AntonioGG

To clarify, I've been riding the trainer a lot the last few months (3 off-road rides in 5 weeks: One in 4C, one at Brushy (got rained on halfway through), and WC on 2 trails this past Thursday). I've also been doing less road riding than ever, and now I'll be doing even less after loosing a fellow endurance MTBer in College Station (RIP Ken Spence). Otherwise, I just ride the hills in my neighborhood. I'm fairly lazy too (lights plus winter gear plus driving in traffic=no thanks) and so I'm not going to the R&I tonight and instead did 1hr at a good effort on my trainer for lunch while I listened/watched a company monthly update. I'll do the "I "part on my couch. 🙂

+1 To clarify, my goal is to flatten to the level of the undisturbed trail. I'm talking about a limited size spot in a trail that has had the mud vertically displaced into a ridge by several sets of tires. It's about the consistency of play dough or modeling clay. Once it hardens, it will take a shovel or other tools and much more work. I'll take pictures the next time I do this.

With different parts of the trail being so different, I think you would need a bunch of local sensors. Note my last post in the R&I thread. I seeing a big disconnect on what people consider OK and not OK to ride.

I rode church hill 6-7 times on Thursday from around 3 to 4:30pm. Now reading y'alls comments, I'm afraid I've been doing it wrong all these years as far as the rules on when it's OK to ride. When you guys say church hill, you mean just the climb part right? I'm racking my brain trying to recall what part of that climb was a mess. Is riding the wet limestone itself the problem? Or was there actual mud (like on the Windy loop first climb) when you guys rode? Here is what I go by when riding, please correct any of these things I'm doing wrong: 1) ride through the puddle if the bottom is firm (most of the time this is true when there's actual water.) 2) if it looks like deep mud (as opposed to a puddle of water), avoid it. If walking off the trail would damage that part of the trail, then don't do that. I've turned around at this point. At places like Brushy where it's very rocky, it's easy to just walk on the rocks and not widen the trail. I look back often to see what my trail looks like. I look at my tires to make sure they are coming up clean. 3) If the mud has ruts, but it is hardening (i.e. improving) I make it a point to ride on the ridges to flatten them out. I do this at point 6 once it starts drying out. I figured it's much easier to flatten things out with tires when the dirt is soft than it is to wait for them to harden and have to do with a shovel. If it's very soft but not sticking, I get off the bike, and I use my tire like a rolling pin to flatten things out. I've done this at peddler's pass recently. I will not ride if I leave more than a knob depth imprint. 4) If the mud is caused by an easy to clear blockage (detritus), I often stop and clear the blockage. I don't ride with a shovel or any sizable tools, but I'll use whatever is handy (sticks, rocks) to "cut through" the ridges on the ruts to let the water drain (I do this frequently at Brushy Creek's Mulligan).

There was only one spot on church hill that had moisture, and that was on the upper limestone section. The lower clay section was dry and firm. The descent was all very nice.

Log loops are gtg. The report from my buddy is that all the hard work has paid off.

Haha!

Rode the south side yesterday evening. The fence line in Tangle of Trails is a bit soft, but not rutting and not sticking. Everything else is good in Tangle. The lower trails (i.e. closest to the creek) on the south side rom the main crossing are super wet, muddy, with puddles.

I just noticed you were looking at the Zion. Your link is to the Bronson.

Damn! Now I want to buy one of those. Definitely made me think of my best friends while listening to him.

The only pair of MTB shorts I have are Pactimo and I love them and their fit (slight stretch with snaps). I don't like any of the padded liners that come with MTB shorts, so like @crazyt I just wear regular bibs under them. I mostly just wear the bibs though. I've also worn my favorite shorts. REI had these khaki shorts made from some material that blocks sun, breathes well, doesn't stain, repels water, etc. I bought a 2nd years later, then another in black some years after that but they don't feel the same. I've worn those for riding as well as going to work or just hanging round the house. They don't make them anymore, my first pair are still good, with a little hole in one spot. The 2nd has a bad zipper (plan on replacing it). I'm really interested in these Bronson shorts. When you said to size up, what's the main reason? I went to the prAna website to see their size chart. It asks you for what brand pants you wear and the size, then it recommends a size in their stuff. It went one size under my regular brand.

