crazyt

On 9/15/2020 at 1:17 PM, WLemke said:

Figured I'd close the loop on this thread. Ended up putting a deposit down on a Ripmo with Velorangutan. I went with the XT build, Factory 36, Factory X2 and the standard aluminum wheelset. I'm slightly second guessing my choice of wheels but didn't feel great about forking over an additional $700 for the Ibis carbon rims with the i9 hydra hubs. I was given a delivery estimate of the first or second week in September...which has now passed. No frustration towards the guys over at Velorangutan as they don't have any control over Ibis sending them the bike, but the anticipation is certainly killing me! Hoping the bike gets here soon as we are slowly approaching some great riding weather. Would also like to get seat time on the new bike before October's EB: Pandemic edition. Anyways, fingers crossed. 

I think two wheelsets are good for the ripmo. One with burly tires and ones with more XC tires.  Someone in austin sells i9 hydras on pinkbike for under 500. Plus chinese carbon rims at 300 and $64 of spokes from dans comp will get you the second wheelset for a reasonable price.

11 hours ago, WatersPark said:

Crashing sucks especially as I get older. I'm 54, been riding on and off road since I was 5 ish. I Crashed 2x on one ride in Colorado last month after almost 8 years of no crashes other than scrubbing trees. Got a little too amped after a climb and was probably descending too fast. Front wheel washed out in loose rock.  Cussed, straightened my bars and rode on. Exact same thing happened 2 min. later. Fortunately no broken bones, been riding paved trails until things dry out here in TX, then will get back on the trails. Most embarrassing thing is my worst crash prior was due to being unable to get unclipped when I was trying spds.  I went back to the old cage and straps, I leave them a bit loose so I can bail. Oh yeah, maybe time to get some knee and elbow pads. 

Not sure there is any advice in there, other than to regroup, take it slow for a while and enjoy the ride whatever speed it may be. Hope you get back to where you feel good about riding!

instead of cage and straps just get good flats and good shoes.

14 hours ago, Shanerpvt said:

Just wanted to see if anyone was out at Brushy today.  Is it still real wet?

 

Hoping to ride late afternoon on Sunday.

 

Any update is greatly appericiated.

 

Cheers,

Shaner

i keep trail conditions updated at https://austintrailconditions.com

You can make a browser bookmark on your phone that becomes a home page icon

Quote

To add a website bookmark to your home screen¹, open up the site in Safari, and tap the share arrow. Then find the Add to home screen button and tap it. You'll see the following screen, where you can edit the name of the bookmark. Pick something short so you can see it all in the small icon label.

9 hours ago, June Bug said:

Link?

https://buddyinsurance.com/

there is also buddy insurance which is to cover people doing extreme sports. It isnt full coverage, but will partially cover life flights, ambulances, deductibles etc. You can buy it for just the duration of your trip

2 hours ago, notyal said:

I thought about naming it something more specific but decided it would be more fun if it went off on some tangents. It reminds me of an old 90's area SNL skit about a support group for people who ruin things for everyone else. There was someone who decided to drive off without paying for gas which prompted the "pay before you pump" rule. And the guy (played by Adam Sandler IIRC) who peed all over public bathrooms for fun, now bathrooms are for paying customers only. etc.

I searched the youtubes for a bit, but couldn't find the skit. 

nbc has it blocked

https://snltranscripts.jt.org/93/93druining.phtml

25 minutes ago, notyal said:

Three sundays ago I picked up 13 Michelob Infusions bottle caps. Two sundays ago, I picked up 14 Busch cans. This sunday, 16 more Michelob Infusions bottle caps. This is all at the same BCGB trailhead, in a nice neighborhood. It is a pretty popular place to park for MTB, hikers, and runners, but you don't see many of the swimmer/partiers out there, so I'm thinking this is one of us. Don't get me wrong, I picked these up while drinking beer after a ride, but take your fucking trash with you or no one will be allowed to park there!!!

So if you see someone hammering Michelob Infusions at the trailhead, kick him in the nuts once for drinking Michelob Infusions and again for leaving his shit for the rest of us to clean up. 

Most likely teens that are partying at night so you would be unlikely to run into them.

