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dude, need updates!!!
holy crappeth! not only did the bike finish the turn, it also just about rolled the jump. I lol’d at the dude chasing frantically after it. I bet "WTF!" was the only thing running through his mind at that point
I used to run a Schwinn rack on my old wally world deathcycle (there might be a pic under my account somewhere on here), then I tried it on my GT, then took it off after a few minutes. if they make them for different seatpost sizes, make sure you get the one for the seatpost that your bike uses! it may sound like common sense, but if you’ve got a 30.6 or a 31.6 seatpost you might end up high and dry when it comes to luggage racks that will fit your bike. of course, rather than a seatpost-mounted rack, I’d just spring for a particularly large under-seat bag. Topeak makes a few, one of them being big enough for a 6" turkey delux w/ cheese from subway once you expand it, and for a drink, your camelbak should work fine, and give you a little more storeage for stuff like tools or the occasional candy bar
well, one of my friends is really close to getting an older model Speccy Stumpjumper FSR Comp, so i’ll try to convince him to get a set of candys or eggbeaters. it just feels so awesome to be clipped in while riding. even on tarmac you have so much more control of the bike
the only major thing that’s keeping me from going tubeless right now is the fact that I ride my bike whenever and whereever I can, which equates to a LOT of pavement pounding, and from what I’ve seen the tire choices for tubeless aren’t that well suited to pavement riding. if I had the $$$ for another set of wheels I’d get tubeless rims, get them built to pretty much the same spec as the current rims, and get tubeless tires then put more street-friendly tires on my current wheelset (holy rollers anyone?) and use them for commuting and general pavement pounding. of course, if holy rollers can be had in a tubeless-friendly variety, I know I’d switch
no knee-shaking rides yet, but I bet that’ll change once I get out onto Bell Isle, Buttermilk, or Northbank. there have been some sections of deep run park that I tried and I was going a bit too fast for my skill level and almost had my feet part ways with the pedals which was a bit worrysome, but other than that nothing. when I get on Buttermilk, there is one section that from what I’ve heard has sick exposure so I’ll take that section slow until I build up my skills a LOT more. one mtb’r didn’t do this and died in that section because of it. may he rest in peace
ah, good to know that someone has a transition and likes it. I’m 95% sure that my next full squish bike is going to be based around a transition frame, probably a bottlerocket, possibly a Preston FR depending on how much money I have to spend.
hm, good idea. but I would still be tempted to upgrade the shit out of it (being found in a dumpster that might be a literal statement 😃 ). I did manage to find a metal chainring guard that’ll work with a 3 chainring crank for around $35. 305 grams heavy, but for the added protection against logs and pants legs it’s worth it imho
you need not worry about it dude. the RIAA has no reason to go apeshit on you for adding music to a mtb video because if you want the song from the vid you need to have a program that can seperate video from audio, and then you’ve still got the odd noises that the camera speaker picks up (unless you mute them in the editing process) that can get annoying when listening to just the song. that whole process is simply a lot of work that may end up being for a substandard result. it’s a lot easier just to buy the song in question off of itunes or something
that may be all they do, but I’d much rather be able to ride the 2nd or 1st chainring without catching my jeans in the 3rd chainring, which can be one hell of a jolt depending on whether or not I’m pedaling like a man possessed. I don’t want a jolt that big when I’m out on the trail or commuting. anyone know where to get one of these wallyworld plastic chainring guards? I don’t want to buy a whole new bike just to get one bash-guard because that’s a major waste of money
got a link to this bash guard? most of the bash guards I’ve seen have either been OE components on wallyworld deathcycles or a single Giant front-squish bike, or have been thick poly or metal units that replace one of the chainrings. in my case the chainring that would be replaced is the one I use for a lot of my riding and commuting to my favorite riding spots (and school. ya, I know, $1K bike on a high school bike rack. but most of the time it’s sitting by a Speccy Hardrock Sport that’s just as well equiped apart from no rear squish 😼 plus there are quite a few expensive looking roadie bikes on the bike rack)
the Monolite 2 is one hell of a ride. I test-rode one at Conte’s to see how a TALAS 32 RLC and Float RP23 equiped bike would ride. it’s positively awesome. one thing that I might worry about is the amount of carbon fiber on that bike. CF is very stiff along the axis that the part was designed to get stressed from but that stiffness and durability go away quickly when you stress the part from another axis. in other words, a CF Horst link or frame would be obscenely light but at the same time very stiff under normal suspension compression and normal shock loads (landing, going over bumps of varying sizes) BUT if you crash it you run a larger risk of breaking the CF part. at least according to Conte’s
so far the most enjoyable trail I’ve been on is a nice smooth but technical singletrack at deep run park that runs along a chainlink fence. nice, smooth dirt, with the occasional rooted section, and a nice mix of shorter downhills and climbs and a few log crossings along the way. nice little trail, if not a bit short. at the corner of the chainlink fence this trail is crossed by another trail that descends by the chainlink fence but is extremely rockey and technical, with a few trails that split off from it. potentially fun on a longer travel bike but on a 4" travel bike without clipless pedals it’s positively evil. crossing one of the "offramp" trails is yet another rockey descent, although it isn’t as rockey as the rockey downhill that runs by the chainlink fence. right when it crosses the "offramp" trail it has a VERY steep (near vertical infact) descent followed by a small hill and a very rooted in hill that doesn’t really lead anywhere. I’m sure that Northbank and Bell isle would be better, tho
moab? LUCKY! you thought of trying the HotTub on your bike? seems like it would be a relatively simple matter. pedal like a madman down one side and pedal like a madman up the other side. of course, it’s probably a bit more involved than that. descending ‘Tater Salad Hill would be interesting on a big hit bike (SC V-10, Specialized Bighit FSRIII, Mongoose EC-D, the like), if not a bit bumpy. can you say foot-and-a-half dropoffs every foot or so? (at least I think that’s how the terrain is on tater salad hill)
as nice as the Nomads are I just prefer the beefy design of the Transition bikes, and the fact that I can get one new for little more than the lowest used price on a Nomad frame. plus the generally low top tube is a major plus on the BottleRocket (found out the benefits of a low top tube on my I-Drive on more than one occasion. oow…).
