All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

Disclaimer: By no means am I an expert on this area. I did a bunch of research before I went and rode stuff that sounded fun to me. Some was great, others not so great. I was there in July 2019.

A lot of the stuff I rode and what is considered "popular" are pretty old-school XC trails. Trails like "Hole in the Ground" and a few others on the north end were kind of disappointing. I did ride a few sections of the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) and all of them were excellent. Nothing difficult or super-techy, just solid fun stuff with amazing views. The most fun for me was the Tahoe Meadows section to the Flume trail to Marlett Lake and loop back north around Marlett Lake on the TRT. Another section to the south of Marlett Lake was really fun, too. I did ride the park at Northstar one day and it was a blast. If you like parks, you should visit Northstar. There is a small area close to Northstar that was pretty badass. I can't remember the name of the area, but all of the trails are named in a "Flintstones" theme.

I didn't go to the Truckee bike park or ride much on the west side of the lake.

I rode a bunch of stuff in South Lake Tahoe that was really fun. This stuff was a little more technical and flowy. If you're looking for more enduro-style riding, I highly recommend a visit to Downieville, which is NW of Lake Tahoe.

 

New Bike Day!! 2021 Specialized Stumpy. Very excited to move up to a full sus.

 

Quick question, does anyone know if the little white bushings in the bottom of a fox shock mount are required? My previous fox shock did not have them. And if I was to leave them in place I would have had to get a new bolt, new spacers and a new pivot nut. The shock fits perfect without those little bushings. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to mess anything up in the long run.

 

Ok, Ok I get it but in my defense I was talking about a Harbor Freight "el cheapo" and probably an embellished 100 psi rating. I did pay more for my charger pump than my compressor, could explain why it works better in some cases. A good home garage or shop compressor is definitely the way to go but I bought my little one just for bike tires and nothing else.

 

Those bushings are usually to size the hole for the hardware

 

Helped build a bridge and added some copper bling to the bars on the Spur this weekend.

 

But not necessarily required? The bolt fits perfect without them.

 

@SummitBound @Bannerman, what's chance you guys ride Friday?

Weather is looking good for Asheville. Rain Wednesday and then drying up.

 

I may be able to sneak a Friday afternoon ride, but things look better for me Saturday or Sunday!

 

I'm down for 1 or all 3 lol.

 

I shot Bailey’s a message on Instagram just to make sure they were looking good for this weekend! Snow melt has kept a lot of the parks closing some runs, but it’s warm this week

 

I messaged them too, never even got a messaged viewed notification.

 

Bridge in Wake Forest?

 

Fair enough! It's TBD, I would have the dog too though, so it might be a MTB-free road trip

It's also TBD if I can do it in March. I'd be doing a cannonball run (not timed), start at the hotel, drop by the red ball on the way down, and then just mozey on down toward Amarillo for a TW meetup, then head out to Portofino. I'd stop and hit Denver, Vegas on the way out, then NM on the way back and head through TX for eight thousand hours, then head out to the east coast maybe? New Orleans is a maybe, up along the gulf coast - BUT that would be Spring Break time so MAYBE NOT spend any time near there.

But it's all dependent on work giving me 2 weeks to go play

 

Quick word to the wise on the topic of using a compressor to seat a bead...

You need to be super careful not to over-inflate the tire when you do this. Typically, most Maxxis tires have a max of around 60psi. When you go over that to seat the bead, you'll end up with a tire that weeps sealant out the sidewall for the life of the tire. Keep the max pressure below that when seating the bead, and you will go a long ways to avoiding that nasty/ugly sidewall mess.

On most compressors, you can set the max output pressure, and most default to 80-110psi, which, 110 psi could potentially, worst case, explode the tire.

 

There's a difference between line pressure and overall vessel (tire in this case) pressure though, so just the tire PSI matters. A 1/3 second shot of a 300 PSI line may only get you 20PSI or somesuch. Agree overall though. Pop a tire with a bunch of sealant in it and see what happens

 

kablooie!!!

 

Yeah, I have a buddy who easily puts 100psi in his tire every time he tries to seat the bead. Growing up around motorcycles, and changing hundreds of motorcycle tires, I can typically seat most beads with only around 20psi-30psi in the tire.

 

been there done that. only seat beads outside now away from my truck

 

I've never had a tire not set perfectly at 40psi or less. If it doesn't set at 40psi I'll bounce it around standing or deflate and try again.

Helps having a

$70 ARB ARB601 Digital Tire Pressure Gauge with Braided Hose and Chuck, Inflator and Deflator 25-75 PSI Readings

digital inflator. This is what I use.