On 8/26/2020 at 10:57 AM, TheX said:

Strange question, I know. I have spent literally thousands of hours on spin bikes at the gym. Years of doing it for fitness for riding sportbikes at the track. Heart attack recovery, and Ducati motorcycle wreck recovery. 

Anyway, in those classes I got used to spinning recovery, so on the trails I tend to never really stop. If I need to catch my breath (I'm old, it happens) I slow down and keep moving. Stopping completely just makes me feel hotter since the air isn't moving. So, recovery for you....spinning or standing?

spinning, never stop moving. On a trainer you never stop pedaling, on a trail there is a lot of coasting to be able to recover.

This is what Im showing for trail conditions. Not sure about reimers and pedernales. I feel like reimers should be good. brushy and walnut are confirmed

4 hours ago, horncpa said:

Wish:   Does anyone have an extra handlebar mount for a Garmin 520?   Broke mine in a crash 😞

 

I have the bar mounts screw together (no stretchy bands) that place the gps over the stem. Live in NW hills if you want to pickup

I have the one with bands if for some weird reason you prefer those.

I have a sram one that looks something like this

An Ebike is absolutely great when you want to work on downhill skills. You can get so many more runs in.

On 8/14/2020 at 9:54 AM, Barry said:

Resurrecting an old thread here, but it is more pertinent than ever given the dry conditions we have. I was drifting all over the place at Walnut last night!

 

 

Regarding new school/old school: During this discussion I was remembering where I originally got the basis of my cornering technique. In 2001 when I very first got into serious trail riding, I picked up Ned Overend's then fairly new 1999 book, Mountain Bike Like a Champion. I was sure that much of my technique had come from the book, but unfortunately it had gotten lost in one of the 7 address changes that I've had since buying the book. But I was able to find the exact snippet I wanted online on Google Books! Check out that handlebar! 

 

 

Outside of this the primary change I've made after moving to Austin and riding in the super loose  scree and moondust, is to move my outside leg/knee forward to further weight the front tire. 

just an esoteric point, but there is no such thing as centrifugal force. 

12 hours ago, June Bug said:

Note: Austin will continue to sprawl with no proportional increase in public space/open space/parks, so user demand for these resources will only increase. My sense is that the City of Austin has not developed a master management plan to address these issues and is using more of an ad hoc approach, but I hope I'm wrong.

  

Timely reminder!

It doesnt have to be true. There is quite a bit of city owned greenbelt land with no trails. They can legitimize rogue trails as well.  For example the austin parks foundation had a call out for people to help build trail in the north cat mountain greenbelt. 

1 hour ago, The Tip said:

WHO owns it? Is Adler "the city" or, are you and I "the city?" I think his rant is about Adler trying to grab ownership from me and you.

 

We have elected adler and the city council to administer it on our behalf. We all have shared ownership and therefore have delegated operations to the city. You could want it wide open and other people could want it closed. You and they dont decide directly, but through your elected representatives.  If you own shares of mcdonalds, can you go in and do whatever you want at a corporate owned mcdonalds restaurant? No because you are only a part owner with millions of other owners. The corporate structure delegates power to the board who then delegates power to the employees.

Im much more upset about forest ridge which was promised to stay open and then the city essentially closed it except to bird enthusiasts. The city council actually mandated that it be opened for recreational use, but the city department has essentially stalled until the effort died. I will be upset if the city closes trails to mtb because of birdwatchers (but I wont dispute they have the power to do it)

On 8/7/2020 at 6:21 AM, AustinBike said:

Well, that is an interesting question. Are we OK with this:

In the world of COVID all bets are off. That chart is just Texas and as we continue to toss another 6-8,000 Texans per day onto the fire, it's pretty clear that we don't have a good plan and some steps need to be taken.

What we don't know is:

1. If you aren't starting from one of those primary 5-6 starting places, does it matter?

2. If you are starting before 10:30 does it matter?

3. Are they patrolling the trails and stopping people randomly to check for reservations?

Clearly I would rather have none of this, but because I don't park at those trailheads and I start before 10:30 this may be a total non-issue. If it helps limit the number of idiots that are out there on the main trail that may not be a bad thing. If I ride the GB it will be with a bandana because I know the types of people who frequent it on the weekends (as evidenced by the empty beer cans and trash) and I just don't trust them.

