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KuЯdt

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Posts posted by KuЯdt

  1. On 9/19/2022 at 9:52 AM, Al_4_ISU said:

    Just booked a trip to NWA in mid March.  Plan is to do the whole Back 40 one of the days.  Anyone here ever done it?

    I did the full Back 40 loop about a year and a half ago.  It’s pretty xc, with a few bonus side trails or loops you can do.  There’s a good amount of cumulative climbing.

    The Little Sugar system across the highway is similar, but with more jump lines, tech sections, and has the Huntley Gravity Zone as well.  It felt to me like Little Sugar has more climbing too.

       

    • Hook 'Em 2
  2. yeah parts are still hard to come by.  I mangled both a derailleur and a rotor in Bentonville about a month ago.  The only 12sp derailleur in town and at all of Phat Tire's shops in the region was an XTR for $270.  Nope.  Online all I could find were a couple Deore's and a single SLX.  So I got the SLX and also got the SLX shifter since my XT one had been having issues. I actually like the SLX shifter better.

  3. 4 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    Hahaha.  Goddammit.

    So, i pulled the rear pads again to take a look, especially for oil from the pistons/calipers and sure enough there were little rings on the back of the pads.  I also tried extending them with the plastic knife handle between the pistons as it is almost, but not quite as thick as the pads together.  And now I can't get them to go back in with the amount of force I am comfortable applying, with the fairly flexible plastic knife.

    They aren't out very far, but I guess it doesn't take much.

    So it appears I completely fucked the caliper.  Which is probably ok, because I think it was leaking.

    Good thing it rained like hell, because I'm going to be off the mtb for a while.

    I don't think I'll be fucking with my brakes anytime soon except maybe pad changes.

    Also, that little thing on SRAM derailleurs that de-tensions the chain is handy as a pocket on a shirt.  I can't even get the motherfucking thru-axle back in.  Fuck.

    If you got the pistons out some, best to open up the system via the bleed kit cup wd mentioned above then you can get them back in easily.  You need one anyway as a lever bleed is super quick and easy with it, and most of the time it's all you need to do.  Link to kit

    Also you need the shimano mineral oil  

    As for the derailleur, did you disengage the clutch?

     

    • Hook 'Em 1
  4. On 5/13/2022 at 10:36 AM, Your Mom said:

    I ate shit pretty hard the other day.  Nothing broken, but dirt rash, cuts, and scrapes from ankle to hip and a big raw spot on my forearm.  There's a drop on the South Austin Trail Network, that we chatted about a year or two ago, by the Espcarpment Spillway. Maybe a 4-footer or so.   I've been slow rolling it for a while and started hucking right off it maybe 6 months ago.  It's the kind of drop I hate with a few too many rocks on the lead-in.  It's not enough to throw the bike off course, but it's enough that I think about it.   I got a little too comfortable with it the the other day and went off it more casually than normal.  Got crooked in the air and had about a full second airborne when I knew it wasn't going to end well.  Landed with the bike traveling one direction and pointed in another.  Bounced awkwardly and slid a few yards in the dirt and gravel.  

    I've been pretty good about wearing pads when I do stuff like that, but it was a spur-of-the-moment thing on a casual ride so no pads.  We're getting more and more features built on what used to be my boring neighborhood cruise trail.  Knee pads are probably about to become standard on more rides for me, and elbow pads on some days too.  They'd have both prevented the worst of the dirt rash on this day.   

    yeah the run up to that is a bit janky and pretty blind.  Also, I often do a ride-by before I hit it because a couple of times there have been some big rocks sitting right in the middle of the landing.

  5. awesome stuff, fellas.  i'm liking the teamwork on these videos, it's always cool to get multiple perspectives of a ride.  I also like the view of that expansive landscape and how you can really see the trail way up ahead.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  6. On 4/26/2022 at 8:20 PM, wd40 said:

    just got back from Fruita, last night.  17.5 hour drive.  rode with Your Mom, a couple days.  after sifting thru 64GB of footage, I've concluded there's just no point in the gopro.  makes it hard to breathe, and the finished product doesn't even come close to capturing the fun.  we did a day at 18 Road (between scattered rain/sleet showers), then Kokopelli:  Mary's, Horsethief, then Moore Fun to get back to the truck.

    I got there a day ahead of him, so I got a day to preride by myself.  wind was insane.  made it unrideable, after a point, esp on the exposed ridges.  checked NOAA later, and it was 25-35 with gusts to 65.  hardest wind I've ever been in.  almost got blown off the hill a few times.  ai may piece some of that together, but there's no way you can feel the sand getting driven into your legs at 50mph.

    anyway, this one is decent.  Joe's Ridge/Mojo, end to end.

