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My 2020 mountain bike edit

I share my mountain biking and skiing videos on here, I'm very average or even below average, and mainly mountain bike for exercise; since I'm a heavier rider and on full suspension it's really difficult for me to do jumps of any significance. These rides all take place in Colorado, and all of them are in wildfire smoke, although the gopro sensor struggles to pick up the smoke for 2-3. The large cloud in the first ride is actually entirely wildfire smoke that consumed over 100,000 acres in one night and destroyed significant parts of the community of Grand Lake.

I hope you enjoy the video. :)

 

DESTROYA

Member
The music put me to sleep, nice scenery.
Was hopping at least one cow would charge you for some excitement, but this video is 3 minutes too long.
And did I mention the music really sucked for a “action” vid
 
The music put me to sleep, nice scenery.
Was hopping at least one cow would charge you for some excitement, but this video is 3 minutes too long.
And did I mention the music really sucked for a “action” vid

I'm going to put in music that I like for videos, and it's ok that you don't like the same music as me.
If you listen to the lyrics, the song is really about how when bad things bombard you, that the good things in life just feel that much better. That is what MTB has been for me this summer, this refuge from my constant direct exposure to covid-19, my patients that I lost this year [more than I've lost in the last 5 years], me isolating from my family; cancelling Thanksgiving and Christmas, watching fire race down the mountain from my home, destroying so many places that I cherish, and having ashfall for considerable parts of this summer and fall [hence the reference to PM 2.5 in the video name].
I do have an attention span that can last for longer than 30 seconds, and I find it difficult and incomplete to do an XC video without showing some climbing, and some "tech", and I like to show myself how I improve from year to year. I actually wish I would have added a little more climbing to this video. I feel like you might have been expecting a downhill MTB video, and that's a lot different from what I do. I don't even have a downhill bike.


Nice video!

What brand/model bike do you ride? Any custom parts?

This is a 2018 Trek Fuel EX 7. No custom parts unless my crankbrother pedals count [also the source of all of the scars on my ankles], and then the I did get a slightly upgraded sidewall tire with hopes that my sealant wouldn't leak out, but it still leaks out the sidewall. A nice custom part for me would be losing 40 pounds.

Thank you.
 
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poodaddy

Member
This is fucking cool man. I wish I had the balls to try it, buuuutttt I don't lol. I'm a clumsy, uncoordinated mother fucker; pretty sure I'd break my neck inside of ten minutes.
 
This is fucking cool man. I wish I had the balls to try it, buuuutttt I don't lol. I'm a clumsy, uncoordinated mother fucker; pretty sure I'd break my neck inside of ten minutes.

Thank you. Prior to starting mountain biking I hadn't been on a bike in 19 years because my mom was killed in a road biking accident when I was little. I ended up in a situation where I was medical staff for an event, and I had to mountain bike on a bike that was way too small for me. When I finished I just felt like I had gotten something out of the way that I didn't know mattered to me after two decades.

This video here was my second time on a bike, and then I didn't actually buy a bike for a year after that. You can be uncoordinated and safe on a mountain bike [as long as you don't look towards a cliff, and the more you do it the better you will get. I have only fallen twice since 2017, and neither was on any sort of obstacle.
 
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I'm jealous of your trail(s) and location. It's just the sort of rides I'd enjoy or take my family on. We have some nice trails on a mountain near us but it's either quite steep or downhill competitive type stuff, too much for me. We're relegated to sealed bike paths for the most part, but we have some of the most extensive man made bike paths around. Can't complain. I'm just rocking this basic dad bike, family all have similar, but it's really quite a decent all purpose bike from Decathlon for the low-mid end prices (also I don't have the lock in pedals) -

pic_4398cad4-d74b-4cb8-b6dc-ff5e158e6f52_960x.progressive.jpg


My son rides this one, a model down and loves to ride to school most days too -

pic_e36d03af-6e26-44ab-8c3b-84986e552432_960x.progressive.jpg


Thanks for sharing you quality vids by the way.
 
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Durask

Member
A bike thread, nice,

I've gotten into biking beause of Covid and now I'm kicking myself for not starting it years ago.