there are a few people on pirate4X4 who seem to love their Transition Converts (everyone on there who owns one suggests them to people looking for a new bike) but no-one on there has anything else from Transition.
ah. it still looks like it could take some abuse, tho. would the link on the Preson FR be called a horst link, or is it just a regular rocker arm? (to use the 1:1 suspension terminology for lack of a better term
EDIT: and what exactly is the benefit of a horst link? all I can see is it lowers the shock in the frame to lower the center of gravity. only problem with this is it makes flipping the lockout switch on the fly that much harder compared to a higher mounted shock, at least one would think anyway.while not an ipod or a dedicated mp3 player, my phone has mp3 capability so one morning on my way to school I played some Papa Roach (getting away with murder to be specific) and somehow cut 5 minutes off my travel time! 😮 it must have been something about hearing P. Roach playing from inside my pocket that made me haul more ass than usual!
just a thought, but dropping it into a lower gear and pop-wheelying the front tire over the log might work. on my I-Drive, I find that 2nd chainring 3rd gear on the cassette works quite well for lifting the front tire. now this goes against the "keep up your speed" mentality, but unless you can pedal like a mofo in the 4th cassette gear and lift the front tire over the log, oy just pedal like a mofo in general and lift the front tire from a running pace, you’ll need to be going at about a mild walking pace. stay in the saddle, lean over the front of the bike on approach, then maybe 6 inches before the tire would hit the log lean back quickly, pull up on the bars, and push down HARD on whichever crank is highest. if you do it right, the wheel might not even touch the log in question. when the rear wheel hits, it’ll bring te front down hard unless your tires grab and bump you over the log, so shift your weight back, get out of the saddle, and pedal your heart out until it does grab. that should work, and you’ll get over the log in style. if you’re riding a 29er or a 69er (aka dark-side converts 😼 ) it’s made easier because the front tire doesn’t need to be as far off the ground to do it’s thing, and on a straight 29er the rear tire can bump itself over a bit easier
oddly enough, the two crashes on my bike that have done the most damage have been at less than 5 mph within 100 feet of my front door, both trying to do something stupid. the first was during my session of trying to get my bike to wheelie (with the I-Drive suspension which has noticable pedal bob in any gearing combination, no less), I decided I was going to try to brake-stoppie my bike. well, with mechanical disks set for relatively quick engagement, one would think this would be easy. WRONG. I discovered that it is generally a bad idea to shift your weight foreward and keep it there after the rear tire lifts from front brake. when did I discover this? about when the frame started to pivot at the steerer tube. down I went, hands out in front of me out of impulse. onto pavement. all 145+ pounds of me came crashing down onto my palms onto pavement. road rash on my palms, and pain in the surrounding area when I put any sort of pressure on it for about 2 days to boot. not my best idea, but it proves that when the driven wheel lifts, bad things happen.
moving on, my next mishap happened when the bike was stationary. I had just stuck the grio sticker on my frame (came with the new grio helmet I got) when i decided to try another wheelie session. again, the wheelies, although unspectacular and short-lived, posed no harm to me at all. I had discovered taht when I stopped the bike I could keep the bike upright as I swung my right leg over the bike in a dismount. so I had the bright idea to try the same thing, only getting on the bike. lock the brakes, turn the cranks so the left pedal is closest to the ground, put one foot on it, swing right leg over bike. this is about when things got hairy. if you noticed my thread in accesories & parts, I am in the market for a big chainring bash guard. here’s why. right about as my mass was centered above the bike (although still in motion), something went drastically wrong, and me and the bike went over. mainly, the bike went over and I followed. I was in the 2nd chainring from my wheelie session (2nd chainring, 3rd gear on the cassette makes for easy lifting of the front tire), leaving the cogs of the 3rd chainring exposed. mind you all 145+ pounds of me are coming down hard on this chainring. before bending out of shape enough that it kicked the chain off the next morning on the way to school, it tore a half-dollar sized, nearly perfectly ROUND hole in my jeans and put 4 gashes in my shin, in addition to scratching the inside of my upper leg. currently the chainring is bent back into shape (it was a pretty much uniform bend so I just bent it back with a wrench and went along on my merry way), tho it has seen better days. I am definitely in the market for a chainring bash guard that’ll fit a TruVativ 44 tooth chainring now after having it put 4 holes in my shin and try to put more holes in my upper legspeed may kill but slow or stopped don’t always feel so good either.
