Michael Bevilacqua

30 minutes ago, Barry said:

Congrats. That must be a new development. As a reminder, your Strava profile and the comments you made on it was public a couple of weeks ago when this thread started

Oh and now you are a stalker? 

9 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

"never crash" and everyone else is wrong, you're probably full of poo

I don't crash. Is it luck? Nah. It's talent from riding for decades. Back tire and a lot of strength.

8 hours ago, Barry said:

Have you made those Windy trail climbs yet?

Every day, pal.

5 hours ago, Barry said:

Dude you sound fast, we totally should ride together sometime! Who knows, maybe I'll learn something. 

LOL fuck off.

1 hour ago, quixoft said:

If the front tire provides no benefit, why aren't you riding a unicycle around the trails?

tee hee.  Yeah, explain 3D shit in a 2D universe..

44 minutes ago, RedRider3141 said:

F = μN the more weight (N) you apply the more traction you get (F) for

Yes. And on the front tire, you get no benefit unless you have magic $400 team sponsored undies so I'm told by the people saying I'm wrong.

4 hours ago, spicewookie said:

Just build more berms. This argument is getting ridiculous. 

More berms!  ++

Less argument!  ++

But I can't change physics 😞   If I could, I'd happily do push ups on my handle bar and front tire. I'm actually stronger in my upper body in that area. My very long term experience is that results in face plants. Maybe I need to invest in $400 magic underwear that some of these people use?

My reality is that I do pull ups while leaning back and peddling. It always works. No matter what.

 

22 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

You're both pretty!

Flattery will get you everywhere. Especially on a MTB!

I grew up in Philly and NYC, I think I'm starting to loose my mind in isolation 🙂

2 minutes ago, quixoft said:

Bombing downhill is completely different than cornering

No, it's not. Cornering is the same up or down. Over loose or hard. It's rear wheel or face in the ground.

1 minute ago, quixoft said:

Do you also weight the back going uphill? 

I do.

6 hours ago, mack_turtle said:

FWIW: I am starting to have much better results by leaning forward a bit more to dig the front tire into the ground as I corner. It is probably different for everyone on their individual bike. My bike has a heavy rear weight bias, so I have to work to push that front end down.

If I keep the weight on the rear tire, the front will go off and do it's own thing

All bikes are heavier in the rear. It's a good thingTM.  We don't want a heavy front.  When we bomb a hill we want to learn back and balance our way out of it. With our legs. Not our arms.

5 minutes ago, quixoft said:

According to the article where racers and expert riders discuss it as well as everything I've been taught by motorcycle racers and instructors, yes. You need weight on the front.

Again. Insane. But have fun with that!!  🙂

11 minutes ago, ATXZJ said:

you feeling okay?

I'm fine. How are you?  Again, wrong? Am I?

BTW. This is an important topic. I'm glad it was brought up. If you want to become a better rider, we need to understand physics, geometry (triangles), and tolerances.

34 minutes ago, ATXZJ said:

If you come into a turn hot and dont weight the front, and instead weight the back, you're gonna tomahawk off the trail and get hurt

I'm not talking about balance here. Riding one wheel at 18-20 mph over a flat loose cheese grater on solid stone is not safe. Use both wheels and slow the hell down. I'm talking about technique. When "I" turn, I use pedal force and momentum on that back tire like a fucker. The front tire is nothing more than the back tire's guide in that technique. And let's mention pre-load on an open rear suspension. Before I hit that corner I'm as low as possible as moving my body upward as I exit the turn.

Again, this isn't something to be taught on some forum.

Saying I'm wrong? Fuck off.

4 hours ago, crazyt said:

I think you are probably wrong here, but maybe you also arent paying enough attention to what you are actually doing. As you enter the corner you weight your front wheel.

As I enter ANY corner I'm pulling up and putting my weight on the inside of my back tire. Always. Period.

Again, I'm wrong? Heh.

On 6/17/2020 at 9:26 AM, Barry said:

Yes. One of those suggestions is definitely wrong.

Wrong, Barry?  If I never crash and can massacre a corner on this loose over hard shit, does that make me wrong? That back tire is everything. 

On 6/17/2020 at 8:54 AM, ATXZJ said:

Had to overcome that fear and put as much weight as I could on the front tire when things got weird. Totally counterintuitive to lead head first into the danger but it works. Youre basically  in a position weighting the front like you're doing pushups on your bars. 

