Mountain bike riders?

[AZMark]

Aight folks......How cold will you ride down to?

I used to ride the death machine well into the low 30's. I have to think the Mt Bike isn't going to be as cold since the speeds are lower in general. Opportunity to get wet is greater (as I've since proven), but otherwise are there any downsides to biking down around freezing?

I have all the cold weather gear already. SOcks, Toe Covers, Leg Warmers, Insulated Shorts, Thermal shirts, windproof jacket, full finger gloves and windproof/lined Balaclava to go under the helmet.........I'm not missing something with MtBiking am I?

I love riding in cold and rain but my cold is different than your cold.

I’ve done high 20s with frozen puddles on the ground and the only thing really bothering me was my hands. A buddy had a latex gloves that I put under my regular riding gloves and that made a huge difference. I guess he learned it riding motorcycles in cold weather.

I would wear layers for sure, I think you’ll strip off half or more of your list there fairly quickly.

 

[tabbibus]

I've ridden in the 20s. You warm up pretty quick. Layers layers layers

 

[AZMark]

Any advice on donating an old bike that was good in its day? I have an old freeride bike that I’m never going to ride but I don’t want to just dump it at goodwill and see some tweaker riding it on my way to work.

It’s a 2006 iron horse and was $4500 new and can still tear up a mountain and enormous drops.

Maybe just give it to a local bike shop?

 

[tabbibus]

Talk to a bike shop. they may be able to donate it to some charity

 

[CanTex]

I donated my old bike to a teenage kid who was actively riding the trails on an entry level Walmart bike.

 

[mrmeaniemeateaterman]

See if your area has a local NICA mtb team. They are always looking for bikes to help new riders out. One of the biggest obstacles to getting kids out on trails and riding is the cost of the bike.

NICA Leagues - NICA

NICA Leagues Leagues fulfill NICA's mission at the regional level, improving the lives of teens and positively impacting communities by providing a high-quality, safe and fun interscholastic mountain bike program based on the principles of strong body, strong mind, strong character, equity, and...

www.nationalmtb.org

 

[AZMark]

I donated my old bike to a teenage kid who was actively riding the trails on an entry level Walmart bike.

That’s exactly the kind of person I want it to go to.

 

[2kwik4u]

Got the rack on Audi this weekend. So far it's worked excellent. Drove it around yesterday with just the bars on it. All the way up to well into the triple digit speed range they are nice and quiet. I'm really pleased with how quiet they are. Look nice just by themselves.





Them today I got one of the 1UP trays on there. I need to adjust the location but otherwise it works just as expected. It's a seriously strong built unit and held the Mt Bike well. It has a bit of "wobble" to the bike even up to ~70mph or so, but the bike remained secure and I never felt like it was going to fall. It's definitely a long reach up there to secure it. Had to become stretch Armstrong in the parking lot at the park. Couldn't get the door open all the way to stand on the sill because someone parked right next to me. Rack is dead simple to use and looks sharp. Bonus points for not touching anything but the tires. Should also fit my death machine without any changes as well.

Bike looks a little absurd up there though.


Hoping the 1UP will remain quiet in the down position. I'll know after the drive in tomorrow morning!

**edit**
Drive in this morning shows no noticeable increase in wind noise from the 1UP tray. I usually get ~23mpg on the commute if I set the cruise at 70. Got 22.8 this morning, so I'm guessing not a huge impact on mileage either. Really happy so far with the lack of noise, and overall look of the setup. I'll snap some pics of the tray folded down at lunchtime today.
**/edit**

Overall, I'm gonna call the rack setup a win. Sadly the ride sucked. Took my buddy with me that is just learning. He doesn't know how to shift well yet and was really hammering on the pedals and trying to downshift at the same time.....broke the chain. I'm gonna have to work with him on how to avoid that. We might have a mountain biking 101 course for him before the next outing. Got about 1.4mi in, at a relatively low pace. Oh well, maybe next time....... I did get to test the new Fenix 6 watch though. WOW it collects some data..... I'll put that over in the smartwatch thread tomorrow when I'm near a PC.