     

    Mom's still out there, somewhere in Moab.  just shreddin'.

     

     

    good stuff.   that looks like a fun ride, I need to get out there one of these days.  Mom videos forthcoming? (that didn't sound quite right...)

    • Drool 1
  7. On 4/15/2022 at 5:39 PM, Your Mom said:

    I'm really picky about that stuff.  Some of them just feel wrong and I can't shake the discomfort.  I've had a typical camelbak and they make my lower back ache after a while.  That's my fault for having a weak lower back, but still..  I've tried two hip belts, the Dakine Hot Laps and the EVOC something or other.  The Dakine has a 2L bladder.  The EVOC has a small bladder and holds a bottle on each side.  My preferred setup for the hip pack is the EVOC pack with the two bottles and no bladder, plus a bottle on the frame.  Rode thjat set up for a year or so and liked it well enough.   Minimal bounce.  I prefer bottles to bladder.  The hose annoys me and I don't mind slowing or stopping to drink.

    They both need to be cinched down fairly tight to not bouce and the tightness isn't real comfortable,  but still better than a camelbak.... until recently.  I recently got a Camelbak Skyline.  Love it.  It's a pack on your back but it sits really low.  Almost like a bigger hip pack but with shoulder straps.  I've been on a dozen or so rides with it now and it's my favorite setup of them all.  Hold more than a hip pack, feels way better than a typical camelback

     

    Skyline:

    91JVpFBvZfL._AC_SY606_.jpg

     

    The EVOC

    102503120-HIP-PACK-PRO-3-dt06.jpg

     

     

     

     

    I have both of these.  got the Skyline to replace a regular camelbak but it wasn't quite what I was looking for.  It seemed pretty big.  After I got the evoc I just couldn't really go back to something with shoulder straps.  It's the closest I could get to the free feeling of not having a pack at all.  The skyline only gets used on really long days in the summer, but most of the time the evoc with its 1.5L bladder and another bottle on the bike is enough for me.  I'm kind of opposite from y'all in that I prefer the bladder to putting bottles in the pack pockets.  A good hack is to use a retractible badge reel (the kind you attach a security card to for office access) to keep the hose from getting pulled away too easily if that is an issue.

  8. BCGB today. 

    I wanted to make a quick edit to see how much faster the new laptop is vs my old windows box.  yeah it was quite the improvement...it rendered the video in 2 minutes, what would have taken 20+ on the old one.

     

     

     

    • Hook 'Em 2
  9. As a sort of follow-on to Twice's experience with the Ripley and expectations vs actual riding, I had a Revel Ranger this past weekend.  Got 3 rides in on it, and it really surprised me.  Based on its geo and the 115/120 travel, I expected kind of a boring twitchy XC bike, but it wasn't that at all. The climbing was great which I anticipated, but was also really good on the downs and in chunk.  Actually excelled at climbing chunky tech sections.
    I had a ton of fun on it, and even though I didn't take it on any really hardcore terrain, it handled everything I threw at it with aplomb.
    I think a lot of that is due to the CBF suspension platform which I'd read good things about, and now I understand why.  It just goes to show that it's hard to judge bikes on their numbers alone, and you need to ride them to get a true feel.

     

    PXL_20220318_222307390_MP.thumb.jpg.8dc5005cc15ee478ec3ce237424b4ac0.jpg

     

    PXL_20220318_222328197_MP.thumb.jpg.df795ab38a8149501afa85f8a8da3b7d.jpg

    • Hook 'Em 2
  10. ^^ what they said.  however, if you do carry tire levers with you (and I usually do in my hip pack) then you can get a set of these which double as quick link pliers.

    If you don't want to wear a pack, you can get a frame strap and squeeze a number of things into it (tube + co2 canister/inflator+ levers, multitool + bacon cartridge, or just a taco).  I do that a lot of times on rides where I'm only bringing one water bottle and no pack.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  11. I can only speak to my own experience, and I haven't ridden Rockshox in many years.  But I didn't get along with the 34 and fit4 damper on my Occam.  If I tried to make it a bit more plush, I'd end up bottoming it out on bigger hits.  It would be too harsh if I tuned it for big hits.  I started playing with volume spacers, but then went to angelfire and that was it for me.  It was just overwhelmed there, which I suppose is to be expected for a 34 in a bike park.

    After that I wanted to upgrade, and was going to get a Lyrik or a Pike just to switch things up.  But all I could get at the time was a 36 so that's what I went with.  That fork has been great, and has the fit4.  The Grip2 damper is the best they offer, and I think has a better rep than the fit4.  But my 36 has a fit4 and i have no complaints.