I have an old crappy mountain bike which is like almost 20 years old and never actually took it mountain biking because for me mountain biking was some fancy thing that you had to go to Colorado to do. So I rode it around town a bit and then it just gathered dust.

When the Covid epidemic started I realized there are some paved bike trails near me and so I started biking there. It was fun but got boring after a while.
Then I got an E-bike and took it on some trails in a neighboring state (NH) and holy shit it was fun. However, here in MA you can't ride ebike on trails, only on roads. However biking my old bike on paved trails got me in better shape.

Ebike pic:
IMG-4396-Copy.jpg


Then I realized that there is actually a very nice mountain bike area near me. Tried taking my old crappy bike there (since my ebike is not allowed) and almost died there - 26 inch wheels with cheap crappy tires and old junky 3x transmission just doesn't cut it when you are trying to pedal uphill with huge rocks on the trail.

So I got myself a pretty nice hardtail - Trek Roscoe 7 (amazing that a $1200 bike is considered a cheap entry level bike these days!) and so far I had a lot of fun riding it.
(not my pic, my bike is orange)

maxresdefault.jpg


It's got a dropper post which I think is the best invention to ever hit the bike world, like, ever. So far I don't think I need full suspension especially since my biking here is more cross country and less crazy downhill riding, I'm kinda chicken when it comes to that

Now thinking of getting myself a fat tire bike so that I can ride in the winter. Forget about PS5 and RTX 3080 for now.

This is the trails that are about 20 minutes away from where I live now. No it's not me in those vids, my riding is much less, eh, impressive. I kinda crawl down on brakes a lot.





 

Cyberpunkd

Member
Really cool thread - I mostly bike to work using Uber / Lime due to having to put the kids to childcare and transport connections being really bad (takes me 10 minutes to get from childcare to work). I would love to ride a bike regularly, however my wife has had bad experience with it so she is anxious, plus we live in central Paris: traffic, fumes, bad pavement make for shitty experience.
 

Xdrive05

Member
This thread is awesome but also very depressing as I'm a super fatty fat guy. I literally need to lose about 100lbs to be able to comfortably ride. I'm working on it. It's a 2022 goal of mine to get a bike, so I'm getting after it!
 
This thread is awesome but also very depressing as I'm a super fatty fat guy. I literally need to lose about 100lbs to be able to comfortably ride. I'm working on it. It's a 2022 goal of mine to get a bike, so I'm getting after it!
Hey! Stop that train of thought! Just get on a bike and go if you're in the 300 zone. In a typical year I see maybe one rider heavier than me, and that's probably skewed against me since I live around Boulder.

I bought a peloton this fall because of the wildfires, and I'm consistently in the top 10pc of output as a legitimate strong fatty (this is output and not output/kg which would slap me towards below average) . If you're so out of shape that you really don't think you can develop good riding habits, get out there and hike your trails instead! I lost 65 pounds (years ago) just being dedicated to a reasonable caloric intake, walking 4-5 days most days of the week for an hour, and 2 shitty weight lifting sessions a week! My diet right now is trash and I'm working hard on weight loss again so I can perform better this summer.

I did a bike tear down with new cables, tires, and a serviced suspension so I'm ready for the trails to dry out from the snowstorm.

I'm going to try to alternate between hiking and biking this year because I think I bike too much and don't develop enough glut strength which hiking is great for!
 

Durask

Member
Sold my hardtail and got a full suspension bike. Hardtail was too hard on my ass.

Spring is here.
 
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Greets peepz.

For whatever reason I'm bored, did a local gravel baby mountain bike ride with my brother today in the heat, and can't think of anything better to do, so I'm sharing some pics with you!

I had a camping trip in the beginning part of May to open up my mountain bike season. Colorado had seen an incredibly rainy year, with over 9 inches of rain by May; more than we got in all of last year for those of us along the Front Range - the mountains and the Western Slope are unfortunately in mega drought and several fires have already started, and we're moving into a very hot week. As a result, I hadn't gotten any of my riding in around Boulder, so I headed north!

While going north, I got caught in a massive thunderstorrm, and I ended up with a lot of grime in my bike from the road, so now my bike sounds creeky and deathly again.


