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It finally rained on my favorite local trail yesterday, so I had to go out and get it this morning. Unfortunately, my bike is at the shop right now getting brakes fixed, so I had to ride my wife's 2005 heckler   Amusingly, I was not any slower than my PRs on any of the downhill sections. I'm sure the better conditions and better than ever trail familiarity helped. It was extremely noisy with the chain bouncing all over the place.
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Aug 11, 2020 21:34
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 07:53 |
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A buddy of mine and I had been planning on doing a big yearly mountain bike event nearby this year: https://tamba.org/upcoming-events/rose-to-toads/ It's pretty much entirely on the Tahoe Rim Trail, which is singletrack varying from smooth and fast to rather rocky mostly made for hikers with mountain biking as an afterthought. Except for the last bit, which is a ~3k ft descent from 9kish down to lake level, starting with an old school trail called Mr Toad's Wild Ride. The event has of course been cancelled, but we still want to ride the route by ourselves in the next few weeks anyway. Neither of us had ever ridden it (and I'd never ridden any part of the route), and the trail is supposed to be pretty technical. It seemed prudent to ride it at least once before hand so we knew what was coming rather than finding out after 50 miles of hard riding, so we checked it out yesterday along with the last 10 miles of the rim trail on the route. The smoke cooperated enough that it didn't bother us aside from limiting visibility, which is a bummer because the views would have been amazing for sure. We're pretty used to the popular riding around Truckee, which is often fast fire road climbing followed by fast descents with a lot of jumps. Our time estimation was pretty far off here, turns out technical single track climbing is a lot slower! This was one of the numerous parts of the climb that I was not nearly skilled enough to ride up  Trees started to thin out quite a bit, with pretty ubiquitous pulverized granite / kitty litter trail surface above 8k feet or so. This was a stretch of trail off the backside southwest of Heavenly  Bichael that I've had around 5 years now and getting rid of soon. I'd been riding DHR up front with Ardent rear (how the bike came from SC), but moved the DHR to the rear and put a new DHF up front for this ride; was very happy with it.  Probably the longest smooth section, shortly after we got up to the rim trail.  There's a very large lake back there I promise  A lot of the rim trail was like this, with maybe some more rocks. Not technical, but enough exposure that trying to look at the view was a dangerous temptation  About half the rim trail section was like this; nothing crazy but rocky enough to require some attention   But there were also some fun bits like this mixed in!  Made it to the main event, a good 2 hours or so behind schedule.  I was too busy having a blast to take many pictures on this section, but it was waaayy steeper, rockier, and more technical than I was expecting, but in a really fun and challenging way. I can't claim to have cleared or even attempted everything, but gave the vast majority a shot and cleared most of what I tried. The first mile and a half or so was a near continuous rock garden. I'm used to tougher bits of trails having ride-arounds; this didn't, which was good honestly because I attempted way more than I otherwise would have. This was one of the sections I didn't clear, might have been one my buddy had a minor crash on towards the start.  A while later, once the rock gardens settled down, there was a surprise section that we just laughed the entire way down:  What the photo doesn't convey well there: - it's about three times longer than what you see, with a turn in the middle - it's extremely steep; looking at data/maps afterwards it drops about 70 feet at 35% grade or so (hence the steps and rocks they put in, which is pretty atypical for this trail that's otherwise not built up much) I'm far from an expert downhill rider, and have been mostly doing fast and flowy descents with jumps lately. For me, this was the most consistently technical trail I've ever done, and I had an absolute blast and can't stop thinking about it. Super excited to do it again, even if I might be exhausted next time. A video (not mine) of the descent: https://youtu.be/SLOz4i2GYhw?t=290 And my ride: https://strava.app.link/WcW2yVYHp9
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Sep 1, 2020 02:43
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I know one good way to wear down the tread on those tires
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Sep 4, 2020 05:50
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Nocheez posted:The best trails are ones with good views along the way. My favorite thing is to see a spot on the top of a farawayhill on the horizon and say, "I'm going to be standing there in 2 hours" and then doing it. This reminds me I did a big ride a couple of weeks ago and neglected to post about it. It was originally supposed to be an event, which was cancelled for obvious reasons. Rose to Toads, goes halfway around Lake Tahoe from the north (Mt Rose) to the south (descends a classic trail, Mr Toad's Wild Ride). It's almost entirely single track along the Tahoe Rim Trail, aside from a detour onto the Flume Trail and then a fire road descent that bypasses a non-bike-legal section of the TRT, and the final descent down Toad's. 62 miles, just short of 9k feet of climbing, an all day adventure. https://www.strava.com/activities/4032911626 Relevant to the views comment, a few photos from the ride: These two photos were taken about 25 miles in, looking back where we started, and then forward to a saddle about 22 miles ahead.   The mountain to the left of the saddle in the second photo is Freel Peak. About 40 miles in, this is on the backside of Heavenly, looking towards a saddle where we'll head back into the Tahoe basin (still prior to Freel.  From that saddle looking towards Freel again:  And then from Freel, looking back towards the previous saddle:  More pictures on the activity link above. Made it to Mr Toad's a little before dark so we at least got to ride the rock garden sections in daylight, but finished the last 5 miles or so with lights. Fun.