    About a month ago a buddy and I switched bikes for a ride out at Pedernales Falls.  he had the 34 with Grip2 damper, and I thought it felt great.  better than my old 34.  

    I believe the Grip and Grip2 damper may actually have been developed my Marzocchi, which Fox now owns.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  12. 5 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    @KuЯdt wasn't it you with the Occam? 

    Yep I have an Occam.  There are 2 or 3 AL versions of that bike.

    Right now I guess you do have to go with what you can get, as the supply chain is still kind of jacked up.  But I see shops getting more and more bikes in.  The owner of the shop where I saw the Ripley AF's told me that Ibis would just randomly send them and he would have no idea they were even showing up.

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  13. yeah the Tallboy does seem to be better if you're a more aggressive rider and hitting rough/steep descents.  But the AF version of the Ripley has a HTA  half a degree slacker than the carbon version, so maybe a tad bit better on the downs.  It really is a surprisingly good value.

    Both are great bikes.

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  14. 14 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    Well, fuck me in the goat ass, but the beloved Rift Zone got swiped off my back porch last night.

    I don't think I could justify much of an upgrade from that bike (125 rear 120 front) until it wore out.  But here I am, looking for a new bike.  I don't think I need any more travel, either.

    A leading candidate is a Ripley AF, probably the Deore build at a little over 3k.  Another would be to get the higher spec Rift Zone 3 at about $3k.  Another likely candidate is an aluminum Tallboy in the same price range.  I'm familiar with SRAM shifters/ing, but understand there's not a whole lot of difference and Shimano has a lot more fanbois.

    Any other suggestions?  I don't really think I want carbon, I'm afraid something fuct up will happen and I don't really want to pay for it.  That eliminates a lot of bikes.

    Damn, that sucks.  Fuck thieves.  But at least shopping for a new bike is always fun.
    If you're trying to stay at 120 and aluminum, I can only think of a couple others off the top of my head besides the ones you listed, like the Giant Trance and new Trek Top Fuel.  The Trek seems to get good reviews.  Of those, I'd go with the Ibis - good value and DW-Link.  The last couple times I stopped by the shop they had a couple of them in stock.  Looks awesome in that green color.
    If you were open to a bit more travel and even a carbon frame, you would have a lot more options.  Fezzari has some pretty good value around the $3500 mark.

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  15. 1 hour ago, wd40 said:

    I don't SS on the trail much anymore.  it was a lot of fun for a while.  teaches you a lot about floating bumps and planning your accelerations to get up stuff.  but the bike geometry is way too different (69* head angle, which was considered slack back in '09), and only 3" of travel on the front.  my old bones just can't do it, anymore.  I still take it out on the street for training.  still geared for hills (32-20).  did 8.31mi with 824ft of climbing, one day last week.  cut it short when I felt some moisture on my calves that turned out to be Stan's spraying out of a puncture in my back tire.  no kit.  house key on a string.  held long enough to get me home, though.  took 3 strips of bacon to fix it.  still need to ride-test it.

    did Spider again, yesterday.  Sidewinder is easily my new favorite trail there, so wanted to film it.  wish I could jump.  uncorked one on Antidote off-camera that launched me over the landing zone into a nose wheelie for 5 or 6ft.  so I slipped back into my usual wet noodle style for the rest of the day.  did get a taste of the wall ride, finally.  transition's not nearly as abrupt as it looks.

    since I was up there and it was blowing (gusty to 30+, as it turned out), I went for a sail, afterward.  wanted to test out a new camera setup.  put the 6 on top, and the old 5 on the boom, (where it usually goes).  water was cold (56*), so my feet were numb when they weren't cramping from dehydration.  it'd be nice if @G650's boys could up their camera game to match their sailing.  I need to do the opposite.

     

     

     

     

    Funny,  I was out there yesterday too, kinda doing the same thing (sans the sailing bit).  Sort of surprised I didn't run into you, but it was pretty crowded up until 1:30-ish.  Agreed on Sidewinder - that trail is lots of fun.  I tend to enter it from Centipede so that I can try to hit those 2 tables before the bridge.  Most of yesterday was spent running Antidote, Sidewinder, and Venom trying to work on my jumping ineptitude, but didn't really make much progress as usual.  Also, I didn't bust the gopro out until the afternoon which was unfortunate as the sun had come out by then and made for less than ideal filming conditions.  I'll take a look at it later and see if it looks interesting or not.

