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

I've always heard the riding in Bend is great. I really want to get on some loam and feel dirt under me that isn't the rocky shale stuff in colorado. We may need to spend a night in Bend and hopefully find a cool/quirky/scenic airbnb or something.

This massive list of trails is perfect. im still a ways of from finalizing anything, but a rough trip idea is colorado springs through idaho to bend, hopefully 2 days, but could be 3. ideally we would have 16 full days of time off to do what we want with. so if we did 3 days there, 3 days back, thats 10 days to play with. this is all ideal too, so it could be 8 days to play with, which typing out seems like a long time.

i was thinking about my goals for riding after i posted yesterday. If I could squeeze in a 4-5 hour shuttle ride, similar to monarch crest of the whole enchilada (both I haven't done yet), or pikes peak descent, I would be stoked. Other rides would be hopefully an hour or two loop. one of the pink bike destinations listed the hood river as a cool place with dog parks and stuff around. so if my gf and dog were doing their own thing, i could ride a bit longer.

one of the comments on having a variety available is really what i'm going for. if there was a day we got too tired to drive far and there was a trail system near by i would totally take that time to ride a bit while my gf was resting or whatever. since this is so early in the planning process i wanted to find at least one network that was a must ride for me and try to plan a day around it.

you mentioned north umpqua, is that near umpqua hot springs? i went years and years ago and would love to go back. i also did bagby, but don't think thats as easy to get a dog to since there was a host family at the trail head keeping tabs on things.

 

oh shit!!! that's some serious damage! that's...dumb. their plastic housing i suppose just isn't up to snuff. I have the mt5's as well. although i think my front rotor and pads are contaminated. and I do generally like the power of the brakes. haha. that sucks though. I don't htink Magura has any crash warranty. I don't know how good their "warranty" is neither. but might be worth a call to them.

 

I reached out to them, waiting to hear back. I think it's a design flaw for a lever to not break before a master cylinder.

Either way. After reading reviews and looking for deals online I found Haye's offering the best price on brakes.
Complete brakeset, rotors, and two sets of pads.

Can't complain. Probably just sell the MT5's as is since the levers are worth a fair amount.

 

Nice. I saw that SRAM was having some crazy amounts of sales as well on their codes recently. I'm half ready to pull the trigger on some TRP DH-R Evo's

 

https://www.twohoosierscyclery.com/...lar&max=7000&min=0&sort=highest&brand=1365354

I did find these earlier.
About a week ago they had it where the December15 code would work.
That's how I got TRP 203 rotors for $30 each.

 

oh nice! I"ll have to compare with what my lbs can give me.

 

Finally got a chance to ride the fat bike on some snowier trails (had +/- 2-3" of untouched snow on certain trails) - curious to see how it will do with a larger snowfall event. Have not put any studded tires on yet so was a bit concerned on traction, but the bike had substantial grip and it was awesome to blaze my own little trail. A few of the more accessible trails had fat tire marks from a few days ago that have iced up - was neat to see other people's line choices. Other than a few warm up rides on clean trails and one fat bike race on the beach, this was the first test of the bike in conditions it was made for.

Going to be an awesome option to help relieve the basement trainer rides this winter.

 

You’ll be pleasantly surprised, just air down the tires and you’ll have traction for miles! Studs are great for very specific conditions but rarely necessary if there is any actual snow on the ground. Fat biking is also great for practicing trail design, if you don’t like the line try a new one next time it snows!

 

For fucks sake, how do you get a fat tire to seat on the bead? Asking for a friend…

 

Rainy days = trying out some new tools. Park Mineral Oil Bleed Kit plus some piston spreaders and a handlebar holder. All did great and made a full bleed a lot easier. This is my first Evil Insurgent and is about 7 years old and have not had a full bleed. The front brake alone took about 4 cups until it came out red. The rear brake fluid was so gunked up that I had to remove the bleed nipple and clean the the orifice using a fine wire.

 

I use a ratchet strap to keep even pressure on the whole circumference and then give it a blast from the compressor. I always syringe the sealant in through the valve stem.

 

Finally sold my old saints that I never actually ran for same cost as the Hayes Dominions.
Gave the guy 4 pair of unused Nukeproof pads and 2 cheap centerlock sram rotors.

I feel I did pretty well considering the Dominions come with 2 200mm rotors and 4 brake pad sets between the pair.

 

Yep, tried that, I can’t get them to even begin to hold air, even with the strap. I’m using a compressor with the open nozzle and no valve to get as much air in the tire as fast as possible. I have the tires inside out now to try to spread the bead a bit

 

Bend is a great place, just don't expect loam. It is moon dust for sure and gets really dry and dusty in the summer - it is high desert after all haha.

 

@Pugga have you tried a bit of water sprayed around the tires? I had a bit of an issue seating a tire recently and sprayed a little water all the way around on each side and that helped.

 

NUT is about 75 miles total over about 10 segments. Dread and Terror is one of the best, and the Hot Spring segment where Umpqua hot springs are is the next segment west of it. That segment should be open. Most of the trail beyond that is either closed or in bad shape.

https://www.blm.gov/or/districts/ro...quatrails/pdf/north-umpqua-trail-brochure.pdf

 

Just a bit of Tom Foolery for the Arrival. 190/170. Will post pics as soon as I receive that darn back ordered Chris King Devolution base plate.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CmLK9s1McNw/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

I did, with a tiny bit of soap, the bead seems to curl too much. I put the tire inside out to maybe flatten it a bit so the bead naturally wants to stay toward the rim. I put the old tires back on for now, they mount up no problem.

 

Have you tried removing the valve core and hitting it with a compressor using a blow gun attachment?

 

Whats worked for me in the past is using an inner tube to bead up the tire. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes, break one bead and pull out the tube, flip the tire over so gravity helps and shoot it with air. Should bead up for ya. I use a 5 gallon bucket as a tire changing station, lol. Also I use an injector for sealant, so I don't put any in until tire is seated.

A charger pump really helps, pump that baby up to 140 psi and pull the lever...