In all my years of mountain biking I've never had "home" trails that I could ride to, and not have to drive to. The closest was when I lived in McKeesport many moons ago. There was some decent stuff over in Port Vue and Liberty, but that required a pretty good ride to get to.
Recently the Saint Vincent's Equestrian Team has cut some sweet singletrack into the woods surrounding the college. There was already some decent trails close by. Most noteably the stuff around the lake, but no real singletrack. It is such a joy to not have to drive to get to decent trails. Not only are they fun, but also very scenic. Yeah, all the new stuff together only adds up to about 2 miles of trail, but combined with the stuff around the lake, and riding from home it's super easy to put together a fun, 10-12 mile ride now. So I've started taking care of the trails...removing leaves, knocking back jagger bushes, clearing deadfall, even a few reroutes. There's still alot I want to to, but that's on hold a couple weeks while the guys with guns are prowling the woods looking to take out Bambi.
Fine by me really, this year's bike riding is winding down. I only need about 7 hours to reach my goal for the year of 250. I'm trying to get into the habit of bouncing on the rebounder every morning again. I moved Paco the Kettlebell back up to the living room from the basement in hopes that I'd be more likely to randomly pick it up and get some exercise. So far that seems to be working too. I'm also going to start with walking lunges, power cleans, and deadlifts as soon as my legs feel a little better. Also need to get back into the daily habit of foam rolling, yoga and stretching.
A blog about my adventures in mountain biking, fat biking, rebounding (bouncing on a mini trampoline),and various martial arts (tai chi, bagua zhang, and xingyi quan).
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Becoming a Cellerciser affiliate!
When you find something you truly believe in, that's changed your life in such a positive way, you want to share it with the world. So, I have officially become an affiliate of Cellerciser rebounders!
Cellerciser
Cellerciser
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Vee Snowshoe XL's: A Second Impression
I got back out on the fat bike again today. This time at Yellow Creek State Park near Indiana, PA.
These trails have a little bit of everything, and I thought they'd be a perfect place to put the Snowshoe XL's through their paces. Tire pressures were lowered to 7.5 front/8.0 rear for this ride. At these pressures I didn't feel any noticeable difference in the way the tires handled on pavement or on the trail (meaning no more or less self steer), and they didn't seem to have any more rolling resistance than at the slightly higher pressures I tested yesterday. They were also a bit more comfortable riding through rooty sections of trail that would cause the bike to chatter. Still a long way from resembling any kind of suspension though.
A couple things I did notice...
There are sections of trail at Yellow Creek that are very tight and twisty that have you whipping the bike left, then right, then left again as you slalom downhill between trees. In these sections the Snowshoe's seemed sluggish and couldn't "keep up" with the rhythm of the trail. To be fair, some sections of the trails are so twisty that I've struggled to muscle my way through on the 29er before too though.
What was more disconcerting was when I tried to turn the bike in a fast corner and instead of diving inside it wanted to keep wandering to the edges of the trail (and sometimes beyond).
Basically, these tires track straight and true, and they prefer to stay that way. They can corner, quite well in fact, but a quick succession of turns is probably more from a physics standpoint than should be asked of any 4.8" bike tire.
Another thing I noticed is that the tires would slip sideways when crossing logs/branches at anything other than a 90 degree angle. Was somewhat surprised by this because everything I had read said that the silica compound was great for wet/mud/slippery grip. This could be more a fault of my riding techniques on the fattie though. Still don't think I'm running the tire pressures low enough. When I was running the H-billies I was running pressures low enough that I could "pre-load" the tires to get the wheels up and over obstacles. The pressures I ran on the Snowshoes haven't had any "give" to them to allow them to be compressed.
Today I rode through some wet/muddy sections and was pleasantly surprised that the textured surface didn't gum up with dirt. I'm sure it depends on soil type too though. Clay based dirts are pretty much going to stick to anything while loamy dirts are so crumbly that they don't hold on to anything.