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Sep 21, 2020 20:33
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one more little thing I just noticed, in that last photo: the peak featured in the last photo to the left of the saddle we traversed is Monument Peak. The slope on the other side of it is Heavenly. I'm 90% sure that the very first peak in the distance just to the left of it is Mt Rose, where we started the day.
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Sep 21, 2020 20:58
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at the risk of being a goony goon, IMO throw out the camelbak and get a hydrapak bladder. My Osprey backpack came with one and it is so much better than the camelbak's . The folding top is much less of a pain in the rear end than the twist lid. I don't know if you can buy the one I have by itself, but it also has a semi-rigid back to it so that the surface that faces your back is still flat when full.
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Sep 22, 2020 19:04
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My daughter, who loves orange, immediately demanded to have the new orange grips I got today the moment she saw them I got the grips today because it's NEW BIKE DAY. I just need to build it now...
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Sep 23, 2020 03:20
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n8r posted:Looking at the new Ripmo Deore build. I know there are a few Ripmo riders here so I'm looking for some feedback. I ordered one after borrowing a friend's for a month or so. Others who actually own one may have more input. In terms of endurance, I did a 62 mile ride with 9000ft of climbing with said friend (he on the ripmo, me on my 5010), almost all singletrack, much of it technical, and we both did fine. It won't do a big day like a hardtail, but IMO it pedals well enough to do it admirably. As for overbiking and pedal strikes: I have definitely noticed a lot of pedal strikes on it so IMO it's not great from that standpoint. However, having been riding a hardtail (DV9) for the last week or two on all the same terrain that I rode the Ripmo on, I don't think you'll feel overbiked on anything blue square, even if a hardtail would do just fine. At some level, it seems like if you're riding terrain where pedal strikes are a big concern, it's probably technical enough that the ripmo won't be terribly overbiked on it. That said, if you won't be riding terrain sometimes that really benefits from the higher travel, maybe a Ripley or similar would be better anyway.
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Oct 10, 2020 01:14
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Also I ordered mine with carbon wheels, not because I had direct experience telling me they were worth it, but mainly because I've been told that they're great. Once I get the bike (not for a while unfortunately), I'll be able to really evaluate that since the DV9 I have now has the same wheelset but with aluminum (though I guess that will be not as helpful for comparison to cheaper carbon wheels)
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Oct 10, 2020 01:18
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Your list is missing “moon dust” (I’ve just been using Dumonde Tech for everything for years but now I ride like 90% or more in completely dry conditions but with a lot of dust, so I’m interested in suggestions for when my bottle runs out)
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Jan 23, 2021 18:04
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I personally highly value the XT multi release functionality (jam lever further to jump multiple times to smaller cogs), which is not available on SLX or GX. Aside from that, my personal experience with GX is no worse than with XT. Also good luck finding a Ripmo.
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Feb 25, 2021 03:10
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Yeah the reason I wished good luck getting a Ripmo earlier is that I ordered one with XT in early July and received it about 10 days ago, primarily due to delays in getting the Shimano parts.
