Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association - Forums

Subject says it all.  ;)

I'm trying to get a weekly intermediate to fast ride going in addition to the other weekly rides.
There will be several SS riders, but everyone is welcome! Just make sure to bring the lights, it is starting to get dark early now, so we'd most likely continue riding after dark.

See you there!

dz

Im there!!!
Nick

I think I'm going to bail on account of the weather.  Looks like rain.  Will be out of town next week but will plan on riding Monday and Tuesday the week after(10/22, 10/23).
Nick

Wha?!?!?!
Man, it's just a little drizzle that's stopping, considerin ghow dry the trails have been, it's going to make them just perfect today!
I would never condone riding in the mud, but this is nothing. After 3 weeks of no rain, the ground will soack it up like it never rained. But of course it's your call.

dz

PS it stopped raining already.

Ok..You twisted my arm.  Ill be there.
Nick

that was a tough sell!! :P

K

whats a fast pace?/under 1:30 for the loop???

Which loop are you talking about doing in under 1:30?  :o

There are plenty of riders who are moving faster than us, there are some that are slower. I haven't timed our rides, and we usually play it by ear with different routes, but lets say from VG head north on Forbidden then up to Summit, then back sourth all the way around and back up on west side to VG in 1:30-2 hours

dz

tonight Dmz leaving Northwestern at 5:30 and I'm joining at VG at 6, Tuesday Nov 20

Subject to the condition of the trails. If they are too soft we'll bail to the forbidden. But I hope that between it being just a drizzle over tha last two days and raining stopping few hours ago, we'll be ok.

But we'll be responsible if it looks too soft.  ;)

dz

I'm in NYC for work and won't get back on time for the ride.
Plus we had some heavy rain overnight, and the trails weren't exactly bone dry to begin with, so they'll be muddy and soft.

In the spirit of being responsible trail users, tonight's ride is cancelled. And I urge everyone to stay off the trails today, and let them dry out for at least 24 hours.

dz

The-the-the-that's all folks!  ;)

dz

Unfortunately, I have to work late tonight, so I won't get to VG till 7 at the earliest.
If there are any regulars who would like to carry on at 5:30, please, do so! But I will also head out for a ride at 7:30 if anyone wants to do a later night ride.... Psstt, Pete?  ;)

dz

I'll keep it in mind. depends how much work I get done. It was awesome last night, though one week out felt like six months! It sucks being a hostage to the weather.

I'm in for a 7:30 ride tonight

oK, 7:30 at VG

I'm heading out from VG at 5:30ish if anyone is interested.  Look for an orange ss 29er.
-nick

Do me a favor, and finish at VG at 7:30?... I want to see your new bike!!!  :D

dz

Great ride John! Thank you for coming out.

Where were you, Nick? I didn't see your Fit in the parking lot when we got there. Need to check out the orange beast!

dz

Yup, good ride.  When I got home and took a closer look, I noticed that my upper pulley wheel was missing 2-3 teeth - about a third of the wheel was broken off.  Must have happened when I got hung up in that big stick...was wondering about the slight clicking noise the whole night.  Oh well, I happy it lasted the rest of the ride.

Glad to hear it wasn't a major mechanical.

See you for a ride in the next year!

dz

Waiting to hear from anyone who's been out on the trails today to see what the conditions are like.
With all the rain, I'm not holding my breath, most likely I'll scrub the ride, cos of soft, muddy trails, but who knows...

Check in later in the afternoon for more updates.

Thanks

dz

It definitely got below 32 all night. It might be frozen?!?

That's good. Gives us some hope. But it will be above freezing during the day, so I'm wondering how'd it look by 6 PM?...

dz

I woke up extra early in hopes of doing a morning ride while the ground was still frozen. As of around 5AM the top 1/4" was frozen at my house, but wasn't hard enough to ride.  My yard still felt kind of squishy.  When the temps get 5 or so degrees above freezing during the day, it sometimes requires some pretty cold overnight temps to really harden the ground. 

This sucks!!! I want to ride.
nc

Sounds like the ride is off... Bummer...

Get your snow tires out!! ...well maybe?

Is anyone up for a ride tonight? 6 from VGI or maybe even a little earlier?

dz

Tuesday ride 2/12? I'm Flexible.

Yep, 6 from VGI. I believe Max and Nick are coming too.

Cool,  I need to talk to max about getting some maps of the wiss anyways.

If the weather holds out...  :-\

I think you guys will be good.  22deg now, high of 29, no sun...and a little snow and it should be great.

I decided against the light purchase for this season.  I had my LBS (or not so L, they are in DE) looking into getting a Lupine dealer license but the us distro was dragging their feet.  Oh well, plan is to wait till fall to see what new comes out.  Judging by led progress it should be something brighter, better, cheaper.  Only a few weeks till daylight savings is over and we are gaining light fast anyway.

So....I'll be going out before dark today.

I'm gonna try to catch you guys tonight as well. My ride tommorow may be out and I love riding in snow.

Might be good call on the lights Chuck . Sometimes prices drop after the dark season is over.

Tom,

Do you have an extra set of winter gloves?  I don't have any winter riding gloves and I think I may get frost bite without them tonight!

Chris

we didn't need no stinkin lights last tuesday...

seriously!!!

john was out with us and his light died early in the ride. for a while he was riding in dimitri's spill then i noticed the snow was making things pretty bright.

i turned off my light and rode the rest of the light with it off.

it was really fun! i wasn't breaking any speed records but really with the snow on the ground it was plenty bright to ride with no lights.

next time it snows go for a night ride! no lights necessary....  :P

well maybe bring one for backup.