 

[tabbibus]

This is as much shredding as I got in today

New video by Eduardo Egea

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[2kwik4u]

This is as much shredding as I got in today

New video by Eduardo Egea

photos.app.goo.gl

Gotta start em young!

 

[Julian]

Not a mountain bike.....but an impressive road bike (for those that know their bikes)....brand new 12 speed and electronic derailer.....

 

[mrmeaniemeateaterman]

@Julian I think it's just the camera angle but looks like a mini version of a road bike for some optical illusion reason. Yeah the electronic stuff is nice, hard to go back to mechanical shifting after you get used to barely touching the shifter buttons.

@2kwik4u interested in hearing about the Fenix 6, been eyeing one lately. Hopefully get some gift cards from Santa to ease the blow.

 

[2kwik4u]

@2kwik4u interested in hearing about the Fenix 6, been eyeing one lately. Hopefully get some gift cards from Santa to ease the blow.

I picked mine up on Black Friday for $550 (Fenix 6 Pro Solar) from the local bike shop. So far it's pretty awesome, although I just got it out of the box and configured on Friday night. I originally ordered a Black body/band and grey trim ring unit. However Garmin cancelled all those orders citing supply chain issues. Had to wait a week to hear the order was cancelled, then approve the grey body/band with black trim ring. It's still a fine looking watch, but not exactly what I wanted. That's what took so long for me to get my hands on it, and get it on my wrist.

In terms of Mountain Biking, the data it gives you back is amazing in it's depth. It's like a bicycle computer times 100. You get distance, speed, time, and other data like you normally get from a cyclocomputer, but you also get heart rate, breath rate, GPS position, and "grit" and "flow". Those last two are Garmin specific, and I'm not certain I can completely define them at this point. Something to do with how hard and often you push yourself for Grit, and how well you maintain a relatively consistent speed for Flow. I suppose I'll see some benefit here when comparing different course to each other over time. Not sure how else that would really help training at my level, although I can see pro's using it for comparison in picking up time on known competition courses.

Here's some of the data from my crappy little ride from Sunday:






I also downloaded the GPX route from mtbproject.com for this route ahead of time. Once you go into the activity section on the watch, you can menu over to "Courses", Then "Do Course" and chose from the GPX files you've uploaded (or recorded from other rides). The watch then gives you feedback while you're riding if you're on/off course, and some general directions on how to get back to it from where you are. It didn't really like that I started in the middle of the course instead of where the GPX said was the "start/end" of the loop, but it appeared to have figured it out on it's own pretty quickly. I probably won't use that on my "known" courses anymore, but I'll definitely have it setup for any new places I visit in case it's not well marked, or otherwise easy to get lost on.

Garmin has an ANT+ cadence sensor that I think I'm going to pick up. I was debating about putting a computer on the bike, and was holding off until I got this watch and was going to decide from there. I'm a bit of a data junky/nerd, and even just this tiny glipmse of the amount of information you can get out of a GPS device is somewhat intoxicating for me. I'm even considering dropping the computer off the death machine for this same reason. The old cyclocomputer both doesn't have the data, and then has to be manually tracked/entered. This all lives in the cloud, and is sync'd a few times a day with the phone. Literally the only thing I'm missing right now is cadence, which is arguably NOT important on the mountain bike, but is an important metric on the death machine and the indoor trainer. A single sensor covers me there, and I should be good to go.

I'll throw some more details on the "smartwatch" portion of the watch over in the other thread when I get a minute this afternoon or tonight. So far I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[AZMark]

I picked mine up on Black Friday for $550 (Fenix 6 Pro Solar) from the local bike shop. So far it's pretty awesome, although I just got it out of the box and configured on Friday night. I originally ordered a Black body/band and grey trim ring unit. However Garmin cancelled all those orders citing supply chain issues. Had to wait a week to hear the order was cancelled, then approve the grey body/band with black trim ring. It's still a fine looking watch, but not exactly what I wanted. That's what took so long for me to get my hands on it, and get it on my wrist.