In these first two pics, you can see that I camped really close to the trail, and this is just a fun little casual trail that encircles the camping areas along the cliff [second picture]. In the summer, this is great because you can bathe in the lake, but at this time of the year the water is exceptionally cold.
D2aNpSd.jpg


AY3rk92.jpg


This is also from the same trail system.
gnrbyqB.jpg





Most of these trails are not terribly crazy for vert, some of them are somewhat technical where I have to dismount for certain obstacle route navigations. One thing that is a little concerning about this area, is almost no one rides it. while this sounds like a great thing, if you were to get hurt it could be more concerning. Outside of my party, I only saw 1 other person on the trails in two days.

S8NcCDC.jpg


ZoJAFeu.jpg



I walked this section, no way I can generate enough power nor technique to go up this, just thought it looked cool.

YFCFDIP.jpg



I went a bit ahead of my group and ended up on a pretty technical trail. I captured this frame because it was about my stopping point, as I kept coming to too many obstacles I couldn't navigate well [this was not one of those obstacles].

OCJ32n7.jpg



You probably wouldn't guess it from this first picture, but this was the scariest part of the trip. My hands were sweating from being nervous here. Just behind that tree line is a large fall, and there is exposure to it for several minutes. Thankfully this trail was very mild, but I couldn't look that direction at all for fear of directing my bike that way.

C5LYpIr.jpg



This picture is just a little bit later, and can explain my nervousness!

kITpSG9.jpg


I then got lost on the way back down, and ended up on a seperate loop I hadn't taken before. Got a cool picture from it and a nice view of the water.

gRR8l0S.jpg
 
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I live in Lake Tahoe and ride all the time. I might get a gopro for work and fun, looks like you are doing a chestie or on the chin?

Chestie. Normally I mount it upside down for mtbing, but I did rightside up on this trip. Upside down is better. A lot of unusable footage.

I lost a gopro 7 on an incredible powder day when it was mounted upside down, so I always get a little worried about mounting upside down. The screw seemed to disintegrate or something, it was bizarre. Everything was essentially intact, and I always get sheepish about going back to upside down for the summer now. Gopro replaced it for free.
 

Durask

Member
Most of these trails are not terribly crazy for vert, some of them are somewhat technical where I have to dismount for certain obstacle route navigations. One thing that is a little concerning about this area, is almost no one rides it. while this sounds like a great thing, if you were to get hurt it could be more concerning. Outside of my party, I only saw 1 other person on the trails in two days.

Yeah, this is smart thinking. If you are in an area without cell reception, have to be very, very careful if you are alone.
 
Air quality in Colorado has been trash for over 24 days due in equal parts to commuting, massive oil and gas expansion since the mid 2010s, and a lesser portion of ozone contribution from wildfires. The Front Range will be using the California and NYC gas blends moving forward due to the pollution. Counties are starting to take stands against O&G, with a surprise leader being Adams County, which was one of the expansive drilling counties in the 2010s.

Exercising indoors nearly exclusively except on weekends [flooding, rock, and mud slides this weekend in the mountains, so at home].

Couple images from a 17 mile 2500ish vert ride that I did several weeks ago. First time I had done this, was actually easier than I expected it to be, but I've made some great improvements with my biking.

PvBqhZ1.jpg


16WO7LT.jpg


fESBcrS.jpg
 
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you're awesome bro

please don't get eaten by a bear tho

I also didn't know you could ride mountain bikes on actual mountains

I always thought it was a buzz word to trick people into buying their product

usually only see ppl riding them in streets

Also, I've had two bikes stolen by adults when I was a child

:(
 
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Durask

Member
I am envious of Colorado since here in New England it is all trees, rocks and roots (as in biking on rocks and roots in between trees).
However, hearing about air quality...not so much.

Googled up a video, here's a typical New England trail

 
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you're awesome bro

please don't get eaten by a bear tho

I also didn't know you could ride mountain bikes on actual mountains

I always thought it was a buzz word to trick people into buying their product

usually only see ppl riding them in streets

Also, I've had two bikes stolen by adults when I was a child

:(

I have never seen a bear in the wild, but have heard a mountain lion at night. More worried about moose though. My first mountain bike ride in Colorado I ran into a mama moose and a calf; this is the most dangerous animal combination you find in Colorado]


The bikes you see in Walmart are marketing trickery. There are lots of different kinds of bikes that fit in mountain bike categories though.



