0 points (view top contributors)
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Please continue to call out Specialized on this. They are selling out the sport, and will seriously hurt trail access in the US. These are motorcycles, pure and simple.
F**K Specialized. I own one, but never again.
Other big companies that have made big contributions have sometimes done it with time rather than $. For example, Microsoft here in WA has volunteer days where they have had 50 -60 employees spend the day building trail. That is not a small amount of value. REI does this as well.
"cavermatthew" wroteNo I just slipped on some ice in the perfect way. I dislike Wisconsin winters now.
I feel your pain. My last broken bone was a tib/fib from slipping in wet grass walking the dog. Get on the trainer as soon as you can and you’ll come out of it stronger than ever. Also, increased blood flow helps bones heal.
"jeff" wroteFor one thing, we have the best Trail Team on the planet devoted to helping us share local trail knowledge. 😀
I would throw the question back to you: What "impressive technology" do MTB Project and Trailforks offer?
Trailforks:
– shows gps tracks of a trail on the map while zooming in or out of a region
– ability to define the geographic bounds of a region
– hierarchy of trail/riding area/region with multiple options for organization. (they do lack a means to show a recommended route or ride but say that’s coming soon). IMO, building the database of individual trails, and then using the trails as building blocks to show a route is the ideal way to do this.
– I like the approach of users confirming the submissions of others. You guys are obviously doing fine, but routing all approvals through you doesn’t seem very scalable.MTBProject:
– Editing is much like word with track changes on.
– downside, IMBA involvement (anyone else see a conflict with IMBA providing a full time employee to assist a for profit business?)Singletracks:
– has events, which can be tied to a trail (but, events need to able to be set as recurring – I’ve stopped bothering to enter them for this reason).
– good balance of detail and user friendliness
– the first to pull data from Strava and prompt a ride report (but, needs to recognize all trails on the ride, not just the first one)Personally, I played with MTBPRoject when it was new. Liked the tech, but was wary of other issues. I’ve entered and edited more data in Singletracks than anyplace else. I’ve played with Trailforks a bit lately, and I’m impressed with what I’ve seen, and also see it gathering momentum quickly
People ride pretty much year round in Western OR and WA. In Bend, it’s good to stay off the trails when wet, but that’s a completely different soil type than the west side. Haven’t been to Stub Stewart myself, so can’t comment on whether the soil is amenable to winter riding.
Was it working for you a month ago when I made that post, and have any changes been made since then?
Yeah, geotagged photos are nice. I tend to carry my phone in my hydro pack though and sometimes use another camera that doesn’t geotag. Plus I have lots of older pics that aren’t geotagged.
I’m about 5′ 10.5 and ride a large.
No, pretty much everyone will be using clipless pedals. Should be no need for a hydro pack or even a water bottle for an event that short (or have a bottle and drink before the start, toss it by the start line, and pick it up when done). It’ll be pretty intense to be trying to drink anyway.
Also check out Ibis bikes at Ridge Cyclesport in Wenatchee. 35 pounds is way on the heavy side…time for an upgrade!
Find a cyclocross video on youtube and watch the dismount/mounts. Don’t be discouraged if you watch a euro pro video, your race will be nothing like that. Practice some dismount – run – remount sequences in your back yard or somewhere easy. Include some hard efforts on your rides between now and then. Mostly, keep an open mind and have fun. CX can be a lot of fun. It’s a great intro to racing, as the courses are short and the races are under an hour.
I suggest trying Perpetuem and/or Sustained Energy from Hammer as well. I use Perp for long events and its worked well for me. HEED is intended for shorter, more intense efforts. I use it sometimes, but tend to just have water for shorter rides, and then Perp for endurance events. Perp can be hit or miss with people though, if you try it, definitely try it on training rides, not the day of your event.
I believe IMBA references some studies that support mountain biking as having similar impacts as hiking.