In terms of Mountain Biking, the data it gives you back is amazing in it's depth. It's like a bicycle computer times 100. You get distance, speed, time, and other data like you normally get from a cyclocomputer, but you also get heart rate, breath rate, GPS position, and "grit" and "flow". Those last two are Garmin specific, and I'm not certain I can completely define them at this point. Something to do with how hard and often you push yourself for Grit, and how well you maintain a relatively consistent speed for Flow. I suppose I'll see some benefit here when comparing different course to each other over time. Not sure how else that would really help training at my level, although I can see pro's using it for comparison in picking up time on known competition courses.

Here's some of the data from my crappy little ride from Sunday:
View attachment 168262

View attachment 168263

View attachment 168264

I also downloaded the GPX route from mtbproject.com for this route ahead of time. Once you go into the activity section on the watch, you can menu over to "Courses", Then "Do Course" and chose from the GPX files you've uploaded (or recorded from other rides). The watch then gives you feedback while you're riding if you're on/off course, and some general directions on how to get back to it from where you are. It didn't really like that I started in the middle of the course instead of where the GPX said was the "start/end" of the loop, but it appeared to have figured it out on it's own pretty quickly. I probably won't use that on my "known" courses anymore, but I'll definitely have it setup for any new places I visit in case it's not well marked, or otherwise easy to get lost on.

Garmin has an ANT+ cadence sensor that I think I'm going to pick up. I was debating about putting a computer on the bike, and was holding off until I got this watch and was going to decide from there. I'm a bit of a data junky/nerd, and even just this tiny glipmse of the amount of information you can get out of a GPS device is somewhat intoxicating for me. I'm even considering dropping the computer off the death machine for this same reason. The old cyclocomputer both doesn't have the data, and then has to be manually tracked/entered. This all lives in the cloud, and is sync'd a few times a day with the phone. Literally the only thing I'm missing right now is cadence, which is arguably NOT important on the mountain bike, but is an important metric on the death machine and the indoor trainer. A single sensor covers me there, and I should be good to go.

I'll throw some more details on the "smartwatch" portion of the watch over in the other thread when I get a minute this afternoon or tonight. So far I'm pretty happy with it.

Yep, you’re definitely a road biker at heart

 

[mrmeaniemeateaterman]

Thanks @2kwik4u that's pretty cool and a lot of info. Maybe too much, I might need a hard hat and a road map to figure all that out. I just wanted something to keep track of my distance and make sure my heart rate stays in check in the process. Figured a watch would be easier to deal with then constantly moving a bike computer from bike to bike.

I can't bash anyone with a road biker at heart comment. I used to claim I was a mountain biker that just rode on the road for the conditioning. Part of that was I fought Zwift for years and bashed anyone who did it. However I have been eating a lot of crow on that lately. During a bought of cold weather recently, I borrowed a friends smart trainer and signed up for the free 7 day zwift trial. Well lets just say I'm enjoying it way more than I thought I would. Averaging 5-6hours per week (just indoors) for the last few weeks and getting stronger fast. Doing free rides, various training plans, did a virtual group ride yesterday (before going for an outdoor mtb ride) and the group ride kicked my butt in a good way. It's nice I can do a quick 30-60 min in the morning before going to work and/or do another 30-60 in the evening when it's dark outside. No cars to run me down or throw beer bottles at me, no worries about the weather, no texting drivers to be concerned about. I have since gone all in and bought a wheel off trainer, have dedicated a corner of the house to it with bike, fan, computer, ear pods, etc ready to go. I guess I officially have to turn in my hardcore, ride outside in any conditions, card now. Oh well, I'll save my outdoor riding for nice weather on the trails.

