notyal

27 minutes ago, Ridenfool said:

Looks like Canyon of the Eagles is a private park, but they do have camping for $30 / tent spot and $45 (weekday) or $49 (weekends) / RV spot a night. (kinda pricey)

Inks Lake is the closest state park, and is a little closer to RPR than Canyon of the Eagles. Camping prices range from $11 to $23 a night.

I heard somewhere that Inks Lake has some underrated riding. If it's made of that same water resistant granite magic dirt, that could be a fun change from RPR. 

But it's still Dallas.

Doesn't hurt to ask for some sort of replacement/compensation.

You could make an argument that anyone who would prefer not to die is a narcissist.

22 minutes ago, CBaron said:

But you don't always have a plumb bob in your pocket. 😉

-CJB

No truer words have ever been spoken.

Why don't you just go ride it and find out? I mean, it is public land, so you can do whatever you want on it. Plus, ridding muddy trails is just a part of mountain biking. YeeHaa!

*joking

I had an extra Tile, so I put it in my bike. I have Stumpy with the SWAT frame storage compartment, which made it really easy to hide in the frame. I live way out in the sticks, and the only times it picked up the Tile network was when it was in the big city shop for a couple of days. After about a year, I started getting notices from the Tile saying it was low on batteries and the whole thing needed to be replaced. If it ran on a replaceable watch battery or something, I'd probably keep using it. It's wasn't worth it to me, and I now have a dead Tile jammed in my frame.

14 hours ago, TheX said:

Hooray, we get to argue again.

No. We. DON'T!!!

3 hours ago, AustinBike said:

After last night's R&I my brakes were squishy again. Part of the problem (I am guessing) is that when I got the bleed kit it had a small bottle of oil so I have been very careful in how much I pump in. Went on Amazon last night after the ride and bought a liter of the stuff. Will be here this weekend. Gonna totally over pump the fluid through and see if there is something in my process or in my tubes that was creating the problem. If that does not work it may be time to take it to a professional. But I am so far down the rabbit hole on this that I want to leave that for the last resort.

The good thing about a failed brake bleed is that when you take it to the shop, you can just say "yeah, I don't know, they are just kinda mushy". This is far less embarrassing than showing up with all the pieces of your fork in a grocery sack.

1 hour ago, spicewookie said:

I’ve been a member, volunteer, and/or board member of both ARR and FR512 for over 10 years. It’s great to see some information getting out on each. They both have important roles to play in serving MTBers in this area. The largest difference between the two is where they work. Public land vs. private land.

ARR has worked on private land (RPR, Lone Man Mountain, etc).  Private land is great (ex. Spider Mountain), because usually one entity is in charge, assuming risks (insurance), and had goals/timelines. Private land can also have major drawbacks (Twin Parks, LMM, others), where agreements are made and then people change their minds. 

Public land has its pros and cons. Pros: 1) everyone can enjoy it 2) longevity of lifespan 3) mostly good people to work with

Cons: 1) approval process 2) limits of work schedule 3) other user groups 4)liability limits

 

i have high respect for anyone putting in the effort to build and maintain trails.   I wasn’t involved with any groups when I started building. I’ve come to realize the benefits of community in building trails. The very best friends I have today I met building trails. 

What was the deal with Lone Man Mountain again? I remember reading an old thread on Mojo but forgot the details. I live out here in Wimberley now, and there is not much within a 20 min drive. The popularity of the sport has grown greatly since 2004 or whenever that was. I wonder if they would be open to the idea again.

42 minutes ago, dustydubya said:

Ok, here is what I have left;

Rekon EXO  2.6 good condition $20

WTB Ranger TCS Tough Fast 2.8 brand new $25

2 Nobby Nics both 2.8 One has a cut in the read. Can probably be fixed with a patch or even seal with fresh sealant- free

I'd probably be interested in whatever tjc4 doesn't want. Let me know what's available. 

58 minutes ago, Chief said:

Here's Orange seal being peeled from inside of one of my tires. Completely dry inside, tire would lose a little air over time but no flats. 

I originally posted this in the random bike pic thread. I got the full circle in one piece:

17 minutes ago, dustydubya said:

I've ridden a ton of plus tires, was an early adapter.  First plus tires I rode were the first gen Nobby Nics. They were light and rolled decent enough but held up like crap. I sliced the casing on several in the tread area.  When Maxxis release their plus tires I never looked back. First set of Maxxis were Rekon 2.8 up front and Ikon 2.8 on the rear. Overall this was a very good combo, pedaled well and had enough grip most of the time.  I then switched to High Roller 2.8 up front Rekon 2.8 on the rear. This combo had more than enough grip for anywhere in central Texas, just felt a little draggy. Then I switched to Rekon 2.8 in the front and Rekon 2.6 in the rear. This really was the sweet spot for me, felt just right. I have a few take off tires  at home that I would sell pretty cheap. Or if you are up to the task, I would give you some Nobby Nics if you wanted to try to patch them and see if they sealed. LMK if anyone is interested and I will look tonight to see what I still have. I know I have a brand new WTB Ranger 2.8 that I would sell cheap as well. 

I'd be interested to hear what you've got. I'm heading to Big Bend in a month and was thinking about trying something lighter and faster rolling out there. 

12 minutes ago, TheX said:

Do they weep sealant?

