First night ride of the season (for me) last Tuesday. <30F.

Don't fall in. (i and a couple others rode across)
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1.../IMG_0012b.jpg

The chicken game of who is going to turn their lights on first...
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1.../IMG_0003b.jpg

22 total people showed.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1.../IMG_0008b.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1.../IMG_0005c.jpg

Then a couple days ago over at Ninham. Frozen over (barely) pond.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1.../IMG_0017b.jpg

Halfway in the ride, managed to come off sideways from one of the skinnies and gank up my left shoulder pretty decently. Ouch. Tore the front hydro line out of the lever; first time for everything... Walked out and had the brake line fixed thirty minutes after getting home.


Today was the local default trail. Oops. Little off on the timing.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_0033.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_0034.jpg

Can we have a "Scrub Sticky"?

I've gone out the last couple days to test the new Tioga crap. My gosh, Kenda sure hit the nail on the finger with the Kenda Knarly. That tire is the weirdest tire I've run yet. It's a decent mud tire because of the hellacious knobs, but it's got an attitude and won't submit to nuthin.

On hardpack, the thing just likes to go straight. You can feel it pulling the bars straight. It's unpredictable in the corners because of how tall the knobs are. In mud, it's okay though.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2...endaKnarly.jpg
I put an old set of Panaracer Fire XC Pro 2.1's on the crapper for today's ride and it carved like mad. I can't wait until I get a taller fork on that thing. As it sits, the 2.35" Excavators and Nevegals are too wide for the Mag21 and '98 Komodo frame. Shoe horn. An instigator fork will gimme plenty of room for the 'vators, and I think I may order a 2.1 for the rear.


As for the trails...leaves everywhere. Freeze'n'thaw makes for slick ground. It was still a blast.

damn, those look like they would tear the hell out of most trails and really chew up things if they were soft ground conditions.

i'm digging the nevegal 2.35 dtc dh casing on the back of the hardtail paired with the 2.6 kinetic stick-e up front. a little heavier in the back than the 2.6 kinetic i normally run, but narrower/rolls much faster. i like the dh casing for when i have a moment of unsmooth line picking. still lets me run lower pressure than the normal 2.35 will, and not worry about pinching - a big thing with all the rocks around here.

I'm getting out on Sun. to tune in the 5th. I can tell already that I like a lot better than the fox that was on it.It was an old shock and most likley needs a rebuild. I like the fact that I can adjust the pedal platform on the 5th. I'll take a few pics .

Didn't ride today, but plan on doing so sunday morning.

Just got in froma 20 mileish ride in Pisgah. I'm getting the Enduro tuned in little by little. It's a big change from a 7" coil bike to the 5" air. I'm getting it pretty close,a little bit of an air pressure adjustment and it'll be pretty much right. I am having a time with all the stuff going on on the bike. I'm missing out on my ride becuse I'm shifting gears, using brakes, thinking about all the things the fork and shock are doing......and then there's the grips! I think I'm gonna make this bike a rigid SS brakeless gripless 9r. That would fix it all......except for the rebound control.

Long ride on MTB!
 

So I have 2 bikes, a MTB and my granny road bike from the 80s. So I took it up a step and added a $10 seat to the granny bike. But I wanted to take a longer ride this weekend so decided to ride the mtb on the street from the great advice on this forum where I asked if it would be ok to ride my mtb on the road.

Well, what started out on my part being a scenic ride ended up being me on my mtb wanting to take out other road riders, I guess a little competitive then I decided to follow a "real road rider" off of my planned route. He went into the downtown area and I followed him, trying to stay inconspicuous so he wouldn't know I was following him. When he was stopped at a street light he saw me and after the light turned he turned it up and I tried to keep up but kept having to stop at street lights. So eventually he lost me but I kept going and ended up on Key Biscayne, which is FAR from where I live, and kept going!

