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Doug Briggs

"Douche Bag Local"
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A few thoughts on recent posts.

1) @epic 's video of bridges and rocks looks quite exciting. I find that bridges cause me to flinch (inside at least). I've taken a corner too tight and fallen off the inside and torn off a derailleur. I like just about any trail riding as long as there aren't mandatory jumps. I can see how this terrain would be one to tax the mind if you let the obstacles get in your head. One more place to put on the list. :)

B) I got the Shimano PD-M8020 pedals when I got my new bike. I don't think I get much benefit from the 'platform' when riding with my bike shoes (20 y.o. Sidi that are ready for another 20) but I do like the 'bumper' effect on the inevitable hits the pedals take on the rocks around here. http://bike.shimano.com/content/sac-bike/en/home/mtb1/pedals/pedals/pd-m8020.html

PD-M8020_940x400_v1_m56577569830940306.png.swimg.detail.png


!) I'm really happy with the way my 5010c came equipped. The rubber is Maxxis Minion and Attack(?) in 2.35". I'm contemplating increasing the front a bit. I need to be careful with increasing the back. I don't think it will take more than 2.5" but I'm not at that point yet. The enhanced grip from running them at 22# front and back over what the Sugar provided at about 28# (w/tubes) is really letting me rip or at least encouraging to. I'm still in speed up mode and fighting demons from falling.

4) Is there a way to obtain your current lat/lon in REI's MTB Project app?​

I'm hoping to ride again today, I'm packing in the rides now that I'm able.

Tomorrow I go sailing and Sunday a Poker Run near Fairplay. New terrain! :)
 

Ron

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I'm really happy with the way my 5010c came equipped. The rubber is Maxxis Minion and Attack(?) in 2.35". I'm contemplating increasing the front a bit. I

Which Minion? my guess is a DHF or DHR? Could that Attack be an Aggressor? What is your internal rim width? I ask because Maxxis (and others) make tires that are designed specifically for rims wider than 30mm internal. Just be careful to buy the correct tires. I really liked the DHF but found it to be quite heavy and draggy for the mostly hardpack trails up here. If your trails are mostly HP, an Aggressor could be a bit much too.

Maxxis is coming out with a bunch of new tires/sizes for next season.
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
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In the past month or so, I have. I'm looking forward to riding some tacky trails (it POURED last night!) which always help me gain some confidence. :)

No doubt! But um. Perhaps you have crossed into the intermediate threshold where it's not reasonable to expect improvement every month ...

4) Is there a way to obtain your current lat/lon in REI's MTB Project app?

You mean the actual numbers, as opposed to just finding yourself on the map? Paging @RachelV .....
 

RachelV

I run TheSkiDiva.com and work at OpenSnow.
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You mean the actual numbers, as opposed to just finding yourself on the map? Paging @RachelV .....

No way to get the lat / lon out of the app currently. :-/ It is something people occasionally ask for, so basically as soon as we figure out a way to make it available without adding unnecessary clutter / confusion, it'll be there. Open to suggestions if you've got them. :)
 

luliski

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No doubt! But um. Perhaps you have crossed into the intermediate threshold where it's not reasonable to expect improvement every month ...



You mean the actual numbers, as opposed to just finding yourself on the map? Paging @RachelV .....
I haven't figured out how to find myself on the map! That would be useful.
 

Doug Briggs

"Douche Bag Local"
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You mean the actual numbers, as opposed to just finding yourself on the map? Paging @RachelV .....

Actual Lat/Lon.

No way to get the lat / lon out of the app currently. :-/ It is something people occasionally ask for, so basically as soon as we figure out a way to make it available without adding unnecessary clutter / confusion, it'll be there. Open to suggestions if you've got them. :)

Maybe just 'Your current position is: lat/lon' on the About page. It is 'about' where you are. ;-) I realize real estate in the app is limited. Maybe just another catch all menu for 'Other'. I don't know what else you might put there besides lat/lon, but I'll bet there are things that people could use.

I took a first aid course and there was not predictable way for anyone to get lat/lon on the mix of apps and devices. I can get it from GPS Essentials, but you have to set up your dashboard accordingly which if you haven't done it prior to needing it, you are wasting time in an emergency. The following snapshot is the GPS Essentials app with lat/lon set up on the dashboard.

Screenshot_2017-09-15-09-57-16.png


While I have your ear, I have a difficult time reading the trail names. When I zoom in they always revert to tiny lettering. If after a certain amount of zoom the text could grow in size accordingly, that would help my old eyes. Or if there could be a setting for font size on the maps, that would work, too. Huh. I just looked and it appears I can read the text in my office, but when I'm on the trail, I have more difficulty. Could be glare, dust in the eyes. Who knows.
 