I would check the race website and see if they have specific products that will be at aid stations, and I would then try those in training to see if they work for you. If so, it will make things much easier on race day. Hammer Nutrition for instance sponsors the High Cascades 100, so the aid stops have HEED, Perpeteum, Endurolytes, Hammer Gel, and Fizz. I’ve found that Hammer stuff works well for me. Their marketing is a tad cultish though, so take it with a grain of salt.
Next on my list of products to try is Carborocket.
The list here isn’t bad. What part of OR? (It’s a big state). I haven’t looked at the mtbr list for a long time. IIRC it also suffered from old data and trails that weren’t what I would call necessarily accurately described. The OR mtbr forum is more useful than the trail pages IMO. Mtb project has some OR data, and Cota has info on bend trails.
I think the way to go is to give people who don’t like to create new accounts the option to use FB, etc. to login, while also providing stand alone account maintenance. I considered the workaround prior to posting, and will probably go that route. But, it would be better if a workaround wasn’t needed. I would also question if ‘most people’ truly reflects their preference, or whether they’ve either gone along with the choices presented, or moved on to other sites instead.
FB and Gravatar are distinctly different from strava, mapmyride, etc. in that they are directly related to cycling, and I have the option to exclude rides with each sync.
BTW, MTBProject started with FB login, and added email login very quickly after user complaints.
"jeff" wroteHa! Somehow I guessed that wouldn’t be a popular option with the folks on this thread. 😀
Generally we try to make it really easy for folks to set up an account and interact with Singletracks which is why we integrate with services folks already use (Facebook, Strava, Gravatar [Wordpress], etc.). Most people don’t like the hassle of creating and maintaining multiple accounts for every website they use but I definitely understand the desire on the flip side to customize one’s identity within specific communities.
On the back end, we’ve integrated several different software platforms (WordPress, PHPBB, and our own user-generated CMS called Review App) so unfortunately enabling site-specific avatars is tricky business. For example, PHPBB has avatar support built in but those avatars don’t carry over into users’ trail reviews, comments on the blog, etc.
Blah, blah, blah, excuses are lame, I know–but hopefully that shows that we’ve put some thought into the decision to use third party avatar engines.
Alternate suggestion: create a free email account that you only use for your Singletracks account and link the email address with Gravatar. That way you can create a special avatar just for Singletracks, it won’t show up anywhere else on the web, etc. Also, set up that email address so that it forwards to your regular inbox and it should be pretty much seamless.
Admittedly this is a hassle but at least it’s an option to consider for die hard Gravatar / Facebook haters. 😀
"jeff" wroteThe other option is to link your Singletracks account w/ Facebook to use your Facebook profile pic.
That’s not an improvement, IMO. Really needs to be independent. User accounts are already maintained, is it having profile pics as part of the user account that troublesome that these are the only solutions?
"musikron" wroteAnd thats why I have no profile pic.
I deleted mine. Too annoying to have gravatar popping up with it all over the rest of the web.
I agree with this, it’s annoying the way gravatar follows me around the rest of the web. I would vastly prefer to load a pic here instead of using gravatar.
It would be CO for me. Salida, CB, Breck for starters. If that wasn’t enough, I’d continue SW through the state.
Webscorer.com or athletepath. The latter is better from a participant standpoint, as they require the online reg fee to be included in the entry fee rather than a separate fee charged directly to the participant (ala bikereg and far too many others). Webscorer also has a timing app that interfaces with their online registrations, and the online registrations aren’t as overpriced as others. There’s at least one other out there that allows online sign up, and a check to then be mailed, with no extra fee to the participant.
IMO active.com is by far the worst out there, and bikereg isn’t great. Both remind of ticketmaster ‘convenience’ fees. Not a huge deal on a $25 entry, but way out of line for $100 or more entry fees.
Better yet, which of those cities have jobs that don’t also require driving. I can ride from home in Snoqualmie WA, but my commute to work in Seattle is 25 + miles each way. Plenty of small resort towns with loads of riding. The holy grail is places like with jobs that don’t require big commutes.