Wow, maybe I don't have the chops ATXZJ and Barry do, but I'd never "put as much weight as I could on the front tire when things got weird". That's ridiculous. And it doesn't help the OP (see below):

On 6/16/2020 at 7:43 PM, mack_turtle said:

riding south Austin stuff, I find a lot of twisty and relatively flat trails. I enjoy this stuff, but I find myself slowing down a lot for the flat turns (no berms, that's a different story) because I can feel my front tire starting to wash out if I take them too fast. I am trying to narrow down what I can do to improve my confidence because breaking is a real buzzkill. a few limiting factors all contribute to this, some of which are beyond my control:

• trails are just dry and dusty. nothing is going to stay sure-footed after a certain point when the dirt is loose
• tires over-inflated. I stopped and dropped my pressure quite a bit mid-ride. I think I had it in the low 20s when I started. 29mm inner width rim with a 2.4 tire.
• suspension too stiff could also be a factor. I have not yet mastered the perfect fork setup (hardtail, so no rear squish to worry about)
• not enough tread wrap on this tire for the rim width. Bontrager XR-4 tire. or there's not enough sharp tread left on this tire. anyone have an opinion to share on that as a front tire?
• poor body positioning/ I just suck. my bike has a pretty compact fit. I don't like that "in the bike" feeling as a ex-BMX guy who likes to bunnyhop stuff. I would think that the relatively steep HTA and short reach of this bike would make it easy to keep weight on the front tire.

Keep that weight on the back tire, seat down and lean back when you turn. The foot positioning is down on the outside of the turn and foot up and ready go down on the inside. Practice this. We are talking trail riding right? Not XC or roadie. Learn to love that back wheel and you'll never wash out again. 

BTW, teaching proper technique on the Internet is not how we learn 😄

Rode Windy Loop tonight and noticed that this log jam has become a rideable part of the wall feature. With the right bike, skills and enough speed, it's possible to get up the wall like normal. 

Thanks for the replies. It's amusing that I originally replaced the bolt because I ran into an issue with the Blue Loc-tite.  Ended up bonding the threads and stripping the 8mm hex. Had to use a big, bad bolt extractor to undo that mess. I sent the Race Face Aeffect back to Fox for RMA. We'll see what comes of it. I went out and purchased a Shimano XT crank in the meantime. Works great. Might just keep running it when/if the RF comes back.

And, yeah, it doesn't make much sense to go the Cane Creek way for that kind of money. I just need a crank that's easy to maintain. Seems like the XT might be just that.

I rode Rocky HIll Ranch yesterday and noticed nothing unusual with my breathing. I'm allergic to everything in Texas so good news on that front. The drive out there was weird due to the haze.

Rode RHR yesterday (Saturday 6/27/20) afternoon and had the place to myself. Trails are in great condition. Great ride once I was under the trees and out of the sun. Still best to go early in the morning with this high heat/humidity mix. I guess I should do that.

Came across this the other day and it blew my damn mind. It's a side by side video of before and after a wildfire removed all of the trees along a downhill park. Thought I'd share it.
 

This is at the bottom of Windy Wall 1 

Does anyone have experience with the Cane Creek eeWIngs cranksets?  Are you actively using them?  And more over, do you happen to be using them on a Stumpjumper 2019+ ?  
 

Since moving to Austin, I've had to maintain my cranksets much more often. It's due to the climate and the dusty, sandy terrain. Degreasing and re-greasing does the trick. But now, in my current situation, my Stumpjumper came with a set of Race Face Aeffect cranks which won't stay on when properly torqued. I've replaced the fixing bolt and opened a warranty service request. I want to be through with the crank issues and at this point, spending more is worth fixing something I keep having to waste time on.

Something like:
 

Practice keeping all of your weight on the back tire. Lean back and push out with the outside leg down. Feel free to keep the inside leg off the pedal and out in case you do actually start to slip (great for learning the maximum you and your bike can handle). Turn the bar when pulling back and you'll start to feel the bike turn without much of any weight on the front tire. At least, that's how I do it. 

Don't sweat the gear and setup too much. Physics are physics. Of course, good tires that can handle what you throw at them is a good thing. I use 29er Maxxis Minions (DHR and DHF) 2.3's and they are overkill in all the right ways.

Hope this helps.