Post your mountain bike cable nightmares on the forums this week for a chance to win a set of bomb-proof Gore RideOn Derailleur Cables. If you’re not familiar with Gore cables, these cables are nothing like the ones that came with your bike - they’re quick, precise, low friction, and highly evolved. Read element22’s blog post about his RideOn experience and you’ll be sold!

So… what exactly qualifies as a cable nightmare? Here are just a few things we’ve seen go wrong with cables over the years:

- Snapped cables due to snags
- Cracked and loose cable housings
- Incorrectly installed cables
- Excessive cable stretch
- Frayed cables and cable ends
- Seized cables due to cable housing friction
- Inconsistent shifting and braking
- Rusted cables (seriously!)

Tell us about your cable nightmare on the forums and if we pick your story to share on the blog next week you’ll score a set of Gore cables ($65 MSRP). Nothing scary about that!

Heil Valley Ranch map courtesy Boulder County. (you are not actually “here” )

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: singletracks.com exists to help you find the best mountain bike trails. We’re serious about making trail information more accessible and we’re always adding new features like the interactive trailhead map to help you find the best dirt. We’ve put a lot of thought into organizing trail information over the last 11 years and with all the new members on singletracks this summer we thought it would be a good time to talk about our trail organization philosophy.

Perhaps the most important question to start with is: What makes a trail a trail? We actually wrote about this 2 years ago in detail but I’ll try to boil down our ideas to a few simple points:

1. Just because a trail has a name doesn’t mean it needs its own listing or map on singletracks. Places like Palmer Park have at least a half dozen named trails contained within the park but it gets just one listing. Same goes for open spaces, trail networks, preserves, etc. This makes it so riders don’t have to look at 6 different pages just to see what a MTB destination is all about. The image above shows a map of Heil Valley Ranch which contains 4 named trails but a single listing.
2. Length is important. The Colorado Trail is hundreds of miles long and it’s impossible to ride the whole thing in a day. In this case it makes sense to break the trail listings into single trip segments that start and end at established trailhead areas with convenient parking even though it is technically a single trail.
3. Trails need to be open to mountain biking on a regular basis to be listed on singletracks. Clearly this means illegal trails should never be listed but it also means trails on private property that are only open for occasional races shouldn’t be either. Some trails are open opposite hunting season while others are only open one month a year - these are ok to be listed, just be sure to make closure information clear in the description.

Unlike some other MTB sites you may have used, we’re constantly checking for duplicate trail listings and updating trail info based on member feedback. We’ve even set it up so all the reviews, photos, wishlist entries, etc. are transferred when we have to consolidate duplicate trail listings to keep all the info in one place. Sweet.

Want to add a trail but aren’t sure if it needs a new listing? First, search the site to see if it’s already listed using the trailhead map or the search box at the top of the page. Also feel free to email us if you have questions - we’re here to help and we love finding out about new trails!

Just wanted to let everyone know the HuckNRoll.com coupon promotion is officially over but there are literally 3 coupons left to give out today - though no guarantees and you’ll have to hurry! We ran out of coupons about a week early so clearly people were stoked for such a great deal with their singletracks membership purchase…

If you were one of the lucky subscribers to receive a HuckNRoll.com coupon code remember you only have until August 1, 2009 to get $10 off your order at HuckNRoll.com. There’s no minimum purchase and they have some really nice stuff online including complete bikes from Santa Cruz, Titus, and Rocky Mountain. Thanks to HuckNRoll for hooking it up for this promo - show them so love this week!

We’ve been pretty swamped here with new members and content this month but we’ve also found time to make a few updates:

1. Members can now edit trail information. If you added a trail to singletracks you can now update trail details yourself anytime - including mileage, configuration, directions, description, and more! Of course all registered members can continue to add trail reviews, closure information, photos, videos, and GPS data using the trail dashboard on the right side of the trail pages.

2. Trail tags version 1.0 is now live (again). Some members recently pointed out that our trail tagging system was broken and this week we finally got around to getting things straightened out. It’s simple to add descriptive tags to any trail using - you guessed it! - the trail dashboard. We’ve even posted a short blurb about how trail tags work and include some suggestions to get you started.

We plan on integrating trail tags even more in the future but for now you can view the most popular tags, find individual trail tags at the bottom of each trail page, and view your personal tags to help you organize your favorite places to ride. Here are a few cool tags to check out to see how this works: NC Triangle, fast, and technical.