This gauge says 1/2" at Scorpion Hill (the closest weather station now since the old one stopped reporting). https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KTXSMITH14#history/s20190111/e20190111/mdaily Do you think it will be good to go tomorrow? At this point based on the closest weather stations, it looks like Walnut Creek got less rain (0.35") than Rocky Hill Ranch (0.51")

I hope you're right. I may just head out there with my son on Sunday.

Congrats man! 3 years ago I went to an ER in Grand Rapids, MI, and again a few days later here in Austin. It turned out to be panic attacks (never had them before but if you ever watch the Sopranos and heard Tony talking about having ginger ale in your head, that was spot on for me, also hot burning left arm). I'm glad I went to the ER. I always wondered how people could mistake heartburn for a heart attack... now I know. Don't mess around and go get it checked out. Get a stress test regularly too if your insurance covers it.

Has anyone scouted Thumper? Maybe I can go hike some of it this afternoon.

Sorry about that. Strava changed privacy settings. My default now is followers only for when I ride unmentionables. I've made my ride public now. This was the worst spot for sticky mud. From when you turn off Grey's Hwy, until the first left hand hairpin. I walked this climb on every lap. Not worth the energy for me since I was SS, but Johnnymotox rode this 22x in 22 hours in his SS. The good thing is that after some sticky mud, in Karaway, you got to go through the puddle so you rinse off the mud. You know in that section where a little ladder bridge skinny has been built but has fallen apart? That was all 3" of water. It still sounded awful, but I somehow didn't have to replace anything but the bottom bracket. This was the worst part of the trail as far as non-sticky mud. Basically the stuff close to the fence line, and before and after that. (fofenique?):

+1

The 24 hour race re-route works pretty well. You stay on the double road to the south, look for a path into the weeds. It intersects into Grey's Way. That will be the worst mucky part. That takes you into Fat Chuck's. After that, there are some sections were you may hit water, but none of the sticky mud. https://www.strava.com/activities/1915269157/segments/48348948408

We rode 1/4 notch close to noon. It started sprinkling on us halfway through. It was slick as snot. The mudholes were more in number, wider, and deeper. We walked all of them. We bailed out at Swag. The bailout exit at the BCRT connection is completely destroyed. I looked into Peddlers but the first turn was soft and rutted. I tried to smooth out the ruts with my tires while it's soft, but in parts it was too soft and it was sticking a bit. I turned around and just did 1/4. Didn't try anything else but it seemed to have stopped raining right after we finished.

The big bit sets have different types of cross-shaped bits. I've never bothered to check which is which, but there is definitely a difference in how well the engage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives

That reminds me of that other forum's thread "who would you like to ride with?"

I watched that video and looked at a couple of other search results. I just sold my Computrainer a couple of months ago, but it afforded me pedaling drills with data. I wish I'd tried it with flats just for curiousity's sake. This page shows a picture of the Spinscan graphs: http://www.pedpowerperformlab.com/PedalPower.html Yeah, I'm good with whatever people want to use too. I'd say I'm flat-curious but solidly in the clipless camp.

Thanks. That's interesting. I could see how you could be equal power/efficiency if the up-stroke is indeed a fallacy. But I can't see how platforms could be more efficient. That GCN test was lacking in a bit of mechanics science. I'd posit that the cleat placement or seat height wasn't optimal and riding clipless shoes on platforms seems ridiculous. I'm not saying one way or the other one is better, just disappointed in the test. For the MTBR test, that's too short a time lapse. I'd like to see a 1 minute test, and also tests at different RPMs.

I was directing it toward Mack and gotdurt. I really do want to see data, I'm not just being facetious.

For those pro-flats or at least advocating there is no efficiency hit, have you done a spinscan with flats? Is there data? Link please. And don't make me go look for it, you guys are the ones trying to convince us (I'm with Seth), and I'm open minded enough to look at it but I want data, not perception. I not only prefer clipless for going uphill or on the road, but even for tech sections.