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quixoft

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Everything posted by quixoft

  1. What is strange to me is all the vitriol and hate toward the people that want to open things up. 33 million people have lost their jobs and are struggling mightily. Our work force is around 165 million so that is 1 in 5 people who have lost their jobs. Yet people get ridiculed because they want to open back up so they can actually work and feed themselves and their families. Many of those folks who have lost their jobs live paycheck to paycheck so have some empathy towards them. In reality, the folks most susceptible and likely to die from COVID are the elderly. Those folks can easily isolate as most are retired already. The younger folks are highly unlikely to die although it does happen in rare cases as there are always exceptions. Quarantine people that test positive, isolate high risk folks like the elderly and immunocompromised, and open up everything else for the low risk folks who are willing to get out there. Yes, more will die and that is unfortunate but when does the cure become worse than the disease? 30% unemployment? 50%? How many suicides will we see from people who are isolated with no job, no money, no food, etc? How many people will be forced into poverty from this? How much economic hardship will we see over the next few years because we destroyed our economy? I get that others want to be more cautious and that's a perfectly reasonable choice. Those folks are free to stay at home and isolate but I don't think it should be forced upon people. It's not wrong for people who are struggling financially to want things to open up so they can work. They should be able to take that risk if they choose. The people that do not want to take that risk can choose to stay home. Last I checked, the death rate for folks age 20-44 was around 0.1-0.2%. That's a 99.8-99.9% chance of survival. I don't know about you but those are pretty damn good odds to me. I will take that bet every time. Hell I'm willing to bet most folks on these forums have a higher chance of dying on a single track trail from a rogue squirrel encounter than they do of dying from COVID. In short, be nice and treat others with respect even if you disagree with them and think they're stupid. Chances are pretty good there are many people out there that disagree with you and think you're just as stupid. Sources: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/weekly-initial-jobless-claims-slowed-3-million-week-n1201586 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1105431/covid-case-fatality-rates-us-by-age-group/
  2. Yakima Outdoorsman racks to put on your pickup bed. Work great for kayaks, ladders, lumber, etc. I've had them on a 2005 Chevy Silverado 2500 and a 2019 Chevy Silverado 1500. They should fit on any standard truck bed. They DO NOT WORK IF YOU HAVE A BED COVER. I added a tonneau cover to my truck which is why these are now for sale.
  3. Still in great shape. Only one key for the seat lock as I lost the other. My 4 year old grandson still fits at 41" and 40lbs but he's close to the upper limit as the bottom will ping off the back tire going over bigger bumps. For some reason my picture won't upload but it's this exact model. https://www.thule.com/en-us/child-bike-seats/rear-mounted-child-bike-seats/thule-ridealong-_-100107
  4. Pretty much new. It's been used maybe 3-4 times for long trips as I usually just toss the bikes in the truck bed for short trips. All keys, spare parts, and manual included.
  5. Instead of widening just because some of us on longer 29ers can't do it, perhaps just run a singletrack path off to the side(dare I say B line?) of the skinny and have a short ramp merge into the current feature right before the first small hump(00:27 mark in my video a few posts back) before the first banked curve? Or if you just like to build stuff, build a wider version to the side. 🙂 Either option would keep the challenge of the narrow path for the folks that like it while letting us schmucks on bigger bikes skip the narrow stuff yet still do the banked features and rollers at the end. I'm still going to try and fail the skinny portion but I already managed to bend a rotor on my new bike falling off it so how much I try it depends on how much stuff I break! A side path/short ramp would be less work by not having to create a new, wider feature or pull up and lay down the current feature with wider pieces. I'll happily come help out with anything and can pick up some wood from Lowes or something. I don't think collisions would be a problem since it's such a small segment. Or just leave it as is.
  6. I was starting to think that after ther 10th attempt at various turning radius attempts but assumed it was my lack of skill. I love my new Smash! So much nicer than my previous bike. It felt fantastic going downhill at the church jumps even though I did my best to screw it up with poor technique.
  7. Went out today and that's some great work! Thank you! But how in the sam hell do y'all stay on that foot wide wood feature? My back wheel kept falling off and when I kept it on the front wheel went off! Any tips?
  8. If you need help going down curbs, this guy has great technique. He's 4 and better than me.
  9. Haven't been out there yet but I just signed my FR512 waiver and paid the subscription fee. I'm planning on checking it out this afternoon around 2 or 2:30. I have no idea how to do jump maintenance but I'm absolutely willing to help out. Just need someone to show me the ropes.
  10. What exactly is the agreement with the county? Perhaps add some signage on the features on trails that tend to be heavily trafficked by walkers like Picnic? Something like: DO NOT ALTER TRAIL BY REMOVING LOG, ROCK, OR OTHER SINGLE TRACK FEATURES!
