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I have a 1200 wide flood on my bars and 2200 spot on my helmet.
Do you have ridding buddies, what do they use? My first answer would be whatever they are using. Otherwise I’d say Strava. I enjoy checking the Flyby on my computer after a ride to see other riders who I crossed paths with on the trails. I also like seeing how I compare to other riders, and Strava as far more users. I am not racing anyone, but I do enjoy getting better and faster and seeing where I am compared to others is fun. Plus, it is nice that my rides are automatically uploaded to Singletracks.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/
Try this online calculator. You can enter the gears you have currently, and then compare the ratios for those gears to other other options. It really boils down to figuring out what range you really need. What is the fastest you are really going to pedal (Coasting downhill does not count), that will determine what you need on one end of the range, and what gearing do you need to climb the steepest parts of the the places you ride. With the larger cassettes, 9, 10 and now 11 speeds, and wider ranges going up to 40, 42, 45 teeth, many riders are finding they can get all the range they need with only 1 chain ring up front. For some though that won’t give them enough range in their gearing.
I am very happy with a single chain ring up front and no front derailleur to deal with.
What do you think of car bike racks? Um, I think they are needed. There are better ones, there are cheap ones, but one way or another you need one.
Plus, how else can you tell who the cool people are looking at their cars? Around here (Seattle) all the cool people have bike racks and ski boxes on their cars.
Okay, now that I got my joking out of the way, I had roof mounted Yakima racks for ever. Think I bought my first one at 18, I’m 45 now. Over time it became more of a pain to lift the bikes up on top of taller cars/SUVs, and a drag to take the front wheel on and off. I now have a hitch mounted Yakima tray type rack. It can hold 2 or 4 bikes which is nice. I still have two bike mounts on the roof rack which I have for the ski box so I can take 6 bikes when needed.
Why? Because it gets dark so early this time of year and if you want to ride after work, you have to ride in the dark.
How often? For me, a bit less than during the summer as I don’t feel comfortable on my local trails riding at night solo, so having to find time that a buddy can join me means fewer rides. At least once a week though.
Plus, its a blast!
What’s this “too wet to ride”??? Most of our local trails hold up very well to riding in the rain, the roots do get slippery which adds to the challenge. Being in Seattle we get used to the rain. My last 5 rides have been 40ish degrees and rain. All this rain is making snow in the mountains, so pretty soon it will be skiing on weekends, and night rides during the week.
I suspect no one likes Dog crap on the trails, and most have some type of negative reaction to it. And I think they should, as none of us want to get it on out tires, or worse yet tossed into the air from our tires and onto us! What I am surprised about is that I don’t hear much complaints about is the Horse crap! Pretty common to expect dog owners to pick up their dog’s crap, but horse shit is okay? I dont understand why both are not a problem. I have seen bags that attach to the rear of a horse that catch it, so the riders don’t even need to stop.
If you have a pick-up truck, a tailgate pad is a very easy way to carry your bikes. I had a full size Ford and got 7 bikes on my tailgate. I no longer have a pick-up so found a used Yakima Hold-Up. it holds four bikes, with the Plus-2 add-on. It works very well. Holds the bikes securely, does not allow them to touch or bump into each other and is very fast and easy to put the bikes on and take them off. The downside is it is heavy and with the Plus-2 add-on, adds like 5 ft behind your vehicle.
If I needed to replace it, I would take a hard look at the Northshore racks. They are not cheap, but seem like a very good design. Like so many things though, not cheap.I live just outside Seattle. My riding season never really comes to a complete stop. In the fall it rains alot, and it is harder to get myself on the bike while it is raining. When I do, it is usually just fine, although I have to really slow it down, wet roots are really slippery! Temperature is rarely a problem, I generate enough heat to stay warm down to just below freezing. Below freezing is nice because the mud is all frozen solid! Most of the winter is around here is mid forties, which requires starting with a coat. I typically end up shedding it at some point in the ride. What really keeps me off the trails in the winter though is Skiing. Once the days get longer in the spring I have been known to ski the first half of the day, drive home and head out for a bike ride. This winter was terrible for snow and I only got 10 days in, but the warmer weather meant a lot more riding. Strava shows 35 rides so far this year, average of 3 per week. I dont always manage to get in 3 a week, I do try to get in at least one a week. I do have an advantage over some in that I live close enough to a nice network of trails that I can ride to them, dont need to pack the bike onto the car and can go for a ride pretty quickly when I have a spare hour or two. The downside to that ends up being that I rarely ride anywhere else.
