notyal

Chiming in a bit late here, but it really depends on your intended usage. If you "upgrade" your path with crushed granite, mulch, or even concrete, you may attract a broader range of path users. However for mountain biking, I natural surface path is usually best. No upgrades needed. If you really need to upgrade the path, some well placed berms or jumps can transform a relatively boring path into a lot of fun. Hope this helps in your decision. Note: Sorry if this sets off a string of bad puns, especially from Ridingfool. That dude is a path-ological punner. It's path-etic.

Your five dots are not welcome here.

And what was up with Maldonado forgetting how to catch for an inning? Oh well, a split on the road to open the series. Most would take that anyday.

Mucky Nutz. Best $12 bike accessory you'll ever buy. Now you can shred muddy trails like a pro. (Joking about shredding muddy trails. Serious about the fender.)

Just got back from a trip. Thanks to everyone here for posting their experience. It was a big help planning our trip. It was incredible. The town is clean and friendly. It has weird sort of vibe where this MTB tourism thing is being accepted and embraced by the whole community, but many of the locals don't really understand it. Like "just smile and take their money". Not in a bad way. It's just a fairly new development for them. Day 1: We pulled into town about 5 and had another guy who flew in landing about the same time who was renting from Phat Tire. Parked near the shop and took off on Slaughter Pen. We had to stay pretty close to town because the guy flying was taking an Uber to the shop and meeting us after picking up the rental, and we thought it could take a while. Credit to Phat Tire, he was in and out. With the time constraints and circling back to meet our friend, it did make us session the stuff really close to town. All-American, Choo Choo, and Ozone turned out to be some of my favorite trails of the trip. Day 2: Back 40. We set out to do the main loop CCW (with Ledges detour). About halfway one guy crashed and ruptured him palm through the glove. It was really weird. The glove was undamaged, but there was a huge gash underneath. Instead of doing the whole outer loop, we cut through on some of the inner trails. From what I could tell, the green, blue, black system is mostly based on steepness, not tech. If you explore those inner loops, do your best to descend the blacks and blues and climb the greens. The ER near Blowing Springs is very nice. Day 3: It rained most of the night and into the morning. We drank most of the night and into the morning as well. We heard Hobbs State Park was a pretty chill ride and sheds water really well. It was perfect for us that day with all of us pretty tired/hungover and one guy with stitches in his hand. Plus, there was a big race in town, so we needed to avoid SP and Back 40. Hobbs was wet but not muddy with plenty of grip. The wet roots were a little slick, but not a problem. It was not technical at all, but the downs were fast with plenty of climbing back up. It was a bit of a haul. Under different circumstances, I would rather have explored the rest of SP and/or Coler, but if it's wet or you're looking for something more flowy XC style, I really enjoyed Hobbs.

I developed a love for the gym about 10 years ago after a mountain bike accident. I received PT for the shoulder injury. I asked to be discharged early because I felt better and was sick of weekly PT. She told me only if I continued to strengthen my shoulder with normal gym activities. I started seeing gains in all aspects of my riding by adding core, upper body, and legs days to the workout. I still go to the gym 2-3 times a week during regular work hours. I bring my lunch to the office, eat at my desk, and take the usual lunch break time to hit the gym. I mix in some trail runs during that time as well. Unfortunately, anytime I get on a bike, even if I can ride out from the house, 1 hour is not enough time for even a "sprint" workout when you consider prep time and such. I'd prefer to ride more, but gym and running are far more convenient.

I understand trying to implement safety orientated rules. When you have ex-players saying that they won't let their own children play football, that's a real problem that threatens the future of the game. Every single rule change in the last several years has favored the offense. Specifically the passing offense. I say allow some more contact down the field. Slowing the receivers on their routes will make it harder to pass and maybe tilt it back into a more ground and pound game.

Bring on the Red Sox!

I don't feel that we've mastered the mousetrap as society. The standard mousetrap snaps once, then needs immediate attention to be a viable trap again. They are tricky to set and painful if you do it wrong. Even if the trap is set and deployed perfectly, you end up with a dead mouse stuck in a spring that you then have to deal with and a free meal for the next mouse that happens along. What were we talking about again?

Just make sure you preface every sentence with "I was just riding along and..."

I also peel apples and oranges in a single spiral.

How much for a tour of the goat farm? Looking for the "full experience". Asking for a friend.

Last night I browsed through my stash of used tires to bring a spare on a trip and thought I should at least peel the dried up sealant out of there. I got it all in one piece. THE PERFECT PEEL!!!

Wimberley

So, back to riding Cat Mt., is it possible to ride it without a full-on FR512 membership? I'm sure it's a great group and all. It's just not geographically viable for me.

I had the exact same revelation the other day. I used to look forward to my bike maintenance nights. Then one day it became a chore.

"Made In This Country"

Yeah, I was looking at the "over-biked" comment from a "this bike is nicer than I should have for my skill set". Not a "this bike is not suited for my preferred terrain". I don't think the first example exists.

Depends on the type of modification you're looking for, but... I might have you covered.

How would he have gotten through the rigorous screening process? He must have 2 emails or something. Talk about livin' large.

"over biked"? Is this a real thing?

You mean the one with the sticker that says "Bike USA......made in China"

I didn't get into video games until college when I lived with a couple other guys, so there was always a game of Madden to be had. We didn't get much done. The loaded bong on the table 24/7 probably didn't help either. Well, at least I don't play video games anymore.

I don't own the bike in my avatar and I am intrigued by this dildo shaped fork you mention. I'm finding my feelings about myself very confusing right now.

What's up with the black highlighted font? Does this happen when someone is using the dark theme and copy/pastes? Back on the pedal topic, I think part of the PI Pedal huge platform theory is that in the gym, if you are doing squats, you don't balance on a step with your heels off the back suspended in the air. The balls of your feet and heels are equally supporting the load and you actually drive up through the middle of the foot for max efficiency. So why do we perch with only the balls of feet on the pedals? Seems like a decent argument until you realize that a squat and a pedal stroke are completely different motions under different conditions. If you were to add some instability to your squat with a Bosu ball or something, I'd bet a lot of that weight moves forward to the balls of the feet. I'm saying this as a lifetime clipless rider. I have tried flat a couple of times, but they never seem to stick. I'm about due for another wave of flat pedal experimentation. It's just hard to do something you know is going to be frustrating when you could easily just stick to what you know.