Mountain biking, Cross, BMX, freestyle...

[gtmtnbiker]

Glad to see other bikers reporting to this thread. I still do a lot of biking but it's all on the roads these days. I hope to get back on the single tracks in the next few years as my daughters are getting older.

Before kids, I used to do a lot of off-road riding. In Massachusetts, my favorite area was the Fells in Winchester. We would meet at Sheepfold picnic area before or after work to ride for 1-2 hours. In NH, I would go riding in the woods/power lines around Derry. Mine Falls in Nashua, NH was another good spot. There are a bunch others that I don't remember anymore.

I have done the Killington Memorial Day Triathlon a few times. This involved skiing down Superstar which is all moguls (large vw beetle sized snow bumps) and then hopping on the bike to do 2 loops up & down the mountain (6 miles total) and then a 3 mile run. It is a lot of fun but tiring and the weather was usually perfect. The first time I did the race, I remember doing a flip over the handlebars when I hit this mud patch. Of course there was a photographer there taking pictures so I got a few action shots of me flipping over to take home.

A good friend of mine lived in Nashua, NH and we met at his house to go riding at Mine Falls which is some sort of park with trails. I have never gone there before. Anyway, he led our group of 4 from his house to the park. He led the way through the downtown area. We're all going at a good clip and turned down this parking area to go to Mine Falls. There was a large group of people walking through the lot. My friend goes around this group of people and then turn in front of them. I did the same but the last thing I heard was "Watch for the chain". You were supposed to turn and go through this opening sized for a person. Instead, I was flat on the ground after hitting the metal chain blocking access for cars. An ambulance took me to the hospital to get treatment for my upper left arm which was fractured. I had bruises from where the chain contacted my two arms and chest. Not fun.

Another time, we went riding at Stratton Mt, VT. You take a lift to the top with your bike and then go riding down from the top. I had one of those small packs that goes under your seat to hold tools/stuff. At the end of the ride, I discovered that the zipper was open and my car keys were no longer to be found. I had to call a locksmith to get a new key made. They had a big box of keys and kept trying one in the locks. After 45 mins, they had one that was close. He then took the key and adjusted it a bit more with his grinder. Voila, it opened! At $75, it was the most expensive spare key I ever had.

There was another time when 5 of us went riding at Loon Mt, NH. I usually did the driving because I had a Thule rack that held 2 bikes on top of the car and another rack that held 3-4 bikes on the back. We didn't take the lifts this time and instead, just rode the bike up/down and in the general area of the mountain. At the end of the day, we put the bikes on the car. Usually I always put my bike on the top of the car but this time, I put it on the back. For some reason (I don't remember why), I had to drive over to the parking garage to pick up someone. I heard a scrape and crash. Uh oh. I got out and the two bikes on top were on their sides. We checked the bikes out and they were fine. The racks on the other hand, were all twisted up. That was the first and only time where I forgot that I had bikes on top.

Another time, my friend was living in Lichtenstein for a year or two for work. I went to visit him for 4-5 days and packed my bike along. We did a lot of riding and also went skiing in the Alps. The first day I got there, we went to ride on a nearby mountain next to his apt. He put my bike in his car and drove about half way up. I started riding up this narrow trail to the top while he drove back to his apt. Not having ridden in this area before, my thighs were burning since it was one big continuous up hill. About an hour later, my friend caught up to me since he was obviously in much better shape than me. We make our way to the top, took in the scenery and then rode back down. There was snow at the top. You had to ride your brakes the entire way so you didn't go super fast and go over the side. Riding the brakes caused the rims to heat up which resulted in my friend getting a flat tire. Fortunately, we were pretty close to the bottom by then so that we could walk the rest of the way home.

That's all of the stories that I can think of. Mtn biking is a lot of run. I do not miss all of the scrapes, cuts, bruises I would inevitably get. I remember one ride where I brushed against some briar bushes. I still got scars from them on upper arm.

[BRIK]

I use to do a lot of riding when I was younger, there are lots of bush tracks around my house. But then I got into video games and it all went down hill from there...

[Ziggy]

Snapped a couple of quick shots of my new bike...

Seattle is great because there are several really beautiful bike trails. The Burke-Gilman trail runs alongside Lake Washington for many miles and the inter-urban trail alternates you between forested areas and urban environments. Those are the main trails I ride. Love it.

Sounds awesome, man. That's one thing that I definitely like about riding trails, it kinda doubles as a nature hike. And once you get deep into a forest, you can't hear any traffic or anything. It's really soothing. But if I had a dollar for every bug bite I got this summer.