We live in weird times and to some degree we need to stop asking are we ok with this because the last time we argued "are we OK with this" was back in May when we were shut down. People argued that the shutdown was unnecessary and that we could all be adults and really be responsible for ourselves. Just look up at that chart again and look at May vs. July to see how well we did. With school starts all in a state of flux and the impact that will bring to both families and the economy, is having this restriction so onerous? 

The part that you are glossing over is that the only people that are getting sick are the people that are not quarantining or associating with people that arent quarantining. Anyone can choose to quarantine (even people in nursing homes can choose to quarantine and most of them will decide that getting taken care of is more important than quarantining).  People are making the choice (sometimes they are tough choices) to not quarantine and those are the people that are getting sick.

"We" are not throwing 6-8K into the fire.

can someone summarize his points? As far as I can tell it is city owned property and as our elected representatives they can define rules to close it. Even though I disagree with the reasons behind the closures (outside gatherings are actually relatively safe unless people have massive crowds) I think the city absolutely has the power to close the parks that it owns or charge money for entry into the parks or ban mountain bikers or approve or ban particular trails.

5 hours ago, The Tip said:

..because of "erosion."

They always talk about erosion like it's a toxic gas or something. That's the fall back ruse in trying to shut things down. I remember a picture of "erosion" they used in the City Park discussion. It was like 4" high into a 6" wide ditch. Oh the horror! It would have been laughable except for the evil intent behind it.

The Grand Canyon is a pretty good example of erosion. And yet the world still survives!

What kills me is that if and when erosion is evident it usually is so simple to fix and cure. It's not global warming! 

But the paragraph El Gringo posted sounds like they are trying to placate the neighborhoods around the well known trail heads. Ok, sure.

when I was fighting with the city to keep cat open they admitted that natural erosion was much larger than anything people would do.  Erosion is a big deal when you are building a subdivision and all that dirt clogs up a waterway. But erosion doesnt always matter. In santa barbara, erosion is eating cliffs and threatens to destroy homes. In most of our area erosion is a complete non issue.

The city also said that trails create impervious cover..

20 hours ago, RidingAgain said:

And the downward... Sideways... Other sideways... Upward... Downward... Sideways... Downward... Upward... Downward confusion continues.

The seemingly normal confusion of these days aside...

I now have something like 20+ bikes in my garage to work on for people. It's like they see me outside my garage working on a bicycle and BAM... "Could you help me with my bicycle?"

you might be a hoarder.. however crappy 90s bikes are listing for $200 so you should take this chance to clear out some bikes. Get as many working as possible and start to sell. If you sell 10 of them you can buy a really nice modern bike.

On 8/5/2020 at 9:28 AM, Teamsloan said:

Of all the bloated budget that APD has, I don’t see this as the most impactful place to want to cut or “defund” them. I thought we liked bikes here.

Let’s look elsewhere in the budget…like maybe…armored military vehicles and UAVs?

The term is “defund” not “un-fund” the police. Just because something is affiliated with APD, that doesn’t mean we need to throw it out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

defund the police is actually about taking away many of the jobs that armed combat trained officers arent best for and moving those to another agency. It isnt about throwing things out but moving them to another agency where the culture is different

On 8/5/2020 at 8:12 AM, JMR said:

Businesses should be able to reserve the right to refuse service for whatever reason they see fit. It's their business. If they don't want to sell bikes to APD, they shouldn't. Just like if someone didn't wanna bake a cake for someone, they shouldn't. If profit drops off, they'll have to live with it. If I get refused service somewhere, I'll gladly take my money elsewhere. Just my 2 cents.

the bake a cake is a protected class. They could deny for reasons not related to the protected class, but not because of the protected class.

Ill add that I put up some pegboard and have my tools nicely spaced out. That is really helpful. 

I also have at least 8 sets of allen wrenches in various forms (t handle, L, socket head, screw driver head, on spare bike tools, etc), because you can never find them when you need them.

I keep a complete tool set (sockets, hammer, bits, crescent etc) in my bike area and the tools are never allowed to leave that area. I have a toolset for indoors and a toolset in my main work bench.

