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wd40

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Everything posted by wd40

  1. all of what 2x said. I mean, you could ride what you linked, but in AZ, I'd be thinking about cactus, which means tubeless, and I don't know if what you have there is tubeless-ready. I would talk to your buddies and see what they ride. at a glance, with that old school square bottom bracket, there are probably some other old school parts that will limit the upgradability or even repair (straight-gauge stem/head tube preventing a meaningful fork upgrade, etc.). also, my wife and daughter have entry-level bikes with the same chinesium crankset/bb which has riveted chain rings, which means replacing the whole crankset when the teeth wear out. but they don't do dirt, so it's not a big deal for the resident bike mechanic, who happens to have a bunch of serviceable but old upgrade parts to swap in there when the time comes. bottom line: it's an entry-level bike, built with the expectation you'll dump it for something better if you get into riding dirt at all. newness doesn't mean a whole lot. and internal cable routings are not a feature. they're a fucking beating. hit gdh again today, and again pussied out on that creek jump near the bottom. 8 feet, and it'll really hurt to case it. decided I'm gonna build landing ramp to mate with my existing practice ramp in the backyard, and get over my mental block about gaps, progressively.
  2. you wouldn't want it to happen again, would you?
  3. tell the last part first
  4. that shit is bananas
  5. a little Trappey's jet fuel for my lunchtime ride.
  6. The conductor sings his songs again, the pedestrians will please refrain...
  7. it's an approximate bahn mi. I butterflied and portioned out one of those small pork tenderloins, marinated it for a few hours in soy sauce, black pepper and crushed garlic, and cooked it on the grill pan. my kids love pretzel buns so I went with that instead of a traditional baguette.
  8. I put the squirrels back into the biosphere.
  9. my heart just skipped a beat. I just saw the pull tab from my wife's halfnhalf carton in the trash can, and not milk-side-down on the countertop, as per SOP. of course, it was precariously balanced on top of a bunch of other stuff she suddenly decided we didn't need anymore, along with her used coffee grounds, so I was able to breathe easier in the knowledge she's still a she.
  10. is it the meat or the bread crust that defines it? if the bread, then you just eliminated half the posts in this thread. if it's just because it has an alternat name, well, ok then. anyhoo. since reposting is ok today.
  11. you're on a 29er, right? those tires, and modern (slacker) geometry will bridge a lot of those bumps and holes, making some drops easier to ride than walk. it's hard for us old farts to learn to trust the bike, esp if most of your experience is on old school geo with small wheels and short, twitch bars.
  12. besides safety, the other problem with solo riding is spending too much time in your own head. you are much more aware of your fatigue, for one thing. and that first 15 minutes before you're warmed up can just kill your motivation for the rest of the ride. I'm speaking from my own experience, but I see from some of the remarks above, it's not that unusual. it's also extremely difficult and unsafe to push technical limits, solo. I only do it when I'm warmed up and feeling really good. when things aren't going well, I generally won't try anything big/stupid/new. then I end up in the habit of bailing, and that sucks. with time schedules being what they are, I get it: it's the only alternative, much of the time. in that case, I suggest ear buds. just loud enough to quiet the brain voices and let you shift more of your focus to the trail, and as far down it as you can see. manual machine is paying off already. wheelied about 50 feet up my driveway, yesterday. normally, I wouldn't even try it on pavement. of course, I only managed to go that far one time. but in general, I feel a lot more in control than I did before.
  13. because...you graduated from it, or it was ineffective? I was pretty sure someone had tried one of these, but I couldn't remember what page it was on, or who it was. nice bike, btw.
  14. but yeah, 50 is not the ideal age to try to learn all this stuff, esp with zero BMX background. kids just learn it so easily, and some are just freaks of nature. probably 12 years ago, I remember heading to a ride on 2222 and waiting at the City Park Road light when one of the OG Austin mtb badasses wheelied all the way around the turn with the traffic making the left off CP road onto 2222. just ridiculous. dude is still shredding.
  15. I think the deal is it's a lot easier to 'pop a wheel' when you're rolling, especially on a 29er, because you can pedal it up. can't do that with the back wheel fixed. it's much more upper body and throwing your weight back. there's also flexing your knees that changes the dynamics. you don't even notice how much you're also lifting your body weight during a manual until you get on this thing. so it's very different from real trail conditions, where you have a lot to manage quickly, beyond these background details. my goal in building this was to find and learn to hold that balance point. I definitely suck at that. I'm good for 5 or 6 pedal strokes on a wheelie. and clipped in, over-rotating can really suck if you forget to cover the rear brake. I've always thought of it more as a show-off move, than a practical tool for trail riding. we'll see how much use I get out of it, but I'm enjoying the process, so far.
  16. fixed
  17. re: wood projects much easier to build than to use. I should probably put a safety rope on it to keep from flipping over backwards, thereby allowing me to be a little more aggressive with it. a lot more of a physical workout than I thought it would be. I did manage hold a few manuals for 5-6 seconds, but only if I cheated and mashed on the rear brake once I got up.
  18. under Parmer on the Brushy Creek trail today.
  19. pretty fast, for a cauc-casian was that your stomach growling at 3:41?
  20. yes, I thought about asterisking my speed number, but I figured by now we all understand the error spread on GPS devices, particularly phones, which is all I have. the way I approach it is with relativity to previous runs. it definitely felt faster in places, but was obviously not the cleanest run. what was surprising is where it happened. usually my peak speed is coming into the trees of the jump into clearing, near the start (the first significant ramp). last couple runs, I've throttled it back up there because the ramp has gotten bigger, and the trail drops away from it. you can really get some sky under you on that one now, and I had a pretty good washout crash just before I got to the trees, several months ago. I like to be very sure about not touching the gravel on the outside of that bottom curve, now. this was maybe my third trip up there, since then. anyway, the peak speed yesterday was down in the middle, somewhere. probably on that g-out where I almost ate it. anyhoo, last data point(s) on the headband thing: my buddy who uses the headsweat actually had a halo on, today. in terms of performance to it's intended purpose (keeping sweat out of your eyes), he says the halo is more effective. the headsweat is more comfortable. so there's the trade-off. I find that the halo is most comfortable if you have the gutter strip positioned below the edge of your helmet, so it's not getting pressed into you head so much. this ends up putting the bottom edge of the neoprene halo band just above your eyebrows, which can feel odd, at first. I actually remembered this on the trail today when I noticed my head getting squeezed (and not between the thighs of some smokin' hot starlet).
  21. a buddy of mine uses one of those, too. I always assumed it would get saturated and eventually just let the sweat run on by. seems like I've seen him wringing it out. but the Halo does feel a little warm when you first put it on, and if you don't back your helmet off a couple clicks, it can definitely give you a squeeze. and that rubber diverter stays stamped into your forehead skin for a while, post-ride. so not perfect, by any means. maybe I'll try the headsweat thing.
  22. I use a Halo II, I think. the logo wore off. it's mostly neoprene but uses a soft plastic strip as a gutter to diver sweat outboard, toward your temples. works pretty well. better than a bandana, anyway. REI carries it. https://store.haloheadband.com/Halo-II-pullover-headband-p/hp.htm more trail mutterings for 2x, below. 14 seconds off my PR. the good news is my top speed improved to 26.2mph. sloppy run. I don't know if it's fear making things seem steeper irl, or the gopro just turns everything into a salt flat. funny and frustrating.
  23. what I learned today is that I need to get napolitos, fried onion strings, and some Heinz 57 back in my life.
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