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Droppers are fun and more convenient.
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Feb 8, 2021 04:03
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stratdax posted:Why do you need a dropper post if you're hitting jumps or drops or steeps? The seat just stays down all the time if you're doing those things. And if you're going back up for another lap, you just lift the seat back up at the bottom, it's a once-a-lap change. Definitely not something you need a dropper for. Did you mean ".. if you're sure you never want to hit anything but..."? I've ridden a mountain bike 6 times but that's 5 more than I needed to learn that droppers loving own.
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Feb 8, 2021 04:22
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Bottom Liner posted:If you're still here in FL there's no need for a dropper and you'll be plenty happy without it, especially starting out. It's the opposite, at least in south florida? Markham and virginia key have many features where you want your seat down but they are very interspersed with climbs. You want a dropper MORE than you would in a place where the climbs and downhills are more compartmentalized
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Feb 8, 2021 08:15
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Haven't ridden those two but Santos, Croom, Alafia etc are all fine without one. I've ridden with and without a dropper all around central FL and never really missed it.
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Feb 8, 2021 08:24
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Bottom Liner posted:If you're still here in FL there's no need for a dropper and you'll be plenty happy without it, especially starting out. I’m not actually, I moved up to Minneapolis about a year ago. There’s a ton of moderate trails around here so I finally want to take the plunge and buy a mountain bike. I rode a few trails in FL on a friend’s bike and had a lot of fun, but didn’t feel like buying a bike just yet. Of course now that I want to bikes are super scarce. I haven’t been into any shops yet in person but most of them list their inventory online and it’s basically frames and $5k+ bikes right now. Used market seems dry up here right now too but I’m going to keep my eye on that as well.
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Feb 9, 2021 00:41
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the first time i rode a MTB with a dropper post it was a revelation. a  moment, if you will.
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Feb 9, 2021 01:12
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How about droppers with a lever under the seat instead of a remote? I've never used either kind, but it seems like the lever would be a lot more awkward.
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Feb 9, 2021 02:28
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Get a dropper on your bike jfc it's sooooooooooooooooooooooo much better. Bar remote yeah duh, maybe some weird seat lever would work but just get a loving normal rear end dropper. It's 100$ for a cheap one and 200$ for a totally great just fine no problems one. If I could move one thing from my 2019 bike to my 2007 bike it would be a dropper.
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Feb 9, 2021 03:05
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Are the totally great dropper posts worth upgrading to? The TranzX dropper my Honzo came with is starting to get stuck on the way up - either have to lower and raise it a few times, or pull up on the saddle while holding lever down. The PNW Loam looks great, but it's nearly half the cost of a new fork and that seems like a bigger improvement to the bike.
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Feb 9, 2021 03:34
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paberu posted:Are the totally great dropper posts worth upgrading to? The TranzX dropper my Honzo came with is starting to get stuck on the way up - either have to lower and raise it a few times, or pull up on the saddle while holding lever down. The dropper on my Honzo started coming back up slower and slower too before it altogether stopped. Turns out it had lost air pressure and I just needed to pump more air in it. Works fine again. A shock pump is like $30 if you don’t already have one.
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Feb 9, 2021 04:42
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paberu posted:Are the totally great dropper posts worth upgrading to? The TranzX dropper my Honzo came with is starting to get stuck on the way up - either have to lower and raise it a few times, or pull up on the saddle while holding lever down. Transx lose air like nothing else, just pump it up.
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Feb 9, 2021 04:57
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I'm probably up for a new dropper this year. My stock 2017 bontrager has lost all the anodizing, probably 1mm+ of material on the backside, and the seals are shot so it fills with grit internally and slows way down all the time. Plus it has a shitload of fore/aft play and a pair of setscrews that need to be removed to do a full clean/rebuild stripped out last time I tried to take it apart. Still mostly works though and has never sagged or lost pressure! Gonna give it a nice retirement in a cardboard box upstate with my gen-1 reverb.
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Feb 9, 2021 05:04
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Heard real good things about the one-up droppers, I'm thinking of getting one to max out on drop even though my current post is fine.