3. Forum issues resolved? A few of you have reported having trouble posting to the forums with random cursor movements but now we’re hearing that things seem to be back to normal. This fall we’ll be making some big changes to the forums so look for continued improvements…

More singletracks news to come, including a post explaining how we organize and map trail information, new contest details, and much more. Summer rocks!

This week we added the 700th mountain bike trail map to singletracks and it’s amazing to see how many people are riding with GPS units these days compared to just a couple years ago. Officially singletracks members have mapped 706 trails covering 8,409 trail miles and 1.5 million feet of climbing (!). Assuming someone could ride each trail at an average speed of 9mph it would take a person nearly 40 days of continuous riding to cover all the trails. Of course you’d need to factor in some travel time since the mapped trails span 4 continents!

We’re constantly working to improve the map data and just yesterday we rolled out new and improved elevation profiles on all the maps (see the image above). Even bigger improvements are in the works including high res maps and easier GPS data uploads/downloads.

Don’t forget we’re giving away $10 HuckNRoll.com coupons with every subscription purchase this month while supplies last. Now is a great time to upgrade your membership to take advantage of this amazing resource!

Most MTB trail maps by state

Colorado: 136 maps
California: 86 maps
Georgia: 53 maps
North Carolina: 53 maps
Wyoming: 37 maps

If you’re on the fence about upgrading your singletracks account or purchasing a subscription for the first time, today is your lucky day! The guys at HuckNRoll.com have hooked it up and they’re giving new singletracks subscribers $10 off coupons to their huge online MTB shop. This offer is extremely limited and once the coupons are gone, they’re gone…

Some restrictions apply, so here’s the fine print. You’ll receive your unique coupon code via email within 24 hours of your singletracks membership purchase (free basic accounts are not eligible) and you can also view your code on your “My Account” page at that time. Coupon codes can only be used once and there is no minimum purchase at HuckNRoll.com. Your coupon code will expire August 1, 2009. Purchases of complete bikes, frames and wheels, Fox Racing, Oakley, Nixon, The North Face, and Sidi Footwear are not eligible for the $10 off coupon. Singletracks membership purchases made prior to June 25, 2009 are also not eligible. Terms, conditions, and restrictions may be updated at any time.

Of course if you have any questions, feel free to email us - info@singletracks.com - and we’ll do our best to take care of you.

About HuckNRoll

Started by the peeps who brought us Backcountry.com, HuckNRoll.com stocks more than 6,000 MTB products from 130 brands. The site opened its virtual doors just last month but it’s already taking the industry by storm. Just read this excerpt from the launch press release:

HuckNroll.com is an online mountain bike shop. You heard right. Online. And we wouldn’t be putting it lightly to say that the bike industry didn’t want us. The consensus when we first approached suppliers about launching a high-end online mountain bike shop was, “It will never work, the bike industry is different.” Our response? “Damn right, it’s different. It’s the last industry in existence to accept the Internet as a viable sales channel.”

Read the rest of the press release here - you’ll be ROFL.

About Singletracks Memberships

With a singletracks Trail membership you’ll get access to nearly 700 MTB trail maps (695 to be exact) complete with GPS data, topo maps, and elevation profiles. More maps are being added every day and your annual membership gives you access to EVERY MAP as it’s added.

The singletracks Pro membership adds an online training app and full access to the GPS data manager. With the training app you can keep track of all your workouts, on the trail or off while the GPS data manager lets you map and plot all your rides.

One more secret: you can get a big discount off our annual rate by purchasing a 2-year membership. With the HuckNRoll coupon it’s almost like getting the second year for free - just don’t tell anyone

Ok, so we missed the first day of summer by a couple days but better late than never, right? Today we posted a Google Map showing singletracks trails around the world using the location info you’ve been submitting over the last several weeks. This is just Phase I of the project but we’re pretty stoked to say the least! A few notes to help you navigate:

1. Start by clicking a trailhead cluster to zoom in. Once you’re zoomed in enough you’ll start to see individual trailhead pins.
2. Many trailhead locations shown are approximate. As we mentioned before we need your help pinpointing MTB trailheads and the white markers on the map show trailheads that have not been precisely located. Many mountain bike trails aren’t even shown on the map because the city/state info is incorrect (for example, a trail city submitted as “Atlanta/Decatur” instead of just “Decatur”). If you come across a trail listing with a weird city, please submit an error correction using the link on the right side of the trail page.
3. Trails sharing the same trailhead and/or the same approximated city/state are combined into a single pin on the map. We did this so you can click on all the trails (no overlapping pins) and as a bonus it’s already helped us identify duplicate trail listings.
4. You can hover over pins to view trail names; click pins to view a link, thumbnail, length, and difficulty info.
5. The map is updated once a day so if you just added a new trail it may take a bit for it to show up on the map.

