Barry

I get several thousands of miles and a dozen or so removals out of the 11sp SRAM PC-X1 "single use" links. I only change them out when they get easy to remove by hand. Although I have had maybe 2 or 3 of them fail me during use...in about 25± thousand miles since going 11sp. And I pack several of them. It's an easy on trail fix.

@throet have you gotten over to Oak Liquor Cabinet? Add then to the rotation if not. That's the last place I picked up Willet Rye. And I'd bet they currently have Pikesville on the shelf. (Although maybe not since the Heavem Hill worker stike has slowed production.)

FYI all, RIP the Oskar Blues Ride... ... Long live the Celis Ride! It's the same plan, but 1 block further south. We'll be rolling (wheels down, that's what rolling means, so show up 10-15 minutes early) out of Celis Brewery at 6PM every Thursday with dry trails. Look for ride advertisements at various social media outlets near you, like FaceSpace and various Discords. I'll talk to our social media coordinator about putting this on the MeetUps as well. /rant: Oskar Blues Brewery had been frustrating us quite a bit over the past several months. The first source of annoyance was their inability to retain a reasonable food truck. Sometimes there is no food truck there whatsoever, or if it was there it closed at 8 or even 7:30. And for a while now, it has been maybe the worst food truck I've ever had! It's a freakin' health food truck...at a brewery! Quinoa and salad is certainly not what you want after a ride. Recently though we've figured out how to solve the food truck issue by ordering online from SpicyBoys toward the end of the WC ride, then picking up our order on the way to OB. (And let me tell you, if you haven't tried the SpicyBoys truck, you're missing something out of your life.) But worse than the food situation was their disappointing and inconsistent hours. Their posted closing hour is 9PM, but they've been closing between about 8 and 8:30 for months now. They regularly close early even when they have guests. They even locked their doors at about 7:45 a couple of weeks ago so they didn't have to serve thirsty stadium guests! We sat with our final beer and watched scores and scores of people tug at the door wondering what was going on. All this, plus a few weeks ago they had SEVEN freakin' IPSs on tap, and absolutely no beer darker than burnt sienna. No Old Chub, Ten-Fiddy, DBC, or even an amber. They've since remedied that situation, but come on, man. That's unforgivable. Meanwhile, Celis is always open until 10. Celis has 3 GOOD food trucks, including Backdraft Pizza, the Salty Cargo, and a new taco truck coming soon (or just order from SpicyBoys on the way!). Also they just opened an expansive new beer garden and parking area. Sure, they don't do barrel aged beer like OB, but the consistent hang-out and better food options really made the call for us here.

I'd say there's no way the dude in the video was riding blind. He seemed to know every go-around, b-line, or unpopular a-line available to make passes on the other riders. And they all worked out. If you're riding blind, some of those alternate lines are going to be dead enders.

This reminds me of why I don't want to race. I have little interest in jockeying for position at the start of an event, not getting to ride "my line," but having to ride the line that available, or having some guy yelling to pass me, only to ride his axle for next couple of miles. I make some exception for endurance events. And dang, have a look at 2:56! He damn near ate tire.

Actually lots of trails are looking good already. Walnut, Goodwater, 4C, Lakeway and some bits of Brushy have gotten reports of good dirt.

Are you aware that this is an actual thing? https://mbaction.com/the-future-of-mountain-biking-with-hans-rey/ (And I have a buddy who's been doing this for a few months. For reasons.)

For me clipping in is better. And short chain stays are better. The only relation they have is that @ATXZJ has the opposite preferences on those points. This was simply my reply to his "fight me" statement.

Clipping in is better for riding with super short chain stays.

It's after 1PM and the sun and the wind have been useless all day for drying roads, much less trails. R&I is dead.

The trails were right on the edge of rideable last night--with mixed reports. And we just got another 0.1" of rain on top of it. I'd say there's some chance it'll be okay, but perhaps not. Certainly it will not be good if we get more rain. But I'll report back if I get an update.

I found that video on FaceSpace. You can see I have my right foot forward. https://www.facebook.com/jessicadavis36/videos/941633236700142

That video was the result of 4 progressively less impressive efforts. The first one, I hopped up on the ledge, did a perfect little track stand, and the side hopped off the left side, landing both wheels at the same time. At that point, @Jessica decided to get videos. The very next run, I hopped up just fine, and just rolled off the other side with no problem, but I wasn't able to manage a track-stand. The next run was aborted because I didn't like the run-up, but still more impressive than the fall-off. The video above was the 4th run. At the time, I thought there was a chance that my left hand was broken. It still hurts a bit, but I've biked over 500 miles in the 17 days since it happened, so it can't be that bad, right? It's good though because the video shows exactly what went wrong. I distinctly recall on the first and most successful attempt, that I landed on top of the slab with my left foot forward. And I've long observed that I can't track-stand for shit with my right root forward--and I downhill and usually coast left foot forward as well, even though I'm right handed. And on the roll-off attempt, and the fall, I landed on the slab with my right foot forward. So I need to do one of three things. 1) just stop screwing around because I'm old. 2) learn to track stand with my right foot forward, or 3) learn to land step-ups and trials moves with my left foot forward.

I'm not sure if a joke went over my head or @mack_turtle's head.

My company (a freakin' Berkshire Hathaway owned company) is literally moving to Broken Arrow, OK next year because they can't afford the rising employee and real estate costs in Austin. And he's coming here because it's cheaper. What a world.

I'm an absolute master at step-ups and certainly never fall to the side. https://photos.app.goo.gl/xhYLziLdSZfNRpGr5

The bottom bell has become my friend.

"New signs" might explains things. But I'm looking forward to seeing how explicit this is outside of the flow trail.

The only place that I find calling the trails "one direction" is TrailForks. And even there some say "popular in reverse." 😄

Like I mentioned, I knew the Flow Trail was directional...but I can't find any information to confirm that the other trails there are directional. I haven't seen it at the park, nor can I find it online. I see arrows pointing, but that can just be used as a trail marker. Specifically directional trails need much more clear indicators, like a "wrong way" sign, a "do not enter" sign, or a "one way" sign. I dug though the park website, but wasn't able to find any indication of directional trails. From where did you glean this information?

I'm pretty sure only the Flow Trail is direction. I think those are just suggestions.

That's a nice option to hit the middle trail after Fenceline to get you back up by the Flow Trail climb.

This is new with the update. When using either an Android or iPhone with Chrome in mobile mode, the "X" which closes the notification window, is mostly covering the "bell" which allows you to view the notifications. The same happens in either landscape or portrait mode in mobile. Like this: It makes it exceedingly difficult to view the notifications, since you're likely to hit either the "X" or the mailbox icons instead. There is no issue with the desktop mode, even when using a mobile device, because the format of the notification window is different.

So far as open meadow type trails go (which I don't usually enjoy), I actually find this one kind of fun. There are enough big turns and little g-outs to keep it interesting if you hit it fast enough. And it was supper fun the one time I did it on my gravel bike.

I like to start with a short warm-up on the green trails. Then I loop back to the start and (after a dozen runs on the wooden pump track), I head into the blue and black trails, making sure I get them all and try not to get distracted with that middle trail that cuts between them. I finish up the blue trails with the northern most singletrack (Jen's Loop on TrailForks), and then hit Fenceline headed west. This routes me back into the green trails for an easy spin to end things. Now you're back at the lot wondering if you need to hit all the black trails backwards or go hit the Flow trail. And of course you should do both.