Mountain bike riders?

[tkeru408]

Just be careful with the roof rack. I refuse to ever own one--I know too many people that have crunched their bike into something when they forgot it was up there. You'd think you'd remember, but it's so easy to forget when driving into the garage, going through the bank line, etc.

 

[PBear]

Just be careful with the roof rack. I refuse to ever own one--I know too many people that have crunched their bike into something when they forgot it was up there. You'd think you'd remember, but it's so easy to forget when driving into the garage, going through the bank line, etc.

Been there, done that, have the trophy..

Had the kids bikes on top of the mini van and drove straight into the garage after a long weekend away! After that, I always put a trash can just inside the garage door to remind me.

 

[2kwik4u]

Just be careful with the roof rack. I refuse to ever own one--I know too many people that have crunched their bike into something when they forgot it was up there. You'd think you'd remember, but it's so easy to forget when driving into the garage, going through the bank line, etc.

Yea, I get that. Had one on my Focus and my A4. Never an issue there, but they were pretty low.



Good friend did about $2,500 of damage to his rack/Golf/Bike when he drove into the garage with his Soma Smoothie up top. Pulled the bike and rack off the top of the car, busted the rear windows on the car, and broke the bars on the bike. House had a small nick in the brick header, but was otherwise unscathed.

 

[AZMark]

Awesome. Gonna piece togethor a roof rack, and probably pick up one or two of these.

Need to hold (3) bicycles right now (3yr old is still in a trailer), and will eventually need to hold 4. Hitch racks at that level are either expensive for a tray style, or sketchy looking on quality. Would hate to spend thousands on the bikes, then cheap out on a way to carry them.

When you spend thousands your bike weighs about 25 lbs. I’ve never understood the need for high end racks.
I use a flat rack that cost me $100 and it’s been going strong for 10 years.

edit: holy shiz that $100 rack is now 250. Yikes. I sure hope this “transitory” inflation transits on out of here soon.

 

[jawsf16]

Pro tip - if you use a roof rack for anything, put something big in the way of your garage spot as you leave. More than once, it immediately reminded me NOT to pull in!!

 

[BenjaminF]

We're a mountain biker family and we were thinking about going to Spider Mountain in Burnet, TX and bringing the boat as they have lodges and boat slips. Pretty cool. So how would you transport your 4 bikes plus the boat. I usually do either or but not both at the same time. I have a Kuat 4 bike rack mounted on my hitch.

 

[tabbibus]

We're a mountain biker family and we were thinking about going to Spider Mountain in Burnet, TX and bringing the boat as they have lodges and boat slips. Pretty cool. So how would you transport your 4 bikes plus the boat. I usually do either or but not both at the same time. I have a Kuat 4 bike rack mounted on my hitch. View attachment 164950View attachment 164951

Tailgate pad?

Or look at the sea sucker bomber rack.

 

[AZMark]

Ya, truck bed or go all Beverly hillbillies and toss em in the boat.

 

[2kwik4u]

We're a mountain biker family and we were thinking about going to Spider Mountain in Burnet, TX and bringing the boat as they have lodges and boat slips. Pretty cool. So how would you transport your 4 bikes plus the boat. I usually do either or but not both at the same time. I have a Kuat 4 bike rack mounted on my hitch. View attachment 164950View attachment 164951

When I had a pickup, I was going to put a rack over the bed. Keep the bikes lower than on the roof, and behind the cab, but out of the bed, above the bed cover, and off the hitch.

I also had delusions of putting a roof top tent over the bed as well that never materialized.

That Kuat rack is nice, it'll probably cover the cost of a Yakima/Thule setup over the bed.

 

[2kwik4u]

w00t w00t.....New Bike Day.

Talked the guy down to $700. Has a few cosmetic scratches, but is otherwise in good condition. Has a riser bar and fancy grips. Confirmed the 29in wheels, 100mm travel air fork, and the large frame size. Guy selling it was also 6'2" tall and the seat height is already about right.

Need to adjust a few things. Shifter is a scosche slack and doesn't downshift as crisply as I would expect. Brake levers need to be rotated down a bit to relax my wrist angle. Also rides more "twitchy" than I expected from the giant wheels on it. I'm sure I'll get used to that though.

Terrible picture but I was short on time. I'll get her cleaned up and get some proper pics.

 

[Mainah]

Hit some single tracks out in VA this weekend. Many more features (more numerous) in the blues than I am use to locally and a lot of fun.