Doug Briggs

"Douche Bag Local"
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Which Minion? my guess is a DHF or DHR? Could that Attack be an Aggressor? What is your internal rim width? I ask because Maxxis (and others) make tires that are designed specifically for rims wider than 30mm internal. Just be careful to buy the correct tires. I really liked the DHF but found it to be quite heavy and draggy for the mostly hardpack trails up here. If your trails are mostly HP, an Aggressor could be a bit much too.

Maxxis is coming out with a bunch of new tires/sizes for next season.

27.5" Minion DHF front. Ardent Race rear. RaceFace AR24 rims. Is the 24 in AR24 the internal width in mm?
 

Ron

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not sure couldn't find much info on those. did you check the Santa Cruz website? I would guess they are 24, I can't think of any new bike coming with a 21mm internal rim. I am still an advocate of at least 30-35
 
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Monique

bounceswoosh
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I haven't figured out how to find myself on the map! That would be useful.

There's a triangle/pointy looking thing at the top right of MTBProject. You just touch it. Now, in my experience on my phone, it first orients itself to some completely random place. But then I click it again, and it finds me extremely accurately.
 

Monique

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Speaking of technical difficulties, my Garmin Vivoactive really sucks at altitude. It gets the delta right, I think, but ... it recorded my altitude at Heil as being between 9k and 10k ft. In real life (according to MTBProject) it's closer to 5.8k to 6.5k. Turning on elevation corrections does zip.
 

Monique

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I wanted to ride Wild Turkey today (eep, it's now become yesterday ...). Unfortunately, riding Wild Turkey requires climbing from either the Heil side or the Picture Rock side - you can't just teleport to the loop. I've found myself dreading the climbing part that inevitably precedes all the fun stuff. It's not the climbing, per se - it's the way my heart rate shoots up and my breathing becomes ragged and I have to stop right after every climb segment, wondering if humans were ever meant to breathe this hard. Anyway, I chose Heil.

An interesting thing happened. I didn't feel so bad. I glanced at the heart rate on my watch. Now, there are a lot of potential reasons for a watch HR monitor to be off, but it was reading a lot lower than usual. And that's when I realized I didn't actually feel like death was nigh. And that I was looking for a place to stop out of habit, not out of need.

I think my riding, little as it was, in Breck must have put my circulatory system on notice. But also - I started using granny gear a *lot* more.

On my old bike, I avoided granny gear. One, my old bike's granny was extremely temperamental, no matter how many times you thought you'd fine tuned it. Two, going up a gear or two made the bike feel less twitchy.

Well, on my new bike, I can shift into the dinner plate without any muss or fuss or weird noises. And too many times, I've realized after an exhausting climb that I was actually in third or fourth gear when I'd meant to maybe be in second. I can't make that mistake if I'm in granny, because I can feel the end of the shifting range when I get there. And I was solo today, so I didn't feel any pressure to hurry. And I also realized that if I didn't have to stop as often, pedaling in granny might actually be faster overall. It also reduces stress on my knee (saving more for the downhill!), and as for stability - well, yeah, the bike does feel twitchier in granny gear, but I'm pretty good at maneuvering at low speeds. I mean, that's all I ever do. I realized, riding along today, that my riding style is pretty similar to the videos I've seen of 4x4 vehicles slowly crawling over rocks, picking the exact route inch by inch.

So I stuck to granny gear on everything that even vaguely resembled an uphill section, and I didn't stress about how fast I was going, and I'm sure I stopped a lot less than I usually do. I also rode some sections I hadn't cleared before - to be honest, didn't really try in the past.

I sessioned one particular uphill section that I'd never even tried. I would jump off my bike at the bottom and just walk. But this time, I thought, well, let's just *look*. So I put down my bike and looked. I found the line - the one that deviated as little as possible from straight, which in this case still required some precise maneuvering. You can't just ride straight up it.

I made eight attempts. I think it was the fourth one that was most successful - I got past all the rocks, but had no energy left for the last tiny lip of dirt. I hoped to session it until I made it, but at some point I realized I was just getting worse. A goal for another day.

Interestingly, I talked to a guy who thought that you absolutely had to lift your front wheel to get through it. "Um - well, no, there's a line where you don't have to lift the wheel. I know, because I got up it till that lip, and I never lifted my wheel." He looked doubtful.

