RonSurly

6 hours ago, Sluggo said:

Bike on the right 

Dump truck?

brrr

18 minutes ago, AntonioGG said:

Flaco?

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChLpKbMLnbu/?hl=en  

Dont think so, link above to the artist 

2 hours ago, AustinBike said:

Where is this?

Sent you a direct message, not sure if supposed to talk about this trail. 

39 minutes ago, St.Bernardo said:

Anyone seen a madrone in the RR/Gtown area?

Never seen one in RR or Gtown, only on Mt Lakeway.

Friday night lights 

Round Rock urban ride green lawn park

9 hours ago, CBaron said:

Never had one of my frames break.  To add onto that, I've only had 1 (rear) wheel failure also.  But that was very early in my riding and I was being stupid on a DH in CO (circa 1998).  

Maybe I don't ride enough?  🙂

-CJB

Interesting, I feel like there’s another factor working here. Like finesse vs power/brute force riding style that’s in play. 

3 hours ago, AustinBike said:

Any frame can fail.

I have broken:

• Gary Fisher: 2X
• Hammerhead 1X
• Knolly 3X (maybe 4, can't remember exactly)
• Vassago 1X

I haven't broken:

• Santa Cruz
• Redline
• Vassago - yet  (different one, purple must be better)
• Kona - yet

Basically Austin eats frames. If you ride them long enough here, they will break.

Wow! That’s an amazing amount of broken frames. I’ve only ever bent a rigid fork from jumping too high to flat. 

41 minutes ago, cutter said:

 

Heh.  Yeah.  Bit of a long story.

When I first got the frame, I put one of the first generation White Brothers 29er shocks on it, and it had really tall aluminum caps covering the air valves at the top of the legs.  On the first gen Karate Monkeys they were still working out clearances and geo for 29ers, the down tubes were straight and steep.  The caps on the fork didn't quite clear the down tube and they left a score in the underside of the tube if the fork spun far enough.  I saw that and immediately switched to the rigid fork, but the damage was done.  At the time, I recall thinking that if the frame was ever going to crack, that's where it would happen.  But I figured, it's a Surly, 4130, it's probably never going to break, right?

This was like 2005-2006.  I turned the frame into something like a CX rig and it saw a good bit of fairly tame use for many years.

When we moved here a couple years ago, the Monkey was the only dirt worthy bike I had, so I built it up as a rigid SS with some big tires.  I'm about 210 lbs, so it took a pounding.  The break actually happened on a climb on Picnic, that short, steep little chute that pops out back at the paved path directly across from the access trail that leads up to the 1/4 Notch / DD intersection where the rock pile is.

I was up out of the saddle and pulling on the bars to get up that hill, nearly at the top, and I just felt the front end sort of lift up, as if I was going into a wheelie.  I looked down to see that cracked tube, and then the top tube bent backwards and the bike sort of folded under me.  Happened in slow motion since I was at the top of the hill and totally out of momentum, barely moving.  I just came off the back and I found myself standing still with the bars in my hands, very confused.  Very strange sensation.

When I went to pick it up after taking those pics, the top tube snapped as well.  Worst part was having to walk all the way back to my car under 183, trying to wheelie the rear half of the bike so it would roll while carrying the front half in my other hand.

It cracked pretty much exactly where the old fork had left that score in the down tube.  I had been chasing a phantom creak in that bike for a few weeks, and I guess I finally found the source.  Have to say, the frame held up really well, considering.  No rust or anything.  Chalk it up to a combination of age, abuse, and an artifact of the limitations of early 29er tech.

ah ok, shows even what many consider maybe an overbuilt frame can fail. Thanks for sharing 

11 hours ago, cutter said:

How it started.

 

How it's going.

 

 

Howdy.  New around these parts.  Long-time lurker, first-time poster.  Figured this would be an appropriate venue for my first contribution.

Some of y'all may have seen me thrashing that old Karate Monkey around Brushy Creek.  Cracked it in half back in August.  New bike is a custom build from my neighbor Myles Russell. He's just starting out as a builder and he did a fantastic job on this frame.

I'm not much for social media, but I'll be posting a bunch of stuff for sale and for "Pay It Forward" in the near future.  Just saying hello for now.

Welcome! And wow what was the circumstance that led to that break? I rode a karate monkey for over 10 years, seemed like was boom proof. 

23 hours ago, mack_turtle said:

Noted, @CBaron. I kind of like my BB to not be too low as I like that nimble bmx feel. That be 65mm drop that is so in right now just feels deep. I'm trying to adapt to lower though. I noticed that the Chumba Sendero has a high bottom bracket, probably for handling purposes less than rock strikes.

 

Here's a drawing I made of what I might look like. adding in the details of a suspension fork was cumbersome, so I drew it with a rigid fork for simplicity. 

There are "sagged" numbers for a 120mm 29er fork.

I'm still on the fence. on one hand, I can get a unique custom bike for very cheap. I'll probably have to wait a long time for it and there's a possibility that I've designed a monster that I won't like or they might make a mistake. I could also buy an Esker Hayduke or Santa Cruz Chameleon for about 2x the cost, but I can afford it. not the "perfect" custom bike, but something designed well and with stateside support.

maybe it’s as simple as trying out a larger karate monkey frame?

Hmm maybe a moonlander fork and 3.8 in front would be even better…