Good story to follow. Got stuck in some rain on the way back to the parking lot and realized my watch was not on my wrist. Find my app says 2.5 miles away on a trail we had been on (I should have checked what the last update time was given the crappy cell reception where we were). Wet and a bit tired we head that way. About half way there check the location again and now 7 miles away. My phone rings and it is my wife asking if I am ok. Guy found my watch in the middle of the trail in the rain. He figured out how to pull up the emergency info once back at this house (press and hold power button on apple watch). He then called my wife. He is at his house already close by and hanging on to it for me. I got it back in great shape minus the reason it snapped off my wrist attacking some small drops and medium rollers.

Two tips here. Don’t use smartwatch bands with tension pins when mountain biking. Do enter your emergency info in apps made for that as this could save your life or at least reunite you with a lost device. I also wear a road id.

Good karma to all.

 

[AZMark]

w00t w00t.....New Bike Day.

Talked the guy down to $700. Has a few cosmetic scratches, but is otherwise in good condition. Has a riser bar and fancy grips. Confirmed the 29in wheels, 100mm travel air fork, and the large frame size. Guy selling it was also 6'2" tall and the seat height is already about right.

Need to adjust a few things. Shifter is a scosche slack and doesn't downshift as crisply as I would expect. Brake levers need to be rotated down a bit to relax my wrist angle. Also rides more "twitchy" than I expected from the giant wheels on it. I'm sure I'll get used to that though.

Terrible picture but I was short on time. I'll get her cleaned up and get some proper pics.

View attachment 165145

Hard to tell from the angle but the stem looks short for a cross country bike. That will make it twitchy.

 

[tabbibus]

w00t w00t.....New Bike Day.

Talked the guy down to $700. Has a few cosmetic scratches, but is otherwise in good condition. Has a riser bar and fancy grips. Confirmed the 29in wheels, 100mm travel air fork, and the large frame size. Guy selling it was also 6'2" tall and the seat height is already about right.

Need to adjust a few things. Shifter is a scosche slack and doesn't downshift as crisply as I would expect. Brake levers need to be rotated down a bit to relax my wrist angle. Also rides more "twitchy" than I expected from the giant wheels on it. I'm sure I'll get used to that though.

Terrible picture but I was short on time. I'll get her cleaned up and get some proper pics.

View attachment 165145

My favorite holiday. New bike day

 

[2kwik4u]

Hard to tell from the angle but the stem looks short for a cross country bike. That will make it twitchy.

I've got a couple other stems sitting around. If they fit I might try another one. Thanks for the tip!

 

[2kwik4u]

Rode the bike around the neighborhood last night. Have a few issues to address.

• Headset is loose and "clicks" when coming on/off the front brakes. I'm betting the guy didn't put it back together in the right order when he replaced the bars. I'll tear into it this weekend and inspect/check.
• Rear tire is out of true. Has a slight wobble to it. I'm guessing it's from riding in the bed of his truck laying on it's side, and not from a crash, but hard to sell honestly. Can't find any signs of a crash anyway.
• Rear derailleur needs to be adjusted. Doesn't upshift quite as crisply as I would expect. Might just be this groupset and how it works. I've been riding a Dura-Ace/Ultegra groupset on the road for over 15yrs now, so I might be biased in the wrong direction here.
• I need "things". Bike computer, water bottle cages, SPD pedals. I've forgotten how much "stuff" there is to add to a bike once you get it to make it your own.
• I need to fit the bike to me. I adjusted the seat a bit, but I need to move the grips/brakes/shifters around a bit to really suit my body size and shape. No matter where I put the seat last night it felt like the cranks were REALLY short. I think they're 165mm cranks, and my rode bike is a 172.5mm. Wouldn't have thought the small difference there (7.5mm or .3in) would have been noticeable.

Overall its an interesting feel to it. The handlebars are WIDE compared to my road bike. The tires are humongonamous width at 2.4in. I'm used to 23mm (just under 1in) tires, and these things just look and feel weird. I did ride through the new second of the subdivision that is just being graded with gravel and dirt hills and such. It just rode around like it was nothing, because, well, that's what it's supposed to do. Felt odd to be purposefully riding it off road, gonna take awhile to squash the inner roadie tendencies I have.

Only real complaint right now is that the damn thing is so big I can't fit it in the car in one piece. Have to take the front wheel and seat off to get it in the back of the car. Bike rack will fix that, but right now it's a PIA. Also.......It says "desert sage" on the website, but I'm a touch color blind and thought it was white. It's not. It's light green. I like the color, but it's not what I thought it was.

