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1  Forums / Winter bikepacking / Snowbiking 101. on: December 26, 2023, 02:27:35 PM
I've been riding fatbikes on/in/over snow for close to 30 years.  Since before they were commercially available, or even known as fatbikes.

As such, I have made *a lot* of mistakes.  And as we all know, making mistakes is a sure-fire way to learn lessons.

I've compiled a bunch of my lessons into a single page, to be used as a resource for anyone learning to ride snow, or wanting to up their game a bit.

I tried to cut-and-paste the whole thing here, but the links wouldn't transfer, and I don't have the time/bandwidth to bring them all over one at a time.

So, if you'd like to check it out, please follow this link:  https://lacemine29.blogspot.com/2022/12/snowbiking-101.html

Don't hesitate with questions.



2  Forums / Bikepacking / Re: Thanks! on: November 08, 2023, 01:45:19 PM

Routes being propagated by commercial websites seem to be poorly researched and lack soul and real challenge.  They seem to put more effort into catchy names than actually scouting quality routes. 

Ha!  I have a personal rule that I won't ride anything with "ramble", "rambler", "tango", or "divide" in the name.

Commercial websites are largely catering to the least common denominator, which means gravel routes.  Nothing wrong with that, other than some of us don't want to ride where a car can be driven...
3  Forums / Bikepacking / Re: Thanks! on: November 03, 2023, 09:07:34 AM
Thanks for your help through the years here, too.

Wait, what?!  "Trail" overrun with bikepackers?!

Good one.  Everyone knows that bikepacking is done on gravel -- you know, with drop bars and a dangle mug.
4  Forums / Bikepacking / Thanks! on: November 02, 2023, 09:34:31 AM
This site may not have breathed its last breath, but it does seem to be gasping for air.

Not exactly sure where everyone goes to discuss this sort of thing these days.  Maybe there's enough advertorial being pumped out that discussion is moot?!

I doubt that.

Anyhoo, just wanted to say thanks to Scott for keeping it going so long, and thanks to all that have contributed through the years.
5  Forums / Classifieds / sold on: September 30, 2023, 04:36:00 PM
nm.
6  Forums / Classifieds / DT Swiss fatbike wheelset for sale. on: September 18, 2023, 07:52:19 AM
The season approacheth!



I laced a set of DT Swiss 350 6-bolt fatbike hubs (15 x 150mm f, 12 x 197mm r) to a set of DT Swiss BR 710 rims using DT Swiss SuperComp triple butted spokes and DT Prolock alloy nips.



Please note that these are the 2022+ hubs, with extra machining and 36t ratchets stock.



DT rimstrips are installed, and Whisky tubeless tape is installed over that.



I installed a set of Terrene J5's with tubes to get the tape smushed down really well.



Freehub config is up to you -- please specify.

Prefer silver spokes?  Purple (or some other color) nips?

Sure -- no change in price.

$899 includes shipping for the wheelset.

$1099 includes the Johnny 5 tires, with your choice of tubes or tubeless valves.

Contact: mike.curiak@gmail.com
7  Forums / Classifieds / sold on: August 31, 2023, 09:01:13 AM
sold
8  Forums / Classifieds / Hand-built DT Swiss fatbike wheelset for sale. on: October 24, 2022, 08:07:56 AM
Full details, pics, specs, and contact info here:

http://bigwheeldeals.blogspot.com/2022/10/dt-swiss-fatbike-wheelset-for-sale.html

Thanks for looking.
9  Forums / Bikepacking / Passchier bamboo handlebar review. on: September 21, 2022, 02:04:03 PM
A long time ago -- roughly a lifetime, give or take -- I used to participate in some really long mountain bike races.  In order to prepare for these I had to put in a lot of hours in the saddle.  15 hours was an easy recovery week -- like right after a big event -- but 20 was much more common, and 30 happened with regularity in the build up to the racing season.

Over the course of a decade+ of living this ascetic lifestyle, my hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, and neck took a beating.

Some of the beating came because I did the en vogue thing and rode with a long, low position, putting lots of weight on my hands.  The theory as I understood it was that you were more aerodynamic and thus getting "free time" relative to sitting more upright.  On the race clock that might have been true.  On the life clock, nothing is free.

I ruined my hands, wrists, shoulders, and neck putting in all those hours in that position.