So there you have it, a Google Map showing singletracks trail locations - now you can all stop emailing me There’s more to come as we integrate the map even further, stay tuned this summer and fall…

Pretty much the biggest upgrade you can give your mountain bike is a new fork but the installation can seem daunting even to experienced MTB tinkerers. If you’ve been considering a fork upgrade but aren’t sure where to start, you’re in luck: here is the step by step procedure that nearly all shops will use to successfully replace your MTB fork. Once you get good at the procedure you could easily do this task in about 35 minutes but for the first time, allot yourself a good hour and a bit. No need to rush this job -the more care you take the better results you will have.

Read your manufacturer’s instructions

The very first thing anyone should do is read the installation instructions. I don’t care if you are an experienced mechanic or a bike tech, there is always something in there that you may not have know or forgotten, and funny thing it is usually the most important piece of information that you need.

Gathering  all the Tools

To do this job you need to round up a few items and tools:

Bike stand
Shop rags (to clean up remove excessive grease)
Allen sockets 3, 4, 5, 6mm (for use with your torque wrench)
Allen keys 3, 4, 5, 6mm
Side cutter (for removing old tie straps)
Soft face hammer
Chisel / standard screwdriver or crown race puller (Park tool #CRP-1)
Tape measure or ruler
Hack saw
Half round file with holder
Pipe cutter with new blade
Threadless saw guide (Park tool #SG-6 or similar)
Threadless nut installer (Park tool #TNS-1 or similar)
Tube that will fit over the steering tube and install the lower crown race
Torque wrench
Shock pump (high pressure up to 250psi)

You may need a new brake adapter if you are changing a fork that had IS (International Standard) mounts to one with post mounts but if your forks use the same mounting system you won’t need an adapter.

Warnings

This is IMPORTANT: If you do not feel you can do this, then don’t. Steering tubes are generally not replaceable so if you cut yours too short, then you’re outta luck. As always, MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE! When in doubt, read the last sentence again.  When cutting you should wear safety glasses and you should never use a file without a handle. Be careful not to nick the side of the steering tube with any sharp object.

Removing front wheel and top cap

The very first step is to remove the front wheel. Next, release the top cap, take it off, and put it aside in a container so you don’t loose the bolt and cap.

Removing the front brake

Most bikes today use post mount brakes and in this case, it’s a simple matter of removing the two bolts that secure the caliper onto the fork. If you have an IS adapter, (International Standard) remove the brake from that point. Make sure all the hardware is placed in a small plastic bag (these use different bolts and should be kept separate).

Removing Brake Hose

Most bikes have the brake hose attached to it in one of two ways: a small plastic mount or a plastic tie wrap. If your fork uses a tie wrap, carefully cut it off, avoiding touching your brake line. Otherwise, simply remove the hex bolt that holds the clip in place and move the brake hose and caliper away. Under no circumstances should you be removing the brake line from the caliper.

Removing Stem Assembly

Use the series of photos below for the following instructions.

With one hand on the lower crown, hold the fork in position while loosening the stem bolts. The moment the bolts are loosened the fork will fall so better to be safe than sorry! Once you have released the bolts enough, remove the stem and bar as an assembly and allow it to sit on one side of the bike. Afterward, remove the spacers and top crown race and place them somewhere safe.

Remove fork

Once you have removed the fork you’ll find the lower bearing race and seal which you’ll need to remove so pay attention to the orientation of the bearing. Your bearing may not look like the one in the picture (this is what is called a cartridge bearing) but bearings won’t stray too far from this design. Keep in mind cartridge bearings are packed with grease so check to see how smooth they are moving (twist them and feel for grittiness, the smoother the better). If your bearings are rough you may want to consider a new headset at this time.

Remove lower crown race

If you plan on reusing your old headset you’ll need to remove the lower race; otherwise, skip this step. There are a two ways that you can remove the lower race: use Park Tools CRP-1 OR if you are careful enough you can use a sharp chisel or a screw driver and gently tap the race off by working around ring, removing it evenly. Just be careful not to hit the steering tube! Wedge the tool between the fork crown and race, prying it upward until it pops off. Once off, put the race with the other parts of the headset.

Measuring Steering Tube Length

Measure the existing steering tube from the mounting face of the crown to the end of the steering tube (you may want to record that number). Next mark the new steering tube with a felt marker.

