WLemke

1 hour ago, Shinerider said:

Yep, it sure is a Bike.  That it is.  But, a $650 bike?  I think he accidently added a zero to the price.

https://austin.craigslist.org/bik/d/austin-bicycle/7118145449.html

 

"Price negotiable"

Better be very negotiable. 

Ok. First ride with cush core is completed and the verdict is in....I have no freaking idea if it made any difference. Problem is in addition to the cush core install, I also threw on a set of tires I have never used before. Went with the tried and true Minion DHF 2.5/DHRII 2.4 combo. I was previously running a Schwalbe Nobbie Nic 2.6 front and rear. Quick aside...NN makes an awesome rear tire from cradle to grave. NN is a decent front tire when new and a below average front tire with a 1,000 miles on the clock. The DHF/DHRII set up has grip for days. Also lowered both the front and rear pressure down to 16PSI halfway in the ride. Very little tire slip on 1/4 in places i typically loose traction. Not sure whether to attribute that to the minions or the lower pressure afforded by cush core.

Anyways, I bought cush core not to improve the performance of the ride but to protect my poor wheel set against rim strikes...which I have done many a time. See pic for the carnage. I have a total of 5 dings on the rear rim and 1 ding on the front rim. All have been straightened out using a crescent wrench. I am amazed this wheel set is still holding air and has not imploded on me. 

Removed the tire this morning to reinstall the cush core after leaving the tire in a state of "vanilla" tubeless last night. In my haste, I reinstalled the tire in the wrong rotation direction...oof. Another round of uninstalling and reinstalling made me late for my morning coffee. Silver lining, I've now got a lot of experience installing and uninstalling a tire with cush core. Now that I've done it a few times, I have to say that the cush core insert almost makes installing a tire easier since the inserts really holds the bead into the rim trough when you stuff them down to get that last 12 inches of tire into the rim.

Anyways, holding air well. Got the rear tire at 18psi and the front at 16psi. My normal is 20rear/19front. Looking forwarding to testing them out after work today. Will report on my thoughts.

48 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

How wide is the tape, and what's the inner width of that rim? The tape should be wide enough to reach the inner sidewall of the rim. There are holes in the rim, most likely, from the manufacturing process in addition to the spoke holes.

32mm inner width and the tape does indeed reach from rim wall to rim wall. 
 

I actually just went out to my workshop and after sitting over night, both tires are hard as a rock. I’m guessing the sealant must have plugged anything up. 

Finally got around to installing cush core. Installation was a breeze. It’s all about pushing the bead into the center channel. Took about 10 min per tire.
 

Annoying issue though. I filled both tires up to 40psi to allow the bead to set properly. Came back an hour later and the rear was at 18psi. Set it back to 40 and same deal. Half the pressure was lost after an hour. Took the wheel off the bike and started spraying it with soapy water. Air was leaking out of the spoke nipples. Uninstalled the tire and Cush core which, by the way, is a bit more involved but not too bad. Definitely not something you can easily do trail side. I removed the gorilla tape and throughly cleaned the rim before laying down a new strip of gorilla tape. Reinstalled the tire without Cush core. Same issue. Air leaking from the nipples. After some googling, it may be that the valve is not seated well, allowing air to leak into the second chamber. Going to try laying down a second strip of tape over the valve hole to make a better seal. 
 

I’ve never had this issue before so I’m hoping it’s just a quick fix with the valve core. I’d really like to ride this week and test out the new Cush core inserts!

37 minutes ago, quixoft said:

New Bike Day was yesterday.  First outing today on Peddlers and Picnic. Full suspension is going to take some getting used to.  I did pretty much tie(4 seconds shy) my personal best running 17:50. Considering I felt all over the place and completely off riding it, that's not too bad.

Rough stuff was WAY easier,  I struggled in the corners. Gotta figure out cornering with the full suspension,  it's a lot different than my hard tail. The few short downhill and drop sections on Picnic are much easier.

All in all pretty happy! 

 

 

Great looking bike! You're going to love all the new technology that bad boy has compared to your old hard tail. It too took me a few rides to get used to how "alive" a full suspension feels to a hard tail.

3 minutes ago, First-Blood said:

Let's organize a day to do these spots

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

I'm new to Cedar Park and considering I'm riding 50+ miles at Brushy every week, I'd love to help out. My company gave everyone a "Mental Health" day off tomorrow and I'm mostly wide open this weekend.

Just got back from sessioning DD. I was able to utilize “the punch“ to clean every step up but some I had to try a few times to get it. Now just need to work on consistency. The only one I was having a hard time cleaning was the step up that has the loose climb just before it. Hard to get enough speed to punch up. Ended up having to brute force it. 

20 minutes ago, throet said:

That's a damn good time for 1/4 notch end-to-end - good job! 

Thanks. I realize now that I’m kind of humble bragging. My pace falls the shit once I hit DD though. Those large steps up are a bit above my pay grade. Those videos above that were just posted were helpful. I’m actually about to head out there now to practice. 