 

[tabbibus]

Rode the bike around the neighborhood last night. Have a few issues to address.

• Headset is loose and "clicks" when coming on/off the front brakes. I'm betting the guy didn't put it back together in the right order when he replaced the bars. I'll tear into it this weekend and inspect/check.
• Rear tire is out of true. Has a slight wobble to it. I'm guessing it's from riding in the bed of his truck laying on it's side, and not from a crash, but hard to sell honestly. Can't find any signs of a crash anyway.
• Rear derailleur needs to be adjusted. Doesn't upshift quite as crisply as I would expect. Might just be this groupset and how it works. I've been riding a Dura-Ace/Ultegra groupset on the road for over 15yrs now, so I might be biased in the wrong direction here.
• I need "things". Bike computer, water bottle cages, SPD pedals. I've forgotten how much "stuff" there is to add to a bike once you get it to make it your own.
• I need to fit the bike to me. I adjusted the seat a bit, but I need to move the grips/brakes/shifters around a bit to really suit my body size and shape. No matter where I put the seat last night it felt like the cranks were REALLY short. I think they're 165mm cranks, and my rode bike is a 172.5mm. Wouldn't have thought the small difference there (7.5mm or .3in) would have been noticeable.

Overall its an interesting feel to it. The handlebars are WIDE compared to my road bike. The tires are humongonamous width at 2.4in. I'm used to 23mm (just under 1in) tires, and these things just look and feel weird. I did ride through the new second of the subdivision that is just being graded with gravel and dirt hills and such. It just rode around like it was nothing, because, well, that's what it's supposed to do. Felt odd to be purposefully riding it off road, gonna take awhile to squash the inner roadie tendencies I have.

Only real complaint right now is that the damn thing is so big I can't fit it in the car in one piece. Have to take the front wheel and seat off to get it in the back of the car. Bike rack will fix that, but right now it's a PIA. Also.......It says "desert sage" on the website, but I'm a touch color blind and thought it was white. It's not. It's light green. I like the color, but it's not what I thought it was.

Since you have owned a death machine, I'm sorry, I mean a road bike before, you probably know how to wrench a bike. If not, or if you need refreshers, Park Tool videos are fantastic for the things you mentioned you need to do.

I bet the handlebars feel wide compared to a road bike. My bars are at 780mm right now! It is great for sending it fast down gnarly terrain. Makes it less twitchy. 165 cranks may be small depending on your anatomy. Mine are 170 and I love it. Also, 2.4 tires is a nice sweet spot. Anything smaller than that feels to sketchy for me, then again, I'm mostly doing gnarly stuff. For gravel and XC stuff you can don't need the beefier tires.

What group set do you have? Unless it is entry level, you should be able to make it nice and crisp.

Lastly, if I may enter a hot topic... try a good set of flat pedals and grippy shoes (like the Five Ten freeride pro). I find it way more fun to ride flats on a mountain bike than SPDs. Unless you are going for max efficiency / racing / strava KOM, then yeah clip in brother. But for fun factor, flats baby!

 

[2kwik4u]

Since you have owned a death machine, I'm sorry, I mean a road bike before, you probably know how to wrench a bike. If not, or if you need refreshers, Park Tool videos are fantastic for the things you mentioned you need to do.

I bet the handlebars feel wide compared to a road bike. My bars are at 780mm right now! It is great for sending it fast down gnarly terrain. Makes it less twitchy. 165 cranks may be small depending on your anatomy. Mine are 170 and I love it. Also, 2.4 tires is a nice sweet spot. Anything smaller than that feels to sketchy for me, then again, I'm mostly doing gnarly stuff. For gravel and XC stuff you can don't need the beefier tires.

What group set do you have? Unless it is entry level, you should be able to make it nice and crisp.

Lastly, if I may enter a hot topic... try a good set of flat pedals and grippy shoes (like the Five Ten freeride pro). I find it way more fun to ride flats on a mountain bike than SPDs. Unless you are going for max efficiency / racing / strava KOM, then yeah clip in brother. But for fun factor, flats baby!

I'm not sure how wide these bars are, but I can tell you they don't fit through a 30in door opening. So they're at least 762mm or more. They might be 780's. Good grief they're wide.

I've been through a bike once before, but had a master mechanic (worked in a bike shop for a decade before/during college) right beside me to help. Had his tool collection as well. This will be my first time going through on my own. Probably have to grab some tools as well. Figure I can rebuild an engine, surely I can rebuild a bicycle right? I'll definitely check out those Park Tool Videos before I get too far into anything.

