gotdurt

Just FYI, Crystal Falls is private HOA, with a lot of resident foot traffic that would rather not have bikes on their trails... There's a good bit of controversy surrounding it already, so the more traffic it gets and the more it shows up on Strava, the quicker resident riders will lose it.

Best thing I've done this, erm, last year... I've closed all of my social media accounts.

Finally dusted (actually hosed) and de-webbed the bike yesterday and got out for a ride... @First-Blood was right, DD has changed since last May... the last time I took a hiatus it was 1/4 that changed the most. I guess Covid brought out a lot of new trail users. Squeezeplay is no joke now! There are new rough/tech sections throughout 1/4 and DD that weren't there before. Tons of riders, hikers and runners out, even at 2pm on a Monday... Maybe the same problem that caused the wear will make the trails so difficult that people will stop using them as much...

Damn, y'all are a bad influence. I'm starting to think I have about 4-5 good tries stored up in my tennis elbows before I'll have to hang the bikes for another year... and it just might be worth it...

Nice! Now you have me really itching to get back on a bike; this is going to be the first thing I do... or maybe I shouldn't... that's one of the reasons injuries never completely heal for me, lol. Edit: BTW, I ran today, lots of riders out. I'd like to remind those with less experience, when you come up on someone going the opposite direction, whether on bike or foot, and there is room for both to safely pass, always move to *your* right... I had 2 different guys go to their left, the same direction I moved (my right), with near collisions. The first guy, I don't know why he did, it seemed like a bad judgement call on his part, but the 2nd guy was an obvious case of target fixation; I could see it in his face... which brings me to a related tangent point; always look where you want to go, never where you don't want to go... whether it's a person, dog, big rock or a drop-off (understanding that for some of us, the latter 2 might be where you *want* to go). Remember: if you look at the dog poo, you will wear the dog poo.

This was when they first opened that line up a few years ago... I haven't ridden in 9 or 10 months, so, in a way, I have stopped. I'm encouraging the children because you're being a baby... 😮😀

Cool, that gives me something new to shoot for when I get back on the bike.

Is this the one y'all are talking about going up? If so, it never even occurred to me to try... video or it didn't happen!

I wouldn't say that; I'm not one of those guys who commits to it every ride (assuming there are "those guys"). I just did it once every couple of months, just to stay on top, but at least 4 of 5 rides I don't even try, I dismount 1/2 way up the climb at the flatter spot, then decide if I'm going to rest for a sec and hit it, or walk it. I just don't care to gas-out for one feature (I'm in baaad shape these days), ruining what's left of my ride. But, if these past few weeks that I've been trail running are any indication, there has been a ton more traffic, and it wouldn't surprise me if the base of EBD has worn/eroded since last spring.

I haven't seen it since late spring, so maybe I need to see what has changed in the last 9 months, but up until then I hit it every couple of months and don't recall it being that different. In fact, I remember thinking on one of my later rides about how much 1/4 has changed in the past few years, but that DD hadn't changed nearly as much, comparatively. With that said, I started running on picnic and 1/4 a few weeks ago and have been shocked at how many people are on the trails now...

Okay, then try going up 3 gears, same RPM. Point being, momentum...

Si: Try going up a gear or 2. It seems like most people try it in too low of a gear.

Exactly! You actually posted this before I was done typing my post... and yes, it happened a lot.

It's a different kind of interaction than it is in urban and suburban area, and maybe had something to do with the region (east Texas) as well. I grew up in Phelps (East of Huntsville), and have also lived in Oakhust/ Point Blank, as well as Trinity, and generally the farmers and ranchers themselves are great, usually the nicest people you'll meet anywhere... but those same areas are also full of "white trash", methy types, as well as an obnoxious younger generation. I've had trash thrown at me (including bear bottles), spitting tobacco at me, vehicles trying to run me off the road, diesel pickups that will pass, slow down, then floor it, leaving me in a cloud of black smoke, etc... mostly because they think it's funny, not because of any perceived inconvenience (as would be in suburb and metro areas). This wasn't just road biking, either; as a kid I would ride my BMX bike from Phelps to Huntsville on FM roads in the summers, several time a week, to visit my friends in town... every ride was an adventure. On my commutes to Austin, Jollyville road was the worst, even with the bike lane; no one respected it, and I've had box trucks come within an inch of my handlebars. My last couple of years commuting here I hung the road bike and rode my MTB along 183 instead, riding sidewalks, the foot paths worn along curbs, and parking lots, and I actually cut about 10 minutes off my commute doing that instead of navigating back streets. On my return I would cut through the double track trails that used to be between Avery Ranch and 183, dropping down what is now called "Dave's Ditch" (this was pre-Deception). The nice thing about trails, is that you have the opportunity to be nice to people and interact with them, helping shape their attitudes toward bikes, unlike riding on the road.

