I saw this video on YouTube and watched it with my family. It's insane. We were all twitchy watching it. I can barely go a few miles an hour on my local course without gripping the bars so tight my hands hurt, and it's fairly level. And...even then, I've fallen over before and biffed my arm on a tree. This is outside my imagination in some ways.
Showing posts with label mountain bike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mountain bike. Show all posts
Sunday, February 10, 2019
Monday, September 02, 2013
Lebanon Hills
I took Eryn over to Lebanon Hills yesterday. I wasn't sure what she'd think. She's not always excited about exercise. But she loved the skills area, going around it about twenty times, and had me ride the green trail twice. And today she wanted to go back. We tried the longer green trail this time which was a little harder. She did a great job and made it all the way around without any complaining. Quite the opposite, she very much enjoyed herself. I hadn't been there since they had the old parking lot which is now being left to go to seed and wilderness. The newer lot is much larger and has changing areas, bathrooms, a tool station, and a water bottle filling station. It's a nice area.
Now if we only had mountain bikes instead of hybrid-like sport bikes. Mine is a little better because it has a front shock and gravel tires, but those are the same tires I took on RAGBRAI, so that gives you an idea of what I optimized for. Her bike is a.) too small, b.) doesn't have front shocks, and c.) has fairly smooth tires. We were going to put off getting a new bicycle until winter, but now I'm going to double up my shopping efforts and watch Goodwill as well as there are often old mountain bikes for sale, and it's probably a good place to get a beater.
Panorama of Eryn in the skills area.
Walking over the medium skill area. Where that guy is in the background are three sets of hills, green, blue, and black or, easy, medium, and hard. The guys that were there at the same time we were discussed the fact that proper use of the bumps meant air time. I refused to get airborne and just practiced learning to take the hills slowly. The teenagers had air time. It looked frightening. The lot is generally packed with people out on the longer ride (blue goes all the way around the big park - you can see the map at the Lebanon Hills link) and today there wasn't a single place to park. Fortunately, we're so close we can just pedal over there. So all my bitching about not leaving near a bike trail, well, you now realize I was complaining despite living within 10 minutes of one of the better mountain biking trails in the country. Some people...never content.
She didn't fall down on the medium skill obstructions. She fell over on the sidewalk at the entry area to the skills area. That's always the way it goes. Nothing bad, just a nice scrape. I tried to go over this and decided it wasn't worth my neck or hip. I did try some of the rocks and bricks with success. You have to be willing to take them with a bit of speed.
Proof that she attempted it while on the pedals. You can't see them in this picture, but there are a lot of teenagers and families at the park. I wish there had been teenage girls riding mountain bikes and discussing fixies when I was 16, but if there were, they weren't in my neck of the woods. It's a much different bicycling crowd than 30 years ago.
MORC does trail work every Tuesday night 6-8 p.m. That's probably something Eryn and I have to go check out.
Now if we only had mountain bikes instead of hybrid-like sport bikes. Mine is a little better because it has a front shock and gravel tires, but those are the same tires I took on RAGBRAI, so that gives you an idea of what I optimized for. Her bike is a.) too small, b.) doesn't have front shocks, and c.) has fairly smooth tires. We were going to put off getting a new bicycle until winter, but now I'm going to double up my shopping efforts and watch Goodwill as well as there are often old mountain bikes for sale, and it's probably a good place to get a beater.
Panorama of Eryn in the skills area.
Walking over the medium skill area. Where that guy is in the background are three sets of hills, green, blue, and black or, easy, medium, and hard. The guys that were there at the same time we were discussed the fact that proper use of the bumps meant air time. I refused to get airborne and just practiced learning to take the hills slowly. The teenagers had air time. It looked frightening. The lot is generally packed with people out on the longer ride (blue goes all the way around the big park - you can see the map at the Lebanon Hills link) and today there wasn't a single place to park. Fortunately, we're so close we can just pedal over there. So all my bitching about not leaving near a bike trail, well, you now realize I was complaining despite living within 10 minutes of one of the better mountain biking trails in the country. Some people...never content.
She didn't fall down on the medium skill obstructions. She fell over on the sidewalk at the entry area to the skills area. That's always the way it goes. Nothing bad, just a nice scrape. I tried to go over this and decided it wasn't worth my neck or hip. I did try some of the rocks and bricks with success. You have to be willing to take them with a bit of speed.
Proof that she attempted it while on the pedals. You can't see them in this picture, but there are a lot of teenagers and families at the park. I wish there had been teenage girls riding mountain bikes and discussing fixies when I was 16, but if there were, they weren't in my neck of the woods. It's a much different bicycling crowd than 30 years ago.
MORC does trail work every Tuesday night 6-8 p.m. That's probably something Eryn and I have to go check out.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Death of a Friend (not a person, so don't panic)
I was cleaning the garage today and, as part of the process, decided to pop the connector off for the tagalong that's supposed to go to Erik. I started to pull the seat off and, well....you can see the results below. I've had my mountain bike longer than I've had my daughter. I put thousands of miles on it each year (bit of hyperbole because it conjures up an image of 3000+ miles, but I suspect I put a good 1200+ on it each year and I know I had a year where I put well over 2000 on it), and used it for a whole season back when I was at my most active with TCBC, so it's had a good life. I could weld it, Bicycling magazine recommends finding a professional framebuilder, but that will probably cost me more than the bike cost in the first place. I could just swap out the frame and keep all the bits and pieces, but then I'm constrained to fiinding something that fits what I already have, which might be difficult given it's a decade-plus old.
So it's time to go bike shopping. Maybe it's a good thing, fall sales being here and all. And perhaps, if I indulge in a bit of magical thinking, my car accident prevented me from putting four additional months on my mountain bike, which means I wasn't riding it full tilt during a seat snap, potentially breaking my skull and putting a seat post into my posterior.
Here's the view of the frame where it snapped. I could probably go all DIY and figure out how to mount the seat right into that hole without so much as a weld, but once again, that seems like more effort than it's worth. Not to mention, probably dangerous.
So it's time to go bike shopping. Maybe it's a good thing, fall sales being here and all. And perhaps, if I indulge in a bit of magical thinking, my car accident prevented me from putting four additional months on my mountain bike, which means I wasn't riding it full tilt during a seat snap, potentially breaking my skull and putting a seat post into my posterior.
Here's the view of the frame where it snapped. I could probably go all DIY and figure out how to mount the seat right into that hole without so much as a weld, but once again, that seems like more effort than it's worth. Not to mention, probably dangerous.
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