Undoing the damage is simply not possible.  But I'm constantly looking for ways to make my riding position more comfortable.  I first experimented with swept (more than 12*) bars in about 2001, and have experimented with them more or less constantly since then.

These days finding bars with sweep is pretty easy.  I default to the ProTaper 20/20 carbons, especially now that they're available in 780mm width.  They're damn near perfect: plenty of sweep to put my wrists and elbows into a more neutral position, a similar amount of rise to any normal bar, and with the right amount of forward sweep such that your current stem doesn't need to be changed.  If they have a downside it's cost, although they aren't out of the realm of what other high end bars go for.

I built myself two new bikes this year, and installed 20/20's on both.  I've also got 'em on my fatbike and snowbike.  They just sort of feel like coming home, and since they went to 780mm I haven't wanted for anything else.

And then, as happens, I learned about the Passchier bamboo bars.  I mostly paddle whitewater with a wood shaft because it transmits noticeably less shock to my wrists.  Seemed likely that a wood bar would have similar attributes, and since the overall dimensions were so similar to the 20/20's it would be easy to swap a set on and find out.



I ordered this set from Passchier, they shipped them from NZ within a day or two and I had them installed on the bike less than 2 weeks later.  They are absolutely gorgeous, if you're into earth tones and wood grains.  Which I emphatically am.



The position they put me in is very, very close to the 20/20's -- the 'boo bars are a bit narrower and have a bit less rise.



Read the ad copy on their website and you keep picking up references to the comfort and natural flex inherent in the material.  I couldn't help but to wonder if it would be noticeable, which is what pushed me over the edge into ordering this set to answer the question.



And the answer is: Boy howdy!  There is a heaping helping of flex in these bars!  I've experimented with literally dozens of carbon bars and a similar number of custom titanium bars over the past ~20 years.  I have never, not ever, not once felt bars that have anywhere near this level of flex.

I mean WOW do they flex.



Ponder that for a moment and then the question becomes: Is that amount of flex a good thing?

That remains the question right now -- I don't yet have an answer.  I've only ridden them a handful of times thus far, and while the flex is subtly noticeable when riding, I think it's in the process of fading into the background noise.  I'm gonna ride them a few more weeks before deciding whether they'll continue to live on this hardtail, or if they might do better on my snowbike.

I have no idea what the weight is, and simply don't care in any direction.  It's not a meaningful consideration.

Edit: A year+ later I'm still riding -- and enjoying -- them.  I've mostly stopped noticing the flex when riding.  It is a novelty that is easy to see (https://vimeo.com/586493632) -- and that shocks people -- when standing over the bike in the shop or a parking lot.  On the trail they've become more or less invisible.

If you have any doubt about whether these are "for you", they probably aren't.  

You sort of have to want a lot of flex to consider them.  That's emphatically why I bought 'em.

Don't hesitate with questions.


10  Forums / Ultra Racing / Re: Training for bikepack racing, anaerobic intervals and variety, or not? on: September 15, 2022, 07:58:35 AM
I have not seen much discussion on the web about bikepacking skills (camp craft and navigation not included) for technical trails.  Just how to eat, drink, text, and brush teeth while pedaling on pavement or easy gravel roads.


This might have something to do with the % of gravel routes on offer, and the number of people choosing them over trail.
11  Forums / Classifieds / sold. on: August 18, 2022, 12:16:51 PM
nm.
12  Forums / Trip Planning / Need a partner / Re: Anyone have the Iberica Traversa route? on: June 28, 2022, 08:07:32 AM
It seems as though perhaps you have an uninformed view of how much time, money, and effort it takes to create a route.

And how much more effort beyond that that it takes to create maps, guidebooks, etc...
13  Forums / Classifieds / sold. on: June 15, 2022, 01:16:24 PM
nm.
14  Forums / Ultra Racing / Re: Tour Divide 2022 - Race Discussion on: June 14, 2022, 11:26:26 AM
Yep, I've seen crazy footage -- you going to go hit it at 50k CFS?

Matthew is on the case, working whatever contacts at the park he has (and he has a few... ask us about the time a rider accidentally rode singletrack in the park, then had to get rescued).  Hopefully they will let riders slip through Flagg Ranch, but we'll see.

If not I just loaded a reroute for TransAM.