I'll try to take a picture of my bike tomorrow (so everyone can laugh at it ) and post again.

I'll make a deal with you. Post a pic of your bike and I'll post a pic of my old bike. It'll make it look much better by comparison!

You had to ride your brakes the entire way so you didn't go super fast and go over the side. Riding the brakes caused the rims to heat up which resulted in my friend getting a flat tire.

LOL, that sucks man. Yeah, I totally don't miss rim brakes at all. Speaking of that though, I've been playing with fire. I haven't been carrying a spare tube and pump with me. I really need to get one.

[Hobie-wan]

So after graduating from a 20 inch banana seat bike in 7th grade, I had a really crappy Montgomery Ward cheapo skinny tire curves handlebar 10 speed. That got me out of the house and to D&D games with friends on weekends that it wasn't raining, which was great. When I went off to school in Florida I didn't take my bike with me. I became friends with a guy who did take his, but never rode it. I ended up borrowing it for about 6 solid months, then when the spring 95 semester started, he needed money for a motorcycle he wanted to buy, so I ended up buying the bike off him. This was when front shocks were still a pretty new thing, so the huge 2.1 inch wide tires and front suspension were a revelation compared to that old 10 speed I'd had. The bike was probably a year or 2 old at that point, and I've had it ever since. You can see how yellowed the (originally clear) plastic chain guard is on the rear wheel.



It is a Pacific Conqueror. Being older, it is pretty heavy, but I'm used to it. I have had to replace bits of it over the years though.

As mentioned, my routes at school often took me to beaches, so occasionally on windy days I'd get sand blown up in the works. I started disassembling, cleaning, and regreasing bits on a regular basis but I got a load of sand in the crank and I actually managed to shatter some of the bearings. So its first upgrade was to a self enclosed crankshaft cartridge. Second bit was a new rear wheel after I thought I'd be cool and ride down some steps. The actual trip down the steps went fine, but when I stopped at the bottom the back end bounced and swung sideways, turning the rear into a slight taco. Unfortunately I forgot to retrieve my reflector, so the rear has none.

Both tires are amazingly still the 17+ year old originals, though I did have a 1 inch glass spike go through my rear tire so it has a patch inside so I don't fill it up with water. I replaced the rubber boots on the shocks as one had gotten torn after some rides in the sticks.The pedals were originally plastic and the bearings also got chewed up by sand, so I have some aluminum ones with some rather evil teeth on them. Something must have gotten on my grips at some point because they started melting, for lack of a better word. They were all gooey and would stick to my gloves.

I finally got a new gel seat just over a month ago. The original was pretty tough on the gonads and I'm not sure how I managed all this time with it. I do need to get some new bike shorts though as the elastic went on my old ones. I want to get the ones that look like normal baggy shorts instead of being a spandex jerk this time though.

I really miss the rides at school. One of the beaches had a little walking trail in the woods next to it and I'd always hit that while I was there. The unofficial trail bit that people had added was awesome with a spot where 2 trees made a V that you could barely squeeze through and several branches you had to duck to barely scrape under. Simple 'I just barely squeezed through that at normal biking speed' along with the twists and turns made it really fun.

[boltfanSD]

Always fun to see what people are riding, anyway here's mine:



Iron Horse Sachem 4.0. Got it about a year ago and love it, great purchase if you're on a budget. Coming from an old hardtail the confidence boost that comes from full suspension and disc brakes is amazing when bombing downhill. It's a bit heavy for climbing but not too bad, and totally worth it on the way down.

Speaking of that though, I've been playing with fire. I haven't been carrying a spare tube and pump with me. I really need to get one.

Ha, I really should get around to that as well. I haven't got a flat out on the trail yet, but its only a matter of time...

[Ziggy]

Yeah, I really don't wanna walk my bike ~5 miles out of the trail. That would suck. That's a pretty sweet looking bike. I looked on the Iron Horse website briefly while shopping for a bike, but none of the shops around here carry them. Maybe one day I'll get a full suspension, but I think I should stick with a hardtail right now. A lot of times I'll ride the road to the trail, the full suspension can get annoying on pavement.


I love looking at other peoples bikes. Keep the pics coming!

It is a Pacific Conqueror.

As promised, here's the bike I just upgraded from...