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Feb 26, 2021 01:09
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Partial Octopus posted:Thanks for the advice everyone. I got my build pretty dialed in at this point. 90% sure I'm going to go with a medium. SLX + XT shifter, ibis hub carbon rims. Leaning towards Fox suspension but has anyone ridden the DVO? I'm not sure if the Fox upgrade is worth it for me. I'm generally a set it and forget it kinda person when it comes to my suspension. Occasionally I'll change the rebound based on the trail but thats about it. Well, once I finish building this and the snow melts, I can let you know my thoughts on the topaz. But I wouldn’t wait around.  Ridewrapped it today. I’ll start assembling this week I guess.
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Feb 28, 2021 05:04
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If the clashing of colors bothers you like it does me, consider maybe upgrading to the x2 for that reason, or getting grey frame.
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Feb 28, 2021 05:08
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Eejit posted:Ripmo af this year had a very roarnge frame color. I'm stoked to not be mismatched blue There’s no mismatched blue, it’s just that some of the hardware bits on the shock are a sort of... metallic chartreuse? It clashes a bit in a subtle way that it wouldn’t with a grey frame. Not a big deal and not sure if I would have bothered spending extra for the fox x2 to avoid it. Personally would still take the blue over the grey even with those accents, and also happy to have gotten the carbon frame now that I realize that unlike the DV9 (and the Ripmo AF), it has internal channels for running housing!!! (I know this isn’t uncommon, but is a nice surprise after not having that for my last build. I finished putting Ridewrap on the frame. If you are a perfectionist without a lot of patience and fine motor control, I would recommend against doing it yourself. But now the kids get to help with the rest of it and they’re stoked.   
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Mar 1, 2021 05:09
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Levitate posted:yoooooooooooooooooooooo are you sure that seatpost isn’t too high
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Mar 12, 2021 05:56
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Levitate posted:only one way to find out there is a particular location that is most appropriate for seat post height validation. we can see about getting you there once the snow melts
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Mar 12, 2021 06:18
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If it’s dropped, harder for viewers to tell that the seat post is too high
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Mar 12, 2021 16:44
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So after moving to the mountains in 2019, I decided it was time to replace my one-size-tries-to-fit-all 5010 with more bikes. I ordered a DV9 and a Ripmo middle of 2020 summer, got the DV9 in time to enjoy fall riding and sell the 5010 then, but got the Ripmo in February, right in the middle of ski season. I've taken the travel restrictions seriously, so wasn't really able to ride the Ripmo until I got my first COVID vaccine appointment which was only available on the other side of the county, at a lower elevation without snow. Took the opportunity to ride some trails down there (Grass Valley, CA) that I'd never done before, but had heard good things about. Fast, smooth, flowy. First time down there took it easy as it was my first ride on the Ripmo, first ride period after like 5 months of winter, and I'd just had a vaccine shot. Since then, things have started to thaw out around home, but just barely; my favorite quick loop trail near home is one of the only things clear but I've lapped it a good 20 or so times this month, and have made some serious improvements already on the new bike and with all that practice with the gap jumps on the trail, and just riding much smoother through the turns. Loving it, and the bike. This past week, I went down to Grass Valley again for my second shot, planning to hit the same trails again, and brought my DV9 along as well to lend to forums poster e.pilot who was in the area as well. I've been super pleased with the gopro hero 9 I got this winter; I don't usually take it out and still feel a bit silly wearing it biking/skiing, but unlike cameras I've had in the past it is good enough that I don't have to futz with it too much to get footage that I think is pretty good, as I have pretty much zero interest in going in the deep end of video editing. For those interested in checking out riding in the sierras and foothills, here's Hoot trail in Grass Valley, one of the two we did on that ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGm1tmdpq3k and before that, here's the second part of Scott's Flat, with mr pilot in front: https://gopro.com/v/OWlgWrr1Kyvbv and here's the last downhill section of my local favorite, Jackass, in Truckee: https://gopro.com/v/36O8RNrN63by6 I've managed to get out on the ripmo just about every other day this month, and am once again megastocked on mountain bicycles.
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May 1, 2021 02:09
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I almost didn’t ride today because it was cold and snowing. That would have been a big mistake. I need to ride in snowstorms more often, conditions were amazing. Way better than riding in rain.   
