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

What about the 18’s?.....any wider??

 

Never mind.....I found it

 

Super happy with how this turned out and on $200 less than my all in budget.

Set up tubeless. Swapped the SR Suntour coil fork for a fox 34 rhythm. Swapped the shimano 2x10 for a full NX drive. A really light 27.5+ hardtail is the final product. Will compliment my genius perfecly, which is exactly what I wanted.

First time I’ve done this much wrenching on a bike. Learned a lot. Whenever I quit O&G here in the next 5 years I’m going to open a bike shop somewhere.

 

Very nice! Not sure it’s what I want, but probably what I need for a second bike. I just started using Strava. 7 rides so far, 90 miles, 11K climbing. I really don’t need FS and 2.5” tires for most of that.

 

Getting the 'go fast' ride ready for some Grand Ridge.... bonus points that it matches the truck.

 

Maybe my reasoning will help your decision either way.

I wanted something to I could do ANYTHING on. My genius is 150 front, 150 rear, and was a pretty penny. Love it on the trails, which is what it was made for, not something I want to take off the trails though. This bike I can do anything on. I can hit the same local trails as the genius, but I can also go sunday funday bar hopping with, cruising with the dog, no drop casual group rides, maybe even a very amateur XC race at one of the local train systems.

This bike gives me a reason to grab a bike and ride to the local brewery or happy hour next to the LBS instead of driving, and on the way home take the back loop and hit my closest trail thats only a 3 mile loop.

Dog and I just did a 10.5 mile loop to break it in and hit 2 breweries on the route.

 

I rented a Trek Fuel EX 8 in Johnson City, TN today and rode the Pinnacle Fire tower trail on buffalo mountain. That is a climb that Nashville riding did not prepare me for, holy smokes. It was totally worth it when we got to the fire tower and the down hill back to the parking lot though! Overall the bike was fun and sporty but nothing that blew me away, I almost rented the Remedy but went with the fuel.

 

Yeah, this is similar to what I’m thinking. I’ve got 3 bikes: my short travel 29-er which is more than enough trail bike for me, though I’d like to upgrade eventually; a pretty nice carbon framed road bike which I converted to flat bars, ‘cause I hate drops, but with skinny tires and rim brakes it just feels sketchy compared to my mountain bike; and my 30 year old rigid, steel, 26” mountain bike which is supposedly my urban bike but honestly, isn’t fun to ride. So I’m thinking get rid of the two bikes I don’t ride, and build up a hardtail ... aside from everything else when I ride solo during the week it’s usually 40% pavement, 40% gravel and only 20% trail anyway. Thanks for the ideas.

 

Just get a new hardtail fat bike.

 

Ollalie kicked my ass today...

 

Fat bikes are cool but we have no snow here, very little sand on trails and no legal beach riding anywhere close. Though I talked with a guy who does training rides every day on his fat bike ... then gets on his hardtail XC bike for races and is blown away by how fast it is.

 

They are still a blast. Still riding just a different kind of fun. Kind of like two different microbrews. Both are great, just different. I have a Rocky Mountain Suzi Q which is great for regular riding too.

 

I did about 6 miles in the forest yesterday, was an awesome ride.

 

Nothing too exciting but this is my setup. 1up rack is pretty sweet. I currently ride a Santa Cruz Bronson and a Commencal AM HT.

 

i got my fat bike to extend the riding season in the winter. It's fun to ride, and i ride it all year now.

 

Slack hardtails are the tits. Will be my next bike for sure

 

Got some time up Discovery Basin on Saturday. And then to make up for the lazy chair riding we did a huge 27 mile loop with 4400 feet of climbing on Sunday.

At 40 this is as brave as I get when it comes to leaving the ground

 

This is awesome!!

 

Dawn patrol at Lake Chabot.

 

So that was Saturday night. On Sunday I rode the Braille Trail in Soquel Demo Forest. Probably a piece of cake for most of you guys, especially as I took all the easy lines, but felt pretty harsh on my 120/100 Tallboy2 even at a crawling slow pace. My wife on her short travel Ripley also felt pretty beat up. The trail drops 900’ in a little over a mile. The other guys I was with were mostly on longer travel bikes, a couple of newish 29” Spesh Enduros, and I think a Yeti 5.5. Suddenly I’m thinking about longer travel instead of hardtail ... and then I talked with a guy that has a Tallboy3 just bought a new Ripmo. N + 1 decision time I guess ... new bike or Vagabond Drifter? BTW, to get back on topic, lots of Tacos in the parking lot including a nice black 2018 DCSB OR with 6MT and a white 3rd gen DCSB with Softopper.