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

Here’s my son and I work in progress. He wanted a mountain bike for his birthday and took forever to find anything he liked. He wanted a Specialized at first but we couldn’t find one except like 3000 miles from where we live. Found a GT and now he’s really into to riding the trails, so we started upgrading it. We upgraded the fork to a Manitou Markar Air fork (awesome upgrade), Ritchey WCS bar and stem, Maxxis tires and clipless pedals. Also, showing him how to work on the bike. Really enjoying the time we get to spend together riding and working on his bike. Next upgrade will be the drivetrain.

 

Anyone been out to angel fire last weekend or going this weekend? I wanna get some early summer Laps in but wanna make sure it’s worth the 6.5 hours each way. Would be making it a 2 day trip

 

Been debating. Think I’ll head up first week of June.

EDIT: Looks like everything except Devinci's Code is open! Get it! Angel Fire is a super fun bike park, one of the best I've ridden. Good camping, good fishing, Boundary Trail is fun too, I think you might be able to get a shuttle for it too.

Anyone wanna head up there first weekend in June?

 

had some friends that went last weekend.

got some other friends headed there this weekend.

if i can get this shit at work figured out i might run down there sunday for a day. pretty much takes just as long to get to angel fire and trestles from colorado springs

 

And it’s definitely a more peaceful drive as long as you don’t need to stop in Pueblo.

 

Longer ride today, more time on the new saddle. Can still confirm it’s a game changer. I started getting a bit tired of being on it at the end, but after being home a few hours I’m not hurting like I used to on my specialized saddle. This is about the longest ride I personally am capable of right now on my home trails so to do that and not be absolutely sick of sitting on my bike I’m thrilled lol

 

I'm heading up to Phoenix tomorrow morning for 2 days, but I've never ridden there. My bike: Transition Spur.

I'm looking for a moderate loop of some sort (some advanced ok, but nothing extreme). I'm also looking for camping recommendations, as well. A combination of both camping and riding would be choice. Anything within 45 min of Phoenix is doable.

Thanks ahead of time!

PS: anyone wants to meet up for the ride, drinks, or camping, let me know.

 

Awesome! How's he doing with that long stem? He'll love a dropper post for Christmas!

 

Headed to Bend with the wife for a handful of days. Grandma and Grandpa are coming to babysit so we can actually ride a bit. Thinking of renting a bike just for some experience on others before a hopeful purchase next year. Looks like these are the options in my size that I'd be interested in. What should I rent?? (all latest versions)

1. Specialized Stumpjumper
2. Evil Following
3. Santa Cruz Tallboy

I there any way to make this a poll?

 

All three bikes will be great out there. If you’ve never ridden an Evil, it’s worth trying. They actually have a distinct ride feel.

 

All of them. But seriously, some shops that demo multiple brands will let you sample multiple bikes as long as its within the same paid for ‘day’ or ‘half day.’ And pending availability of course.

 

He likes it. It's a 100 so it's not as long a it look. I was surprised that he didn't want the stem lower. I showed him some videos of the dropper post but he hasn't decided. He really wants a new drivetrain, but I let him know he has to be really committed before we invest in that. The crankset and BB are really heavy according to him, lol.

 

My vote is the Evil. Mostly because I've never ridden one and am always envious when I see them on the trail.

 

Rent the evil

 

Evil is the way I’m leaning because it seems like it might have the most distinct ride feel. They are all at different locations so only one probably. Stumpy is maybe the next most interesting because I’m wondering where it sits on the spectrum or shorter travel bikes.

 

Front end washed out on a berm today. Absorbed the impact with my ribs/lungs. Knocked the wind outta me and I think I bruised a rib. Whew doggy...

 

OOoh. I like the idea of going to Angel Fire. Heard good things. HOWEVER...my bike is out of commission. I will post photos in a sec. so idk if I'll be able to make it.

they're all great bikes, tbh. the stumpy is a bit more on the higher end of travel out of all three. the following is amazing because...well...evil. Just choose one to rent and you will love life. unless you're super picky about bikes.

 

It's perfectly normal! Nothing wrong with this whatsoever!

Drive side seat stay. completely shattered on me. I was on a slow techy section, endo'd and then the bike just sorta landed...Apparently it landed on a rock or something hard enough to shatter. :/ This is a first that I've ever seen this bad. Literally holding on by a few threads and frame protection. lol.

There goes my enduro bike for a few weeks. Looks like I'm sticking to my short travel for the foreseeable future.

 

They have a great rental fleet there, you should take a look. Plus, you can thrash the shit out of the bike with no worries, which is really nice at a bike park.

Damn, that happens. AL would have faired no better.
If you like the bike, and nothing you want is in stock, just get that repaired. That's a really straight forward fix for most places, shouldn't take more than a week and a couple hundred $$.

 

Yesterday I decided to hit some dirt jumps on the BMX bike and it didn’t go so well. Got a little squirrelly off the lip, nose cased and dropped straight to my right shoulder resulting in a broken collarbone. Also sprained my left wrist pretty bad. These next few weeks will be a lot of fun