MTB cycling
- Thread starter Artjr
- Start date
zodiactone
Active member
I’ve had my mountain bike in storage for a few years, but just recently my son has started getting into trail riding. So we are gonna meet up and ride together, I’m looking forward to it.
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cragginshred77
Well-known member
Heck yeah! Fwd in to 14 min mark for some insane views and granite 'chunk' drops and slabs -my backyard!
Monkey Man
Super Moderator
Awesome man. That's mountain biking... on a friggin' mountain. 
Was on the edge of my seat.
Was on the edge of my seat.
cragginshred77
Well-known member
Here's another one
Long time mountain biker here. I think I started in '88 or '89. Used to race XC and 24hr races in the 90's, got into trials competitions in the late '90's and have been the sole proprietor of Vertigo Cycles since 2006 where I design and fabricate custom titanium bikes. Out here in OR, we've been getting a massive amount of rain for the past few weeks so I'm looking forward to getting out again when I'll only get a little wet and not soaked to the bone.
Artjr
Well-known member
Awesome, I been thinking about building a Ti HT. You build some nice frames.
Thank you. Hardtails are great, but so is everything else.
Truth be told, I started racing DH oriented events a few years ago mostly because I grew up in the mid-Atlantic, and while I'd say I got pretty good with the really slow, hard technical riding, I never got comfortable going down hill fast. I found that I couldn't be competitive racing DH on a hardtail, so I've been through my share of full sus carbon bikes over the past few years. It's almost as fun to learn about suspension systems and modify them as it is to make ti bikes. I've been riding a Forbidden Dreadnought this year and have designed a new rocker link for it to change the leverage curve and get more travel out of it.
cragginshred77
Well-known member
This is all we ride through the summer. Not fast riding but gnar chunk. Too slow you get hung up and OTB! Fwd to 2:44" the 'secret trail' shown was the highlight of my summer. The next day it was covered in snow. this is not my video but shows that section really well.
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Looks rad! What region do you live in? Looks like the Sierra's. "Close in" trails near Portland are pretty limited in tech lines and I truly miss that stuff.
cragginshred77
Well-known member
This is east of Sonora near Dodge ridge ski resort. Think 1/2 between Yosemite and Tahoe, actually same county as Yosemite but you get the idea. Dozens of trails like this all in the same area up here. 30 minutes from my front door plus the bike climb and or partial truck shuttles up to 8,000'
Tons of granite rock rolls, slabs ect!
Side note in the above video you see the rider get stalled in one section then fall in another. Prior to upgrading my bike to a 2022 Santa Cruz Bronson CC 'Mullet' 29" up front 27.5" in the rear I would do the same thing. No confidence and that would be my worst enemy.
Once I got the 29" up front I did 3 days of riding where I followed a buddy down numerous rock rolls I previously never would have tried. My thought was 'if he rolled that I can'. My whole world changed without riding above my skill level. As a result I got the much needed confidence to ride without unnecessary fear that could have led to injury due to all the gnarly terrain these trails have.
Over the summer I tackled numerous black diamond trails and a few double blacks which is what that is above! This past Fri - Mon afternoon we got 6" of rain at 5,500 elev and up to 18" of snow higher so our summer rides on the granite are done a bit earlier than normal but that's ok because it was the best summer ever and we need this rain and snow so bad here.
The past 2 months we have been picking up rotted trees on the various trail that have snapped off from 10 to 20' up due to the extreme drought.
Here is one I captured from this past summer!
At 5 min you see some volcanic chunk that's way up the mountain (8'000'), at 8' you hear cow bells as the cattle scatter, at 19' we enter a new trail for me that I was pretty scared to do at the time but did it np prob due to the new confidence and skills the mullet bike gave me!
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Looks so good!
I drove down to Grass Valley a couple of months ago to pick up a TremOVerb and had low expectations but took all my camping and riding gear with me with the hopes of riding somewhere on the way back up to Portland. Unfortunately, everything south of Eugene was super smoky or on fire so it didn't work out. I feel for all the folks who have been affected by the wildfires.
cragginshred77
Well-known member
There is a ton of riding around Auburn and in and around Truckee Tahoe but I have never done any. I hear it can get really busy on the trails with a lot of dust. We rarely ever see any other riders and if we do they are usually headed to another trail.
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Nigel
Guest
Current XC bike: 2016 KHS SixFifty 800. 23 lbs, Fox Float 32 fork, Sram GX 1x11, Guide disc brakes, bontrager petals + XR4 2.4 front/Maxxis Ikon 2.2 in the back. Got it brand new with Trump bux last year for $1,500, MSRP was $3,399. It's the fastest, most fun bike I've had since I got into riding again in 2014.
Started with a mechanic's special Gary Fisher HKEK 26" with a Rockshox Recon 351 Solo Air, then sold it and got a Scott Scale Team 29er, sold that thinking the geometry wasn't right for me and got a Spesh Stumpy 29'er and figured it must be that 29'ers aren't right for me. Got this 27.5"/650B and am the happiest I've ever been on a bike.
Started with a mechanic's special Gary Fisher HKEK 26" with a Rockshox Recon 351 Solo Air, then sold it and got a Scott Scale Team 29er, sold that thinking the geometry wasn't right for me and got a Spesh Stumpy 29'er and figured it must be that 29'ers aren't right for me. Got this 27.5"/650B and am the happiest I've ever been on a bike.
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Nigel
Guest
It's kinda rock n' roll since it has red/black/white/silver/blue which are of Satan lol!
Artjr
Well-known member
Nice bike, what's that thing on your seat? I was the opposite, going from 27.5 to 29 was a good thing for me.
Monkey Man
Super Moderator
You guys'd laugh yourselves silly if you saw mine.
POS undersized bike I bought for $50 in 1991, my first since my Raleigh Carlton Super Chicane 12-speed racer I bought in 1976.
Generally sports more cobwebs than paint, chain and cogs oiled with coconut oil, no suspension, 25% of the spokes missing and so on. Put 12 000kms on it back in the '90s before the trip computer fell apart. Gets me from A to B in style. I don't even have to lock it when I take it out 'cause nobody in his or her right mind would dream of stealing it; you'd be lucky to get 10 bucks for it.
The "security" and sentimental value are the upsides.
POS undersized bike I bought for $50 in 1991, my first since my Raleigh Carlton Super Chicane 12-speed racer I bought in 1976.
Generally sports more cobwebs than paint, chain and cogs oiled with coconut oil, no suspension, 25% of the spokes missing and so on. Put 12 000kms on it back in the '90s before the trip computer fell apart. Gets me from A to B in style. I don't even have to lock it when I take it out 'cause nobody in his or her right mind would dream of stealing it; you'd be lucky to get 10 bucks for it.
The "security" and sentimental value are the upsides.