brentb

Nice pick!

Night rides are a lot of fun. I'd be up for doing some. (Cafeend, you asked me about night rides when we were chatting at Brushy that morning we met.) Number 1 rule for group rides: everybody has their own light, charged, and working. No light, don't ride with us. Fun things about night ride: Having owls flying at head level in the opposite direction at the BCGB, or having two pairs of glowing eyes follow us from hill to hill at Emma Long (we couldn't see what these eyes belonged to).

See the Ripmo AF? Starting at $2999 with NX, $3999 with SLX and 4 piston brakes. $4300/GX.

Did he get himself untangled, or did you have to help? I had a squirrel run through my front wheel back in the 90's. He ran in from the right side, made it through about 90 degrees and was flipped into the air to the left and he ran off.

I agree, it looked like a good setup for here but I didn't pursue it because I couldn't get enough hard information about it. AB or Teamsloan, if you get to demo one, please post about it.

I went to do a lap at WC, started, and got absolutely drenched by the time I made it to the root drop. I only got 2.5 miles in. The ground is so hard packed that my tires weren't leaving any marks while it was raining. The ground hadn't softened up yet, and will probably be fine tomorrow.

I would too! I guess I was remembering too much of the aluminum Switchblade, which was sub-$4k. When I was trying different bikes back in March or so, I have always liked the Pivots but they seem to start right at $5k, and I'm just not doing that.

<dreaded double post>

If the 429 Trail is on your radar, have you considered the Pivot switchblade? Or is that more suspension than you'd prefer to have? If you could build a Ripley for <$2k that'd be a great deal.

Maybe that is key. I'll defer to your sole-wrenching experience lest I come across as a heel.

Yes, it is. If you use part of an old tube for the patch, I think in that case you'd rough up both parts and apply cement to both, let them completely dry (10 mins or so), then stick them together. Where I wrote "rubber cement" above is a mistake. Rubber cement is not a permanent bond. Contact cement is, though.

A round bike tube patch, about 1" diameter, with the vulcanizing/rubber contact cement included. Rough up the inside of the tire *slightly* because you don't want to scratch deep and start cutting tire cords. And I also learned I had been installing these incorrectly, at least the brand I have. You're only supposed to put cement on the carcass you are patching (the tire in this case). Once dry, then press the patch on. I had been putting cement on both parts.

When I got my back in April, I caught a rock edge on the creekside climb at the start of Windy Loop, and gashed the rear tire. It was brand new, probably 10 miles on it... However, it was a clean cut, short, and I patched it from the inside after cleaning the sealant out. It worked a charm, and hasn't changed since then. I'm running 30psi.

I might pick up a Garmin unit at some point. I like their integration. I'm currently using a Polar m430 HRM+GPS. I'm happy with it -- even though it's wrist-based HRM, it works very well and the GPS receiver not only gets a near-immediate lock, but creates the most accurate GPS tracks I've seen from various receivers (phones, three different Garmin units, etc). It can also use a chest strap monitor, but I haven't needed that yet. All that said, I do like the Garmin cycle computers.

At some point we'll just have mini-CVTs and be done with it.

Right, and conditions. For me, I'm thinking the sweet spot for number of gears is probably lower, like in the 7-8 range. I know that with the 11-speed setup I have now, I'm often jumping 2 gears at a time on the climbs and descents. Since I rarely use the lowest cog (50 I think), I could get rid of that, plus one in the midrange, adjust the tooth counts, and that'd put me at 9 gears. Maybe we'll get to the point of purely custom cogsets, although I could see that being a rathole of configurability that maybe I'd rather not delve into.

It's a neat idea, to create a 3m grid across the world and label each square with its own 3-word label. It's not any more or less effective than GPS (for the problem of specifying a general location or address), but if one is lost and has a spotty cell connection, it might be simpler to communicate with a few words than trying to convey lat-long accurately. "I'm stuck at ///zebras.wisely.rearrange"

Word.

For the past two weeks DD has been bone dry (last seen dry last week). On this morning's ride I drop down into DD and it's flowing, with bright green algae. Totally unrideable.

How was the traffic back then?

I'm just at the point where I can ride Mulligan without stopping, but I'm not doing the big final drop. The rooty ledge feature up the left, around the oak, and back down on the right was giving me fits back in March, but on my new bike I have two lines up, and two lines down I feel comfortable and am able to take cleanly. Between the tree gates and roots, Mulligan has some surprises if you aren't watching. I don't think I've ever wiped out at Walnut Creek, although the fresh powder conditions on Severe Consequences tests me. But certain trails in the BCGB have knocked me on my ass more than once.

One difference I saw in these rebranded droppers was the bar lever orientation. Some pivot downward (horizontal axis), while others swing forward (vert axis). Ah, a second reading of mack_turtle's response makes sense to me now - saying the same thing

+1 "More research is required."

And to toss another idea out there, it may be cleat placement. About 10 years ago I started running, which changed my feet and caused numbness on some rides (using SPDs). It was a more general numbing across all my toes, not as specific as yours. IIRC I moved my cleats heel-ward just a couple mm, and that was enough to relieve whatever pressure was going on. Hope you get it figured out.

Thanks, that's good to know. I hope the new director can make the changes.