15 hours ago, deadtokevin said:

We've sold our home and will traveling with our 3 kids(6yo,3yo,1yo) for an undetermined amount of time. I have a list already of what I need to take for working, riding and getting out with all the kids. We will be staying at AirBnB's so a lot of the basics will be covered. What are some necessary items yall travel with if you're going to be away for awhile? Hoping to get some ideas for things I haven't considered

Our vehicle is a Honda Pilot with a Yakima Skybox 21 and a 4 bike rack(which I need to purchase still). First major stop is CO, then UT and who knows

I personally would do an RV instead of a pilot. There are 24ft RVs forsale for 20-30K. Tow a small car for driving around the area.

Something like this

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2613183542232560/

On 7/29/2020 at 3:10 PM, Kobra Kai MTB Guy said:

After being told there's an 8 1/2 week wait on repairs at Peddler's (good for them, but it's a little upsetting given the loyalty I've had to them), I finally decided to start doing repairs myself.  I'm relatively handy when it comes to working with wood and around the house, but a novice as it relates to mechanical issues.  I came up with the below list of tools that I'll need.  I'm planning to do basically every repair if I'm going to drop this kind of investment in tools.  Can you guys take a look and let me know if/what I'm missing?  If there's anything here you don't think is necessary, I'd be happy to know that too.

 

Wheel truing stand

Bike stand

Chain whip

Grease

Carbon paste

Digital caliper

Brake bleed kit

Lockring remover

Screw drivers, allen keys, wrenches etc (already have)

 

if you get a truing stand then you will also need spoke wrenches, a spoke tension meter is handy

small and large torque wrenches

pedal wrench or larger allen keys than typically come in most sets (e.g. 8mm)

Chain breaker, I also use quicklinks and have a quick link tool and spare quick links

there is also a tool to measure chain wear

for shimano cranks there is a small plastic tool that is used to remove the bolt that holds the cranks together (crank arm installation tool)

Bottom bracket tool - there are a couple of sizes. My park bottom bracket tool has the crank arm install tool on one side

For brake bleeds and shimano brakes you need a 7mm allen which doesnt seem come in most sets, make sure the kit has the funnel. I use it a lot

I use a hayes disc brake tool which has two very thin sheets that go between the rotor and the brake pads to align calipers. There is a park rotor tool for bending the rotor

derailleur hanger alignment tool, spare derailleur hanger

mineral oil for shimano brakes

very large socket for the fork nuts (e.g. 24mm, 26mm)

Air compressor for seating tubeless tires. I keep spare stans valves.  I also use a basketball pin inflator to remove grips. You blow compressed air under the grip and the grips come right off/slide right on. I have a presta valve connector for my compressor

I use a little presta core tool for removing the core out of presta valves. I use a stans syringe that has a presta screw at the end to inject sealant

cable/cable housing cutter. I like the park one

1mm allen head - this is used for example on the barrel nut of a ks lev dropper bost

a set of picks for pulling retaining springs

vice soft jaws for when you cant get hub endcaps and the freehub body to come off

I have a special clamp for the brake hose to make it easy to tap the brass barb fitting on the end

regular grease

fork oil

I have dt swiss grease for dt swiss hubs

Some different grease for i9 torch hubs

slick honey

rock and roll gold for the chain

I make my own sealant

pedros tire levers

alcohol for cleaning rotors and brake pads.

generic degreaser (e.g. simple green)

lots of shop towels

nitrile gloves

I use cloths, but the oil comes off in the washer which is bad.

spotlight to see what you are doing

There are additional things that are pretty rarely used:

various presses for headsets and press fit bottom brackets

For crown race I just use 1.5 inch PVC and a cap so I can hit it with a hammer

4 hours ago, Seths Pool said:

2 free 29" wheels. both 135QR

 

both Shimano drivers, one is center lock rotor one is 6 bolt

 

there is also a free WTB bonson tire

 

PM me if interested. if not gone by Sunday im throwing them in the trash.

 

thanks!

 

-Seth 

There was a girl who had her wheels stolen. She posted on the austin mountain bike facebook group. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/502755839933261/permalink/1450177888524380/

On 7/27/2020 at 8:42 AM, mack_turtle said:

I gotta say, people are absolutely obsessed with HTA as if one degree or another makes a bike unrideable and they need to chill out. there's so much more to it than that. meanwhile, I don't even know what my HTA is, something around 68°? it's not stopping me from having fun riding gnarly stuff for long miles.

thats because 68 is the perfect HTA..