Rank in difficulty austin area trails/segments

[crazyt]

On 12/24/2020 at 9:25 PM, skinned elbows said:

So you'd rank thumper over city park? Is thumper your number 1?

 

Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

 

 

 

to the OP there are some clearly hardest trails and clearly easiest trails. In between there are sections of trails that can be hard or easy so a ranked list doesnt really make sense. The hardest is probably cat and thumper. The easiest is walnut or south austin trail network. In between there are a lot of trails.

[AustinBike]

13 hours ago, TAF said:

Is one of them to look like you plan to rob a bank, but getaway on a bike? Because that’s what you looked like when you cruised past Pinthouse the other day.

If it was I'd be stupid to write it here 😉

A big goal is to survive 2020 so I wear a mask (bandana) any time I am out of the house.

Edited December 28, 2020 by AustinBike

[WhoAmI]

11 hours ago, AustinBike said:

A big goal is to survive 2020 so I wear a mask (bandana) any time I am out of the house.

Yikes.

[AustinBike]

2 minutes ago, WhoAmI said:

Yikes.

Yes, but I am primarily riding empty streets. If I ride the trails I ride alone. I am pre-selecting safe places to ride. I went to the shop today and used a surgical mask. The bandana is for when I am not around people or may have a half second encounter on the trail. I've done ~3 small group rides since February, I am just not around people, period.

[TAF]

21 minutes ago, AustinBike said:

Yes, but I am primarily riding empty streets. If I ride the trails I ride alone. I am pre-selecting safe places to ride. I went to the shop today and used a surgical mask. The bandana is for when I am not around people or may have a half second encounter on the trail. I've done ~3 small group rides since February, I am just not around people, period.

The Paranoid Bandit!

[AustinBike]

The live bandit. We've had infected family members and a death. I am selfish and want to still be riding in 2025.

[TAF]

11 hours ago, AustinBike said:

The live bandit. We've had infected family members and a death. I am selfish and want to still be riding in 2025.

Fair enough!

[Barry]

On 12/25/2020 at 12:31 PM, Bamwa said:

even tho it's Christmas I'm calling bs on this one. There is no way in hell. Nut is pg13, Jorge is xxx.

I'm on board here. A sub hour full WC loop can be harder than a 4 hour GW loop. A sub 2.5  or even 3 hour GW loop is a different story. 

Edited December 30, 2020 by Barry
verbing weirds language

[AustinBike]

A sub hour lap at WC is probably more dangerous than a sub hour lap at CP because WC is two way and full of hikers and loose dogs.

[Barry]

A hot lap at WC is pretty doable, but you really have to ring or yell around corners--or even slow down on the really blind sections. Of course going on off hours os helpful. 

[AntonioGG]

16 hours ago, Barry said:

I'm on board here. A sub hour full WC loop can be harder than a 4 hour GW loop. A sub 2.5  or even 3 hour GW loop is a different story. 

Are we talking aerobically or skill or both?   

If you can do a 3 hour or less GW loop, a 4 hour GW loop feels like torture.  IMO slower feels worse when you ride chunk.  If you can only master a 4hr GW loop as your best time, then it's going to be way harder than a loop at WC.  Now a person that can only manage 4hrs at GW probably won't be doing a sub-hour loop at WC.

For me, doing things at the maximum effort for that distance feel almost equally hard.  A 24hr race may be the exception, but a 12 hour race at maximum pace to me feels just as hard as a Cat 2 XC race with my HR >170 for the whole race in which you feel like you're seconds from dying or blowing chunks or both.

[Bart]

I seriously remember being fit enough yrs ago to do the whole Thumper loop with maybe 1 or 2 Dabs, and the one time I nearly made it all the way around without unclipping or grabbing a tree was on a hardtail without a dropper surprisingly. I havent been back there in yrs but I would always rate my cycling techie fitness on that trail as it's a real asskicker even when you have been on the bike alot. Even tho we dont have big mtns in CenTex, the amount of chunky gnar is plenty to keep your skills up. 

[Barry]

14 hours ago, AntonioGG said:

Are we talking aerobically or skill or both?   

I'm largely talking effort--so aerobically. But yeah, that can be done anywhere including GW or the road. And really I think  you'd have to put out 2 hard or one easy and one hard WC loops to equal an easy GW loop. 

And while GW's rocks are easier at speed, like sub 2:30, they're also easy at a stop and go crawl pace like 4:30+. For me It's the non-stop in-between pace of 3ish hours that I think is a little harder on the rocks. 

All just the opinions of a guy who spent well over 2000 miles at WC this year, and has completed 30 GW loops in 3.5 years. 

 

 

[bear]

53 minutes ago, Bart said:

Even tho we dont have big mtns in CenTex, the amount of chunky gnar is plenty to keep your skills up. 

I agree, it prepared me well for my first trips to some of the western chunk (UT) for sure.