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May 22, 2021 04:41
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jamal posted:Yeah my shock pretty much never sees "open." I even went with smaller volume spacers and more air pressure to give it more support. You haven't been able to tune it to your liking in open? Seems like leaving it in trail all the time, rather than tuning it so that you actually want to use open for descents is sort of wasting that ability... I mean my trail bike has a grip2 on the fork so I kinda get the appeal of setting and forgetting, but for a more XC oriented bike it seems like a missed opportunity.
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May 24, 2021 23:46
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bicievino posted:Hmmm, I almost never use the "threshold" setting on my shock (a rockshox deluxe select+ on a spesh epic evo comp). Should I be? I only ever both flipping it over for real long fire road climbs. I put my topaz in the trail setting for extended smooth climbs, and locked out on the rare occasion that I'm on pavement for a while.
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May 25, 2021 00:19
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Has anyone else gotten an EDC tool recently? I ordered one and it just arrived, and uhh, it's supposed to come with an 8mm hex wrench, this is backed up by the fact that it appears you're supposed to use one to remove the inflator head to use it as a CO2 inflator. And yet, for the life of me, I cannot see anywhere that an 8mm hex wrench exists on this thing. Which is quite frankly befuddling, because that seems like it should be one of the easiest tools to identify. So someone please show / tell me how I'm an idiot and it's right there in front of me.
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Jun 8, 2021 03:07
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And indeed, it did the trick. Weird. Thanks!
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Jun 8, 2021 03:45
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I signed up for my first ever enduro race this week. (Northstar enduro, a stop on the California Enduro Series, and was an EWS stop in 2019) It's in just over a month. Stoked, but having never done one before, hoping to get some advice from anyone in the thread who has done one before. What are things that might not occur to me about how to prepare and show up / operate on race day that would be helpful? I live a short drive from Northstar, have been there a few times and ridden pretty much all of the trails, and will try to make a few more visits to scout out / ride trails that are likely to be in stages or have been in the past. I've got a capable bike for the terrain (at least in my experience), Ibis Ripmo. Convertible full face helmet, goggles. Elbow and knee pads. What did you wish you knew before the first time you raced one?
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Jul 15, 2021 01:28
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meowmeowmeowmeow posted:I have not done a proper Enduro but two friends did the whistler and Northstar ews100 rounds in 2019. From talking to them planning nutrition to have energy for the race stages after the climbs was a big challenge and something to think about, the days are long. Also how to manage recovery between practice days and race days, having to pedal all the stages during practice had them dead before the race even started. Thanks; yeah nutrition was something I was a bit curious about. I was watching PB footage of the latest EWS race, and interested to see a lot of folks riding with a bottle on their bike, but no other apparent gear on them. Are they getting nutrition drops somewhere, or just going really lightweight? I figured I'd carry a backpack with essentials (and I'm no stranger to longer endurance events, racing a 100km XC race on Saturday). The helmet is a Giro Switchblade, so it is DH certified, and to be honest I can't even really tell if CES requires a full face... https://www.californiaenduroseries.com/rules/competition-requirements/
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Jul 15, 2021 02:00
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me your dad posted:Is there such a thing as a "longer" saddle? I'm loving the poo poo out of my new bike but my knee pain persists with the saddle pretty high. I find myself riding at the very back of the saddle. I adjusted the saddle so it's set on the back limit of the rails, but I had some pain today after about six miles. Do you really mean you set the saddle to the back limit of the rails? Or the front? Putting it on the back limit of the rails would mean that it’s mounted all the way forward… in which case, yeah seems feasible that it is indeed too far forward
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Aug 15, 2021 20:48
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The enduro I’m signed up for this weekend has just canceled all the pedaling transfer stages, just downhill stages with lift rides between them, due to smoke. Another excuse to N+1 with a DH bike, right?
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Aug 17, 2021 03:22
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VelociBacon posted:Where is this, where can I sign up? Northstar, California, this weekend, it sold out right away and the transfer deadline has passed
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Aug 17, 2021 05:02
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There’s a couple on a tandem racing the enduro at northstar this weekend. I don’t even know what category you’d even enter or how you put one of those on a lift but there they were. They’re probably in mine and I better not be slower than them. If the race even happens, they shut the lifts down this afternoon due to smoke, so if it isn’t much better tomorrow I can’t imagine it happening, which is a bummer.