Groupset is a Shimano Deore. At least that's what's on the derailleur and the shifter. Not sure about the cogs/chain/crank. Best I can tell it's an entry level group. I'm probably just be too picky.

I think I'm going to get a set of Shimano SD/Platform combination pedals. Want to be able to ride around the neighborhood and the bike path in tennis shoes, but also be able to clip in when on the trail. Again, the death machine ownership has conditioned me to be clipped in at all times. Might have to shed some of that as I transition to dirt. Already have a set of "Mt Bike" shoes I picked up a few years ago when my old Look style road shoes got a hole in them after a decade of use. Look a lot like these shoes. When I rode my buddies mountain bike years ago, he had toe clips on those pedals, and the ability to "lift" on the pedals felt pretty important for maintaining bike control. I'll certainly try both and see which I like better.

 

[jawsf16]

29 MTB will feel giant for a little while, both tires and bars. You'll get used to it eventually. Everything else seems minor and a little bit of wrenching and tweaking will make it perfect for you. I prefer clip in pedals for off road but all my riding buddies are on flats, so totally a preference thing. Could always buy a set of each and swap them or try out the combo options. Should be a great bike. New Bike Day rocks, congrats!!

 

[tabbibus]

I'm not sure how wide these bars are, but I can tell you they don't fit through a 30in door opening. So they're at least 762mm or more. They might be 780's. Good grief they're wide.

I've been through a bike once before, but had a master mechanic (worked in a bike shop for a decade before/during college) right beside me to help. Had his tool collection as well. This will be my first time going through on my own. Probably have to grab some tools as well. Figure I can rebuild an engine, surely I can rebuild a bicycle right? I'll definitely check out those Park Tool Videos before I get too far into anything.

Groupset is a Shimano Deore. At least that's what's on the derailleur and the shifter. Not sure about the cogs/chain/crank. Best I can tell it's an entry level group. I'm probably just be too picky.

I think I'm going to get a set of Shimano SD/Platform combination pedals. Want to be able to ride around the neighborhood and the bike path in tennis shoes, but also be able to clip in when on the trail. Again, the death machine ownership has conditioned me to be clipped in at all times. Might have to shed some of that as I transition to dirt. Already have a set of "Mt Bike" shoes I picked up a few years ago when my old Look style road shoes got a hole in them after a decade of use. Look a lot like these shoes. When I rode my buddies mountain bike years ago, he had toe clips on those pedals, and the ability to "lift" on the pedals felt pretty important for maintaining bike control. I'll certainly try both and see which I like better.

Problem with "have it both ways" is that you can't do both right. Specially not the flat part. I agree with above that it is all preference. If you are just gonna stroll around when on the "flat" mode, then sure, but anything else will be extremely lacking.

Pedal wise, look at the pins on a good set of flats. And look at the sole of a good set of flat pedal shoes. Match made in heaven. If you look at the bottom of the shoe you linked, you see the space for the cleats. That is an area that even if you put the insert that they come with, will have shitty traction on the pedal.

If I may, do the 7 day trial of this online coaching program, and try the Flat Pedal Challenge videos! Link

 

[CanTex]

Since you have owned a death machine, I'm sorry, I mean a road bike before, you probably know how to wrench a bike. If not, or if you need refreshers, Park Tool videos are fantastic for the things you mentioned you need to do.

I bet the handlebars feel wide compared to a road bike. My bars are at 780mm right now! It is great for sending it fast down gnarly terrain. Makes it less twitchy. 165 cranks may be small depending on your anatomy. Mine are 170 and I love it. Also, 2.4 tires is a nice sweet spot. Anything smaller than that feels to sketchy for me, then again, I'm mostly doing gnarly stuff. For gravel and XC stuff you can don't need the beefier tires.

What group set do you have? Unless it is entry level, you should be able to make it nice and crisp.

Lastly, if I may enter a hot topic... try a good set of flat pedals and grippy shoes (like the Five Ten freeride pro). I find it way more fun to ride flats on a mountain bike than SPDs. Unless you are going for max efficiency / racing / strava KOM, then yeah clip in brother. But for fun factor, flats baby!

Interesting topic of flats vs clips for MTB.

Majority of the time I ride clips (egg beaters), I feel "more" attached to the bike when hitting jumps or riding moderately technical terrain.

When I ride downhill terrain parks (black runs) I switch to flats as I like the safety of being able to bail from the bike on short notice.

My recommendation, if you run flats invest in a set of shin pads....a pedal to the shin hurts something awful.