this in the first place, but it was an absurd hack on my bike that served no purpose but to give me and the fitter the illusion of scientific precision.

I love the comedy on Mojo. I can do without the blatant asshattery.

might be wet, which will add to the "fun." I am on the bright green SSCX Traitor. My gear is probably too hard for the course so I might be the guy who is walking a lot of it.

forgiveness > permission. if anything goes awry, it's the property owner/ manager's responsibility.

I never thought I would say this, but the world needs more Bartmans.

I'll see what I have. I have a Hadley hub on my bike that I switched from 135x10mm to 142x12mm when I switched frames last year. I might still have the axle assembly and the 10mm bolt. I was holding onto it in case I wanted to put that wheel on a frame with 135mm spacing some day, but those chances are looking more and more slim.

I might...

Woodchippers are a bit extreme for a bike that was designed for conventional drop bars. they work well on a mountain bike that was designed with a super-tall stack and short reach like the Fargo. if you want to really ride trails on a CX/gravel bike the Cowbells or Cowchippers would be better. I replaced the horrible round, deep, flare-less bars that came with my CX bikes with Cowbells and I could not be happier.

I just noticed that forum. I should have this moved.

Don't know yet! Just got home from a week-long vacation and had to dive into work. I can't take another whole week off this year, so I am looking for what I can do on a short-term trip. I'll tally up all these options. Hopefully this thread is useful for people who want other options as well. It sounds like a trip to the west end of the state might not be worthwhile if I have to spend two out of my three days just driving. I might look for something a little closer in Hill Country until I can find a way to do a whole week getaway. My priority is to find something with a great camping setting, and something that will challenge me to ride. My wife is going to be bored if we go somewhere and I spend the whole time out riding.

I rarely leave Austin to ride. I'd like to go someplace remote and beautiful sometime this fall/winter for a camp/ride trip. Must be less than a full day drive away so I can squeeze it into a three/four- day weekend. Edit- my wife doesn't ride, so I need something that she can enjoy while I get some riding in. she likes camping, just not riding a bike. she's a gym rat, but being in a gym riding a bicycle that literally goes nowhere bores me to death. I might make this a riding-only trip and leave her to do her own thing, but we usually do these things together. Big Bend is the first thing that comes to mind but I don't know much about it. What have you already done and what's on your bucket list?

Put you hands in the hooks and get your lever blades closer. Set it up more like a "dirt drop" if you must. It's almost impossible to loose grip down there. When you get old, just get a taller stem. No need for a flat/riser bar unless your frame is already too big for you.