Chongo Loco

What In the world…the atrocities on the far right of that board!!! 🤢

With all tape you have to put some tension on it working like 6” at a time. It’s the tension that keeps the edges from peeling away when putting tires on/off. Stan’s and gorilla tape have worked fine for me. Never fails I discover I need to replace rim tape after shops have closed so gorilla was easy to get at HD late at night or 7 in the morn. The original Stan’s system was just sealant and packing tape and lots of people used cheap packing tape successfully for years.

On older pads you just dropped the bike in anywhere on the pad and they could vibrate and move around and get some little scuffs. The newer ones have padded slots with a Velcro strap you wrap around the downtube so they stay put. I have also seen people stick an old T-shirt or shop rag under the tube on muddy bikes to prevent scuffs.

My Ridgeline bed is 64” (5’4”) the Taco is a bit shorter. My large Hightower on fork mount jammed against the rear wall has to be offset a bit to close the shell lid. If the bed were shorter I’d pretty much be forced to do a tailgate pad. My road bike I have to take both wheels off since the fork mounts have to be set back further. In town I just chunk em in on the side and close the lid since the composite bed doesn’t damage the bikes. And I’ve taken my most used bike with me on the last few vehicle purchases to make sure my bike fit. 😬 Probably 75% of what I use the bed for is bike related so it’d be pretty dumb to buy a truck my shit doesn’t fit in.

Was walking the dogs from the Y this morn. About 100 yds from the lake right at the first bench a new fall line bandit trail has popped up. It's straight down at 90 degrees to the trail and steep so going to throw you onto the pavement at speed. No bueno!

If you know anyone with kids on the team or their coach ask around about used stuff. That’s a whole team of parents in the same boat, kids outgrowing stuff that’s still in great shape!

Yeah, I’ve got a Thule box I used for my 26” gathering dust in the attic. Used it once on my first 29er 5 or 6 years ago and it was a PITA to pull fork and try to get everything to fit. TSA jacked with it every damn trip. Had everything wrapped in pipe insulation so no damage but they never put the box back together correctly and even tossed my locks once. 😡 Austin TSA peeps are always opening bike carriers looking for CO2 carts even when I put big ass “No CO2 cartridges inside” label on it. 🙄 Borrowed an EVOC and they are so much better than the old boxes! The built in mounts, fork sleeve, wheel pockets, well thought out design.

RIP RHR trails and the section of western fence line trail where my buddy Nick C got the most gruesome looking scars from barbed wire 20+ years ago. He was bombing down the double track and got crossways in a rut and flung into the barbed wire at speed. He used to wear bibs with no shirt and literally left meat from his chest and right side in the wire. When a buddy got up to him he had to unbuckle Nick’s helmet that was hung up in the fence to free him. By sheer luck the wire hit his visor and the fence had sawed into the helmet almost completely thru the foam just above the visor. An inch lower it would have been his forehead or face. He was almost completely naked on one side and they had to safety pin the remnants of his bibs to help walk him out. His chest is covered in keloid scars from it. I have always stayed as far to the left on that section as possible for 2 decades because of that! If you know Nick, that helmet was a prized possession he lost in a fire a few years later. It was unreal how far the fence sawed into it!

That would be fitting! Been to many mudfests at that place over the years!

I do a good many of those from my PT sessions. Not the first but the second, rocking backwards on all 4’s, really stretches things though it seems like nothing when you first do it. Video doesn’t tell you to stop going back when your tailbone starts to roll under. I also do one where you press the small of your back into cushion and hold for 30 sec, which is similar to one in video.

