wd40

camped at RPR, this weekend. hadn't been in a while. they got a bunch of big Enduro stuff out there now. what wasn't changed is getting lost and turned around a bunch of times. anyway, there's a new jump on the flow track that has some serious consequences. first guy cleared it. second guy cased the fuckout of it, bending his big ring so bad we just broke it off with some pliers to make the bike rideable. but before we could work on that, he had to unpack a 1/2" of his face from between the lense and the frame of his glasses from bouncing high side into the landing zone. pic below was after he'd been working on it a while. this is how I ended up. I was a little ways behind Two, trying to get enough speed to hit it proper, judging only by the size of the ramp, not having seen it before, but figuring it to be reasonably safe, regardless. I was about two bike lengths from the lip when I saw Two laid out in the LZ, slammed on the brakes, and endoed hard into the boulders in the gap. somehow, all I did was jam my thumb, probably at about the same spot Two hit on the lip of the landing ramp. only time in my life I wished I had gripshift. below is what you're supposed to do. stills from a phone video of One going back up and hitting it again while Two worked on his bike (he also flatted in the crash). then we went back up to the top, puttered around taking in the view from Decision Point, then hit Super D and got lost a few times trying to ride as much single-track as possible back towards camp. good times.

whatcha got there, besides pyros for company? some freet-toe paahhhh in a three hour away town over Jesus. not forever, just for now.

where the fuck is Menchaca Road? I thought this thread was about Austin.

eh. go throw another shrimp on the barbie.

this is how it started

welp, no whites at Tejas, yet. got a small largemouth bass on my first cast of the day with a clouser, and that was it. needs way more flow, imo.

herp

yup. besides losing knobs, they were famous for the "Nevagoiter", like you got there on your Maxxis. although, I think the consensus was it was a combination of Stans (which voided the warranty, iirc) and leaving your bike in the sun for too long (like leaving it on a hitch rack all day before an afterwork ride). but they sure do hook up, around here. I switched to Minions on my squishy, a few years ago. if I'm gonna take a trip to AF or Bentonville, I'll get the DoubleDown version. once you get used to the weight, they're nice to have around here, for all the sidewall cut risk we enjoy. I run Igintors on my hardtail. still love them as an XC tire, and it annoys me that they seem to have quit making it for 29ers. can still find them on Amazon.

my bad for assuming you were thinking of a scenario that's actually relevant, today. either way, you still had choices, back then. Thank you for volunteering not to recline! where are they gonna put the statue?

no, it's an absolutely shitty analogy. so you choose to go to that extremely rare restaurant that still permits smoking. then you demand that the house rules suddenly change, just for you. then you call the smokers selfish for balking? I don't smoke, and don't like being around it. but if I make a choice to go where smokers are granted an exception to do their thing, I accept the circumstances or go somewhere else. for the record, I don't recline much or often. but I do have recurring shoulder pain, so if a particular airplane's seat is pushing my head too far forward and firing it up, you're goddamn right I'm going to recline. I'm not short, and I have a bad knee. so what I do is book a seat with extra leg room where I can put my bad leg in the aisle when I need to. it's not hard. you'd rather be a victim and leave it up to a bunch strangers to service your special needs. hell. I'll always give you the first exit row. you get your special space and neither you nor the person in front of you can recline. should be heaven, right?

I'd put that in my pie hole and gouge on it. FRRT-FRRT those fritos are legit. excellent application.

the warm glow from apparently royally fucking-over my fellow man is pretty epic.

lol at all these dipshits in coach expecting to be comfortable. at all. I bet they never fart, never cut in line, never leave little bags of dogshit on the trail. never do anything with only their own interests in mind. as to this douche, he's got his little movie. he chooses to ruin it for himself. he could probably lean his head against the seat and be more comfortable than sitting straight up with his head hanging down. for me, I sleep better with my head in my arms on the tray table. and fuck her, too. air travel is about the destination, not the journey.

yeah, it's a young man's sport, for sure. instead of parking lots, why not just bike to run errands or around the neighborhood? attack it like an urban assault. track stand every stop sign. hop up on the sidewalk (assuming no peds) to get out of the way of over-taking cars. ride the curb tops like skinnies as far as you can. all fairly low-risk, but it keeps it interesting and teaches you stuff, plus miles. 2x, you probably already do this sub-consciously, but lately, during very low speed moves, I've become more aware of ratcheting the pedals back a half or 1/4 turn to get them in position for optimum power or to clear a ledge. it seems like an under-appreciated technique, but I find myself doing it a lot more than I realized. it gives you something to do for that split second at the crux of a hump, as well as good power to re-start/continue over the top. anyhoo, today I took my bike in to figure out why my fork was at 140 instead of 160. being an old, I just assumed I had forgotten to get it converted almost 2 years ago when I got the p153, and bought a new air cylinder to finally do it. turns out I did have it converted back then. the internals were just so clogged with dirt, I was storing air on the negative side, and lost 20mm of travel. herpaderp.

fwiw, both my Konas, each the slackest bikes I've ever ridden (66.5*, iirc) are also the most stable at very low speed. could just be I've just been riding so long and finally gotten ok at it, or maybe the low bottom brackets. so, I'm with Switzer on this: just go for it. focus on were you want to go, not where you are. that's verymuch easier said than done, but sooner or later, you have to trust yourself to execute, or it's just no fun at all. don't think I've posted this one before. turns out 4-footers are the same as going off a curb.

When Waterloo Brewing closed down to put that shitty Fox and Hound in there to begin with. last week, I was at Billy's on Burnet and the bartender was wearing an old Waterloo Brewing shirt. turns out Billy's is owned by the same dude/group, as was DognDuck. I did not know that. next time I go, I'll ask him to bring back the Congress Avenue Burger. put me in the circa Y2K camp. someone, probably on hf, posted a good rant on how Austin used to be the home of The Cheap Good Time. I think that's about when it ended for good.

so you talked your hand into it? whatever blows your skirt up.

leftover porkbelly burnt ends (recipe from some Thermoworks spam). and yeah, that's fuckin cilantro. only regret is I apparently ran out of onion.

do you sit on your lips first, to make them go numb?

hay Braff! just another shitty winter's day in Awlllstin Tehxis, baby!