Show off your Mountain Bike!!!

It only took me a few rides to get used to clips. What messes me up now is when you are in a fast, sketchy section and moving around on the bike and you accidentally come unclipped, especially while in the air. Doesn't happen often, but is a surprise when it does.

I other news, SRAM Guide brakes suck. Only 120 miles or so on my Stache, and my rear brake started acting up on me yesterday. It started out feeling kind of stiff and lacking power, then it stopped returning to an open position and just dragged on the rotor. It still kinda worked, so I just kept riding using mostly front brake and leaning way back. I took it off when I got home and pushed the caliper pistons back, which apparently totally messed it up. Now the lever goes to the bar and it barely bites, still doesn't return fully. Now I see they have been recalled for this problem, but labor isn't covered. I prefer the feel of Shimano XT's anyway, so these POS things are going in the bin.

 

My DVO fork came with one, so I rode without it for a while; sand and mud to face. I put it on, sand and mud not on face. I’m keeping it on

 

Light and cheap, and if you attach them right they do stay put. I still get stuff that makes it past the fender, but they do seem to catch some of the stuff. While I'm kind of on the fence, I do have one on both of my bikes. If your bike rack has a hook that goes over the front tire (some Thule, Kuat, Yakima racks), be sure to get one that doesn't extend out front of the fork arch too far.

I think Scott's "parts" brand (Syncros?) made one specifically for Fox forks that bolts on and looks really clean, but I couldn't find anyone online with any in stock. Fork makers are really missing out on an accessory opportunity. I'd probably still go with black, but tons of people would drop 20-40 bucks for color options that are easy to bolt on (colored velcro and zip ties is a bit like ghetto tubeless).

 

Okay so let me start this off with y’all are badasses and don’t get the credit y’all deserve.

I love the outdoors and exploring but driving 4-5 hours to an off-road park and denting up the nice runner was making it hard to get motivated to get out there again like I did in my old crawler.

Being a fitness lover, a mountain bike was the easy answer for being able to enjoy nature without costing thousands(or so I thought)

I stalked craigslist and picked up a used Iron Horse 4.5 full suspension bike in really really good condition for $250.

That same day on the way home, curiosity got to me, I stopped at a decently reviewed park with some fun trails.

I am embracing the moment and flying down these trails! The landing from jumps are smoother than I could’ve ever imagined from a freaking bicycle, the creek flowing next to me is beautiful and the trees are green as can be.

You know what else was green? Me. Cause next thing you know, I’m going downhill and gravity had to humble me and remind me who’s in charge as I get slung over the handlebars.

Ouch. Wipe my scrapes and bruises off and keep on trucking. Wait

Whatdafawk is this.

Uphill covered with roots and ledges? Apparently I should’ve taken lessons or googled how to ride before doing this as I fall a lot. Up the trail we go finally! Bike... next to me.

Random bridges I almost fall off of and sharp turns that scare me follow shortly after. Oh and you can get high centered on a bike too. Did not know that but do now !

After 4.5 miles, I’m exhausted and everything hurts. I took it extremely easy the ride back because I have trust issues with trails now and all I can say is the people who do this on difficult trails and fly down em... y’all are badasses with massive balls


And I can’t wait to get out on trails again!
Did not expect to enjoy this hobby as much as I did and seeing the abuse the bikes go through totally explains the price of the high quality ones. These things take a freaking beating!

TLR

My new used bike humbled the fuck out of me and now appreciate wheeling vehicles because having a seatbelt and airbags are awesome compared to faceplanting into the hard ground. I’m going to buy a helmet and go ride again next weekend!

 

I think I paid $10 for mine. Mucky nutz is the brand. I notice that I don’t catch near as much directly up into my face and my stanchions stay pretty clean even on muddy rides. It came with velcro but I used zip ties. Would recommend especially as cheap as they are.

 

Things I need to figure out are :

How to whip the bike around and work with it. Not fight myself on it.

Gearing. I gotta figure out what gears to use when so I can ride up steeper grades

And brakes lol. Sending yourself over the bars is no fun

 

Dude, that Iron Horse is a classic! If it is in good shape, it's worth more than $250 to a collector. And do get a helmet. Or don't, Darwin isn't fond of them either *snicker*. Understanding your limits and the bike's limits just comes with time in the saddle, same with being in the right gear. Get a shorter stem, and turn your grips around (looks like they are backwards).

 

Here's some instructions for ya:



and



Enjoy! and welcome!

 

Anyone recommend a ride tracking app, other then a Strava. I can’t justify $60 just to track my rides. I use Trailforks it it doesn’t show me elevations or speeds.

 

Strava is free, there's just an premium for certain features. If you're looking for speed, distance, and elevation tracking, the free part of Strava does that.

 

I have a Garmin 810 and it syncs with Strava, and I don't pay for a premium account. Strava kind of annoys me -- there's people showing as the top speeds on a local trail that averaged over 25 mph. Which is totally impossible on that trail. Heck, that's totally impossible on almost ANY trail. All I can figure is they were driving down the park road that runs near the trail with the app on, and it assumed they were on the trail. Strava needs to do some simple analytics on results and throw those out. Not trying to get a KOM or anything, mostly compete with myself, but like to see where I sit in general compared to the rest.

Oh, and I was wrong on the SRAM Guide brakes -- they haven't been recalled, but my issue is typical and you can get warranty repairs -- if you pay for labor. The labor for repairing and rebleeding is almost the cost of new XT brakes! I don't like people wrenching on my bikes anyway. I love my Pike fork and Eagle drivetrains, but I'm staying away from their brakes and dropper posts.

 

yea, I don't bother looking at how I compare to the top people on Strava, I can't compare myself to people who dedicate their lives to this stuff. As long as I'm not near the bottom, I'm happy, and then I just battle my past self.

 

Most clipless pedals allow you to adjust the amount of tension. I don't think I ever had a crash where the impact itself didn't automatically unclip me from the pedals, unless it was a really, really slow impact crash. Once you use clipless you'll never go back.

 

if the crash is that slow, you have time to kick your heel out and put your foot down anyway.

I'll be honest though, I took a couple of sideways falls before I got in the habit of kicking my heel out, and learning to adjust the tension. I'm so used to being clipped now, that I feel unsecure without them...

 

Yeah, I like to see where I sit overall and am happy to be in the top half on uphills and top third on downhills. Then I filter down to my own results to see how I compare against previous runs. Kind of amazing to see how close they all are (unless I have to stop for some reason). I don't tend to even think about it on the trail unless it's particularly grippy and I know I have a good flow going -- then I push to see if I can get a new PR. I'm in the 50+ category and not at an ideal weight, so a KOM is about as likely as winning the lottery.

 

It does take some getting use to. I did some falling over when I started using clipless. I wasn't able to clip out in time while stopped. Once you start falling over you just got to hang on and brace for impact.

 

I made mine for less than $5 in BOM

 

I did not know that. I just something pop up about free trial then a $60 charge after that.

 

Interesting. I’ll have to look into them further. I honestly don’t know much about them.

 

yea that's for a free trial of the premium package.

https://www.strava.com/summit/join <- Here's the info for whats included with that. I don't have it, I just use the free features, and I get what I need from it.

Tracks my distance, speed, gives me moving time vs total time, average speed, elevation gain, segments and segment analysis, and graphs for elevation and speed, plus all the social network stuff you can either choose to participate in or not.

Overall, its my favorite app for tracking my bike rides.