  11. 800mm on the new bike vs 720mm on the old but I already love the wider bars. I'm tall and have very broad shoulders and long arms; the 800mm width is so much more comfortable and I feel like have much finer control of the front end. Just not 100% acclimated to it yet. Had it set to the middle setting. Not open, not firm. It's already far more comfortable and agile than my previous bike. I need to play around with the shock settings. A buddy helped me set the sag yesterday and I set all other settings right in the middle to start. I need to get my own shock pump though. Most of my issues are technique. I come from a motorcycle road racing background and pretty much everything is the opposite for turning. I'm used to hanging off bikes to the inside of turns to give you more bike lean angle. It's been a long time since I really pushed a bike underneath me a la dirt style so I'm still adjusting to that.
  12. 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!
  13. I can help out. I'm usually free any time on weekends. Early mornings, a long lunch. or after work on weekdays.
  14. Took me years to gain the confidence to attempt features like that and I still struggle. You make it look easy.
  15. He wanted us to let him wear his ice hockey pads and we had to convince him they aren't for mountain biking. Although he still uses his elbow pads because we couldn't find any bike gear that would fit well on his little arms. It's crazy how fast they learn. I expected him to have some trouble going to a bigger, heavier bike and having to acclimate a little but no. He's much more stable and confident on the bigger bike than his old 12" and he was zooming around immediately. I was trying to teach him level pedals or inside pedal up when turning as he was clipping his pedals in the street when turning and pedaling. But he thinks it's cool and just laughs every time they hit the ground and he does it on purpose. He crashed of course but at only 40 inches tall he doesn't have far to fall and just tries(and crashes) again. I crash once and I'm sore for at least a week.
  16. My four year old grandson got his new 16" bike today(up from a 12") from Peddlers in Cedar Park and he wanted to practice his mountain biking. That meant going off a curb and over a 2x4 for an hour straight!
  17. Damn. And here I thought I was doing well on 15 mile days.
  18. Great videos! Thanks! Got a notification from Guerrilla Gravity yesterday. New bike day should be this Wednesday if FedEx tracker is actually correct!
  19. Hah! Yeah I bombed down some of the cliffs at OP Schnabel Park in San Antonio in the 80s and 90s as a kid. If it looked fun, we tried it no matter how dangerous. That was with our cheap KMart BMX knock offs and no helmets(it was the 80s and 90s). Broke my hand a couple times and my collarbone. Now I'm 42 and prefer to avoid the ER so while I'll still try difficult stuff, I like to work my way up or down in a safer manner than when I was 12 and invincible.
  20. How much more difficult is Double Down vs 1/4 Notch? Nothing on 1/4 scares me or anything and I want to try DD but I also don't want to end up walking 70% of it because I suck.
  21. Thanks! The tight trees I'm sure I can do as there isn't anything really difficult about them. They just have surprised me the two times I've done the trail and I wasn't ready. As for the rest, I'm pretty confident I can do all of the features individually(well maybe not SpongeBob going up from W to E) if I stop and rest for a bit before each feature. I fail when I'm sucking wind! Regardless, I'm very close. I do have one question, I'm on a hard tail and going up the higher steps, I have no problem getting the front wheel up and over and I have the power to get the back wheel over them; but after I get the front wheel up, the back wheel hits and knocks me off the pedals or my pedals clip the rock ledge and do the same. Any tips to correct that? It's too high for me to bunny hop up, I can only fully clear objects about 8 inches with both wheels and that's when I'm lucky. Only about 6 inches consistently(<insert joke here>) and that is on flat ground.
  22. Well evidently I'm a fortune teller or @horncpa gave me some bad luck. Just ran through 1/4 Notch then down to Picnic. Broke my damn chain on the last climb of Picnic coming up from the creek about 100 yards from the end going east... Debated on fixing it but I was parked by the skate park and BCRT is mostly down hill so I just rode back with no chain and walked a bit. On the plus side, this was my 2nd run through 1/4 Notch ever and I only had to walk it up a few times. Two of the hairpins that are super tight between trees. Not sure how anyone can maneuver through those trees unless they have a tiny clown bike. Also had to walk it a few feet on a couple of the longer climbs with multiple step ups. But it was much better than my first attempt through it where I felt like I walked half the damn trail.
  23. Bad shifting times maybe? I'm waiting for mine to break as I always screw up my shift times and end up shifting under load going up hill and get big CLUNK! I expect it to break every time I do that.
  24. I rode down BCRT to Peddlers an hour ago and walked through it a bit. Pretty soft and wet in places so probably not.
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