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

Doing a cyclocross race today. Been pouring rain the last few days, so very slick, but good weather.

Doing it after being at a friend's 30th bday all night though...less than ideal.

Edit: Didn't come in last! But the "beginner" cat had a suspicious amount of ringers in it.

 

Dear collective-

Canyon Torque VS YT Capra. Both aluminum for bike park and maybe an enduro or two. . I’m stuck. Haha.

so I’m hoping some strangers can guide me.

 

Answering a question with a question. Why those two bikes?

 

Canyon because you said collective, which is the name of their race team.

 

My Ripmo on the truck before it got set aside for my Decoy.

 

I’ve got 3 bikes already and these are a good price point :

 

If I was looking for a park bike right now, it would be the new Spindrift Al Park, no doubt.
Their builds are awesome, and super customizable. The one below I configured, $5k. Ohlins suspension, MT7 brakes, DT 240 hubs on FR541 rims.
10% off that right now too, through Halloween. Yeah, $4,500 for that bike...
Besides all that, their bikes are top notch. Suspension action, build quality, durability is excellent.
Only thing that isn't great, is customer service. But that's kinda the case with most D2C brands, like you listed.

You can also configure the bike down to 3,500, complete. But the upgrade costs are so reasonable, you'll find yourself building higher spec.
Have fun playing! Propain Bikes are cool....

 

Fall colors in New England were out this weekend:

 

I got in a 60 mile/3k vert gravel ride this weekend as a tester for White Rim. I felt great overall, maintained a 13mph average pace, and even planned to add on an additional 10 mile/1k trail ride at the end until I got a flat. I wasn't overly sore or tired at the end so I feel like this is a good sign that I'll be alright on White Rim.

In other news, I put a 34t oval chain ring on the hardtail. I feel like I got an extra 4 teeth for free!!! It really feels basically no harder on the climbs than my 30t but there's so much more gear to push on the other end.

 

be sure to stock up on drink powders and other supplements.

 

dayumn!! good work dude! that ain't an easy ride!

 

damn sandbaggers! (we get those too at our local race stuffs)

 

Possibly the wrong spot, but 100% bike and Tacoma related. Is anyone currently using the Velocirax bike rack with their Tacoma and Ebikes? If so what’re the pro and cons? I’m currently using the Thule T2 pro but the extension for 3rd and 4th bike sticks out way to far and putting my sons bike in the bed is not all to convenient since I have to take it apart every time. Thanks in advance.

 

My wife started doing endurance racing this summer and was testing all sorts of things during her training rides. We've got bin full of Skratch mix, Gu, Gel, Chews, etc. If you can name a performance supplement, we probably have it. I tried a bunch of them on my ride and had no belly issues.

I have the Alta rack on my van but I have used both a Velocirax and Alta rack on several mid-size/full-size trucks as well. They both worked just fine with Ebikes. I couldn't really recommend one over the other for performance reasons. The vertical racks are definitely better for hauling heavy bikes or many bikes. They are more stable and don't add length as you add bikes. They are also easy to get bikes to play nicely together as there's no puzzling handlebars/seatposts/saddles to fit. The main downside is that they still stick out a bit even without bikes, so it's kind of annoying driving around town with one. They're also heavier, bigger, and more unwieldy to take on/off and store.

 

Thanks for the input, the rack is definitely going to stay on the truck throughout the year. Possibly once I have a garage I’d look into wall mounting it when I’m not using it.

 

https://youtu.be/WCtfOhHfOxI?si=hQKaHtH17CgrGyF7

Upper J-Bar in Vermont last weekend on the Pivot Trail 429!

 

Putting new tires on the Trek this weekend!

 

I just put some enduro casing tires on a Trek for a friend. Those bontrager wheels were some of the hardest to mount an enduro casing e13 tire I've done.

 

Experimenting: T-Type on a non-UDH frame (2022 Yeti SB115). First test ride today.

 

Done!!