     

    Also got some footage at Flat Rock Ranch on saturday.  We hit a couple of the new (to me) enduro lines out there.  Looks like they are in the process of building some bigger jump lines too.

  16. 11 hours ago, wd40 said:

    Vulture's  pretty far up Decision Point.  there's a sign for it on DP Trail, but of course that doesn't tell the whole story.  you follow that jeep road about 75 yards toward the big rock pile.  that rock pile is where the start of Vulture is.  you actually cross Super D from that jeep road to get to it.  in the video at about 2:10, there's a run up to a steep ramp thing over a boulder on Super D, with the big rock pile on your left.  right about where that video segment starts is next to the path up onto a shelf for the Vulture start.  it's not easy to see, and if you can ride up that path thru the cactus, rocks and grass, you are a true stud mtber in my book.  see pic below.  I'm not good with words.

    the end of Vulture is fairly close to the end of SuperD.  riding along that high fence, you'll come to a burned out car near the base of a dam for a stock tank.   follow the fence on your left, up the steep grind to a deer stand and you're very close to Race Loop and Blue Loop, iirc.  basically, after you do those two 3-footers on SuperD to the finish, the end of Vulture is about 100yds to your left. I think you can see the stock tank as your coming down SuperD.

    but now you've got me wondering about Full Commando.  only done it once.  isn't it somewhere below the 'chapel'?

     

    image.jpeg

    Excellent, thanks for the info.  I'm planning to get back out there sometime soon-ish and I'll check it out.  I guess I've unknowingly ridden right past it a number of times, but I see now how I would never have noticed it.

     

    As for Full Commando, it's sort of across to the east from Vulture off of RPR Loop.  The way I get there is by riding the Race Loop clockwise from the gate and turn onto RPR Loop.  Not far up RPR (like maybe a half mile if that), you'll start to get on the granite and there's a spot where you will notice one or 2 of those orange arrows.  RPR loop kind of winds across and generally up, but if you go straight up the hill from there, you'll see more of those arrows.  I just kind of try to follow those up to the "top" of that trail.  In true RPR fashion, it's somewhat hard to find and follow.  And if you recall once you're heading back down Full Commando, you'll pass through the spot where you entered off RPR loop and it dead ends back into Race Loop.

  17. 22 hours ago, wd40 said:

    made it back up to RPR, today.  only place I knew'd have perfect traction, despite the moisture yesterday.  they're building another jump line, bigger than Patron, from the looks of it.  maybe some day, but I don't even do Patron (because rolling jump lines is a waste of time) so it'd be a lonnnng way off.

    anyway, this is mostly Vulture.  I don't think it gets a lot of traffic, except for races.  it's just not what the kids are into, these days, but I love it.  tried some off the bike shots to show how how steep it is.  failed, as usual.  but it's funny to see yourself in 3rd person.  see all kinds of moves you're not even aware you're making.

     

    btw, this was also a test run of some riding pants I just bought:  100% Airmatic.  worked great.  zero binding, full freedom of movement.  they even fit over my kneepads.  much better than Peter Pan pants.  great for really cold days.  size chart was difficult to figure out, but I ended up just ordering a size up from what I think it said I should get, worked out perfectly.

    Nice ridin' there Johnny.

    So how exactly do you get to Vulture?  I've seen videos of it before but have never come across it.  Looks like it might be up there near the top of RPR loop, maybe further up from Full Commando?  Kinda threw me off when it ended at a fenceline tho.

  18. Agree with Braff re: tire pressure, and there are a number of variables that go into it.  I'm running a 2.5 front, 2.4 rear and most of the time i'm about the same as you with 20/28.  That changes based on what trails I'm riding though along with conditions.  And if I know I'm going to be riding high speed chunky downhills, I'm definitely running more pressure at least in the rear.  Earlier this year I was running at not quite enough pressure on a downhill run in New Mexico and dinged my rim on a hard hit at high speed.  Luckily that happened to be my last ride of the day on the last day of the trip.

    I will admit though that I mostly go by feel with the squeeze test, and I don't know how accurate the gauge on my pump really is.  Recently I got one of those quick read digital gauges so I could keep tabs on it more closely, but I keep forgetting to check it.

  19. I somehow found myself with paid subscriptions to Strava, Trailforks, and Alltrails.  I only paid for Trailforks myself, the others were gifted to me for one reason or another.

    I like Strava to keep track of stats, and to sort of also track against loose goals I have for myself such as monthly and yearly mileage and elevation gain.  I do like the leaderboard feature and ability to look back at my past performances on segments, to see if I'm getting faster or slower.  And I am also a little competitive with a couple of friends.  But I'll likely not renew it even as much as I'm into stats, the basic stuff is enough for me.