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Feb 9, 2021 06:28
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I was planning on 150mm but saw that the OneUp had 180 for my insertion depth, so it was a no brainer.
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Feb 9, 2021 06:49
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Last year I decided that with likely the cancellation of any CX season as a result of the covid, I'd pick up mountain biking again. While I'd had a hardtail in high school, I'd long been focused on road/CX/gravel. So this was my first year doing mountain biking with any level of commitment beyond the occasional rental/demo or borrowing my friends bikes. I have zero interest in anything resembling downhill and focused on trail/XC riding, which the interior of British Columbia is well known for. If you've ever spent time in eastern Washington or Oregon, the climate and terrain are very similar. I picked up a used 2018 Stumpjumper in the summer and also signed up for a mountain bike race, the Merritt Crown for late September: The Merritt Crown is a self-supported singletrack race for dirtbag mountain bikers. The course joins the four major singletrack riding areas of the Nicola Valley: Coultee Plateau, Iron Mountain, Lundbom, and Swakum Mountain. There is a time limit of 12 hour to complete the 120 km course with 3,000 vertical meters of riding. The race is structured such that you can do a 50 km distance or 120km as a relay. There are aid stations at 30km, 50km and 85km. Anyone who hasn't reached the 85km aid station by 5:30 pm is cut off to avoid riders in the dark. This would become important later. In terms of training, I didn't really do much beyond riding my road/gravel bike a lot and trying to get better at handling a mountain bike on technical terrain. I also only signed up for the 50km distance. I set the 85km distance as a stretch goal. Here's a photo of me (centre, masked fellow with the black Stumpjumper) at the start of the race at 7:30 am:  Early on in the race I had a slow speed crash that was a result of my own impatience waiting to pass another rider. The result was that I broke my shifter at about 25km. I was super angry at myself for making such a dumb mistake so early on. But I borrowed a zap strap from my friend to kludge it back together:  My friend also crashed soon after. He was pretty shaken as it was a pretty scary crash and he could've been seriously injured given the speed he was traveling at. We lost 20 minutes putting his bike back together - his tubeless blew and he needed to put a tube in. Later on I crashed again as a result of a pedal strike - yes, I'm pretty okay at bikes. I was unscathed but I broke my dropper lever. I found more zap straps at the 30km aid station:  Three crashes between the two of us before the 30km aid station. Things were looking up!!! We both made it to 50km without further issue but friend was done there. Between the scary crash he had, problems keeping up his energy and a close encounters with a momma bear and her cubs, he was done. He was happy with that result as he never saw himself going to 85km. I was feeling really fresh at this point and I'd actually made decent time in spite of the mechanical setbacks and crashes. I no longer had a dropper post (somewhere around 35km the lever just fell off). But this wasn't really a big deal as the terrain was mostly XC or Trail. But the limited shifting was definitely slowing me down. Between 50 and 85km I lost more time as a result of navigation issues. I'd exported the trail forks route to strava because... reasons and inexperience. This was a mistake and I found the routing to be super lovely. There were a number of total wrong turns, circles or my garmin trying to send me over impossible terrain. I later learned this is not uncommon issue when exporting from trail forks to strava. I also learned that turning on audible navigation alerts is really important. See for example the below from my strava route. The correct route should loop back along the road, not across a river, two streams and someone's gated private property (not that I didn't try):  I managed to hit the last aid station before the 5:30pm cut off. After some encouragement from the race organizers ('you've got plenty of time!) I decided to keep pushing.    The last 1/4 of the route was actually pretty tame. Long climb followed by winding single track along a hillside, However, I ran out of daylight and had to walk off the course at 110km. At the time, this was immensely disappointing to me as I was pretty close to the finish but it was pretty much dark at this point and I was over the 12 hour limit anyways. That said, I had a huge amount of fun. Beyond the incredible terrain, scenery I really enjoyed myself and with the benefit of time, feel okay about the result given my level of experience, lack of preparation and look forward to trying again this year. The race for 2021 is scheduled for June, assuming that regional travel restrictions are lifted by then, which seems likely. They had postponed the race once last year so it's entirely possible that will happen again depending upon how the vaccine rollout/case load goes over the coming months. Myself and a friend are once again registered and I would encourage others to do the same, assuming travel is permitted by then. Not sure about the US/Can border being open though.  