If you’re placing a new headset and it is not the same as the one that came off, you’ll need to use another method to figure out the steering length. To do that, first measure the head tube of the bike, then check the manufacturer’s info for the stack height of the headset plus the spacers and the thickness of the stem. Add it all up and with that total number subtract 2mm and that should be the length that you need to cut.

Head tube length  +
Headset stack height  +
Spacer stack  +
Stem thickness  +

Subtract 2mm from that total (this is for the top cap clearance and space required to preload the bearings).

Mark and cut the fork

With the correct length marked on your fork you now have two options for cutting the fork. The first method is to use a threadless saw guide and a hack saw. Set your guide so that when the blade draws over your mark it sits just above the cut line - this ensures that the tube extension doesn’t get cut to short. Ease up on the last few strokes before cutting through - this will prevent a large burr from forming at the end that will have to be filed clean. Finally, carefully remove the saw marks off the top and file the edge at a 45 degree angle to ensure there is no burr or edge that can scratch you or components on installation.

The second method involves the use of a pipe cutter with a fresh blade (shown above). Just make sure to line up your pipe cutter just above the cut line and rotate evenly to get a clean cut.

Installing the star nut

This step really is really best accomplished using a star nut setting tool, though you could try to install it by other means (you will have a very hard time doing so). Screw the star nut onto the nut setting tool all the way, then line up the star nut with the steering tube (do your best at lining things up here otherwise you will have issues later). Tap the star nut in to place and make sure you set it in a minimum of 5mm. Some tools have a stop that will set the nut in the right way every time.

Install the lower bearing race

Once the star nut is installed it’s time to install the lower bearing race. You can go and purchase the correct tool from a tool manufacturer such as Park or find yourself a tube that fits over the steering tube.  I fashioned the tube shown here myself and included a small nylon ring to protect the bearing race. Carefully tap the bearing ring in place and make sure the race sits squarely on the fork crown.

Install fork

Once the lower bearing race is installed you can go ahead and replace the fork. Remember to replace the lower bearing and seal, then install the fork. Next, install the upper bearing, keeping in mind the orientation of the bearing, then install the compression ring (make sure flat side up) and the top cover. If you plan on using spacers below the stem, install them now followed by the stem itself. You should end up with 2- 3mm of space. Finally you can replace the top cap and stem bolt. Do not torque anything yet.

Install the front brake and cable

At this point you should be ready to install the front brake. When you have the brake loosely installed, make sure you’re using the correct bolt length (there should be 8 threads exposed past the caliper). Replace the front wheel with disk, being careful not to jam your rotor into the pads. Once the front wheel is correctly installed now you can set the caliper in place. The way I usually set up the brake is to slowly compress the brake lever, keeping the caliper as centered as possible when applying brake pressure. Slowly tighten the bolts down. Release the brake and spin the wheel while listening to make sure that the pads are not contacting the rotor. You may need to re-adjust the brake by loosening the bolts slightly and carefully moving the caliper until you don’t hear it rubbing when spinning the wheel. DO NOT stick your fingers near the rotor while in motion.

Once you are satisfied with the performance of the front brake, apply brake pressure again and torque the caliper bolts to the amount recommended by both the brake and fork manufacturers. If the fork you are installing states a lower torque value, use that one.  The final job is to keep the cable from rubbing on any moving parts. Some forks come with a convenient mounting point, others require a tie wrap.

Now it’s finally time to line up the wheel with the stem and bars. Stand in front of your bike and hold the wheel between your legs. With your hands grab the bars and wiggle them side to side, slowly centering the bars. Once set you can tighten the stem bolts a bit.

Now, double check to see if the bar is straight. Grab the front brake and rock the bike fore and aft while listening and feeling for a light clunk. If the front clunks you may have insufficient pre-load on the stem top cap in which case you’ll need to loosen the two stem bolts slightly and give the top cap bolt a half turn. Keep doing this until the clunk disappears. If the steering suddenly gets too stiff, you went too far on the top cap tension. Once you have the correct tension, line it up and now torque the stem bolts (use the correct torque from the stem manufacturer).

Now - you’re done! You did it!

Cheers.

Just a quick thanks to the folks at Manitou,Hayes and Opus for their support.

It’s June and things are heating up on the trail AND on singletracks.com. Here’s the new stuff to keep you in the loop:

Video Contest Winners: It was a battle royale and in the end we had 3 clear winners. Devin_P killed it with 1535 points making him the proud owner of a brand new set of Kenda Nevegall 2.35 tires! Maddslacker earned himself a PRO membership and a singletracks t-shirt while Goo is taking home the third place package with stuff from Camelbak, Nite Rider, and Mr. Smith. Thanks again to all our sponsors and everyone who contributed.