Plenty of water locally -- no need to drive to be scared...
15  Forums / Ultra Racing / Re: Tour Divide 2022 - Race Discussion on: June 13, 2022, 05:17:06 PM
FWIW, all entrances to Yellowstone are closed:

https://ksltv.com/495928/all-yellowstone-np-entrances-closed-due-to-severe-flooding-rockslides/
16  Forums / Ultra Racing / Re: AZTR 2022 Announcements on: June 01, 2022, 08:18:42 AM
Interestingly I believe the first version of self-support rules had nothing against sharing between racers.  The good MikeC or John Stamstad would need to enlighten us here.  My understanding was that because it's a competition you are only helping out your competitors and losing time and yet are under no obligation to do so.  So there was no reason to ban it -- it's fair. 


You have it right. 

IIRC I didn't inherit anything about this from John's original GDR ITT framework.  And it took a few years for there to be enough people from outside of our little bubble of racers for it to 'come up' that people were misunderstanding the intent of the rules.

They were always intended to limit outside support.  Never intended to limit helping out a fellow racer in need. 

We just didn't know that we needed to be specific about that yet.  It hadn't yet occurred to the first ~50 people doing these races that someone would even consider outside support, much less visitation, media, or any of the other entitled snowflake perspectives that have since crept (or, um, stormed) in.

That faucet is wide open now.

Thanks to you, Scott, for keeping both wrench and rag handy to clean up current spills and attempt to staunch the flow of future iterations.
17  Forums / Ultra Racing / Re: AZTR 2022 Announcements on: May 11, 2022, 07:35:26 AM
What are your perspectives on this niche, and from which experiences did you form them?
The latter part of this question is unfair, you don't form all your ideas based on experiences. I don't know why this condition is being imposed.

I agree with your statement about ideas/experiences.  I'll add that experiences tend to clarify ideas in ways that musing in a vacuum does not.

We've all shared -- some of us for literal decades -- how we arrived at our opinions and perspectives.  As a result our intentions have been maligned and the rules picked and poked at for every day of those decades.

A small amount of that is fair and deserved, and the ensuing clarification moves the sport a small step forward.

Most of it is not that. 

You've arrived from somewhere with fully formed opinions and criticisms.  Where?

You've disparaged the rules and the people behind them.  To what end?

If you want people to engage with your inquisition, it's not a big ask for them to want to understand which bikepacking events have formed your experiences.

So I'll ask one last time:  What are your perspectives on this niche, and from which experiences did you form them?
18  Forums / Ultra Racing / Re: AZTR 2022 Announcements on: May 10, 2022, 06:28:11 PM
Your turn now.


Thanks for the recap.

10+ years ago I largely checked out of discussions about the GDR/TD because I found myself increasingly frustrated with those discussions.

Some of this was on me -- expectations that didn't match reality, and all that goes with that particular rabbit hole.

And some of this was because this tiny little niche of sport was being introduced to a wider audience that shared neither the background nor the desires nor the integrity of those who'd gotten the sport off the ground.

No right or wrong in any of that -- just differing perspectives.

I bring this up because you have appeared seemingly out of nowhere.  You have an inscrutable screen name.  And you have an agenda of sorts that is slowly revealing itself each time you post to this thread.

Again, nothing wrong with any of that.

But before I check back in and invest myself in this conversation, how about if instead of continued sniping at the people here, you invest some of yourself, first?

Who are you?  Where do you live?  What brings you to the discussion?  What are your perspectives on this niche, and from which experiences did you form them?

That sort of thing.

Thanks much.
19  Forums / Ultra Racing / Re: AZTR 2022 Announcements on: May 10, 2022, 10:07:15 AM
Thanks for this Mike!

However, I cannot see the intention to curb "emotional support" (visitation) or media.


Can't, or don't want to?
20  Forums / Ultra Racing / Re: AZTR 2022 Announcements on: May 08, 2022, 08:06:16 PM
TD spun off of the Great Divide Race.

I wrote the original GDR rules down in '03-'04.  I inherited the framework for those rules from John Stamstad and Pat Norwil, whom codified many of them in advance of John's '99 ITT.

I can't find that exact version online, but I did find them from 2006:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060208230820/http://greatdividerace.com/_wsn/page3.html
 
The word 'visitation' wasn't used in this version, but the spirit of the rule is clearly there.

I know I wrote at least one more variant of these rules before checking out of the petty pissing contest that this sort of event was becoming. I know they included a Do. It. Yourself.  Emphatically in bold.

But I cannot find those.
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