So to sum it up...the jumbo tires can be a handful in the tight and twisty. They also have great grip, but that doesn't mean they'll never slip.
I probably need to spend some time tooling around the backyard playing with tire pressures to see what works best. With the H-billies I started at 10 psi, rode a couple laps around the backyard to get a good feel for how the tires were reacting, then lowered in increments of 0.5 psi and rode additional laps until the tires got too soft and bouncy for riding on solid ground (around 6 psi) for my weight. I think something similar with the Snowshoe's will be beneficial for me.
These trails have a little bit of everything, and I thought they'd be a perfect place to put the Snowshoe XL's through their paces. Tire pressures were lowered to 7.5 front/8.0 rear for this ride. At these pressures I didn't feel any noticeable difference in the way the tires handled on pavement or on the trail (meaning no more or less self steer), and they didn't seem to have any more rolling resistance than at the slightly higher pressures I tested yesterday. They were also a bit more comfortable riding through rooty sections of trail that would cause the bike to chatter. Still a long way from resembling any kind of suspension though.
A couple things I did notice...
There are sections of trail at Yellow Creek that are very tight and twisty that have you whipping the bike left, then right, then left again as you slalom downhill between trees. In these sections the Snowshoe's seemed sluggish and couldn't "keep up" with the rhythm of the trail. To be fair, some sections of the trails are so twisty that I've struggled to muscle my way through on the 29er before too though.
What was more disconcerting was when I tried to turn the bike in a fast corner and instead of diving inside it wanted to keep wandering to the edges of the trail (and sometimes beyond).
Basically, these tires track straight and true, and they prefer to stay that way. They can corner, quite well in fact, but a quick succession of turns is probably more from a physics standpoint than should be asked of any 4.8" bike tire.
Another thing I noticed is that the tires would slip sideways when crossing logs/branches at anything other than a 90 degree angle. Was somewhat surprised by this because everything I had read said that the silica compound was great for wet/mud/slippery grip. This could be more a fault of my riding techniques on the fattie though. Still don't think I'm running the tire pressures low enough. When I was running the H-billies I was running pressures low enough that I could "pre-load" the tires to get the wheels up and over obstacles. The pressures I ran on the Snowshoes haven't had any "give" to them to allow them to be compressed.
Today I rode through some wet/muddy sections and was pleasantly surprised that the textured surface didn't gum up with dirt. I'm sure it depends on soil type too though. Clay based dirts are pretty much going to stick to anything while loamy dirts are so crumbly that they don't hold on to anything.
So to sum it up...the jumbo tires can be a handful in the tight and twisty. They also have great grip, but that doesn't mean they'll never slip.
I probably need to spend some time tooling around the backyard playing with tire pressures to see what works best. With the H-billies I started at 10 psi, rode a couple laps around the backyard to get a good feel for how the tires were reacting, then lowered in increments of 0.5 psi and rode additional laps until the tires got too soft and bouncy for riding on solid ground (around 6 psi) for my weight. I think something similar with the Snowshoe's will be beneficial for me.
Vee Snowshoe XL: First Ride Review
OK, the few reviews I've found on these tires generally said the same things...the tires are big (duh), the have a bad self-steer problem, the textured surface packs with mud in wet conditions, and they're slow rolling.
At this point you're probably wondering why the heck I would buy them with reviews like that!
My fat bike came with Vee's H-Billie tires that I was impressed with. I wanted something bigger with more grip, and these fit the bill so I thought I'd give them a shot.
After my first ride on them I'm here to set the record straight.
First off, they are big. Mounted on my 90mm rims they measure in around 4.5 inches with a diameter of 30 inches. Out on the trail this translates to monster truck levels of rollability. You'll find yourself seeking out things to roll over with these bad boys!