The Grid casing is much better. I the Purg I have up front has not weeped one bit. Oddly enough, the Ground Control with the same casing weeps a little. Just enough to keep my sidewalls looking shiny. 

The Control casing weeped, but it was only at night when they were alone in the garage so it never really bothered me. We all deal with our issues in our own way. 

I also use homebrewed sealant. I've heard Orange Seal doesn't even weep with the Control casing. 

I'm a fan of Specialized tires. I've been running 3.0 Purgatory/Ground Control (F/R) with the Grid casing for a while now. Usually when it comes time to replace, I get bored and want something different just to have something different. I've replaced both of these with the same tire, which is saying something. I'll probably go down to a 2.8 for my next set to cut some weight. The other great thing is that BSS usually has them in stock, and they are more reasonably priced than Maxxis or Schwalbe. 

Man, I haven't been out there since I first moved here in 2008. All I remember it was brutally hot and the sandy soil was a killer. That, and we lost my buddy for a while, then he came out of the woods with one glove on. When asked what happened to his other glove, he replied that he didn't have any toilet paper. 

I should probably give it another try when it dries out more. 

Furthermore, I’d like to commend the Japanese people for both their excellence in hand tools and for not contributing to the growing problem of over human population.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Not really, the biggest problem Japan faces is low birth rate.

Those Japs sure know how to screw.

25 minutes ago, Ridenfool said:

That photo looks like some weird pair of glory holes for those who enjoy Prostate exams.

Would that be more or less awkward than looking the Doc in the eye?

23 minutes ago, RedRider3141 said:

My College roommate got Pneumonia once. So bad to the point that he just lived in a recliner wearing a mask for several days. He was really out of it, he couldn't even say "pneumonia" we had to write it out phonetically on a piece of paper and hang it on the wall so he could tell visitors what he had. "NEW-MOAN-YAH"  Anyways, he wasn't as bad as his dad who had his wisdom teeth removed. They where impacted pretty bad I guess. Lots of scraping and cutting of bone to get them out. One in particular was pretty bad. Anyways, this left him with severe pain and throbbing from how difficult it was for the oral surgeon to remove it. He ended up on all kinds of pain killers and such. The kind that were super effective but highly addictive. Luckily he didn't get addicted or anything, which is a good thing because another friend of mine was involved in a really bad motorcycle incident where he was on a bunch of painkillers too and he had a family friend (who I didn't know) who warned him about how addictive they were; I guess it kind of messed him up. My friend got off them as fast as he could for fear of having the same issue. Super serious stuff. Anyways my roommate's dad who was on pain killers because of the surgery. I said earlier that it was from wisdom teeth but I might be thinking of someone else... his might have been an appendix removal. Either way, 8-10 weeks after he recovered and was off the meds a large package showed up. He was super confused because he was like "WTH, I didn't order anything". So he quizzed his whole family about what they might have bought and everyone was clueless. When he opened it he found out it was a bike! Super weird since he already had a 1991 Schwinn 10 speed in the garage that he hadn't ridden since 1992. Keep in mind this is 2005 or thereabouts so it wasn't like he was an avid rider or anything. So the package being a bike really didn't help the situation. He ended up emailing the company who shipped the bike to get more information and to find out who got him a bike. After several days of back and forth he figured out that it was one of those "Auto-Shifting" bikes that were sold on infomercials in the early 2000s. When he asked who ordered it they assured  him that HE had in-fact ordered it. This blew his mind because of course he doesn't remember ordering a bike. But then it hit him: "The Painkillers". He must have been blitzed out his mind watching daytime infomercials and told himself "I should buy a bike". And so he did. I guess he said it was pretty cool, because you could  just "ride" and it would shift for you, didn't matter if you were going up hill, going slow or fast. A little gimmicky but it worked. So a few weeks go by and he hasn't ridden the bike since the initial test ride because, he doesn't really ride bikes.

Sometimes I see products like these zipper tires and go "I did not know that problem existed". And they I think about all of the stoned middle aged men who don't need them buying these things.

 

I wish I could have zipped off about half of that story. Now I have less time to get stoned and order stuff I don't need.

Let's make a pros and cons list.

Flats:

Pro - Feet come out easily

Con - Feet come out easily

Clipless:

Pro - Feet don't come out easily

Con - Feet don't come out easily

49 minutes ago, cxagent said:

Lower the pins for now. You may raise them as you get used to it.

I had to switch to flats for the instructor certification class. I was STUNNED that I did not lose as much as I thought I would. The two areas where I prefer clips are like crazyt said when I need that last little push to get over something or a short run at a climb where I need to generate power quickly.

The other place is when bouncing thru a rock garden or bumpy downhill. Clips held my feet on the pedals while my bike and body bounced around. On flats I keep bouncing off the pedals. And yes, I recognized this is problem with poor rider skill.

I alway feel like I'd like to ride flats, but all of the "the only places" people seem to miss being clipped in comprise like 90% of my riding. 

Seriously, in this thread alone, we have listed rocky uphills, rocky downhills, jumps, drops, quick bursts of power, and the road. 

Is anyone else starting to miss the Chinese spam bots?

9 minutes ago, TheX said:

So I pay with money AND my time and labor. What's next?

Do you have any plans for your eternal soul?