MrTheCatLady

Free to good home: 2 pairs of 5-10 Freerider Pro MTB shoes. Size 11/US Not clipless-compatible - for use with flats only Have been washed and have drawn up a bit - probably more like size 10.5/US Original laces have been replaced by LockLace stretchy laces 2 Long-sleeve Castelli base layers Size L Like new 2 Short-sleeve Castelli base layers from the short-lived David Lee Roth collection Size L/XL (very very stretchy) Like new I can meet you anywhere as long as it is Walnut Creek. -cls

Fair enough. Thanks for responding, and good luck. FWIW I have my eye on the e13 TRS+ . I am totally convinced the 100% mechanical design (i.e. spring powered) is superior. Also, I don't mind the lack of infinite adjustability...I think an e13 provides a selection of heights that is not at all limiting; at least, not to a rider at my (low) skill level. It disappoints me that they have not ben without their issues, but hopefully those are behind them, and the fix was user-installable anyway. -cls

crankin', I'll sell you the RockShox Reverb Stealth 31.6 (x150mm, I think) from my brand-new SC 5010 for $200. I'll sell you the whole thing - lever, cable, post, and all. I don't know much about it; I guess it has the new-style lever you want. There is nothing wrong with it as far as I can tell; I just don't like the action as compared to my cheap-ass Brand-X I have on my other MTB. I have literally 2 rides on this thing, maybe 25 miles total. Please let me know if you are interested. I'm no good with hydraulics so I am going to take the bike to the shop this weekend and have them swap in a KS Lev I have lying around spare. So the RS should be available this weekend or early next week. -cls

OK, gotcha. In so many words, you were saying "Well DUH!" 🙂. Although on the customer service front (e.g. mounting those bars on a just-purchased bike), I still believe I have every right to expect the same attentiveness from PB as I do BSS. Maybe that's misguided, but I think CS is CS, national chain or not. PB has no reason to be not as good as, say, REI on the CS front. I mean, I've never bought a bike at REI, but I have received uniformly excellent CS regarding every single thing I have ever bought (and, especially, returned) there. Also, while we're on the subject of the brands they sell, what do you think about Fuji? I thought the Altamira I bought had pretty good value for the quality of frame, groupset, etc. -cls

I...I'm not sure how to take this. Being completely earnest here...they are both bike shops, so what could be baffling about comparing them? Granted, they are both very different (local vs. national, privately-held vs. corporate), but they still offer the same exact types of products and services, right? Are you saying that one to the other is like daylight to darkness, such that comparing them is just...silly, or something? Please explain, seriously. My wife and I have lived here for 3 1/2 years now. So we *are* pretty new to the area, yeah. But we're not a pair of those damned Californians, no siree. We're from DALLAS!! 😎 -cls

I say good riddance as well. I've done business with the Anderson Lane location and I think it is a terrible place. The staff is often moody and/or sarcastic and their service is second to all IMHO. I bought a brand-new Fuji Altamira road bike with rim brakes from them last year and I got the bike all the way home before I realized the front caliper was not secured. At all. The nut down in the recess on the back of the fork was not long enough to engage the threads on the bolt coming through the caliper on the front. I spoke with the manager next time I was in, and he was super nice about it, but yikes. That bike had been through at least two inspections before I got it home, including the "final check" after the sale. Also on that same bike I asked them if they could go ahead and mount the aftermarket bars I had selected from their display. They indicated that service was a little backed up and that they could do it maybe Wednesday (this was on a Saturday). So I just did it myself after I got home (whereby I discovered the front brake issue). Maybe that is normal, but at the shop I usually do business with (BSS/Research), if I buy a bike along with so much as a plastic bottle cage, they'll install it right damn then unless I ask them not to. No matter how busy service is (although I have had to wait a few minutes sometimes, which is not at all a problem). This has been the treatment I have received on every bike I have purchased, starting with the first one when I was a brand-new customer. So, yeah. Good riddance. I hope the employees there find new work quickly, and get their attitudes adjusted. -cls

duplicate.