So, takeaways: - don't use strava, use trailforks for more reliable routing - this cost me dearly. - turn on audible alerts on the garmin to hear when off course (again, this cost me dearly) - bring zap straps, just in case - do some sort of pre hydration mix to ensure I keep fuelled. I managed okay on this front and arguably brought too much of the wrong things. - pack less solid food - I was carrying a ton of RX bars but rarely needed them as the aid stations had good fresh fruit, gels etc. Also, bars suck to eat. No matter what kind they are. - prioritize honey stinger waffles as these are the best and only food one should carry Bottom line: get better at mountain biking and do some sort of structured training program. Riding 120km on gravel/road is not at all comparable to the same distance on a mountain bike. I regularly do metric centuries on road/gravel but could barely turn the pedals for the last major climb. I am seeking guidance here - I currently just mess around on Zwift and have a decent FTP but have heard good things about trainer road. For those curious, Trailforks route here: https://www.trailforks.com/event/4435/?activitytype=1&z=11.7&lat=50.12206&lon=-120.75202
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Feb 9, 2021 07:29
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Nice job. Looks like you had decent fun. One tip. You don't need to crank down your brake, shifter, and dropper levers. You can make them tight but still movable by hand. If you crash they usually just rotate instead of breaking off.
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Feb 9, 2021 15:20
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Not sure you want them to rotate with your hand. That seems too loose. Ive seen like 2-3 nm for cockpit items like shifters and brakes and that seems about right.
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Feb 9, 2021 15:44
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vikingstrike posted:Not sure you want them to rotate with your hand. That seems too loose. Ive seen like 2-3 nm for cockpit items like shifters and brakes and that seems about right. It still takes force to move them with your hand. I just know that a lot of races do this because having them move in a crash is better than breaking off. It might be 2-3 nm. I just go by feel.
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Feb 9, 2021 16:08
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spwrozek posted:Nice job. Looks like you had decent fun. Ah ah. Thank you. I’ll make that adjustment. Getting replacement parts is a chore right now so hoping to avoid tracking down another I-spec II shifter.
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Feb 9, 2021 19:12
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breaking two levers like that seems like some lovely luck! nice work though
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Feb 9, 2021 19:34
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vikingstrike posted:Not sure you want them to rotate with your hand. That seems too loose. Ive seen like 2-3 nm for cockpit items like shifters and brakes and that seems about right. I have good luck with tight enough that they can still be rotated by hand. The real solution is back it off 5-10% and don’t crash.
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Feb 9, 2021 19:54
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n8r posted:don’t crash.
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Feb 9, 2021 21:30
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I say this with the utmost respect.... I think you crash the most of all my riding friends.
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Feb 9, 2021 21:37
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I was hoping someone would appreciate the irony
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Feb 9, 2021 23:31
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spwrozek posted:One tip. You don't need to crank down your brake, shifter, and dropper levers. You can make them tight but still movable by hand. If you crash they usually just rotate instead of breaking off.
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Feb 9, 2021 23:50
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mexecan posted:Last year I decided that with likely the cancellation of any CX season as a result of the covid, I'd pick up mountain biking again. This owns. CX being cancelled allowed me to try different fall activities including fall MTB and I'm pretty sure even when cross comes back I'm going to be spending a good chunk of CX season doing not CX things. MTB while the leaves are changing colors is amazing. EvilJoven fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Feb 10, 2021 |
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Feb 10, 2021 00:46
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mexecan posted:... Not sure about everyone else, but even assuming everything goes well I don't think I'm meant to be vaccinated until September. Always wanted to ride Iron Mountain though. pinarello dogman fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Feb 10, 2021 |
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Feb 10, 2021 03:48
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pinarello dogman posted:Not sure about everyone else, but even assuming everything goes well I don't think I'm meant to be vaccinated until September. Always wanted to ride Iron Mountain though. I was down with that until I saw this  I can't do that kind of ride. It's also funny/crazy to me that all the aid stations are ~600-1000m climb up from the bottom. You guys are beautiful madmen. Mexecan let me know if you plan on riding Whistler/Vancouver at all.
