MTB and Roadies - 2018

[RobRox]

Since biking is like skiing, with its cliques and epithets, a conscious effort to remind that's it's all "wheeling".

No change to my road machine and I've managed get a number of rides in.

After last fall's last ride, the HiFi went in for an overhaul and conversion to tubeless. Since then it remained hanging from the rafters. Finally, the MTB trails around here are drying; I was looking forward to my first tubless ride the other day. Reality checks showed up all too soon, in the form of six downed trees blocking favorite trails in the first couple of miles.

[Bern]

Bikeing and skiing has similarities so to does sailing. I've been following the Volvo round the world ocean race which for all it's commercialism, is still a spectacular event. The speeds achieved are truly spectacular in almost all weather. It is more than a bit dangerous as one crew member was lost overboard and never found. This past week I drove down to Fort Adams in Newport, a stopping point for the fleet to catch it's breadth and check the boats over before the final leg across the Atlantic.

Among other things to see, Volvo, who is spending big Euros on the event, has a mockup of one half a boat but full length. To my boat builder's eye, the boats are a fine piece of engineering. They have to be as light as possible but hold together over about 30,000 miles of flat out ocean racing. The boats are ultra spare with everything dedicated to moving forward at speed. https://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/video ... eek-3.html

[Bern]

I was just watching another video with more and better scenes about the race. https://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/video ... 5-May.html

[MikeK]

Have been on the bike for the better part of a month, two and half weeks on trails. We're lucky here to have a large trail crew so all our blowdowns were clear within a week of the start of the season. A small backpacking saw usually takes care of the rest. There still are a few monsters down at one of the parks, but that tends to be the most technical area, so I think they are saving them to make some kind of features out of them. There's a rats nest of trails there, so it's not hard to go around them anyway.

Today was the first day I hit a couple gap jumps, and I'm on my 7th or so trail ride. Takes a while for me to really build up the cajones to start hitting that stuff again, and even these are baby sized compared to what is possible. Still not feeling as fluid as I could - lower body feels tight through corners and rough stuff. I'll loosen up though. Earlier this week was the first ride I felt kind of like I was not completely sucking wind, but it was still far off... I avoided a lot of the real steep, technical climbs... the ones that usually put my HR in the 200s

Don't know if I posted this here, but a cool vid of one of our trails systems and what is possible. I'm a tick less aggressive than these guys... but I still hit all those jumps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Y70yznxuc

[RobRox]

Took a goodish while, but monster #1 is clear


The saw gets a cleaning and I get a brew. The saw blade is 22".

[MikeK]

Is that a road in the background? I take it this isn't a wilderness area, because of the bikes and all... so why not use a more modern implement eg an IC engine attached to a bar with a chain?

Easier solution would have been to build two ladders on either side.

[RobRox]

...
Easier solution would have been to build two ladders on either side.

I do not thrive on easy, ask anybody. I did start with the 40v saw, but it expired making 80% of the first cut. The other cut was all hand tools.

[MikeK]

I should have mentioned in the previous post, but I thought it was obvious. Ladders would have been more fun all around than any of the alternatives.

[RobRox]

Grabbed my pack of tools and rode the bike to a chest to face high trail bolcker and went to work. Cleared and rolled aside, thanks and great praise to Archimedes.

[MikeK]

While Rob was chopping trees, I was chopping my bike:

[RobRox]

Yo Mike, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

[MikeK]

I was wondering if someone might be able to guess why...

This frame had a defect and I'm getting a replacement under warranty so the manufacturer asked me to cut it up rather than pay the cost of sending it back to them.

[RobRox]

If it's steel, try the tube sections as wind chimes!

[MikeK]

'Tis steel, but I think I'll just put it in the recycle bin. I was going to make something like a wall hanger, but space is a premium these days.

I saw your tire pressure on the other forum, I think you should go a lot lower as well.

FWIW I actually run the same pressures tubes and tubeless - 23 front, 26 rear. I run 2.4s in the front and 2.2 in the rear, so sometimes more in the rear if it's rocky and I'm getting rim hits. We don't have a ton real rocky terrain around here, and where it is, it's busted up shale and round rocks. A couple areas of sharp rock tech but I've never had an issue on it... can't go fast enough through it to cause any issues. I also regularly hit 2-3' jumps and drops... like pretty much every ride and I'm in your weight range, and ride a hardtail or rigid bike, and don't hit my rim. You can definitely run that low tubeless and even on some tube tires. I like the feel of tubeless better though - the tire flex feels more uniform. I also ride pretty fast on the dhs - I regularly hit 25-30 mph on singletrack, and usually am in the top 40 for Strava on descents, so I'm not pussyfooting.

Terra is the biggest factor though.

And as far as rolling resistance, even the pro XC racers are running pressures in the 20s. If you get a modern compound tire it will have a hard compound in the center and softer on the side knobs to optimize RR and cornering grip. I really like the Maxxis Ikon as an all-around XC tire. It's a tire I use on pavement, gravel, dirt and rock and it's fast and has really, really good grip. My trail bike, which sees very little pavement has more aggressive tires (Conti Mtn King) but I'm not really in love with them. The have more braking grip and bite in looser dirt, but on hardpack like our trails usually are, the Ikons are better.

[RobRox]

Nabbed a 76 miler in advance of the steam heat. Road to Rockport and back, the route went along or close to the coast to get the cooling breezes.
This is in Beverly, on the way back.