This thing was as horrible to ride as it is to look at. The full suspension is just for looks, that rear suspension doesn't do ANYTHING. The bike would have been stronger and probably lighter with out it, and I'm sure it would have cost a little less to produce. The front suspension was more of a spring then anything else. And it wasn't adjustable. Long climbs up hill weren't fun with it.

It has "Shimano" parts on it, but I doubt that they're real. I think they're cheaply made with a Shimano sticker as a selling point. It has front disc brakes that actually work great, but it has rear V rim brakes that work horribly. There were some downhills where I'd have the rear brake clamped down and it did nothing to my speed lol. Also, I bent the rear rim on the Bell Mead trail which put the brakes all out of whack. The left crank snagged the brake cable with every turn, SO annoying! I wasn't about to spend a dime on this bike though.

The grip shifters are horrible. I'd have to switch gears for a steep climb on the spot but it'd end up messing me up because it slips so much. When it doesn't slip, it snaps so hard to the next gear that it'll send my foot flying off the pedal more often than not. I couldn't even engage my third crank gear. But a lot of this is probably because the bike was built by a Wal Mart employee (ignoring its horrible design for a moment). I can go on all day about why this bike sucks. Even if I got it all fixed up to the best of it's ability, it still falls short. It's just not easy to ride at all. It feels awkward.

So yeah, my new Trail 5 feels like a god of a bike to me . I might swap out the pedals if I don't get use to them, and I'm probably gonna have to switch to a more aggressive tire. It came with some kind of hybrid tread, I'm not a fan. It feels smooth on the road, but I already felt it slip out a little on the trail. I weighed both bikes today. The Cannondale is about 8 pounds lighter than the Next. That's pretty significant when riding.

[Ziggy]

Now that I got myself thinking about it, I'm missing riding BMX more and more. Don't get me wrong, I love riding a mountain bike through trails, but I would love to get back on a BMX bike some time. There's a BMX track about 5 minutes (driving distance) from my house, it's where I did it when I was younger. I'm not sure if I would want to register and race, but I really wanna just ride the track. I think they have free ride sessions from time to time, where unregistered people can ride the track (though I think they charge admission). I don't have a BMX bike anymore though, and I just bought the Cannondale, I wouldn't wanna drop more money on another bike so soon. I need some time to enjoy my new one anyway. BMX bikes are cheap compared to mountain bikes though (a lot less parts). I'm thinking about getting one maybe next season.


Any one here do BMX, or in the past?

[Ziggy]

Finally did the entire east side of the Rocky Point trails.

http://climbonline.org/pdf/rocky_point_color.pdf

A lot of times, I only get to go out at about 6pm to ride, so not a lot of daylight left. I'll just do the West Side Loop. I'll do the loop and bail out where it crosses Rocky Point Road, then ride the road back to the parking lot. The map says West Side Loop is about 4 miles, so I figure the trail outside the loop plus the road back to the parking lot probably makes it about 5 miles. I clocked the last time I did that to be about 40-45 minutes, but that includes a 5-10 minute break I take at "West Side High Point". Not bad for a pack-a-day smoker. Riding again has me wanting to quit.

So today I got out of work nice and early, and my brother (who I usually ride with) was off so we decided to do the east side. I did about half of that side once before (entered from a fire road off Wading River Hollow Road) and it was pretty fun, so I've been wanting to do it again. We parked down by West Side (which is the real start to the trail) and went in there. We bypassed the West Side loop though. So other then the West Side loop, I did the entire trail, including all the diamond loops, minus the boring family trails (which you can't really get on from the real main loop anyway). The map says the main trail is about 13 miles, so I figure it's at least 14 with all the diamond loops (not counting West Side).

The trail can get pretty intense. There's a decent amount of uphill, but it wasn't too bad. The downhill parts were actually worse. Some of them are just crazy drops with nasty sand pits. For whatever dumb reason, my bike didn't come with very aggressive tires. I lost traction a lot trying to make it up some of the hills with a lot of sand. Down hill was slightly worse because you'll land in a sand pit and almost wipe out, and some times you'll be flying downhill but there's turns and stuff. Pretty nuts. But all in all it was a lot of fun. A lot of jumps and stuff. There was this one downhill section that had jumps on it, I went flying off the last jump and I didn't even pull up.

[Hobie-wan]

I've been adding a little more on my weekly ride each time. I think last week was in the 5-6 mile range. Of course mine is flat except for the little up and down on the pass under the road in a few places.

[Hobie-wan]

This guy looks just off kilter enough to be a fun guy to be around. Oh, and funny good video about locking up bikes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryY-qMFL ... r_embedded