The cool thing is that on the way back, I decided at a particular intersection that I would get back to the car by the 3 hour mark (I apparently spent 25 minutes chatting at the top - oops). That gave me just under 9 minutes. I forgot that the technical section was in the way. In the past, I've walked it downhill as often as I've ridden it - all those pointy rocks! This time, well, I'd committed to going as fast as I could go. And I figured if I could ride it uphill (well, mostly), there was really no excuse not to ride it downhill. I didn't quite reach my goal. When I stopped at my car, I was 9 seconds late. I had one close call where my rear tire lost traction on some pointy rocks and I was sure I would endo spectacularly, but I managed to get back in balance and keep going. Biking is a series of linked recoveries, right?


TL;DR - I still love my bike!

20170915_123316.jpg
 

AmyPJ

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Good for you, Monique! Granny gear is a real gift at times, for sure! It's funny, because in the clinic I was helping teach last weekend, I took up the rear and on the climbs, had to tell several ladies to "SHIFT DOWN!" "MORE! MORE!" They were just cranking away and DYING as a result. They were amazed at how low they could go and how SLOWLY they could go, and how EASY it became. These were women who were all new or fairly new to mountain biking, and probably also biking in general. It was really fun! I forgot to write about it. I enjoy teaching newbies, so much so that I'm tossing around getting a certification so I can do it more!
 

luliski

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IMG_4095.JPG

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Rode at Annadel in Sonoma County yesterday. It was my third time riding there. The first two times, I rode the same loop. Yesterday, we rode up a trail that we'd previously ridden down, and added a section of trail, the Marsh trail, that I'd never ridden before. We did an out and back, so I also got to ride down the Canyon trail again. The Canyon trail is wide, but full of loose rocks (smaller than baby heads, but bigger than gravel) with bigger protruding rocks to deal with also. It's not too steep, but it is a 2.25 mile climb. I generally enjoy climbing, but in mountain biking it's a little more tiring because of the focus involved in dealing with obstacles. I could also use one more lower gear (I have a 1X10). The Marsh trail is single-track, and was really fun. There were some very rocky loose sections, and some nice dirt sections in the trees that I enjoyed. I almost endoed on a switchback, but saved myself. When we were at the junction of Canyon and Marsh, and I had just decided that I would try the Marsh trail although I knew it to be more challenging, another rider told us about a woman being helicopter rescued out of there the week before. I was glad I decided to ride it anyway.
After the ride we stopped at Russian River for lunch and beer.
 

Monique

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You guys!! Climbing isn't so bad when you can actually breathe and you don't have an alien bursting out of your chest!!

And it's funny, because the ride started quite inauspiciously. I forgot to adjust the tire pressure for elevation before I rode; I forgot chapstick and ear buds. I'm' pretty sure even the Donner party would have turned around if faced with such deprivation. But I persisted, because I'm tough like that (but really because I was way too lazy to turn around after having already ridden half a mile).

Today I rode the loop that Doug showed me a while ago. With my newfound love of the granny gear, I also found a new focus - breath and heart rate. Instead of pedaling as hard as I could, I pedaled so that I could keep my heart rate down and breathe without making that rasping sound and turning purple. It turns out that when I do this, my riding speed is just a *smidge* lower - but the subjective experience is a ton less awful (dare I say even pleasant at times?). And when I stop, I'm not completely blown, so I get started again pretty quickly. Every rock or root doesn't become an excuse to catch my breath. And to my surprise - it seems like I'm clearing obstacles better, too! I suspect that my overall ride time is better this way, although there are too many variables to be sure. Heat really gets to me. It was downright chilly today.

So, here's where I think I went off the rails. It's this quote by Greg LeMond: "It doesn't get any easier; you just get faster."

I'm pretty sure that years ago, this got hardwired into my brain as: "Climbing is painful. If you gut out the pain for long enough, you'll at least get faster." Combine this with insecurity about my (lack of) speed, and there you go. Push push push push and ignore the burning in your lungs and the fact that your throat is actually sore the next day from breathing so hard.

I don't think Mr. LeMond's comment was meant to apply to overweight intermediate (plus-ish?) recreational riders. Certainly I should never have taken it to heart. I've dreaded climbs pretty much forever because they hurt so much and I get so frustrated. And I feel like I should be trying to go as fast as possible, so I shift into a taller gear to go faster. But then I stop because I can't get enough air and my heart is hammering, and as soon as my heart rate goes down a little, I start riding again and I'm right back where I was.

So. This ride. It was fantastic. I was "on." The rocks and roots are all much smaller than they were a few months ago ;-) That is to say, I rode a ton of stuff I didn't even attempt last time. Sure, there was stuff I didn't manage, but now that I think back, I think there was only one spot I intentionally walked. I had remembered a particular root-y climb that seemed crazy difficult, and I had been proud of myself for riding up it. I couldn't even identify it today - nothing looked as burly as I remembered. Last time, I had intentionally walked a lot of the last part of Turk's - today I tried everything and cleaned all but one little obstacle. And I remembered Barney Ford to V3 as being beastly. I had walked a lot. This time it was fun and extremely rideable!

