rideitall profile

With a title like that the music should have been Tina Turner or CCR.

Great article and comments.  Got back into riding to work again and testing my lights.  I have a couple of older Dinotte light sets a triple headlead and a double quad for the bars (huuuugeee spread on the double quad but not much throw).  Fantastic lighs.  The batteries have seen too many years and charges so they need to be replaced.  I have a couple 4x18650 packs but the batteries were left in a poor state so need to replace the 18650s, but it's now pretty hard to get batteries shipped (I guess they are worried about them starting on fire or exloding).

From a riding point of view it's great; old trails become new again.  I can remember, when night shuttling CBC / Neds was a go to and having some of the best and smoothest rides in the rain and fog.   

Got a scare a couple of years ago doing a lap through Sticks and Stones.  Having a great ride, tunes on, when I got up near the top before going around the big rock and saw to green glowing eyes.  Headphones off and on high alert listening for further noise.  Luckily saw nothing further but definitely freaked me out.

A lot of good points, as always colored from past experience, as would be expected.  I have rode on crap hardtails with sub-par components when starting out, but so were most of my riding buddies.  As my skills grew, so too did the level of bike I had and sought after.   Now as I am older have a little more $$$ I can spend on gear, I have a reasonably nice bike. 

I don't need to lever of bike I have to ride what I ride, but being honest, the bike and most of the gear helps me ride to the level I currently ride it.  My abilities and willingness to crash hard are well understood by myself.  Good suspension components, brakes that work as I expect them too, reasonably light weight wheels with tires for the local terrain, and a good reliable drivetrain that with a huge gear spread that helps me with my not as fit body and mind get to the top of the trails so I can ride down as best I can.  

I have had relatively new riders on lesser capable bikes kick my ass both up and down the hill, likewise I have rode with people that trails that we take as easy as it gets, like Bobsled, be overwhelmed.  Some people will want to have trails made easier to suit their needs others will have the attitude that the harder parts of the trail that they are not able to ride now will one day be conquered.  Does make one person right or wrong, just different views.

That was great, some of the camera shots actually show just how steep the slope really is and the speed the bikes were hitting on the way down.  If there were any crashes the bike would have likely cart-wheeled to the bottom of the hill.

Holy crap.  It is hard to really gauge the exposure and the width of the trail and how steep some of those parts are.  However judging from watching the lead rider some of those sections likely were pretty steep as well.

Cool formations with the mini caves on either side of the trail.  I am pretty sure I would be walking a number of those sections, maybe not all but definitely a few.  Looks pretty nice, although looking at the scenery while riding would be deadly.

That's good to hear.  I agree that it is crazy how it could even get that far.  There must be better sites to consider.

I like how anyone against mtn biking repetitively talks about the destruction to natural habitats, but when mountains gets razed (Cypress) or plans to build a compost dump on a mountain are brought forward, crickets.

Thanks Taz123, my current stem is 35mm diameter

Very interesting on the comments for the wider bars.  I have been on around 750 wide bars with 30 - 35 rise. M  last bike, has 790 - 800 wide bars (I measured but can't remember) with a slightly lower rise at 25mm.  I haven't cut down the bars as they are carbon and have been too lazy to source another handlebar, but reading this makes me wan't to change back to a slightly narrower handlebar.  I think I will pickup the RF Atlas 35 bar, cut it down to 760mm and see it I notice the difference in shoulder and arm fatigue on longer rides.

Ok a couple of comments on the article and the comments.  

Looking back a few years didn't the "freeride" bikes weigh 45lbs to well over 50lbs.  Now we have insanely capable DH bikes at well under 35lbs and enduro/trail bikes at 30lbs and under and marathon/XC bikes at 25lbs and under.   