I could keep going on my adventures but I ended up riding 40 miles yesterday, never rode that far before, let alone on my mtb! :thumb:

So took another shorter 12 mile ride on the road bike today, but I will HAVE to change the seat cause at this point I think that is the breaking point when it comes to taking a long ride, the seat!

I'll bet if it weren't for those lights, you would have fed him his lycra, eh?

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_2348.jpg



stats based off my crappy computer: 21.65 miles. 3:36:19 wheels moving time. avg. speed: 6mph. max speed: 19.5mph.


At Blue Mtn. in Peekskill, NY with a large group. For our group size, and how much leaf cover there was on the trails, not bad time and speed-wise. Started about 20F and warmed up to around 35F. 0830 wheels down, 1330 back at the cars.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...%2008/blu5.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...%2008/blu4.jpg

@ scrublover:

OMG how do you ride at night only with the light on the helmet??? I heard about night rides but how do they compare with daytime riding besides the obvious (sun)??? Just off of first thought it is probably best to ride trails you already know at night compared to trails you have never ridden before? What compells someone to want to ride a mtb trail at NIGHT???

i don't ride at night with only one light on my helmet.


i have one on my bars as well. :thumb:

bar light = wider and aimed so the edge of the light cone is just ahead of my front wheel. helmet light = narrower spot aimed so it hits where my sightline is ~ 20' in front of me. the two just overlap a bit, nicely.

a trail you know might be best at first, but i've had plenty of "first time there" on night rides. such as the one above. a halfway decent light is pretty damn bright. it lights up what's in front of you, which is all you really need. and when you've got a line of a few riders going, things can get pretty well lit. clear skies and full moons also rock when night riding!

I wish I liked nightriding. I just don't dig it.

just one of those things. some winters, hardly at all. some winters, a ton. rarely night ride in the summer. more in winter, 'cause the stuff that is sloppy-nasty-wet becomes hard and frozen at night around here.

Night riding is fun:
Here's a local boy that works as a mech at our LBS -

Caption: "Jeremey, 4 minutes before the 19' stepdown in the dark, Wamego"
http://www.ksfreeriders.com/mediac/4...01~PM_0002.jpg

Caption: "Jeremy, 1/2 second before the 19' stepdown in the dark, Wamego"
http://www.ksfreeriders.com/mediac/4...04~PM_0001.jpg

P.S. - When I say "Nightriding is fun" I'm not saying Night Freeriding. I don't get nutz at night :lol:

I took some friends out mountain biking today. Both are really new to the sport, but one comes from road racing. He had an absolute blast, and by the end of the ride was jumping off of everything in sight. I beleive we have a convert.

That's because your eyes are old. And you have prematurely aged yours by reading too many ric0h / cheeto / wheelhot threads.





:D

http://shimotsuki.net/mynd/lj/icebike.jpg

I couldn't resist taking my bike onto a frozen lake recently. I haven't bought spiked tires yet so it was ridiculously slippery and I was cruising along really slowly. Only fell once :p

I need some lights for my bike, it gets dark around 5 in the afternoon here and I'm forced to stay on tarmac in order to keep to lit up areas. I was cruising along this afternoon and suddenly felt like I was in the game Paperboy, I was half expecting the Grim Reaper to come running out of the darkness to chase me down. It would have added some excitement to my ride...

http://old-wizard.com/wp-content/upl...4/paperboy.png

30 somethingth annual Fairfax Appetite Seminar, 20 tough XC miles with 3500 feet of climbing. An annual ride since about 1975, now attracts a thousand or so riders. Everyone who has never done the ride says, "I don't like to ride in that big a crowd." Everyone who finishes it says it's the best ride they've been on.

No fee, no organization, just a traditional route and a day to ride it. Free beer at the finish, and for once I didn't spend so much time partying on the route that I actually got some before it ran out.

Thanks for that, Charlie!

What kind of frame is that?

If it's the one I think it is, it's a custom frame.

Thanks.

yep.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...les2018441.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...s/IMG_4987.jpg