Chardog, are you indicating that ARR didn't have their Sunday ride yesterday after all? Did they announce on Meetup that it was a go on Saturday night, only to show up Sunday morning and say "Whoops, never mind."? Edit, answered my own question. Looks like the ARR ride *did* happen yesterday. I guess a little mud on the tires wasn't a big deal after all. -cls

Got another one...went MTB at Walnut Creek this morning and came home with a dirty bike. Which I proceeded to wash without a second thought, because I want the drivetrain to actually be functional the next time I take it out. Whoops. -cls

I and a buddy were there at 7:45am. There were definitely many, many mud holes and squishy patches, but IMHO the trails were very rideable. We rode everything except Windy Loop. There were a few spots where there was nowhere to go except through the mud/squish, but for the vast majority of spots, the trail was wide enough to go around, with some care. We rode 11 miles or so snd never really picked up that much mud. I mean the tread stayed fairly full, but it never really caked on such that it hid the knobs on the tires, and certainly never reached the point where the wheels just stopped turning. The only real issue we ran into was the slickness of every piece of rock out there. I had maybe half the traction I usually do on the little rocky climbs. Spun out a lot. Still a great time, though, and not just because I hadn't been out MTNing in a month. Should be even better tomorrow, and I think we're due some wind this week, so that'll help a lot too. -cls

I kinda haven't minded being limited to road biking for the last month. -cls

LOL I'll answer my own question - according to Meetup.com, the ARR Sunday all levels ride is ON for tomorrow at 9:30am. A comment from ~2 hours ago indicates "Ride is a go! Trails a bit wet today but should be great tomorrow". 🙂 -cls

Thanks, fontarin. I don't mean to be a pest, but I am looking all over https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=austin ridge riders mountain bike club and i don't see anything from yesterday. I do see a post from October 21 that has a picture of a dog chillin' in some mud. Am I just missing it? I'm not so good with the book of faces. -cls

Anyone know if Walnut will be dry enough tomorrow morning to ride? In related news I think I've almost forgotten how to ride a MTB. -cls

The one time I attempted to ride MTB with earbuds was at Slaughter Creek maybe a few months back. I got about 1/2 mile in and took them out and pocketed them. I felt so DISCONNECTED from the trail that it unnerved me. Hearing my tires crunch over gravel and dirt and hearing my bike squeak, rattle and move around is a bigger part of the MTB experience that I realized. I'll probably never use earbuds while MTB again. Funny enough, I think one of those speaker things may be OK, as long as it is at low volume. But it probably couldn't be made low enough to not bug others *shrug*. I *have* successfully enjoyed earbuds while road biking, but I only do it on "closed courses" where there are no cars - like the Southern Walnut Creek Sidew^H^H^H^H^HTrail. I'd never even attempt it in traffic. -cls

OMG they really published it!!

And by way of explanation...from their campaign copy and spec pages (which I am sure will be fixed soon):

I'm sure it will never see the light of day...

Rode Slaughter Creek Trail this morning - the FB page announced last night that it was open. It shouldn't have been. It is 'way too muddy. It didn't quite get to the point where the wheels wouldn't turn, but it was pretty bad. I'd give it a few more days. -cls

Speaking of anti-KOPS, there is a somewhat-renown (in the bike-fitting circle) guy named Steve Hogg who is a very outspoken critic of KOPS and other "rote-method" fitting systems. He is in Australia or the UK or somewhere, but he has a disciple here in Austin. I wonder if anyone on AMB/Mojo has ever had a fit by this guy? Jerry Gerlich https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/fitters/jerry-gerlich/ -cls

Man, I have to look up every now and then just to make sure I'm not about to run into something. I've been dog-tired on my MTB on a few occasions, staring down at the front wheel *after* some big effort, and run straight into a bush. Or a fence. Just plain embarrasin', I tellya. -cls

Hyperconverged? Do you guys use Nutanix? -cls

Rode some of it this morning...Log Loops, Mark's Art, Tangle, Chardog Up, all good-to-go. The ground is still very dark, and there are a very few soft spots here and there, but nothing unmanageable. -cls

Nope, looks like Lime Creek is out in Leander, by the lake (also, yikes!). Rain Creek is over here in the Great Hills area, NW of the Arboretum. Another one of the "the usual suspects" climbs I've heard of is Jester Blvd. I've thought about checking it out...it's easy enough to get to from my 360 route. Y'know it's funny. I have watched a lot of videos on climbing and whatnot and one thing that always cracks me up is they talk about strategies for this and that - breathing, cadence, gear choice, hand position, etc. Pffffft on the hills around here, I often have only one choice at all: Shift down to the granny gear and just try not to stop. Or die. When I get to the point where I don't need the granny gear (or at least don't feel like I'm going to die) then some of the advice may be useful. But getting to that point is IMO the much bigger challenge. After that it's just marginal gains. -cls