mack_turtle

On 9/14/2018 at 2:19 PM, fontarin said:

Try these:

https://salsacycles.com/components/category/road_handlebars/woodchipper

I'm generally in the drops with these when riding singletrack and it makes the control much better, especially over riding on the hoods.

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.

15 hours ago, ATXZJ said:

So where you going?

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?

On 9/4/2018 at 11:09 AM, AntonioGG said:

I couldn't hold onto my drop levers at Walnut during impacts.  It makes it a bit sketchy. 

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.

If you need interrupter levers because you can't stand riding on the hoods and drops, your frame and stem are too low or too long or both. Those levers can be useful in some situations but if you need them, that's a bike fit issue. There's no point in riding a bike with drop bars if you can't ride in the drops at least half of the time.

If you know how to install and adjust regular brake cables, installing them is a breeze. You don't even have to unwrap the bar tape.

1 hour ago, Albert said:

 I'm sure the road portions would be considerably faster on the CX bike, but that bike isn't as comfortable for me to ride as my mountain bike.  Not because of the squishy suspension on the mountain bike, but don't like curved bars very much. 

Some people never learn to appreciate drop bars, but most who don't have never ridden a drop bar bike that is set up to fit them properly.

True, but, factually speaking, riding a mountain bike on the road sucks ballz. I would choose the CX bike if I am going to spend more than 50% of the time on roads and bike paths. I have to routes that cicumnavigate the whole city that are super fun on curvy bars and skinny tires and include quite a bit of dirt.

I have not ridden a CX at Walnut, but I have explored a lot of SATN on a CX bike. Some of the trails are fun and just challenging enough, but those little tires just don't do well in the chunk.

I'll bet there's a fun, challenging loop in there that can be done on skinny tires but you need to know the trails well enough, which I don't.

The other thing I like about riding a CX bike is that you can link together road and trails. If the trail gets too chunky, it's a CX bike, so you can shoulder and hike it.

The picture above of the squatting man has me thinking... I have been working on relearning how to move like that. It's an essential, normal, natural ability that most Westerner s have lost. It's very likely that I enjoyed my brief experiment with a dropper post because it caters to my specific kind of laziness and inability to move.

I have to wonder how much a dropper post and other affectations of modern mountain bikes are made "necessary" by the poor health and movement of modern living. Sitting all day at a desk, in a couch, and in a car, lousy diets, overly- supportive footware, movement that is restricted to compartmentalized "exercise." I live this way too for the most part, but I am aware of it and work to limit my helplessness. Riding my bike is one of the few aspects of my lifestyle where I can choose to use or restrict my reliance of the crutches. Maybe a dropper is not a crutch, but I don't find it to add anything to my riding experience just yet.

Edit- not saying that a dropper is a bad thing or that it does not make some trails and terrain a lot less treacherous and more fun, but I worry about relying on it as a crutch.

8 minutes ago, The Tip said:

Pretty definitive answer to at least part of your question. This is at the entrance to Circle C Metro park. The park goes all the way east to Mopac. So if you see the girl on the horse I think it would be very acceptable to say, "Do you know horses aren't allowed in this park? There's a sign over there that says that."  I would assume that rule applies to the Veloway trails east of Mopac too.

I thought I remembered seeing that. She had parked her trailer behind Burger Fi. I called 311 and they transfered me to 911.

Weshould all make an effort to start bombarding 311 with calls about horses and off-leash dogs and maybe things will change. SW Austin really needs an off-leash dog park too!

Tires- something light with tiny knobs. Spec Renegades or Schwalbe Thunder Burt's would be nice.

I have not seen a map yet. how far do you have to go before you repeat a "lap?"

I signed up for Come and Grind It 100k earlier this year. the 100k was just two laps of the 50k course. it was hot an humid, so after the first lap, I saw cold beer and shade and didn't want to see all those pastures again. I called it a day after 50.

Not sure if this should be a "roadie" discussion. I always have fun with these rides. 100K on gravel roads is something I can do, but it sounds miserable in the heat. I might just do the 50k at chill pace.

https://www.bikesignup.com/Race/TX/Lockhart/TheLockhartBreaker2018?rsus=100-200-a12dd788-0c54-426e-9c91-84078761db6b

Wot?

The market is ripe for e-ecumbant mountain bikes. Precludes all dropper posts. 

Can someone clarify for me- where are horses allowed in the area? I know Slaughter Creek Nature Preserve is horse-friendly, but what about Circle C Metro and the other stuff along Slaughter Creek?

For some reason, I have this Platonic ideal in my head of what a mountain bike should be, and a dropper post feels like a betrayal. Some of you have a more Nietzsche-esque approach. that's fine, perhaps my thinking about bicycles should transcend the rigid/ suspension paradigm foisted upon us by Protestants and their sanctimonious work ethic. Buy a dropper and put it on your e-bike, then just sit in your living room with a VR headset and watch other people riding trails and be done with all that sweating and work.

I've been using a Fitbit Surge for rides, but it can't be charge while I am wearing it because the charging port is on the back, next to my skin. I'll have to use a phone+battery for a ride like that and maybe just use the watch to monitor my heart rate and that sort of thing. not that I am using that data, but it's interesting to have for when I regain consciousness. 

I only see BSS listed as a local dealer. give them a ring and they might have something in the works. there are no demo events listed for Austin, but there's one coming up in Bentonville.

I got a dropper a few months ago and rode with it on WC and SATN. I made a point of finding everything technical that I could but I have not ridden Brushy or BCGB with it. I found that I didn't need it at all and fussing with it became a distraction that took away from the riding experience. I have enough skill and range of motion on my bike to move my body around the saddle, and even use it in climbs and descents, to put it in one place. I have my saddle at least one cm below "road height" to get it a little out of the way for bike wranglin'. I have ridden some trails around here with drops and jumps and just walk that stuff. even if I had a long-travel FS bike with plus tires and a dropper, I would not be riding like that. it's just not my thing. I'd rather climb the entire HOL than do that stuff even once.

I'm also riding with one gear, a rigid fork, and flat pedals, so simplicity is kind of my MO. I've been riding with my trusty Thomson post in the meantime. I'll keep it around and try it again eventually, but I might end up liquidating it to buy something more useful to me.

I have done a few 100k gravel races. I am pretty wiped at the end of those. That's about 63 miles of "roads." 80+ miles that includes a lot of technical trail sounds like quite a task.

serious question- What GPS units are you using that last all of EB? the battery in my watch or my phone would die within 5-6 hours.

1 minute ago, pickensupthepieces said:

http://www.bikemojo.com/speak/14-austin-voodoo/223244-gawd-i-hate.html

that site id dead to me! if you click that link, the terrorists win.

what's the best...

yeah, I went there. it seems like everything I try dries up in a few days: Stan's, homebrew, Trucker... have not tried Orange Seal yet. they all seal the tire, but when I get a puncture, it does nothing because there's not enough liquid left. are my Schwalbe tires the problem?