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The Surly Mountain Biking Thread


Braff Zacklin

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First trip to Fruita this weekend.  Spent my time riding and enjoying parking lot beers at 18 road.  Really great trails where 30 minutes of easy climbing lead to 15 minutes flowy descents.

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I was going about 15 mph according to Strava, negotiating a slight uphill rocky section - I had some good momentum at that point. My back wheel hit one of the rocks popping me up onto my front wheel and I lost it into the sagebrush. Went over onto my right side headfirst, legs all tangled up in the frame. 

Good times. Had to ride back about 3 miles to the truck. 

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I did something similar, some years ago.  not that knuckle, but the next one further out on my ring finger, iirc.  used a loop of velcro as a quick-and-dirty, removable splint.  doc was kinda impressed with the "device".  since then, I don't bother with xrays on stuff like this.  if it's not poking out, there's really nothing to be done but maybe tape it up.

semi-related:  I don't remember why I bought it, but I picked up one of those spandex "copperfit" sleeves, I think for my knee.  never worked as advertised, but it works great as a bandage wrap.  just carry it and some gauze pads and you can cover just about any gash until you get to the truck.  machine washable.  I've actually loaned it to buddies who've had some deep cuts, grazing stumps and whatnot.  don't have to worry about tape not sticking, and it gives some compression to the wound.

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got my ass beat on Wednesday, sailing, of all things.  one last jibe to get out of my gusty cove, and got slammed into the white caps, then turtled; then turtled again when I got it back up, rinse and repeat, more times than I can remember.  obviously, I eventually got back, but I'm still just a ball of bruises and pulled muscles.

but I've been wanting to session this new section since I first saw it about a month ago, and I knew it'd be hero dirt, today.  almost every landing on this trail is off-camber, esp if you know how to jump--which I still don't.

 

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Some very big ride-offs there, sir. Three of them looked to have at least 3 feet of drop, so big ups from me.

What sort of rubber are you riding these days in that chunk? Tread looks pretty burly but I'm not astute enough to tell what it belongs to.

Just picked up a Minion DHR II MaxxTerra for my front tire as I didn't care for how the previous tire was behaving. There one second, going or gone the next.

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On 5/16/2024 at 10:07 PM, wd40 said:

I did something similar, some years ago.  not that knuckle, but the next one further out on my ring finger, iirc.  used a loop of velcro as a quick-and-dirty, removable splint.  doc was kinda impressed with the "device".  since then, I don't bother with xrays on stuff like this.  if it's not poking out, there's really nothing to be done but maybe tape it up.

semi-related:  I don't remember why I bought it, but I picked up one of those spandex "copperfit" sleeves, I think for my knee.  never worked as advertised, but it works great as a bandage wrap.  just carry it and some gauze pads and you can cover just about any gash until you get to the truck.  machine washable.  I've actually loaned it to buddies who've had some deep cuts, grazing stumps and whatnot.  don't have to worry about tape not sticking, and it gives some compression to the wound.

Well, way upthread I did it to the last knuckle on my fu finger on my left hand.  Very similar bone chip to jw's on it.  Except mine had a tendon attached, so the bone was likely never knitting back.  

So, that chip is now screwed in.  That last knuckle is stiff and thus droops.  I don't know what it would have been like without the surgery.

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4 hours ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Some very big ride-offs there, sir. Three of them looked to have at least 3 feet of drop, so big ups from me.

What sort of rubber are you riding these days in that chunk? Tread looks pretty burly but I'm not astute enough to tell what it belongs to.

Just picked up a Minion DHR II MaxxTerra for my front tire as I didn't care for how the previous tire was behaving. There one second, going or gone the next.

Thanks, Braff.  that one drop is higher than my saddle, so about 3' to the base of the ledge.  the sloped landing zone adds at least a foot to that, depending on your speed and Red Bull level.  funmeter was prettymuch maxed on each of the four runs I took at it, but it felt like butter.  new fork, I guess.  and the Cascade link.

I run Minions, with a DHF 3C EXO Maxwhatever up front, and a DHR DoubleDown in the back, since I seem to be much harder on my back tire (rocky landings, etc.).  my brief racing days are way behind me, so I accept the major weight penalty in favor of not worrying about it.

fwiw, my riding bros that spend way more time reading and researching bike stuff are pimping Specialized Butchers as the next "best ever".

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Memorial Day weekend check in, hope some of you are riding too.  I've been fortunate to ride a lot of good MTB destinations in Colorado the past year, Buff Creek near Bailey is the best to date.  Beautiful scenery, well maintained trails, a ton of flowy fun.  The first 4.5 hours today were the most fun I've had riding.  Unfortunately, we rode 6 hours including ~3800' of climbing.  The last hour was miserable and pushed me to my limit.  "Come ride part of the race course with me" really meant lets ride 90% of it.  