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Aug 21, 2021 04:18
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spwrozek posted:The thought of a "few rides" after degrease and removing all the lube... the sound it must make. Wiping the chain with a rag with degreaser on it as he described is not gonna remove all the lube where it matters
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Aug 31, 2021 17:14
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spwrozek posted:fair. I guess I am just thinking about how much cleaning the OP needs to do. better to completely clean it and then re-lube it imo. Yeah, that's probably what I'd do too. But I sort of like the idea for quick cleaning before a ride or something, stuffing that in my back pocket.
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Aug 31, 2021 18:03
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VelociBacon posted:Hope you like skiing without poles like a 4 year old! Poles interfere with kid wrangling anyway. I’m about two weeks out from my own much less significant shoulder injury from bike crash; pedal struck and went head first into the end of a log. Scraped, bruised, and likely sprained rotator cuff. Everything except the shoulder is all better, and it is improving quickly now but not quite good enough to ride again. Itching to get out there now that Sierra Pacific Industries has opened their land back up to the public; lotta good trails I’ve not gotten to ride much or at all this year.
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Oct 6, 2021 16:20
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Does anyone have experience with some of POC's more downhill oriented armor? I have their VPD air knee/elbow pads which I use for trail riding, but I'm planning on spending a good bit more time at the Northstar bike park next summer (and racing the enduro there if it's not cancelled due to smoke again), and figure it would be prudent to get something a bit more protective, and I'm placing an order with them for some winter stuff right now anyway. Any recommendations for general type of protection? I'll be riding a decent mix of their trails, probably with more of a focus on the steep technical stuff but also the big-ish jumps here and there (but not going huge usually)
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Jan 1, 2022 00:15
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um excuse me posted:Hey is there a goon Strava group? I'd love to see where and how far you guys are riding. I live in the northeast and dream of rides out in Utah Colorado etc https://www.strava.com/clubs/SAMTB
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Jun 8, 2022 02:53
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SplitDestiny posted:I picked up a new toy this weekend: Steve French posted:Another ripmo appears It appears to be some sort of ripmo spawning point 
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Jun 28, 2022 00:03
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Well, poo poo, I’m 37 and live 13 miles from the bike park. I also have a season pass there I haven’t yet used… and I’m off work this week. I guess I’ll pop some advil and ride there Friday
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Jun 29, 2022 02:55
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Eejit posted:Already put two days on my park pass. Very much recommend going out and getting at it. Oh, I for sure will. Just various things resulting in me not getting around to it yet; opened just a couple weeks ago. Small kids makes it hard to get out on the weekend, I was on a business trip, and they're only open Thursday to Sunday. I got it this year primarily as a hedge against Sierra Pacific and the USFS closing down public access; the former is already happening this Friday; so I've been prioritizing getting riding in on their properties first. https://www.strava.com/activities/7384367999 (photos not representative of the actual riding, which is a lot of built up gap jumps and rock features)
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Jun 29, 2022 18:46
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spwrozek posted:Why are they closing access? Fire danger high so keep people out? Yeah, more or less. https://spi-ind.com/OurForests/RecreationAccess This is the third year in a row they've closed it down, so not a surprise, but a bummer this will seemingly probably happen every year now moving forward. It's an interesting situation; there are a ton of trails built on their land around here, some of them with really impressively wild (and fun) features for unsanctioned trails just sorta built ad-hoc by folks without any formal support. Technically building the trails is against their access rules, but _riding them_ isn't, and they turn a blind eye to the trail building to the point where they have started putting up "please stay on the trail" signs on them. Of course if they decide to log an area with a trail on it,  trail, but they get rebuilt.
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Jun 29, 2022 20:43
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 07:53 |
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Literally Lewis Hamilton posted:You can’t get a snakebite puncture on a tubeless setup you can, I have, my friends have. Hit a rock or something hard enough and the rim will still tear two holes in a tire Steve French fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Aug 12, 2022 |
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Aug 12, 2022 14:41
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