The Surly Mountain Biking Thread

[TwiceHorn 31429]

Also, kind of a personal sidenote.  I have been off the bike for months, including the SS road bike.  The wet-ass spring, noted above by @sasquatch69 kept me off the trails during the relatively benign temps that I usually use to acclimate to the heat and build fitness.  So now I am kind of stuck.

Also, I didn't ride road during that time, because last fall, I went on a pretty long road ride with my main riding buddy and discovered that riding much over 10 miles, the cockpit on my little faux fixie is just too cramped.  I need a setback seatpost and an absurdly longer stem.  So, I kind of fell out of love with it.  And, we moved to a very hilly neighborhood and I'm being a pussy.

On the positive side, I acquired some kettle bells and am doing some swings and other exercises recommended for olds that should help my core and hip strength and are providing a little bit of cardio so I hopefully don't completely seize up when I get back on the bike.

[locodos 5387]

12 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Ack, sorry, misread your post and just kind of ASSumed.

What "gruppo" are you looking at?  I keep seeing Microshift as being a very attractive der set if you don't require 12-spd.  I am intrigued, but for no real reason as I am "addicted" to the cassette spacing on my Shimano 12-spd.

So, I won't be making any mech changes, to AXS or TrAnsMisSion anytime soon, although I understand AXS works pretty well with a Shimano cassette, a SRAMano.

So that's going to be an impossible question for me to answer right now.  When I decided to build up a bike I wanted to use parts I had lying around or already on the frames themselves.  Rebuild the headset, rebuild the hubs, and bodge something together that was nice to ride, cheap (using what I've already got), and lo key cool. (Also I want to get the shit I don't use out of the garage!)  So Gruppo?  HA!  I'm not even sure what some of the parts are, so think of it more like curating a rolling parts bin in a bike.

but even that is not going well at the moment

[sasquatch69 596]

2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Also, kind of a personal sidenote.  I have been off the bike for months, including the SS road bike.  The wet-ass spring, noted above by @sasquatch69 kept me off the trails during the relatively benign temps that I usually use to acclimate to the heat and build fitness.  So now I am kind of stuck.

Also, I didn't ride road during that time, because last fall, I went on a pretty long road ride with my main riding buddy and discovered that riding much over 10 miles, the cockpit on my little faux fixie is just too cramped.  I need a setback seatpost and an absurdly longer stem.  So, I kind of fell out of love with it.  And, we moved to a very hilly neighborhood and I'm being a pussy.

On the positive side, I acquired some kettle bells and am doing some swings and other exercises recommended for olds that should help my core and hip strength and are providing a little bit of cardio so I hopefully don't completely seize up when I get back on the bike.

I need to start doing more strength and conditioning in addition to just riding, now that I'm on the downside of my 40s.  

With the condition of trails around here the past few months, I've mainly stuck to paved trails (and am nearly to 700mi total for the year) so I guess that's helping, but I do feel regression of skills on MTB trails after doing paved for a while.

Edited July 9 by sasquatch69

[locodos 5387]

That's a no from me dog

 

[locodos 5387]

On 7/9/2024 at 10:50 AM, wd40 said:

locodos is the Rudy Ray Moore of mountainbiking

Go on....

basted and powder coated (long story)..  added 10 grams

At the powder coater they didn't have baby blue in stock and none of the colors really jumped out at me, so I asked if they had any wild purple colors...  the guys eyes lit up and said they had a custom purple left over and they seemed to think it'd look good.  So I just went with that...  pictures don't really show the paint, sometimes it looks grape blue, other times iridescent purple, sometimes almost clear/bare metal at the welds (I assume it has some silver flake in it)  It also shows fingerprints like a bitch.

RIP Junker stealth look.   Thinking of having my daughter draw all over it with a white paint marker... and a custom copper headtube badge...  we shall see

[Bodhi 1123]

Completed my first MTB race this last weekend in Steamboat Springs, CO.  Beat the time I was targeting by 2 mins, good enough to finish at ~55th percentile for men regardless of classification.  I was pleased with the result and have managed to become a respectable rider over the past year.  I am not overly motivated by racing but enjoyed the discipline and structure it provided.  Looking forward to fun rides in the upcoming months (no more intervals).   

