Well Mike, I think I'd be a little "less prepared" if I rode it now with some nearly 20 years MTBing experience under my belt and as you said, tubeless and 750-900g tyres with sealant. But I'm damn glad I was prepared on that trip, as I smashed my 46t big ring into an about 8" tall square rock on a very narrow, basically 12" wide rut of a trail and bent it over so I could even use the 34t middle ring. Luckily I had my trusty Leatherman, other tools and spare chainring bolts, as I'd snapped one. One reason I love my Shimano HT2 cranks, so easy to remove, even if you don't have the pre-load tool, just used the bird beak pliers on the Leatherman to get it off, pulled the big ring off and straightened it as best so I could just use the middle ring and voila, trip failure avoided. That's me below doing the fix, in an appropriately nice, shaded spot just after the incident occurred - _can't recall which section this was, but fast DH, in a very deep rut type trail about a foot wide_.
July 1, 2025, 8:18 a.m. - Lynx .
Well Mike, I think I'd be a little "less prepared" if I rode it now with some nearly 20 years MTBing experience under my belt and as you said, tubeless and 750-900g tyres with sealant. But I'm damn glad I was prepared on that trip, as I smashed my 46t big ring into an about 8" tall square rock on a very narrow, basically 12" wide rut of a trail and bent it over so I could even use the 34t middle ring. Luckily I had my trusty Leatherman, other tools and spare chainring bolts, as I'd snapped one. One reason I love my Shimano HT2 cranks, so easy to remove, even if you don't have the pre-load tool, just used the bird beak pliers on the Leatherman to get it off, pulled the big ring off and straightened it as best so I could just use the middle ring and voila, trip failure avoided. That's me below doing the fix, in an appropriately nice, shaded spot just after the incident occurred - _can't recall which section this was, but fast DH, in a very deep rut type trail about a foot wide_. 