The Tip

I was going to take this off your hands, but if you're not giving the pedals with it, forget it! 😁 Very generous forward pay. I hope it does find a good home

Second this. You can ride your bike in Big Bend National Park, but don't miss going west. fontarin has made a very good suggestion here.

Hey that's my bike! Why are you selling such a beautiful and fun bike? (if I may ask)

I was able to get out this morning to use my gift. I've never used one before. I know it will be great for berms and such but I was surprised using it today how versatile it is. Tamper of course, but also is a pretty good substitute for a Mattock. Also pretty good rake, like a McLeod, and even was a pretty good sledge hammer. Very pleased. Also pleased that there was enough rain to do some good getting a new trail packed in.

Heavy. That's what's wrong with a McLeod. They are too light. You want to take out a clump of vegetation, or a rock, or small cedar. You just keep chopping and chopping away at it with the McLeod. But the only effort in using the Mattock is having to raise it, but once you do and it comes down, the task is done. And speaking of bench cutting...Mattock. Enough said.

I have a McLeod but I don't use it much. What I use is my Pick Mattock and my boots way more efficiently. Get a Mattock with a wide blade. A Mattock can do just about everything a McLeod can do but a McLeod can't do what a Mattock can do. My son is sympathetic to my trail work "problem"(affliction?). He gave me an 8X8 dirt tamper for my birthday. lol. I hope this rain comes so I can put it to some good use on some new stuff.

"Time has run out." Do you have some sad health news to share with us? 😨 Isn't there a demand for tandems to do the race up at Brushy? This one looks like a winner!

I don't ride that trail much because it's above my pay grade. But I rode/walked it today. Since I don't go on it much I couldn't recognize any changes. But those two sections on the south end are NOT any easier. Actually the maturation of the trail from weather and wear seems to have made it even more difficult. Go for it Capt. Ahab!

This is the second mention of rock removal on Whirlpool/Candy/Jane Fonda. But I can't picture where there were rocks, challenging or otherwise. Of course there are rocks on Boulder League, north of William Cannon, but I don't think that's where this is occurring? And does "other side of Brodie" mean in the Everwet area? I read that some rocks on Bowie Stonewall have been moved too. sigh. We just need to keep talking about the sanitizing and hopefully the message will get through.

Mmmmm! This is my grandmother's recipe. She lives in Spandexonos, Greece.

Park at ATX Bikes. They are on edge of Circle C Metro Park. There are four SATN trails that end at their parking lot. There are 20 miles of trails that you can ride from ATX Bikes and never cross a street. Very hard to get lost because it is a relatively narrow area. The trails mostly run east and west. If you go too far north or south, you come to a road. Be sure to go under the Escarpment bridge and the Mopac bridge to access all of the trails. There is only about 5 miles of (fun and flowy) trail between Mopac and Escarpment so you'll want more than that.

Situation dependent. Maybe the slower person should yield? Maybe the group with less riders should yield? Maybe the person that has the most off trail space should yield? The determining logic being that whoever will have the easier time yielding should yield. That's why in reality hikers usually step off the trails for us even though we know that we are suppose to yield to hikers. It's a lot easier for them to simple take a step sideways than for us to find a place to pull over, stop, dismount, and then start up again.

Due to on going work days, it keeps getting better and better. A good beginner trail. But still some parts would have to be walked (maybe) by a beginner.

I like group rides for a few reasons. They push me to ride faster than I do on my own. This makes the trails different from when I ride more slowly on my own. The group rides also force me to just ride. I have a problem in stopping all the time to fix things when I'm on my own. I also like having a "911 dialer" with me to allow me to try things I won't on my own. Not that I'm planning on getting hurt. But I frequently bypass things on my own that I want to do but don't because of the slight chance I won't make it. And of course I like the social aspect of the group ride. Not only during the ride but the apres ride activities too. The matching of pace is a concern. But if the expectations are set at the beginning there usually isn't a problem with me being the slow guy. Sometimes the faster folk want to ride at a more social pace and are okay riding slower than they normally do. If anyone wants to try a group ride and has never had an opportunity come out for a Tuesday evening Crank and Drank. We've had up to 75 people show up and will always have at least 20. We try to break it down into groups of 10-15 sorted by ability. Because the group is so large, and if you're shy, you can just show up and ride without having to socially interact with anyone. Or make some new friends. It's a very good group of folks.

Yes. Hammer it home. Insure no ambiguity. "What YOU are doing will screw it up for ALL of us"

Much better. Minor suggestion: "Get this park closed to us." "Us" to convey it's we fellow, on your side, mountain bikers trying to tell the "helper" this. Also change "can" to "will." There is no doubt there. Stronger statement.

Not the best option. These two entities are regarded as the enemy. The ARR logo would be much more persuasive to a mountain biker.

Looking at the pictures made me think of the ebike vs "real" bike discussions. Is it a "real" mountain bike trail if it's built by machine?😉 And yes, of course I'm jealous of the little backhoe. I want one!

SOMEBODY likes the chunk! I do too in some spots. I really like the chunky part at the lower end of South Bay. It's a good challenge for me. It is totally different from the rest of that flowy trail. But I like how there are multiple lines through it.

😁 It might be just a tad moist under this proposed bridge.

?? What do you mean?

Last time I rode I was enjoying Bambi. It got me thinking about my favorite trails. I'm also trying to come up with a route to show off the best of the SATN this weekend to an out of town visitor. I was trying to think of the "can't miss" trails. Downhill fun ones: Bambi, 45 Flow, Meridian Bowl, Poke Eye Man Just Flowy fun: House Fire, Inner Canterbury Loop, Circle C Soccer Circle/North Bank-South Bank runs. (do Double Dip from both banks!) Do you agree with these top choices? What else is in your top ten?

All my bikes and helmet have the NiteRiders' mounts. So I bought a couple of these a few weeks ago when June Bug posted a link. I just looked around the internet to see what kind of deal it really is. The cheapest I could find was $99, so yes, it's a deal.

Thanks! That's great. We are all VERY appreciative! 😁