Definitely worse near metro areas, but that's what makes South Mountain Park in Phoenix such an anomaly, and it also seems to have the highest hiker density compared to other metro parks I've visted. Brushy is its own phenomenon, which I attribute to it's proximity and immediate accessibility to so many surrounding neighborhoods, and the fact that it's the only convenient option for the northern communities. No doubt, I used to commute from Leander to Mopac/Steck on my road bike, but that commute is what drove me to get off the road completely, it just isn't worth it. With that said, I also had a few problems in rural areas too; rednecks can be real pricks (coming from someone who grew up rural).

Yeah, I don't know why there is such a regional difference in hiker attitudes, out there but AZ hikers have overall always been really cool, even in groups (there's a group in one of my videos where they were clapping and cheering me on), but conversely in some places like CO, people do not want you on the trails, and the tension is palpable. This is especially true on trails close to Denver, like Apex Park and Dakota Ridge, and to some extent, even here. CO hikers just don't want bikes on "their" trails, period, whereas here it just seems to be more about the inconvenience of having to deal with us.

Come with me next time, we'll hike it and you can appreciate it even more 😀

It's definitely excellent tech training around here... story: The most tech I was exposed to growing up in east TX was tree roots and trials-ish riding in town (using stairs, retaining walls, benches, etc)... in fact, BMX street riding probably helped me more than anything. Later, Moving from there to AZ was a whole new world, tech-wise (okay, from any perspective, really). There was a trail on South Mountain called Holbert that was regarded locally as the ultimate tech descent, and I tried it once on my '96 Giant hardtail with a "long-travel" 3" fork... It was a slow moving, dismount-and-dabbing trials-style experiment more than anything, and I didn't return. I took a few guys from Mojo to ride SoMo back in '16, and I thought, "hey, I should take them down Holbert, that would be entertaining..." Taking a group through there with all the hikers that day was not ideal, but I did discover that, 16 years later, I might actually be able to not only conquer Holbert, but with some momentum and flow, even... I returned to SoMo later that year with @Ganderson; Greg killed his foot on one of our runs down National and took the next day off, so he offered to shuttle me on a trail of my choice, which was a no-brainer; Holbert. I was on the longest, lowest, slackest FS bike I've ever owned, which I actually expected to make the big boulders and and tight switchbacks more difficult, but instead, it was one of my best rides ever! It was even a busy Sunday with hikers, but they were all cool, and the comments and looks on their faces were priceless... That was one of the most fun rides I've ever had, and I owe it to my time on the techy Austin trails. The first 2 minutes are a nice flowy warm up, then things start getting steep and super chunky... some of the comments are captioned:

I grew up riding in the Huntsville and Houston area, and had never ridden outside of that area, aside from a trip to Palo Duro Canyon. When I graduated college I took a couple of weeks and drove through CO, UT and AZ, riding Salida, Moab, Flagstaff, etc... when I got back, I literally parked my bike and didn't ride it again until I moved to AZ a year later; perspective is everything. When my wife wanted to move back to Texas to start our family, I said okay, but it has to be west of I35... Even here, my riding slowed again, and any riding I do here is just maintenance for trips to the real trails.

Man, that statement is sooo 1995.

Exactly, I used to ride with my seat down, the height would depend on the trail... I'd rather do the squatty-pedal thing and stand for climbing than be caught with my seat in the way when it mattered.

Oooooohhhh... that's the "diving board" (as I called it) rock on dare... and that's not where it's supposed to be. It used to run perpendicular to the drop, and at one time was a little longer before the tip of it broke off a few years ago. I mean, that rock pretty much made "Dare" what it was.

For just rolling drops, the key is to approach with your body low and just stay centered on the BB; many people approach a drop or steep and in anticipation, automatically shift their weight back straightening their arms, and that's a recipe for instability or even looping, either forward or back. Staying centered might still result in your butt touching the back tire, but only because that happens to be the centered position, not because you shifted your weight back. Now, if you are launching a drop with momentum, there may be a more complicated combination of movements, but that's a different discussion that, IMO, comes after you've mastered the roll... As for Sponge Bob, this is up and down on a single speed... dismiss the "hop" I did at the top of the drop though, it's not necessary, I was just having fun. On my FS I launch with more momentum, and land on the sloped portion. But the rolling drop technique by Betterride is ideal for rolling it.

As someone who has been riding these trails for 7-8 years and has observed the ill-effects of exponentially increased traffic over this time, I'd respectfully beg to differ. That seems like sound logic, I know, but in over 30 years of mountain biking, I've seen that it doesn't seem to help at all, in fact I have a theory that seeing more than one line validates thoughts of adding additional lines. The only Time I think "B" lines are acceptable are on black trails that might have an occasional double black feature that can't be walked, like you would find at a bike park... this is just for safety, and newbs/novices aren't riding such trails. Usually seasoned intermediate and advanced riders don't mess with features or try to bypass them, it's almost always newer riders (or RidingAgain) who are on a trail that they simply aren't ready for. Additionally, around here, easy B-lines eventually become more and more challenging with traffic, then a C-line forms, until it becomes more of a challenge, then a D-line forms...

A homeowner named Karen.