Folks, if anyone is interested in joining in tonight, there is slight adjustment in time, we are wheeling out from VGI at 5:45 tonight for a full 1.5 hours in day light!!! Then turning the lights on and riding till the deer hunting curfew.

dz

DZ, I'm meeting a couple of my Thursday niters at 5:15 at VG. I'm 90% sure we'll roll the same way we always do, up toward Summit Ave and on to LD. Though I wouldn't mind checking out the Indian.

hopefully we'll run into you.

DZ,

Daylight!  Sounds good.....

Yeah - we were out on Tuesday, leaving at about 4:30 and did the VG side to Lincoln in daylight.  Made it part way back up Lincoln before needing lights.  I'm on the hardtail 29er today so I'm not riding the Indian but I'll be leaving VG at 5l15 with jess and anyone else who wants to ride the VG side.

Jon

I was thinking doing the park in the clock-wise direction starting from VGI, going on Mt. Airy side first. But we'll play it by ear. Probably run into you, guys at some point.

Sounds like we are getting anice largish group going, good!

dz

Fun ride everyone!  Thanks....

Yup. That was tons of fun.  Thanks for putting up with us non-light equipped jackasses...

Nice meeting everyone that I haven't before and I'm definitely down with doing that again.

This is Nick with the red Raleigh XXIX by the way...

Even with all the stops (btw, each one of them was very welcome break to rest) I haven't ridden this hard in over a month! This was great. Thank you everyone. I hope all had as much fun as I did and no one came as close to blacking out as I did!   :o
I was very imporessed by Chuck and Nick riding as long as they did into the dark without lights! hard core!

Conditions were just about perfect!

dz

PS not often you see a group of 8 almost exclusively 29ers, almost exclusively SS. Good times!

It helped that there were 6 (?) other lights out there!  That and my eyes are really good at going from bright to dark after years in a photo darkroom.....

4 of us non-suspension folks out there too!

Uh oh, I feel like such a loner.  ;D 

Does this mean I need to find a '29er if I want to come out again next week?  I've been pondering a single speed for a few weeks now...how much for a mid-level setup and any suggestions?

John - old guy on the full suspension Giant Trance

Mid level 29er ss?  Tons available right now.  Just off the top of my head.....

Gary Fisher Rig - front sus
Haro Mary - Rigid but sus corrected if need be.
Jamis Exile - same
Bianchi SOK - front sus
Raleigh XXIX - rigid and not sus corrected


There are mroe but that's what I can think up right now.  Also, a bunch of frames available if you want to build up your own....

8 riders
7 29ers
6 SS
4 rigid

that's a good group in my mind!

John, you are ok, we like you, you can come out to play on any bike any time! :-)

Good list, Chuck. I'll add On One Inbred. Comes rigid with CF fork and Jucy5 brakes IIRC, for just over $1K, that's one good build. it is susp corrected, and bonus is that the frame does have a der hanger and the rear wheel comes with cassette hub, with SS conversio kit, so if you wanted to go geared, setting it up as 1X9 would only require a cessette, rear der and a shifter and can be installed in about 20 minutes.

dz

Good point, D.   The Jamis comes with a der hanger and a full (9sp) cassette hub this year, making a swap easy if wanted.  I am anti full cassette hub.   If you think you will want to run SS it will build a weaker/flexier back wheel.

I guess I'm the only one who loves a full suspension SS, but if you got and old bike or want to build your own SS Performance has a single speed kit (on sale for $18!) that includes a tensioner, spacers and choice of 3 cogs. All you need to add is a chain.

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/Profile.cfm?SKU=23062&item=50-6550&slitrk=search&slisearch=true

You can turn any bike into an SS but the more travel you have the more problems you may encounter. I did it on a 4" travel bike, though the linkage was very close to the bottom bracket meaning the chain length didn't vary too much in the movement. I have not tried it on a larger suspension bike, but the tensioner does allow for quite a bit of movement, just not nearly as much as a dérailleur.

On the crankset you remove the smallest and largest chainrings, though you may have to use some spacers to depending on your crank.

I think you've seen my current bike; The Salsa frame is designed as a geared 29er soft tail, though it was super easy to build to a SS with the same kit.

Well, yeah, building a wheels around a SS hub makes it a lil bit stronger, but we all run geared wheels and they've been plenty strong, hell, the HD guys beat up on those geared wheels REALLY hard and they hold up, so there is nothing really lost in strength department, but it does allow flexibility for many folks.
That's the setup I ran for the first 1.5-2 years of SSing, before I knew I didn't need/want the other options and sprung for my current SS only wheelset.

Just my $0.02

dz

True, true.  I just feel it's one of the biggest benefits of going SS.   With discs and the 700c wheel it makes a pretty big difference.  You really have to overbuild the drive side on a cassette hub to get the same effect, but it does allow the option of gears.  Always trade offs....

Of course this coming from a guy who ordered a custom 29 frame/fork with no option of a hanger and a rigid fork that's not sus corrected when I was then riding a front sus full geared 26er.....so you know where I am coming from.   ;D

Sounds very familiar. I was planning on getting a nice FS 26er for couple of years (had my eyes on Santa Cruz SuperLight), ended up with rigid 29er SS...
So everyone, take notice and take Chuck's and my suggestions with about 5 lbs of salt!!!   ;)

dz

I'm starting to lust after that Gary Fisher full-sprung 29er that was reviewed in one of the MB mags last month (I think it's the Hi-Fi), but I'd need to sell two of the other bikes to make it work.  Anyone looked at that one?