Trail Video Comments: Speaking of trail videos, the contest helped us iron out some kinks that were preventing members from rating trail videos. With hundreds of new videos added this month, it’s a great time to post your comments and ratings to move the best trail videos to the top of the list!

New Trail Pages: We’ve been getting overwhelmingly positive feedback on the new trail page design and if you haven’t taken a look yet, check out this page for an example. The new tabs organize stuff like trail maps, photos, and videos and we’ve placed all the “action links” in a convenient dashboard in the right column. With this new framework in place look for more trail page enhancements this summer and fall.

New Forums: Mongoose has been hard at work moderating the forums and he’s adding two new discussions this summer for MTB beginners and folks interested in mountain biking with families (coming soon). We’re also adding more moderators to help out with the avalanche of new posts - stop in and holla!

Gear Reviews: We’re currently testing hot new gear from Easton, Sun Ringle, Manitou, Yakima, and others and will be posting articles and reviews here on the blog in the next few weeks. Want us to review a particular MTB product? Hit us up on the contact form and we’ll see what we can do.

Top Secret Stuff: Yep, there are a few things coming down the pipe that are on a strictly need to know basis right now. One thing I can tell you: we’ve located 1,100 trails for our Google Maps project. It’s still not nearly 50% of the trail catalog but get ready for a new way to search for MTB trails coming soon…

A sampler of MTB news from this week:

Bike rescue team rescues missing hikers: Yet another example of bikers helping hikers, this time in Manchester, NH. A group of 4 hikers became lost on Case Mountain this week during a thunderstorm and after alerting authorities of their situation via cell phone the bicycle rescue team found them within hours. Mountain bikes being used to help people? Who would’ve thought

Photo courtesy Pique newsmagazine | Whistler

Women are MTB’s fastest growing demographic: That’s good news, but what other demographics are we comparing? If we’re talking gender demographics it had to be men or women… At any rate, more and more women are discovering mountain biking every year and Whistler’s newsmagazine Pique has an in depth article about some of the women who put the men to shame at the MTB park. Good one to pass along to your wife or significant other…

Photo embed codes and contest updates: We’ve added an easy way for you to embed your singletracks MTB photos on forums or other websites using the “share” link found in the dashboard on photo pages. Just click, copy, and paste. For MTB photos, it’s time to kick the photobucket

The video contest is off to a strong start and it’s super close among the top contributors. There is still plenty of time left to get your video links in and don’t forget you also get points for rating or commenting on trail videos!

Photos courtesy MTBPursuits.com.

Looking for a way to celebrate the Queen of New Zealand’s birthday in style? Try manning up to the Run 79 Lake Tekapo mountain bike race on May 31. The 90Km (56 mile) undulating course goes around beautiful Lake Tekapo and features plenty of rocky stream crossings.

If you’re planning on heading down for the race remember it’s mid-autumn in New Zealand and race organizers recommend wind breakers, thermal leggings, and extra socks to keep warm on the 4-8 hour ride. The top male and female finisher each receive $1500 and the race is limited to 1500 riders. Just think, you can use that prize money to pay for your plane ticket…

Yep, it’s pretty simple: earn points for submitting trail videos and video comments this month and the top 3 point grabbers will earn free junk! Point values are awarded like this:

• 3 points for new trail videos (must be at least 30 seconds long)
• 1 point for each video comment you post on singletracks

All videos and comments are subject to approval and you can keep track of the standings on the contest page. Videos from nearly any website are eligible as long as we can find a valid embed code - that includes YouTube, Vimeo, BroadBandSports, VHoldR, and others. Videos must be submitted via the proper trail page and videos submitted via singletracks.f5sports.com are not eligible for the contest.

Prize winners will be announced Monday, June 1:

1. First Prize: Set of Kenda Nevegal Tubeless MTB Tires (retail value: $44.99 each)
2. Second Prize: Singletracks t-shirt PLUS a 1-year PRO membership*
3. Third Prize: Jimi Wallet, Nite Rider Cherry Bomb safety light, and Camelbak Chill Jacket water bottle

Special thanks to Kenda, Mr. Smith, Nite Rider, and Camelbak for donating schwag!

* If you already have a singletracks t-shirt and/or PRO membership you may exchange for any item in our schwag bag