kenhill3

That's all the mud you managed to find?

Luke52

On the particular trails I found, yes.

I know where to find much, much more though

liv_rong

Mud is bad

kenhill3

Thats why I love desert riding so much. But...........

Northwet= MUD.

Luke52

I try to avoid copious amounts of it. Plus I wash my bike and re-lube everything afterwards.

yerodtr

The only pic that came out from our ride on Sunday (the camera would fog up instantly from the high humidity... rained for 30+ hrs straight prior to ride). Did a quick 16miles of local single track prior to a thunderstorm chasing us out.

Just adding to the mud pics (I know ... you can get way more mud on a bike than this).

Dion Rides

I don't know what it is, but I get the wild hair to do stupid stuff and today was no exception. I put a fixed gear cog on my 29'er and now it is my official fixed gear MTB. No suspension, no gears, no coasting, no freewheel, just plain and simple. Going down the rocks was interesting and you really have to pick your line, otherwise you are definetely striking a pedal and you are going DOWN. And seeing as how TARANTULAS roll on these trails, I don't want to be on the ground with the creepy-crawlies (ticks especially). Fixed MTB is a ton of fun and I will definetely be rolling that thing more often.

If you have trails near you, it's really something you have to try. Its actually is not that bad, but my balance is pretty decent and you definetely need both brakes, especially when you are sharing tight single tracks with other riders trying to get up them and vice-versa. I was a little leary how I would do with the real technical stuff, but I just picked good lines and stuck to them.

This is my first climb when I ride these trails. You can see how friggin' steep it gets off in the distance - it's like riding up a wall with no traction (loose gravel). That's when I have to employ POWAH to the pedals.



My teeny, widdle fully rigid fixed gear MTB among the big rolling hills. I like this shot.



Nasty, nasty. These hills are basically big rocks and over time they errode, exposing death rocks. The pictures do NOT do the size of these things justice. Plus, they are loose. It's like rolling over a rock the size of a parking block and the thing rolls loose underneath you.



Steep and rocky.



This is the monster I saw today. I see wild turkeys, rabbits, deer, etc. but I've NEVER seen a tarantula yet. In fact, I think this is my first wild tarantula I've ever seen. I got real close to take this picture and it stopped and raised its thorax (or whatever). Man... did I get the heebee-geebees!!!

craigcraigcraig

hahaha they aren't that mean unless you bug them. It would gladly walk all over your arms to check you out if you would let it. Beautiful place to ride though and i want a tomicog so bad for my bike when it's done.

Dion Rides

You know, I was so spoiled by Santa Cruz trails, but the more I ride my own local scene, the more I'm learning to appreciate it. The trails are empty, the traction is great after a rain, and it's right there in my backyard!

craigcraigcraig

it's so different from central texas. I hope to get to ride around the country a bit through the years.

ed 

1. Your trails are appreciable...don't take 'em for granted.
2. The spider is flippin' KEWL. (as long as it doesn't land on me out of a tree)
3. Dion...what's the point of the fixed gear over SS if you're using both brakes anyhoo? More of a challenge maybe? I can't fathom finding the same enjoyment when you can bomb a hill with your cranks level in that "attack position" (for lack of better phrasing) on a freewheeled SS. Whaddaya think?

Dion Rides

I was asked the same question in the SS/FG forum! You know, I can can bomb da' gnar with my XC bike, no prob. But this is bike was just a different experience and it was fun. There was no reason behind it other than just to have fun with it.

I'm one of those riders who gets my mind set conditioned for whatever bike I'm riding, and I never get on a (properly set-up) bike and say "this sucks!". I basically have fun on anything as long as I remind myself of what I'm riding. I guess I could've been, like, "Man, fixed gear MTB is slow and boring!" but I didn't. Instead I said, "...this is fun, I wonder if I can climb/descend that right there..."

I one time took a vintage 1989 Dyno Pro Compe Freestyle bike to a flatland session. I was quickly reminded of why bikes have changed over the past 20 years. It was real hard to do a lot of things, but near the end of the day, I was able to ride it quite well. I guess that was the point of building and riding the thing - just to see if I was competent on it.

Yesterday, I ever rode down a flight of stairs, which is fine on a regular freewheel MTB, but on a fixed gear, it was pretty strange.

I know when riders saw me descending, they had to be thinking, "Why is he pedalling?"

ed 

Just wondering if there was an advantage or preferance there or not.

I like to coast...but I rarely ride 100% shredder all the time. I get on the gas...then I screw around.

Whatever I feel like doing at the time.

Dion Rides

Yup. Oh and BTW, I'm not going to feed the MTB friends with the BS speech of "OH, RIDING FIXED GIVES YOU A ZEN-LIKE FEELING AND ONE-NESS WITH THE GROUND. LIKE YOU'RE CONNECTED TO MOTHER EARTH AND SHE'S FEEDING YOU..."

Dion Rides

I was thinking moar b@rsP1nz!!

kenhill3

Dion-

Thanks for zee pics, bro.

scrublover

Death.

Rebirth!


Am now digging the ti frame setup with a shorter fork and as a singlespeed, which works well as I'm not sure if I'd trust it again for riding as hard as previously. Good times to ensue.

The steel frame is fixed, and only awaits a fresh coat of powder. It'll get the bigger fork and gears - it rides a touch nicer set up that way than the ti frame does anyhow, and I've a bit more confidence in it that way as well.




The woods are starting to get darker.

Dion Rides

Hey the weld looks clean! Good to see that it worked out.

dan_petersen86

just got back from a mild ride in town finally getting my lungs back (bronchitis is horrible) i finally feel like i can breath again. my legs wanted more but i felt like i was gonna cough up a lung. sorry no pics nothing here compaires to the pics above.

born2bahick

So I see your sporting the new 32 inch wheelset that rolls everything a 29er couldn't?

craigcraigcraig

^ lol i took a double take at that the first time i saw it.

drummer5

Had a pretty god ride yesterday, well up until I took a corner a bit fast(was getting pretty confident really pinning it with no brakes) rear wheel slid out in the leaves, thought I could save it but then hit a mound of dirt and high-sided over the bike. Scraped elbow, hip, banged and scraped knee, and kinda jammed my pinky. Needless to say I went to the lbs to check out a pair of knee/shin guards that I'm gonna pick up tomorrow when I get paid. Getting a bit sick of having to change my ride or cut it short after a wipe-out.

mzeffex 

Today was the first time in a real mountain biking designated area in 3 months, and it was so fun. 5 minutes in I slammed into a friend who put on his brakes without warning, wrecked the front wheel. It's done. It scrapes the fork a tiny bit when I ride it, but I did ride on as is for 2 hours with it doing that. Hooray for disc brakes!

Heres some pics

estabro

I also hit Wakefield today. I didn't have time to go to Fountainhead and get back for the 'skins game.

mzeffex 

what time were you there? We got there around 2 and left at 4ish. My front wheel got too bad, started hitting fork.