My bike is somewhat at an intersection of a trail bike to baby enduro bike, which fits the trails I do well. Most of the time I'm on pretty easy non technical stuff, but then you get to a quite rocky section so having an all-rounder works pretty well. I am not a crazy rider and I only really hit small and personally thought out jumps.

Colorado has a massive bike theft problems within the Boulder area. My community had 13 bikes stolen in a 3 week period earlier this year.
 
Whoops. I honestly didn't even feel the pedal strikes. These are really superficial and will likely heal well, and look more dramatic than they are.

Not so fun though is my upper back, which I didn't even know I hurt until I couldn't keep my head up later in the day yesterday. I woke up yelping several times last night.
zBf5ChO.jpg
 
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OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Cool stuff op. I used to do a lot of mountain biking when I was a younger lad. Lots of trails. Nothing too aggressive as far as incline or declines though. I purchased a new mountain bike a few years ago and I've been trying to get back into it ever since.
 
Hi. I've been having some medical issues so I am bored and haven't ridden in over three weeks. I actually took these the day before I started having problems; I think I'm starting to recover as of today. It has been a trail I've wanted to do for several years, but I've always been a bit intimidated by it. The first half is really amazing, but I wasn't terribly impressed by the second half [all of these pics are the second half]. I think the uphill ended up a little bit above my skill level as a mountain biker, so I don't know that I will do this trail again for a while. I'm not sure I'll have an edit for this year. I wanted to balance my time more between hiking and mountain biking this year, which I did a good job of. I've lost nearly a month of exercise now due to the medical stuff, so it might be hard to do some of the rides I think are worth taking footage of. I do have one easier ride at high elevation that I would like to do this fall, so we'll see.


C7NSLIn.jpg


PQ2iuXp.jpg



aH37Alt.jpg


tWDZPdR.jpg
 
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I got my bike out today; last rode it on a leisurely ride around the neighborhood about a month ago, and then did a 7 mile ride in January in about 15 degree weather. When I went to add lube to it I did my regular inspection and found this.

u9zaD8Y.jpg


It may or may not be under warranty; conflicting information, but leaning towards covered. Even if it is, they may not make parts for it any longer, which may mean new $$$$ bike this year. When I bought this bike I paid around $2000; the same bike is worth over $3200 now.

I'm bummed, but also simultaneously not bummed. I didn't get hurt because I inspect my bike, and it's cool to get a new bike if that's the case.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
I got my bike out today; last rode it on a leisurely ride around the neighborhood about a month ago, and then did a 7 mile ride in January in about 15 degree weather. When I went to add lube to it I did my regular inspection and found this.

u9zaD8Y.jpg


It may or may not be under warranty; conflicting information, but leaning towards covered. Even if it is, they may not make parts for it any longer, which may mean new $$$$ bike this year. When I bought this bike I paid around $2000; the same bike is worth over $3200 now.

I'm bummed, but also simultaneously not bummed. I didn't get hurt because I inspect my bike, and it's cool to get a new bike if that's the case.
It depends on the type of warranty. Coincidentally, I'm helping edit one of our new model warranties with legal (I'm a manager for one of the largest Westcoast EV/eBike manufacterers in the U.S. and have quite a few myself).

If you're under a limited warranty, typically self-induced accidents are excluded. However, you never know if they (your manufacterer) wouldn't be willing to cover out of good will if it's under 1-year since you purchased. Looks like frame fissuring though which we usually recommend a bike shop that carries your brand to fix. Now, my advice:

- Call tech first and send an email to them or a support team to get the SKU off the part
- Ask for an estimate in repair and if they'd cover for the parts
- If they don't cover the parts. Ask about their reimbursement policy for warranty bike shop repair (tip: if it has a serial #, jot it down as their software will determine your coverage by those means and it's tech SOP)

Let us know how it goes. Can't have a fellow rider down since we're pretty much in riding season.
 
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