Got home early for a change tonight and of course the wind was blowing on-shore so I went with it.
Off down the hill and east to the golf course parking, make a turn and come back past the hill head down to the car wash, turn around again and ride back and up to the top, down and home.

On my way up the slight hill with that massive tail wind, to the parking area turn around this fat guy goes by on the hill mind, like I'm painted on the fence. He has a tiny little being in tow.
Upon closer inspection the fat guy is on a mtb with a fucking electric motor!:huh
No wonder he blew by at maybe 20 mph as I'm huffing out 11. I was thinking there for a minute that potatoes might be aerodynamic after all.:lol3
Big guy, sitting bolt upright pedaling at maybe 40 rpm. Doing about 35 mph. nobody is going to suspect him of having a motor on the bike path. Nope. :huh

After I turned that 25 mph tail wind was in my face. We got 'er done though. Trudging up the hill is getting easier, but I am still getting squeezed by daylight. I hate riding with lights. Feels clunky.

The ride:

<iframe height='405' width='590' frameborder='0' allowtransparency='true' scrolling='no' src='http://app.strava.com/rides/1791144/embed/63199228ddfc09a35cac51e53116e0c36315982b'></iframe>

It's a painting, not a poster.

If it was Lance Armstrong in the painting, would I then need a brother who is a Endocrinologist :scratch.

Thank you, hopefully this works.

<iframe height='405' width='590' frameborder='0' allowtransparency='true' scrolling='no' src='http://app.strava.com/rides/1795611/embed/8f2725ea52dff640300f3d8e90980d06ba3ca740'></iframe>

Tonight was the first time I have taken the CX bike out for a night ride on Singletrack. It was a lot of fun. With that 27kms it made it 70kms all up for the day.

Cross practice last nite. Friends of mine live out in the boonies in The Plains with a place big enough to have a full-size cross course thru it. :clap So that's where we rode!

The 'big loop' is 12-ish minutes. I rode that slowly with T so he could show me round, then slowly again so I knew where I was going, then once we hit the house again, he went off like a shot and that's about the last time I saw him close up till I got tired and waited for J to catch up to me so she'd have someone to ride with.

Couple of thoughts: I absolutely SUCK out loud at getting on and off the bike. If there's one thing I *KNOW* I need to work on, its that. The rest is pretty much all either power or bike handling. Bike handling I'm good at, power will come (again)

So... I'm gonna find something to make some barriers out of and ride round my yard and practice. I've got 4ac so its not like I'm gonna wear a loop around the house...

M

I need to get out and practice some cross training. My problem is I really suck at running.

The local showground has an area that may look promising.

I was thinking more in terms of inspiration. i.e. jumping stuff as in the photo. My brother and I pretty much always had something broken and on the mend. And we didn't discover EK until we were more adult.
At a time when most rented crutches, our family owned two pair. :huh
Back then there wasn't a hospital ER nearby so we called the doctor directly and would meet at his office. Generally on a Sunday afternoon.

A painting to boot. Cool.

I never saw a BMX race until I moved back here to California in 97, and there was a track just up the road from the house. I stopped by there one afternoon to watch. That looks like a whole lot of work. :eek1

Those kids have to be in great condition to get around the track like that.

Seven? Wow.

I'm looking for an all mountain upgrade from my Specialized Rockhopper. Looking for 1. FS, 2. durability, 3. good solid components.

That being said, I found a '09 Giant Trance X2 for sale near my home in my size (XL), but I cannot determine if it's XC or AM. I prefer to be more on the long travel/reinforced frame side of things even if I give up some climbing ability/weight. What do you guys think?

The Trance is their AM platform. Anthems are the XC bikes

HTH

M

OK, dumb question:
What is the difference between All Mountain, and Cross Country, or Trail? :confused

Personally I'd lean toward a full squish that has the best all around use, rather than the one that has a more narrowly defined use.
So, I'm not sure which of the above best fits that.

In short: marketing. The longer answer is suspension travel. AM being longest/heaviest, XC being least/lightest

M

very very happy with my Santa Cruz Heckler got it shipped to my door for $1700 , thought that was a really good deal.
Climbs fine , rides XC trails nicely, jumps(?) nothing too radical as of yet...

Now I get it :lol3. We've been lucky so far...only one minor concussion :lol3. He was back racing in six days :huh...kids.

He's been on the BMX track since he was almost four. His training wheels came off at 3 1/2... I'm a former MSF instructor, that skill has REALLY helped me teach him how to ride.

He trains six days a week. He loves it... He just got moved up a class to 7 Intermediate. It's one of the most competitive classes in our area. You have to commit 100% to do well in this class.

A few pictures for the fun of it...

http://garthe.smugmug.com/Other/BMX/...DSC02127-M.jpg
Gate practice.

http://garthe.smugmug.com/Other/BMX/...DSC02218-M.jpg
BIG 8th win...time to move up.

http://garthe.smugmug.com/Other/BMX/...DSC02184-M.jpg
Training.

http://garthe.smugmug.com/Other/BMX/...DSC02379-M.jpg
The collection.

Mountain Bikes (in my mind anyway):

Trail
XC
All Mountain
Downhill

Sometimes the bikes are indistinguishable until you really look at them. And not everybody uses the term All Mountain. Trek for example uses the confusing classifications: XC, Sport, Singletrack trail, Technical trail, for their mtb bikes. If you go to Jamis's website though you can see the trail v. xc v. all mountain bikes of theirs and the design differences.

Trail/Recreational: Hardtail or Full Suspension bike, usually cheaper, sometimes a more relaxed upright riding position

XC: Hardtail or Full Suspension bike, more race focused components, more aggressive geometry, shorter travel suspension.

All Mountain: Suspension travel/design more downhill bike like, longer travel suspension. Truly designed to be "all mountain". Go to the ski resort and ride single track in the morning and then cool off in the afternoon riding the chairlift to the downhill runs or jump track.

Downhill: Go downhill as fast as you can. Extreme long travel suspension. Minimal gears. Heavy beefy frames.

Anybody riding Levi's Gran Fondo this weekend?

I'm a motomarshal, so if you see a red GS with a photographer on it and an ADV sticker, that's me! :wave

Have a great ride!

You are only off by one.

Trail is in between XC and all mountain.
They climb better than an AM ride and Are better downhill than a XC, MUCH tougher than a XC as well.

This is only marketing if you are not interested in that type of bike. They are quite a bit different.