 

[Julian]

@Julian I think it's just the camera angle but looks like a mini version of a road bike for some optical illusion reason. Yeah the electronic stuff is nice, hard to go back to mechanical shifting after you get used to barely touching the shifter buttons.

@2kwik4u interested in hearing about the Fenix 6, been eyeing one lately. Hopefully get some gift cards from Santa to ease the blow.

I think its just the big fat guy on it! LOL. The frame is actually a little big for me (my brother is 6'3" I'm only 6'1"). The bike cost >$8k!!! Which is about $7500 more than I'd pay for a bike!!! LOL. His Canyon is even more expensive....its a hard core sprint bike....which means its less nice to ride on anything but super smooth surfaces.

 

[swatski]

I think its just the big fat guy on it! LOL. The frame is actually a little big for me (my brother is 6'3" I'm only 6'1"). The bike cost >$8k!!! Which is about $7500 more than I'd pay for a bike!!! LOL. His Canyon is even more expensive....its a hard core sprint bike....which means its less nice to ride on anything but super smooth surfaces.

Here is the un-edited picture of Julian riding his brother's pro-bike:

 

[2kwik4u]

Thanks @2kwik4u that's pretty cool and a lot of info. Maybe too much, I might need a hard hat and a road map to figure all that out. I just wanted something to keep track of my distance and make sure my heart rate stays in check in the process. Figured a watch would be easier to deal with then constantly moving a bike computer from bike to bike.

This will certainly do that, although it's probably not the least expensive option.

Here's the heart rate zone face that is available within a particular activity. It reads your heart rate real-time and has a large arrow that points towards the zone you're in. The zones are configurable through the app, so you can tune those to your particular fitness/situation.



If I was just riding the bike, I probably would have gone with something a little less expensive. I looked hard at the Fossil Gen 6, as well as some of the lower Garmins. The TicWatch Pro 3, and Amazfit GTR2 were also on my radar. Those last two are relatively inexpensive, but didn't offer the breadth of capability.

I'm hoping to cover road cycling (indoor and outdoor), mountain cycling, golf, boating, and fitness programs (like Beach Body or similar) through the apps on the watch. I also wanted some "light" smartwatch capabilities (music control and alerts), as well as a general health meter (sleep tracking, step counter, etc). The Fenix is pricey, but it does a LOT of stuff. Again, I'm a bit of a data nerd, so the hope is that some of this data will lead to some insights about my health under the premise of "That which is measured is managed", and the easier I can make it to measure something the more likely it will get done in an accurate and timely manner.

I can't bash anyone with a road biker at heart comment. I used to claim I was a mountain biker that just rode on the road for the conditioning. Part of that was I fought Zwift for years and bashed anyone who did it. However I have been eating a lot of crow on that lately. During a bought of cold weather recently, I borrowed a friends smart trainer and signed up for the free 7 day zwift trial. Well lets just say I'm enjoying it way more than I thought I would. Averaging 5-6hours per week (just indoors) for the last few weeks and getting stronger fast. Doing free rides, various training plans, did a virtual group ride yesterday (before going for an outdoor mtb ride) and the group ride kicked my butt in a good way. It's nice I can do a quick 30-60 min in the morning before going to work and/or do another 30-60 in the evening when it's dark outside. No cars to run me down or throw beer bottles at me, no worries about the weather, no texting drivers to be concerned about. I have since gone all in and bought a wheel off trainer, have dedicated a corner of the house to it with bike, fan, computer, ear pods, etc ready to go. I guess I officially have to turn in my hardcore, ride outside in any conditions, card now. Oh well, I'll save my outdoor riding for nice weather on the trails.