What do the e-bikes battery/motor add to the bike 15lbs???  (I have no idea on the weight.)  So you take a capable trail bike at 30lbs and now have an e-bike at 45lbs to 55lbs.  Will technology bring that down to 40lbs or 35lbs in a number of years while increasing the power and amount of battery at hand.   Perhaps like the perpetual motion watches energy from movement is captured and we have e/perpetual movement bikes that keep on going like the energizer bunny, all the while with the option of adding the extra human power to the mix.

The second point of consideration is the impact on trails real or perceived by the non-biking community.  Will the e-bikes simply allow greater reaches of our pristine wilderness to be trashed.   Not my view, just playing devils advocate.

My thoughts are that I like to struggle and achieve.  Will e-bikes take that away?  Perhaps to an extend, but maybe they open up another door we have yet to consider.  Remember, suspension, disc brakes, dropper posts were all silly non required add-ons to what a bike should be not all that long ago.  What's around the next corner.

I have been using the free version of ViewRanger.  Can track rides, (mtb, moto) hikes ...  Create routes for following or exploration.  Has a few really good layers that can be downloaded for offline use when signal is lost.

For me it just to track rides get an estimate of distance, climbing and descents.  Have compared it on my phone against my GPS and was happy with how close the data was.

I ride slow, so I am not all that worried with where my time fits in within a group of riders.  I ride because I enjoy it.

No but don't hang around there too much as you could get shot, by a lawful owner protectin wats owns to dem.

Lots of great women riders out there on mtb and moto.  If you haven't seen her vids check out Megs Braap.    I would be very happy to ride a dirt bike with just 1/2 her skill.

Posted by: syncro

Posted by: rhw

At the end of the day some people enjoy the hard work of earning the smiles. For me, I wouldn't feel as good about nailing a tech climb knowing the motor helped me do it.

But think about ripping up Asian Adonis, then turning around and ripping back down.  Think of all the fun to be had!

Finished up a great ride today with a little climb and a descent of Boogie Nights. NSMBA had a Work Wednesday trail night and tonight was some TLC on Boogie Nights.

Great work by the trail crew. Hopefully they got the beers I left for them at the cold beer and wine store.

I have been using Gorilla tape for years without much issue.  Yes, it will break down over time and need to be replaced and become a bit of a cleaning mess.  Never really bothered much.  

My last set of wheels came pre-taped for tubeless. Might need to re-tape them pretty soon, starting to loose air every other ride.  Might get some tubeless tape this time. 

What is WAO?

Ddean - That is a great shot

I suck at pedalling and have only a low power output on my drivetrain, but I don't think I would still want one the these type bikes (http://www.devinci.com/bikes/bike_1036_scategory_243).

But mostly for the weight.  I would have to believe they are 10-15lbs heavier than a comparible mtn bike?  Pushing around a 45lb ish bike, even with the "pedal assist" doesn't thrill me.    

Now make it really e-motor bike, that will last with real power for 3-4 hrs and somewhat closer to a real dirt bike and still keep the weight really light, that I would like to try.

Gotten into dirt biking lately and still having problems with the thought of 250lbs of bike crashing down on me when I endo.

Rode  the no quarter climbing route today.  Damn it was hot.  First try of the year for me.  As noted by others the trail is very buff right now.  All the technical aspects of the climb are gone.  Only requirement is to focus on keeping the legs spinning and air in the lungs.  I definitely needed a few breaks on the climb today from both the heat and the fatigue (legs and lungs).  As much as it felt like I had no energy on the climb and needed a few breaks, I posted my fastest time (still really slow and keeps me firmly at the bottom of the times.)

Rode Expresso (upper and lower), so much flow on the trails.  My legs were tired from trying to push the pace.  Super work by on both those trails for the flow.  Thank you.

Some great work on Fromme.  As noted by earlier posts it seems that Peter has been working on the climbing trail and some on Baden.  The parts that I have seen look and ride amazing.  Thank you !!!

On an slightly different note, did one other trail that ended up being a hike a bike out as this little know trail appears to have been decommissioned.  Lots of effort to move hundreds of branches across the trail.  Too bad, it was great fun.