 

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Taking a quick weekend trip to Chequamegon National Forest up in Hayward, WI. These are some of the best trails I’ve ever ridden. Not lots of loops, but big on through rides connecting various trailheads. Started the morning with 10 miles of single track. First 5 were excellent old school hand cut, last 5 were the newer machine made style that’s gotten huge in the Midwest lately.

When I got back to Hayward, my wife was up and ready for the day so we rented a full squish for her and hit the 6 mile beginner course on the edge of town. She’s never mountain biked (avid road cyclist) and did awesome. It poured rain the entire time, but due to their sandy soil the trails never close. The beginner course was exceptionally well put together and was actually fun for experienced riders.

Riding again tomorrow, but this system (CAMBA) is world class and any XC MTB in the US would be remiss if they never got here.

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I've been borrowing a friends bike for a while. Finally stepped up and grabbed one for myself. Trek is clearing out the old models, so I was able to snag a pretty good deal on a Roscoe 8

Talk to me about hitch mounts. I'm liking the 1-Up but it's kinda spendy. Are there better options or is this a buy once cry once scenario?

 

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28 minutes ago, topochico said:

I've been borrowing a friends bike for a while. Finally stepped up and grabbed one for myself. Trek is clearing out the old models, so I was able to snag a pretty good deal on a Roscoe 8

Talk to me about hitch mounts. I'm liking the 1-Up but it's kinda spendy. Are there better options or is this a buy once cry once scenario?

 

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Can't keep up with them, but there are a number of 1-up "imitators" now that the patent has expired.  Many are pretty good, and also as spendy.

I have a Kuat Transfer that's pretty good.  Same basic principle.

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Probably a lot of good deals coming up for racks on Father’s Day. I have the Thule T2 XTR and happy with it. Very solid, stable,  built in locks. The nice option, I believe, with 1-Up is the ability to add additional racks onto the 2 bike setup. This would be a nice feature when I carpool with people and need room for 3-4 bikes.

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4 hours ago, topochico said:

I've been borrowing a friends bike for a while. Finally stepped up and grabbed one for myself. Trek is clearing out the old models, so I was able to snag a pretty good deal on a Roscoe 8

Talk to me about hitch mounts. I'm liking the 1-Up but it's kinda spendy. Are there better options or is this a buy once cry once scenario?

 

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Welcome aboard, sir.

I'd recommend a tray-style hitch mount, like what @TwiceHorn suggested. Yes, they are spendy, but if you wanna ride in style, your bike deserves to travel in style. 😉

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How do you guys like those hardtails? 

Warning, if blood and eyeballs ain't your thing, don't continue reading...

So y'all remember that crash I was whining about? Well, turned out that it probably did rattle my noggin around a bit. I tore my retina in my right eye - it presented a week ago on Tuesday. I was grabbing some ice at a gas station on the way out of Poncha Springs, CO when all of a sudden I couldn't see out of that eye - just a big light blur. 

Went to an eye doctor in Alamosa and he couldn't make a proper diagnosis because just like I couldn't see out, neither he nor his instruments could see into my eyeball. He suspected a "vitreous hemorrhage," which isn't that big of a deal, but he got me into a retina specialist on an emergency basis the next day in Albuquerque (2.5 hours away from Taos).

So I woke up and my eyesight had cleared significantly. Went from 20/50 on Tuesday to 20/30 on Wednesday. So cool, right?

Well turned out I had a very large horseshoe shaped tear in my retina, which had opened up a blood vessel, which caused the temporary blindness due to the blood in my eyeball.

Doc prescribes and performs a laser procedure to fix this, which he did right on the spot. No fun whatsoever, but not as bad as the fix for the torn/detached retina in my left eye a few years ago. Doc suspected the bike crash as a contributing factor.

Anyways, I'm off the bike for a bit. Which is a huge bummer because I got some new components and lost a few pounds and my performance was progressing nicely. I'll keep on vicariously through y'all for a while.

 

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9 hours ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Welcome aboard, sir.

I'd recommend a tray-style hitch mount, like what @TwiceHorn suggested. Yes, they are spendy, but if you wanna ride in style, your bike deserves to travel in style. 😉

Yeah elaborating a little. The 1-up and several others let you sit the tires in a tray or rack and then use arms that grab the tire right in front of the fork. They don't touch paint or rub the frame and are super easy to load and unload. Definitely seek that style of rack whether 1-up or something else. 

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