Herniated disk at L5/S1 (right above hip bone). When it swells bad and compresses my spinal cord it can also shoot down my butt like sciatica. Couple of add ons to all above. For me biking generally helps loosen things up, but I had to get real cognizant about my pedaling. My issues are right at hip so I have to watch my form when I get tired. The habit when glutes get tired is to drive your foot forward by rocking your hips forward. Contorting the spine really aggravates my back. I have to concentrate on driving with my toes to engage my quads more. I started on the road in the 80’s and still have my ancient rollers so I hop on them occasionally to get my pedal stroke even again. Mashing and twisting to get up stuff is a lower back killer. And all the core stuff, don’t just do forward / back motion stuff. Side planks, and the ones where you rotate your hand across your body and under tremendously strengthen side muscles. It really help me when my form breaks down and contort my back so I don’t pay as heavy a toll.

A local distillery/venue was a client for a few years. Learned some interesting things about the “craft” distillery business. Almost all clear craft spirits start with the same alcohol base provided by 2 US suppliers. The stuff they add like juniper in gin, etc. for their local twist goes in right before bottling. The turn around on clear spirits is a couple of days for even small guys. There’s quite a few whiskeys that have a similar process, but they get some aging. These guys were actually doing some 10 year stuff but they’ve got a few to go. The hoops TABC makes these guys jump thru is insane. Lawyers love setting up the complex structures it takes to do multiple alcohol types and mixed use facilities (production, sales, consumption) to comply with Texas’ Protestant crap they try to disguise as safety.

Like hunting at a zoo! 😀

So anything different out there other than a few trail signs? Would be nice if they would ever open the restroom by the trailhead. PITA for ladies to have to go all the way to the marina. Campground still shutdown in fall/winter?

And people that ride flat pedals. 🤪

Unless they changed it after ACOE gave up control there was no fee for trail access. They only charged to access the beach area opposite the trailhead lot, and at the campground entrance which is past the marina. Those would both be closed for the season when ACOE controlled things. Used to ride there a bunch when my nieces in Schertz were kids. Would drop the wife to mall walk with them while I got in a few laps. 😉

Since they didn’t charge him they probably didn’t breatholize him either. Wouldn’t be surprised if he and his buddy weren’t having a few playing harass the weenies on bikes to kill the Sunday small town boredom.

Rode earlier. Pt6 was sticky but rideable. Wet spot on mark’s still wet. All else gtg. bum setup shop right on trail at point closest to Lamar. 🙄

Ping the STORM folks in S.A. on the status of madrone before heading there. A while back the Corp turned over control to some local group and the first thing they did was temporarily close it. 🙄 Some BS about signage, but I don’t recall reading if it reopened yet. Could be all good but wouldn’t want you to waste the trip.

Almost none of that wiki is correct. Roux is the base for ALL gumbo. Both okra and file’ are available year round since refrigeration so now it’s just a preference. My dad used both in his gumbo but I hate the slimy consistency of okra.

File’ is usually included in most traditional rural gumbos. It’s more Cajun than Creole. Creoles (usually kitchen help in urban areas) use okra vs file’ as the thickening agent. The Cajuns learned about it from the Choctaw I think. It’s just dried and pulverized sassafras leaves. In my family it’s added to your bowl as you serve so the flavor is stronger.

20 years…lots of iterations and lots of faces, but still the longest going unofficial official year round ride I know of! Need to get lights together so I can hopefully start making it again.

If you haven’t got access to a chain checker, a ruler or tape measure and simple math is just as good. Chain checkers tell you how close you are to the recommended <1% chain stretch. New Chains pin to pin measure out to exactly 12” so 1% stretch would be 12.12 or roughly 12 1/8. If chain is near or more than 12 1/8” pin to pin it’s time to replace. Kept a metric/US metal ruler on my peg board for many years for this purpose til I finally got a chain checker. When the eyes go it’s hard to see those 1/16 dashes. 🙄

They made squirrel gumbo or stew opening day of the hunting season at our hunting camp every year. They taste ok, just a PITA to clean and a lot of bone for the amount of meat you get from one. One of my dad's favorite things was squirrel brains. 🤢 Good to freak out the city relatives when they open the lid and see something staring back at them. 😉

The original Swedish version of the girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy is a much darker version than the James Bond US version. Need to get Netflix again to see Squid Game it sounds like!