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

I bought a cheap DPS for $100 as a brand new take off. Though I may purchase the CC too. Just have every version of the arrival with Coil.

Also, as far as dirt bikes go it’s been 5 years for me since owning one and probably 6-7 years since being on a track. There were quite a few years there where my 2 wheel adventures were non existent.

 

Anyone have any experience with a drop bar MTB? Every winter when the trails are snow packed and muddy I have this idea that it could be a nice addition. Idea occurred winter of when I read about the great Divide Rout and the bikes the racers run. Personally I’d like one with a dropper post, to make it a bit more well rounded for harder single track.

 

Salsa Cutthroat is the best drop bar MTB, with that said, riding single track is pretty miserable on anything besides green level trails but long distance on road/gravel it is phenomenal.
I pretty much don't use my road or touring bike any more and solely ride the Cutthroat when I'm not mountain biking.

Now if you want to ride snow and muddy trails what you are looking for is a fat bike.

 

I’m really looking at a Tumbleweed Stargazer. I stay off the single track when it’s muddy because the ruts destroy them (I’m in the desert). Seems like a db mtb, with a dropper post and slightly slack geo would be a fun all around adventure bike. Kinda fill the gap between my gravel bike on 700x40’s and the hard tail with suspension and 29x2.5’s.

plus I’m Slow AF, and the only time I can keep up with roadies and gravel guys is when I’m in my element, asking to pass them on singletrack.

 

Just know descending on a drop bar bike is very scary because you will most likely have to be in the drops to get good leverage on the brakes.
And the drop bar mountain bikes, even with geometry correction for the different bars, still puts you pretty low and far forward.
Where I live I tried the Cutthroat on every trail system we have in the cities and like I said they are only good on the green level trails.

As a reference most of the summer I ride an early 2000s 29er xc bike with very steep geometry so I love the old school twitchiness and being super stretched out on a bike. Which is the complete opposite of modern mountain bikes.
I have 10 different bikes that I ride: titanium gravel, fully loaded tour, road racing, ss hardtail 29er, xc fs 29er, rigid 27.5+, fat, the Cutthroat, and modern carbon xc race bike.

Honestly, if it was me, I would go with a fat bike. Anything you would need a drop bar mountain bike for either your gravel bike or hard tail would be a better choice. And once you are in the snow you want the fattest tires possible.
I got the Cutthroat so I could get ride of both my touring bike and gravel bike, and not have to ride my road racing bike all the time on the pavement. Drop bar MTB are more for doing ultra distance over rough terrain more comfortably than on a gravel bike.

The Otso Voytec is probably the best fat bike you could get if you want to shred single track and plow through snow.

 

Nice bike! I have a 2021 Cutt! And agree with your statement, if it’s not to techy, then it’s fun to ride, especially if there is climbing. Before i got my Stumpy, I rode the Cutt on my local trails. It wasn’t fast on the downhills but it worked.

 

Have been using "Finish Line Wet Bike Lubricant" on my fat bike chain as it is highly rated for wet/snow conditions. Unfortunately due to shock issues on my full suspension bike, I have been solely riding the fat bike in the woods and not too pleased with the lube. It goes on tacky and while it does repel water (would be perfect for only snow riding), it is like glue and any amount of dust, mud, organic debris, etc sticks to the drive train and makes a super mess. The end of every ride is spent picking pine needles, leafs, and dirt clumps off the entire drive train - the derailleur pulleys were barely spinning with how caked up they got.

Just replaced my dropper cable and let the chain and cassette soak in de greaser to remove it all and start again. Lesson learned - don't mess with success when you have a lube that works. No reason to switch it up in the hopes to find something better.

 

Pedros year round for me!

really considered waxing the chain on the new bike but went the wet lube method instead because, like you said, if it ain’t broke…

 

Yeah. I've come to find that lube choice is personal. I prefer my lube and not a lot of people do. Even though I have had an experience to show it does well in my riding conditions compared to the other things my friends use. Oh well.

 

We don’t get much snow around here, in fact it’s been raining the last two days. The appeal to the drop bar is better bike for long days, and bike packing. The Kokopelli Trail is a 142 mile trail from Loma to Moab, that starts about 7 miles from my front door. Lesser known is the Tabeguache Trail a 140 mile trail from Grand Junction to Montrose. I think it would also be a good bike for the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands NP which is about an hour and a half from me. I’ve ridden my ‘14 Rove gravel bike on a lot of this stuff, and pushed it a bunch because skinny tires aren’t much fun in the desert chunk. I’ve spent a lot of time on single track on my gravel bike since I got it 9 years ago, and your right, not the ideal choice for advanced + trails. Ultimately it’s kinda limited in the places I want to go, I use it for maintenance rides primarily. Now that I have a job close to the house I will use it as a commuter.

This is Steve’s Loop out at Kokopelli Loops where the KT starts.

 

I guess I was picturing snowy mountain Colorado lol.
I'd say if you are looking to bike all day on less than ideal roads and easy single track a drop bar MTB would be a great choice.
Otherwise I would consider a fully rigid plus bike or fat bike.
I have a Kona Unit plus bike with a jones bar that I love using off road when I want to slow down on long multiuse trails or not worry about my $5000 cutthroat getting dirty lol

 

Just thought I’d share with you guys how great Apple Private relay is when buying stuff online that uses one time use codes.

Oh already used the code for your primary email, Apple will spoof your email for you and you do nothing. Best thing ever.

All emails automatically coming to the same inbox.

 

I test rode a unit in ‘20 when I started looking at the Sutra ULTD. But I really wanted the db mtb, because it’s got wider tires and a dropper post, so a bit more functional than my Rove. I found one XL ULTD in Marquette, MI that year and I almost jumped on a plane to the UP because they couldn’t/wouldn’t ship it to me. That’s when I ended up building the HT, and immediately spent 15 months in N. MI for work. Now being home I want to get my poop in a group with my bikes and my ‘02 TRD. Thems is my priorities.

 

I think that kicked in for me the other day… got a message that reply emails would be sent to some random email address and forwarded to my regular address.

 

It’s a paid for service, but it comes with the most basic storage plan. I pay $3 a month I think for 200GB cloud storage, a basic Apple VPN, and the email thing.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201238

I wish Apple VPN was legit, but I paid a few dollars for a VPN this month to make my IP address appear to be in the UK so I could watch season 6 of Better Call Saul on Netflix. VPNs are great for getting around licensing for certain programs on certain apps.

 

I started using Nord when I found an 85% off for the first 3 years deal. I am about to run out of time on my contact, but it might also be time to shop around for a different VPN. Nord is okay on my phone, but I have to reset it frequently on the iPad, and challenging at best for my MacBook.

 

I'm attempting to keep my dollars local as possible - but even the local manufacturers have started outsourcing to Asia. Not surpringsly better margins than handbuilding but that's not the point of a handbuilt frame for most I would think

For real. I've got to sell an entire rental fleet but will probably hold off until Spring. It's brutal out there

 

Spring + Tax season!

 

Damn, that thing is sexy!

 

We use Nord through work. It does VPN stuff but Netflix/Hulu/Amazon unfortunately seem to know the IP addresses and that it is a VPN and still block services if you are in Europe trying to watch using your US subscription.

For personal use I set up a Raspberry Pi VPN which is free other than the investment in the Pi and some time. I did end up paying a few bucks for a fixed IP address but compared to paying for the VPN it is next to nothing. It just sits in my home office, and I reboot it a few times a month to push any updates for Raspberry Pi OS.