The trainer is an EXCELLENT way to do really structured workouts. About 15yrs ago I spent a shade over a year as a "gym rat", however I never lifted a single weight. I would spend 60-90min doing cardio every day. Typically Mon-Fri I was in the gym in a "class" at 5:30am. Spin class 3 days a week, treadmill the other two. Then Sat/Sun was the "morning rides". Sat was a strength ride. Sun was a century on a spin bike. These structured classes added SOOO much fitness to my cardio system that I have quite literally ridden their coat tails for a decade. It's only now that I'm starting to feel the need to get back to that level of exercise. I have significantly more demands on my time now, so that gym rat culture is going to be hard to attain, however one of my goals this year is to go an entire month where I at least TOUCH the bike every single day. Even if that's just a 5min spin on the rollers in the basement, I want to move, at that level, once a day again.......So far my longest streak is 4 days. I have some work to do.

Also, that story above is a testament to having what I call "accountabilibuddies". You get to know the people in the group rides. If you ride with a friend, it's always a race. If you setup a time to meet someone, even if you aren't feeling it, you'll probably still go. That support group, whether it's a live person you meet in public, or a virtual person you meet online is HUGE. IMO, this is one of those aspects of life where it's a GOOD idea to have an echo chamber of people around you, because it's usually really good vibes, good advice, and building every up.

Keep up that good work 5-6hrs a week is nothing to sneeze at, and currently, is WAY better than I'm doing!

 

[tkeru408]

@Julian I think it's just the camera angle but looks like a mini version of a road bike for some optical illusion reason. Yeah the electronic stuff is nice, hard to go back to mechanical shifting after you get used to barely touching the shifter buttons.

@2kwik4u interested in hearing about the Fenix 6, been eyeing one lately. Hopefully get some gift cards from Santa to ease the blow.

I've had my Fenix 6X PRO for a year now and absolutely love it. I had a Samsung Galaxy Watch before thinking that it would integrate better with my Samsung phone, but the truth is it didn't really. And Garmin plays much better with Strava than my Samsung watch ever did. The Fenix does about a hundred things more than I need it to, so I definitely could have gotten away with a less fancy/less expensive option. Workout, Run, Trail Run, MTB Ride are pretty much the only four features I need. The thing that drew me to the Fenix, though, was how darn good it looks! If you get one, I don't think you'll be disappointed! And they're a little better price these days than they were when I got mine last year...a Fenix 7 series is probably right around the corner.

 

[Mainah]

A few months into being a MTB guy and I am already on the fence with buying a new high end FS. The 2021 base model stumpy I got this year as my first FS is a decent bike but lacks in a few areas. The stock rear shock does not have a good response curve and bottoms out too easy. The stock front fork curve tapers off too fast on big stuff and is too squishy on small stuff. Not much adjustment to begin with and nothing I have tried from pressure to adjustments is fixing this. Add to that the entry level component group. Lastly and most importantly at 5’10” I have found the s4 size (about equivalent to a L 19”) is way too long a reach on this new school long and slack geometry for me.

Even if I step down a size I am likley to get a high degree bend back handle bar to resolve reach. I figure resolving reach along with angle will help reduce arm, wrist, hand, and elbow fatigue for me. I also figure that a top end longer travel shock/fork with help take the edge off drops and rads. I am looking to get something that is both more playful and longer travel. The more playful will come in the form of a smaller frame and perhaps even mullet. What I am trying to figure out is a top end Fox suspension worth it given I only ride once per week. I also read that a CF frame may help absorb some vibration. I am looking at a complete bike to upgrade everything and giving my current bike to my son (6’0” and a solid 182 lb athlete).

What I think I want quality wise resides in the $5k -$8k range. For that kind of dough and the motor does not get any better I am looking for real folks to weigh in if will make a material difference for a fairly hard charging once per week rider. Affordability is not an issue but don’t want to drop that much coin and be disappointed.

The key questions are
1. How material a difference does a top end suspension shock/fork make alone over entry level without going longer travel?

2. How much does longer travel rob playfulness in tight corners/maneuverers?

3. Was reach compromised (too long) to achieve long and slack wheelbase these days or is there some purpose to the reach being so long?

4. Am I expecting too much or being too picky?