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Feb 10, 2021 04:23
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VelociBacon posted:I was down with that until I saw this Elevation: it’s a struggle to be sure. I’m going to focus on doing some sort of structured training this time. Road/gravel is great for baseline fitness but that only takes you so far, as I discovered. I just moved from Vancouver to the island because I’ll be working remote for the foreseeable future. No idea if/when I’ll be back. Friends just bought in Squamish though so I’ll probably head there in the spring/summer if travel restrictions are eased by then.. Strava profile here: https://www.strava.com/athletes/363600
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Feb 10, 2021 05:10
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VelociBacon posted:I was down with that until I saw this That seems like a brutal course but maybe I am just lazy, not sure I would ever really think about doing 100+ km in a single ride. mexecan posted:Elevation: it’s a struggle to be sure. I’m going to focus on doing some sort of structured training this time. Road/gravel is great for baseline fitness but that only takes you so far, as I discovered. The island has lots of great riding and seems to only be getting better, not sure where you are located but if you are looking for recommendations feel free to ask.
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Feb 10, 2021 06:22
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I'm glad the thread title reflects how I feel.
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Feb 10, 2021 06:36
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Wistful of Dollars posted:I'm glad the thread title reflects how I feel. The thread title is my quote and I'm on month 4 of recovery from an October crash. Bike again sooooon. This winter has been very boring.
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Feb 10, 2021 07:23
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I also crashed in October, breaking a couple ribs and bending a rotor as a result. Thankfully I'm feeling better but we've had so much loving rain this winter that my normal trails have been open a grand total of 3 days since the middle of December 
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Feb 10, 2021 16:12
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Looks like there's a few people from Vancouver area. I'm in Vancouver, likely moving to the sunshine coast soon. Hopefully the riding there is decent, I may have been spoiled by riding Seymour / burke / fromme / squamish etc my entire life. Anybody know about the riding around Gibsons and Sechelt area?
stratdax fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Feb 11, 2021 |
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Feb 10, 2021 19:05
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Anybody in the Portland area know how the riding is? I just moved here in the fall from NYC so I'm sure it's going to be better, but I haven't had a chance to check out the trails since moving.
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Feb 10, 2021 21:37
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Really good, I'm in PDX and ride regularly. Highlights: Sandy ridge Post canyon Scapoose/rocky point road - the afterwork special/quick rip zone Cold Creek area Secret tracks in the woods New area in tillamook Pump track out by 205/84 interchange Nestor ??? Probably more
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Feb 10, 2021 21:47
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Cool, thanks. I know sandy ridge and the pump track is that fairly new one, yeah? If I was smart I would have gone out today.
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Feb 11, 2021 00:30
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Yeah just opened up a couple months ago. Rode scapoose tonight, beautiful weather but quite greasy, great to get out before the snow. Sandy drains well enough that if it's not snowed in I'll ride it, a lot of the other gets real slimey when it's wet and takes a while to dry but there's not as strong of a don't ride in the wet culture out here for most stuff, keep it reasonable and dig but I ride when it's sloppy and don't feel too bad.
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Feb 11, 2021 04:02
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yoohoo posted:Anybody in the Portland area know how the riding is? I just moved here in the fall from NYC so I'm sure it's going to be better, but I haven't had a chance to check out the trails since moving. in addition to the above suggestions, if you're at all into gravel check out http://www.omtm.cc. They also have a very active google group with trail reports etc. Really wish we had something similar in BC.
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Feb 11, 2021 04:21
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^^^yeah I love my gravel bike, I'm very into this. They really make it easy to get out.meowmeowmeowmeow posted:Yeah just opened up a couple months ago. Good to know about Sandy. I've thought about going out there a few times since moving but it's been so wet that I a. assume it's going to be muddy and messy (edit: to clarify I mean the so muddy what's the point kind of muddy) and b. don't want to gently caress up the trails. I'n not a super aggressive rider anyways but you never know how people people feel about that. yoohoo fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Feb 11, 2021 |
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Feb 11, 2021 23:29
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