    Trailforks is super useful for navigating your way around places you've not ridden before and worth the mere $30/year or so they charge.

    I find Alltrails only useful for hiking, so I rarely use it.

    • Like 1
  20. 2 hours ago, sasquatch69 said:

    @KuЯdt Fantastic videos - thanks.  Can't wait to ride this sometime.  Two questions:

    - Do you think these are doable with a hardtail?  The first one looks like it would be; not sure about second (Angel's Plunge).

    - Apologies if you've explained this before, but what gear do you use for these?  I'm assuming a GoPro with chest mount?


    A lot of the trails are certainly doable on a hardtail, but I'll say it just won't be as enjoyable.  You'd get beat up and fatigued quite a bit more, as angelfire is known to be kind of rough.  If you go, I would recommend renting a FS from the shop at the base - they have a pretty good selection.

    With that said, my wife did one run down the greens on her hardtail.  I think she had another run in her but she crashed near the bottom so that was it for her.  She did finally understand why I've been telling her it is time for a full suspension though.

    And yes, camera setup is just a GoPro with chest mount.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  21. Couple vids from Angel Fire trip last week  Weather was incredible.  

    A bit of Diesel and Chutes and Ladders which is a super fun North Shore style trail:

     

     

     

    And a run down the upper part of Angel's Plunge.  Fast and loose, like how I like my women:

     

     

     

     

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    • Like 3
  22. 19 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    I'm seeing that to be true, although among fixie fehgs, that's apparently pretty standard (44x16).  Hard to conceive of Dallas, Texas being regarded as hilly outside of maybe Oak Cliff/SW Dallas.

    Also, I guess I lied because I have ridden, not extensively, a couple of single speed mountain bikes, but wasn't intelligent enough to ask the gearing.  They certainly seemed to be lower than this, which I suppose is fairly obvious.

    You going hipster on us?  lol

    A 44x16 would be pretty nuts on a mtb.  I have a SS that I used to ride down to slaughter creek trail or just the southie trails in general.  I barely ride it anymore.  I think it is 32x20.  That gearing works fairly well on the trails, but you get spun out very quickly on the streets or longer flat sections.  The guy I bought it from said he rode the Enchilada Buffet on it (that's about an 80 mile ride of 5 or so major trail systems in Austin, riding the streets from one to the next). I assume he changed up the gearing for that ride as that would suck hard in its current config.

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  23. 16 hours ago, wd40 said:

    I was wondering about the 'coaster' part of the video title.   I couldn't make even those minimal hucks without pedaling some.

    SBT solo?  bring a good map and don't get too tired and zone out because there is some route finding to be done.  I stayed out of it, because what good was one more finger on the map gonna do?  specifically, there is a park for equestrian access, so you end up riding for a bit on a dirt road.  just took some thought as to which way to go, there.  we were also lucky in that there was a race a week before, so there were no downed trees to deal with.

    the first climb from the trailhead on FSR 76 up to Osha Pass is brutal.  1.4 miles, and my Strava avg speed was 1.7mph.  I started out too fast, and didn't recover til we were over the pass.  but I'm a lowlander.  not bad at all after that.  second grind up 1000' was easy compared to the one at the start.  this was a few years ago, my first trip out there.  the guy driving the SBT ride wanted to start at the bottom of 76, but got easily overruled, esp after 3 days of park.  so the big guy not doing SBT hauled us all up there, packed into a chevy pickup.  at the other end, the condo owner we stayed with piled us into his cargo van with our bikes, and drove us to La Cueva in Taos for lunch.  epic day.

    I think we saw maybe two people until we got to the last descent into Taos, where it was yabba-dabba-do time on the switchbacks to the end.  kind of a culture shock, plus dealing with kids and dogs on hairpins.

    there's an awesome overlook, just before the final descent.  kinda subtle turn off at a dogleg, but it's a good spot to celebrate the achievement.

    have fun.  be careful out there.  gets pretty chunky in spots, in the last 4 miles or so.

     

    2x:  springs wear out.  very good chance it's shot, with that kinda mileage.  had it happen on my last der.  usually bend a cage before that happens.  not saying the cassette, chain and chainrings aren't due for replacement, but diagnosing the spring on the der should be pretty easy.  if there's a belly in the chain...

    awesome, thanks for the info.  That lines up with what I've read on the interwebs.  The first climb is the only part that concerns me, since it is the very first thing you do without even a chance to warm up the legs.  I read somewhere that if you follow the signs for 164 that should get you there. I'll also have the offline Trailforks map, so with luck I'll get down to Taos without issue.

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