For my first ride I decided to head over to White Oak Park. It's got some fast and flowy trails with only a few technical sections and no rocks to speak of. For this ride I went with 8.5 psi in the front tire, and 9.0 psi in the rear which is about 1.0 psi higher front and back than I was riding with the Vee H-Billies this summer on singletrack. At those pressures they roll pretty darn good on hard surfaces (hardpacked dirt singletrack trails that were mostly leaf covered). On pavement they are not fast rollers, and they rumble a good bit (enough that it was preferable to ride the grass on the edge of the road instead of the road), but why the heck would you wanna ride these beasts on pavement anyway?
Self-steer? At these pressures I only noticed a slight tendency for self-steer on pavement. Out on the trails they behaved normally. They also have gobs of traction. Standing up pedaling uphill on wet leaves on top of moist ground the tires never slipped once no matter how hard I laid on the gas.
I didn't hit much wet stuff to see if the textured surfaces hold on to dirt, but I do think that textured surface was helping with the velcro like traction I experienced on this ride.
Next ride I'll probably drop the pressure down a bit to see how they react. I'm 200 lbs and at 9 psi the ride wasn't bouncy, but it wasn't exactly comfortable either.
I plan to continue with updates through the winter so there's some real world reviews of how these tires are performing in snow and ice conditions.
At this point you're probably wondering why the heck I would buy them with reviews like that!
My fat bike came with Vee's H-Billie tires that I was impressed with. I wanted something bigger with more grip, and these fit the bill so I thought I'd give them a shot.
After my first ride on them I'm here to set the record straight.
First off, they are big. Mounted on my 90mm rims they measure in around 4.5 inches with a diameter of 30 inches. Out on the trail this translates to monster truck levels of rollability. You'll find yourself seeking out things to roll over with these bad boys!
For my first ride I decided to head over to White Oak Park. It's got some fast and flowy trails with only a few technical sections and no rocks to speak of. For this ride I went with 8.5 psi in the front tire, and 9.0 psi in the rear which is about 1.0 psi higher front and back than I was riding with the Vee H-Billies this summer on singletrack. At those pressures they roll pretty darn good on hard surfaces (hardpacked dirt singletrack trails that were mostly leaf covered). On pavement they are not fast rollers, and they rumble a good bit (enough that it was preferable to ride the grass on the edge of the road instead of the road), but why the heck would you wanna ride these beasts on pavement anyway?
Self-steer? At these pressures I only noticed a slight tendency for self-steer on pavement. Out on the trails they behaved normally. They also have gobs of traction. Standing up pedaling uphill on wet leaves on top of moist ground the tires never slipped once no matter how hard I laid on the gas.
I didn't hit much wet stuff to see if the textured surfaces hold on to dirt, but I do think that textured surface was helping with the velcro like traction I experienced on this ride.
Next ride I'll probably drop the pressure down a bit to see how they react. I'm 200 lbs and at 9 psi the ride wasn't bouncy, but it wasn't exactly comfortable either.
I plan to continue with updates through the winter so there's some real world reviews of how these tires are performing in snow and ice conditions.
Friday, November 6, 2015
Fat is Fun!
So I finally got myself a "fat" bike this past summer, and I'm anxiously waiting for it to snow to try it out in that environment.
The bike is a Motobecane FB5 3.0 which can be bought on-line from the bikesdirect.com website. There is some assembly required when the bike arrives, but nothing too serious. This model cost $900 and it was a great deal.
Recently I decided that 4.25" wide tires wasn't big enough, and purchased some 4.8" tires to put on the bike.
These are the Vee Snowshoe XL tires. They are listed as 4.8", but mounted up on my 90mm rims they are measuring in at 4.5". I'm keeping them inflated to 20 psi overnight though so they may still grow a little when the casing stretches. Did a quick spin around the yard and the road in front of the house after getting them mounted, and they seemed to roll pretty good with no self-steer (though I don't think any tire has that problem at 20 psi). I'll find out tomorrow morning how the handle at typical trail riding pressures (7-10 psi).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)