Riding 1/4 this afternoon. Was pushing it to the max as there was a guy behind me who started at the same time and was actually keeping up. In the first twisty tree covered section i rounded one of the tight turns and clipped my shoulder on a tree. Managed to keep the bike up and was rewarded with a new PR of 16 mins flat. Worth it I guess. Shoulder will not be happy tomorrow. 🤷‍♂️

3 minutes ago, gotdurt said:

Back on topic... WTF is this nonsense? We stopped blocking the B-line, yet that's not enough? My irritation has been renewed; every time I have to replace these rocks, I'm going to add more and build it bigger...

I noticed this on Monday. At the time, there were a bunch of branches piled up on the B line. Have they already been removed?

14 minutes ago, First-Blood said:

I feel like I'm back in high school. Can we just not do this shit here anymore. I mean you guys do you. But maybe elsewhere . Or maybe I'm the one with the issue and just need to take a hiatus again.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

In the account settings you can add an “ignored user”. 
 

it gives you an option to ignore that user’s posts and any mentions from that user. It doesn’t completely erase all the BS but cleans up threads like this quite a bit. 

29 minutes ago, dlstyley said:

How frequently do you lube?   The bike chain I mean...

I ride a lot of steep technical trail with lots of short, punchy climbs and since my fitness is still not there, the miles are pretty low, but frequency is high.   Say 3-6 miles and 500-1000’ of climbing, 3-5x per week.   Do you lube based on number miles? Rides? Hours? Squeaks?  Whenever you are feeling it?

 

 

I wipe off my chain after every ride to get surface grime off. I use dry lube and will reapply once every 100 miles or so if riding in dry conditions. I clean the chain and reapply lube after every wet ride. Don’t know if that’s necessary but it doesn’t hurt. 

Purchased a new set of tires this morning and decided this would be as good of time as any to get some inserts. Ended up ordering a set of cush core inserts. I've been going back and forth for a while now on which inserts to get. I'm not crazy about how annoying cush core is going to be to install and uninstall but the consensus on the internet seems to be that they have the best performance.

5 minutes ago, chuckt said:

@First-Blood

What's the "vision" with this new feature? I was kinda disappointed to see the natural line underneath go away, but I know you guys have something in mind... Maybe somethin g to do with when the "new jump line into this line gets built and it becomes faster"?

Holy shit. I rode snail yesterday around 5pm and this was not there then. I don't see why anyone would change what was already there. it was a fun jump.

19 minutes ago, HoneyBadger said:

That was me, if it was a long righthand berm on the West side of Parmer around 5:30pm. If it wasn't, some assholes doing a no no.

I rode by you as well. I was the guy on the blue FS bike and was wearing the 2019 EB jersey. Sorry for riding on the dirt you were working on! Also, you ruined my strava PR by forcing me to slow down. 😝

1 minute ago, notyal said:

I can never tell if my suspension is setup right, but I sure know when it's wrong. 

There is a lot more to it than whether or not you are using all your travel. Any idea how many volume spacers are in there? You could try adding one or two and see how you like that. This will make it more progressive so that it ramps up more the closer you get to bottom-out. 

Yep. 3 volume spacers. 
 

I’m very happy with my current set up. Just concerned that I may not be leaving enough extra travel, “just in case”. 
 

from the replies I’ve gotten so far, it sounds like I’m fine. May have to reassess once I start hit that mega drop on snail!

Been getting a bit sendier over the last few months and noticed I’m pushing my stanchions lower into the fork body than I ever had before. Am I not leaving enough room for error? See picture and video for reference. As you can see, I’m not bottoming out but not sure if I’m cutting it too close with my current Air pressure. This is from the 3-4 foot drop on the west end of picnic at brushy. I’ve been very happy with the feel of my fork and am reluctant to start messing with the PSI, rebound and compression settings as I’ve got it in a good place.

for reference my fork is a Fox 34 performance elite with 130mm of travel. 

1 minute ago, Cafeend said:

Why the hell does the Altar need a B ? 

so people on $200 Walmart bikes can say they cleaned it. 

@GreenMTBrider How are the trails at Brushy looking this morning? 

Just now, El Gringo said:

Yes

Nice! I was there back in 2018. first time riding lift assisted. Was a blast. 
 

4 minutes ago, El Gringo said:

And since we're talking about drops, do make sure you get your speed right! I came into this drop too slow, cased, and . . . well, you'll see. I've had several years of redemption on that drop, but this one owned me and claimed my Fox 40:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7n2V-4PtT8

Is this at Winter Park? I feel like I recognize that name. 

43 minutes ago, Haught Diggity said:

I saw a dude send it off that new monster drop on Snail yesterday.  The video is sideways, but this is pretty beast.

IMG_1130.MOV 7.28 MB · 11 downloads  

Video worked for me on my phone. Not on the computer.

I have not even tried this part of snail yet. I keep going to the right to the smaller drop. I would imagine that if I can do the smaller drop, this one wouldn't be any more difficult. I guess its just a mental thing.

10 minutes ago, Austin Smithey said:

What app is this? trail forks??

Just Strava on iOS. 

3 hours ago, TheSarge said:

When did it go to 5.0 and what big change was there?  Looking back at my last ride on 3/19 it was still 4.0.

 

Same. My ride today gave me the 4.0 segment.