So the last part of the climb is one mile on Sallie Barber, a fire road with a very gradual railroad-type grade. Last time, I was killing myself trying to get up it, and even granny felt miserable. If I'm reading my data correctly, I stopped six times, and each one of them, I was gasping for breath. This time - I rode up the whole thing without stopping. It was kind of hard not to stop out of habit, just because I'd been pedaling longer than usual without stopping.

I'm sure fitness played in, as did the temperature. It was chilly enough that I wore my elbow and shin guards as well as my full finger gloves, and it never felt warm. Still, though. I think the granny is magic.

TL;DR - great ride!

Just an example of all the rock to be found near Breck. A reminder of its mining town origins. I am highly motivated to avoid falling into a pit of rocks, which is what could have happened if I'd tipped over on parts of Turk's.
20170916_154825.jpg


Cool view at my last stop before spinning my way up to the Sallie Barber mine. Of course it looked more impressive in person. Note all the loose rock in the foreground.
20170916_155444.jpg
 

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Monique

bounceswoosh
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I just went digging around for more bike-related quotes, and I found this, which heartens me:

bike_couch_quote.jpg
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
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I wanted to ride Blair Witch twice today, but I also wanted to avoid the no-good, very-bad loose rock climb that's part of the approach from Breckenridge. It's short, but annoying and demoralizing. And anyway, I wanted to check out more of the trail system.

No-good, very-bad loose rock climb (to right of picture. The rock formation to the left just looked cool). I keep getting stuck on this bastard in probably the bottom quarter of this admittedly short climb. Okay, and it's not even that loose. I don't know what it is, but I can't get up it! -

20170917_160434.jpg



After poring over maps, I chose Blair Witch -> Colorado Trail -> Hippo -> Soda Creek -> Hay Trail, which gets you back to the start of Blair Witch. And I liked it!

I also am mastering that log feature. The first lap of Blair Witch, I again put down my bike and took a good look before committing. In the last couple of days, someone had come along and made the back side much mellower! Interesting. Perhaps intended to make it easier if you coming from the other direction. I rode it just fine - and on the second lap, I didn't stop at all, just rode it. Pretty much I'm a rock star. Well, that's how I felt.

So. If you turn left at the "T" where Blair Witch ends, you're on a portion of the Colorado Trail. This portion begins to feature a climb with wooden water bar stair steps, but they're all surprisingly rideable without any wheel lift at all. Nevertheless, you might get heartily sick of them and be very happy to see a barely-there track leading off to the right. And it's actually marked "Hippo"!

One of the things that had intrigued me about Hippo, aside from the name, was that the trail segment showed as uphill on MTBProject. Looking at the map and topo, this seemed wrong to me. It was also described as badly eroded and in need of trail work (in 2014), and I was curious to see what "badly eroded" meant.

Here's what I found. A mile of steep singletrack, so narrow that in places the corridor between shrubs was less than hip width. A steep section immediately at the start, and a couple of steepish sections later. One small root drop. Not perfect buff trail, but perfectly rideable. Clearly not much used, because in places the trail was actually grassy. I felt like it was my own private playground. And no, I would not have enjoyed it as a climb - too loose and too steep.

Hippo singletrack:
20170917_164459.jpg


Hippo intersects with Soda Creek, so I took it and rode past the Horseshoe Gulch climb that would have been the most obvious route back to Blair Witch. MTBProject suggested that it would be a miserable loose slog of a climb, and I suspected they were right. Instead, I kept riding along Soda Creek and chose Hay Trail, which at least was marked green and thus, I figured, wouldn't be too rough technically as I slogged back uphill.

View from Soda Creek, just before Hay Trail intersection:
20170917_165249.jpg


And indeed, Hay Trail was a good choice for me. It again wasn't exactly buff trail, but the small rocks didn't impede traction. Sit and spin in granny the whole way, although I did take a couple of quick breaks. The views weren't bad - alternating tree-lined corridors and meadows. A perfectly acceptable way to get back up to the trail I really wanted to ride. And right about when I was ready for this one mile steady climb (except for one dip for a creek crossing) to be over, I reached the intersection. Success!

And then I rode Blair Witch, and I didn't stop at that one spot I always stop before that one climb, and I rode right over that log feature like it wasn't even there, and then I rode down the rest of the way and got to the car and I was a very happy camper.



The End.
 

luliski

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Thanks for the ride report @Monique! Sounds like you're having fun and making some breakthroughs. I had to work all weekend, so it's good to hear about and see pics of other people's rides. Can't wait to get on my bike again!
 

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