If you want relentlessly chunky stuff though, try some of the NE area ... much of CenTex has the chunk mixed in with what amounts to buff track ... there's some crud in NE PA for example that just barely has any buff singletrack. Did a "reset" on my bump-om-eter ... although i'd admit to my old Titus making it fun my current FS 29er made it a LOT more fun and less abusive.

Or I got older and lazier, one. 

[Barry]

8 minutes ago, bear said:

NE PA

Moosic! Merli-Sarnoski! Pompton Dam! I love that stuff. I made the trip down from central NY on the reg' to ride NEPA. I think it well prepared me CenTX. 

[throet]

15 minutes ago, Barry said:

Moosic! Merli-Sarnoski! Pompton Dam! I love that stuff. I made the trip down from central NY on the reg' to ride NEPA. I think it well prepared me CenTX. 

Where in central NY were you? My first ever MTB experience was at Thacher State Park when I was living in Delmar, NY. Would love to get back Upstate some summer as a more seasoned MTBer. 

[Barry]

2 minutes ago, throet said:

Where in central NY were you?

I lived in Ithaca from 1999 to 2009. I then spent a regrettable 1.5 year in Oswego (which is slightly preferable to be lit on fire) and finally moved to Rochester until 2017. 

Central NY has very little in terms of real technical trails. Although there are 1000 roots for every rock. Things get more interesting near Albany and really good near 'The City.' Blue Mountain Reservation (in Peekskill) is one of my favorite places anywhere to ride a bicycle. 

Derail is my favorite kind of rail.

[The Tip]

14 minutes ago, Barry said:

I lived in Ithaca from 1999 to 2009. 

Cool. I graduated from Cornell in 1979. I was just a roadie back then of course.

I just watched some YouTube mountain biking at Greek Peak. Nice that there's that option there now.

[Barry]

Greek Peak opened to lift serve MTB well after I moved out of Ithaca, and a few years before I left NY altogether. I never made it out there, but lots of my NY buddies love it. 

[GFisher]

 

21 minutes ago, Barry said:

Blue Mountain Reservation (in Peekskill) is one of my favorite places anywhere to ride a bicycle. 

Derail is my favorite kind of rail.

Glad to hear this! I have only ridden 1 trail in NY and it was Blue Mountain/Depew back in 2016. Looks like I missed quite a bit of trail even in 30 miles but remember it being awesome. Is Derail a trail in that park?

 

[GFisher]

7 minutes ago, The Tip said:

Cool. I graduated from Cornell in 1979.

Is this Andy Bernard?

[Barry]

2 minutes ago, GFisher said:

Is Derail a trail in that park?

Ha, no, sorry. Just a joke about derailing the thread 😄. 

30 miles is a spectacular ride at Blie! Blue is a bicycle playground the type of which I haven't seen equaled outside of Hartman Rocks. We'll see if I change my mind when I make it to Sedona. Blue's standout trails are My Favorite Trail, Monster, and the rarely ridden by anyone, (because hard) Debacle. Blue has nice knee to hip level doable tech, punctuated by huge and optional steep rock rollers. I just love the place.

[The Tip]

5 minutes ago, GFisher said:

Is this Andy Bernard?

LOL. I use to laugh pretty hard at his Cornell stuff. Cornell is sort of the poor step child of the Ivy League. So his bluster about it was just funny.

Ed Helms gave the commencement speech one year. 

[GFisher]

3 minutes ago, Barry said:

Ha, no, sorry. Just a joke about derailing the thread 😄. 

30 miles is a spectacular ride at Blie! Blue is a bicycle playground the type of which I haven't seen equaled outside of Hartman Rocks. We'll see if I change my mind when I make it to Sedona. Blue's standout trails are My Favorite Trail, Monster, and the rarely ridden by anyone, (because hard) Debacle. Blue has nice knee to hip level doable tech, punctuated by huge and optional steep rock rollers. I just love the place.

Looks like I hit Monster both directions but missed the other 2. I was just exploring solo with a paper map in hand. I will try to make it back up that way sometime, with the intention to end up in VT for a few days as well (some excellent riding up there of course).

[AntonioGG]

3 hours ago, Barry said:

And while GW's rocks are easier at speed, like sub 2:30, they're also easy at a stop and go crawl pace like 4:30+. For me It's the non-stop in-between pace of 3ish hours that I think is a little harder on the rocks. 

Interesting.  My best time is around 3 hours but I've never tried to do 1 fast lap.  I don't think  could do a 2:30 but I should be able to go under 3hrs.  My last 3 hour lap felt easier than my 3:30 - 4 hr laps.   I imagine for 2:30 you're at maximal effort everywhere:  chunk/technical and the flat stuff.  For me the difference between a 3:30 and a 3hr lap is maximal effort everywhere vs taking it easy on the flats.  I attack the chunk because it's more fun but also it's definitely easier.  Do you ride up the steps or do you have to walk those?  I'm just trying to get an idea of what it takes to go as fast as you.  I suppose I could do segment compare in Strava to see if it's overall speed or if there are sections where you gain a lot of time.  I geek out on this stuff as a way to improve my riding.