Edited August 5 by Bodhi

[wd40 1976]

good job, man.  

right there with you on racing vs race culture.  I did Lajitas a few times, plus the Mas-o-Menos 100k (50k for us singlespeeders), as much for the road trip as anything.  plus a couple localer races.  good times.  but you'd these guys who would get all upset.  'hey, man.  don't get pissy with me.  I'm in line behind these roadies who can't handle a pretty simple step-up, just like you.'

I was searching back through my Strava for the South Boundary Trail ride I did some years ago, and it was kind of telling how much my rides have decreased in length, lately.  used to be like 10mi, minimum.  now 10mi is like an epic.  my fitness decline was very much on display this week at Angel Fire, with Your Mom.  was gonna do the climb from the highway up 76 to Osha Pass, but my legs were done from 2 days of downhilling.  so I came home a day early.  weather forecast was sketchy, anyway.  they're getting a decent monsoon, this year.

 

 

[Braff Zacklin 13551]

Jealous of those flowy trails. Pretty phat ride-offs at about the 2-minute mark and the end.

 

How much does a lift ticket run?

[wd40 1976]

lift ticket was high.  $83, and they only run 9-4, assuming no lightning within 20mi, which happened every afternoon while I was there.  lift used to start at 8am, which meant the first run or two was kinda cold.  but I was spent after 4 or 5 runs, anyway.

second day, I focused on the chunkier lines like the Chillin's, the Supreme DHs and World Cup.  that stuff doesn't make very good videos, but was super fun, even at pre-ride speeds.  the dual slalom course hadn't been touched in a while.  overgrown, and eroded.

I saw only one legit gap jump, and it's on World Cup, near where it merges with a blue trail.  the only other one I saw marked as a gap is on Last Call, and is really just another ladder drop, although at least 6ft down, with lots of erosion ruts in the LZ.  no one had been hitting it, so I didn't feel bad riding around it.  last time I did that trail, it was a big long wooden ramp.  someone must have complained to restore the huck, or they fired their interim risk management guy.  was too tired to go back up to try it at speed.

[Your Mom 4805]

I didn’t put nearly as much effort into the editing, but here’s a couple clips I merged together of the same ride with WD40.   I can’t believe I hadn’t gotten out to that place before with it being only a days drive from Austin. It was a blast. I’m like a 12-year-old on the bike and just like hitting a little jumps and drops more than the tech that WD40 likes but we did some of both and it was a great time.

For me, it was a tail end of a long road trip where I rode Sedona, Albuquerque and Big Bear Lake before hitting Angel Fire on the way home. I’ll try to put together something with some footage from all of those soon.  Sedona definitely left me wanting to go back for more.  Big Bear has a great downhill bike park but Angel Fire is better this time of year with the SoCal dust. Seem like the runs were longer at Angel Fire too.

 

 

[locodos 5387]

Progress so far... 

My only complaints...

• Not sure I love the long ass forks
• Wheels and tires heavy AF

 

But we'll see how she rides. Almost everything here is reused or out of the parts bin except the Wide Narrow chain ring and some new cheapo pedals.

I have a newish saddle and a longer more traditional stem and flat bar and I'm just trying to see what feels best before cutting the steerer tube and running the cables.  Disks on the hubs have to go too, or I'll use an older lighter set of wheels I have laying around but I think the rear needs a new axle.

[Bodhi 1123]

2 hours ago, Your Mom said:

I didn’t put nearly as much effort into the editing, but here’s a couple clips I merged together of the same ride with WD40.   I can’t believe I hadn’t gotten out to that place before with it being only a days drive from Austin. It was a blast. I’m like a 12-year-old on the bike and just like hitting a little jumps and drops more than the tech that WD40 likes but we did some of both and it was a great time.

For me, it was a tail end of a long road trip where I rode Sedona, Albuquerque and Big Bear Lake before hitting Angel Fire on the way home. I’ll try to put together something with some footage from all of those soon.  Sedona definitely left me wanting to go back for more.  Big Bear has a great downhill bike park but Angel Fire is better this time of year with the SoCal dust. Seem like the runs were longer at Angel Fire too.

 

 

Funny, your reaction and the 50 second mark after nearly hitting a tree is very similar to my own. No idea why I’m chuckling each time I nearly break my face. 

[sasquatch69 596]

Saw this in an MTB FB group today.  This is only 3.5h from D/FW, so I'm excited to check it out.

 

[Bodhi 1123]

Visited a friend in Indy and hit up Brown County while there. Nice trail system with nobody on it on a Friday afternoon. I returned to a blanket of snow in CO so likely gravel bike season for awhile.