Biking / other activities thread!

Did my first night ride on my new bike. Recorded a video for a friend who said she is thinking of getting a bike

I took part in a 10-mile mountain bike race this past weekend. Didn't win but didn't do too bad either, it was a lot of fun.

Yeah it gets pretty brutal here. It got up to 101F and higher over the weekend, the heat index was even higher. I think it's gonna cool down this week but it's still gonna be upper 90's. The race was in the morning but the heat still got pretty brutal.

Also one time I went biking when it was 105F out with 114F heat index, that was a bad idea. Only went 3 or 4 miles but didn't take any water, almost passed out once.

That's cool. BTW you might want to check your Fuel EX, I decided to take a peek inside my tires and it turns out there is no sealant in the rear tire and the front tire had very little. It is about time to add more anyway, could be that the stuff in the rear tire just dried up and the front was starting to dry up too. Gonna add sealant to both tires tomorrow. There is evidence that there was sealant in the rear tire at one point, it's not just completely bone dry in there.

My friend and I went for a ride today at a local trail, they were having a huge beginner clinic and we ended up helping a bit. Took a few people on group rides, which they weren't even beginners, just new to that trail and wanted someone to show them around. It was nice because we could go fast, it was lots of fun.

I wear 5-10's for riding, they are pretty solid shoes, actually have stubbed my toe on them on a few occasions when they're on the floor and it's painful. I have a pair of Saucony running shoes (for pavement) that I used a lot for jogging/running before I got into biking, they're still holding up very well, just that I find running is boring compared to biking now. Van's are great for riding too, sometimes I wear those if I'm going on an easy ride, otherwise I wear the 5-10's. One time I banged my foot on a huge tree root that was covered in leaves while I was wearing my Van's, was pretty sure I'd broken my toe but it just hurt a lot for a day or 2, 5-10's protect the feet much better.

I can see how wearing Saucony's would be very lightweight and breathable on the feet. Are those trail-running shoes or just regular running shoes for pavement? Been meaning to get some good trail-running shoes. Even though I prefer biking over running, I'm a very good runner and feel I should still do it from time to time.

Pretty sure I bruised my ribs on the last ride.

Was going around a turn and my handlebar clipped a tree, caused me to go flying off into another tree and this branch jabbed me in the chest. Thought I just got a few scratches from that crash but in the 2-3 days after, I'm now noticing that I have a pretty considerable bruise on my lower chest and it's little bit painful there when I move. Not a big bruise but pretty deep one, one of those ones that's red in the middle too. I've had worse so this will probably heal quickly.

Also had a thorn stuck in my knee but didn't notice it until much later.

I smacked my foot into a huge tree root once, it was covered in leaves and I didn't see it enough. I think one of my toenails bled a little on that one.

Have only gone over the bars maybe 3 times, one of those resulted in a pretty bad injury. Didn't break anything but still couldn't ride for 6 weeks. One of the first times I went OTB (didn't get hurt that time other than a tiny scrape on my wrist) was going down this descent full of tree roots, it's actually like stairs. I would wear these athletic shorts when I was first riding and my bike didn't have a dropper post so when I tried to shift my weight back, the shorts snagged on the front of the seat and then I lost balance. I can go through that section like it's nothing now, but even to this day it still kinda scares me.

Also I saved the thorn that was in my knee, put it between clear tape to save/preserve it. It's half an inch long.

Nice, I haven't been biking since Saturday morning and I feel like a scrub, I had plans all weekend and spent all of Monday at an amusement park in 91 degree weather which is a workout all of its own.

I've been biking almost every day the last week or so. Friday I did a night ride which was pretty creepy. I noticed my tire seemed kinda flat and worried about the sealant so I went to Trek Saturday morning and they did the sealant on both of my tires and showed me how to do it myself and didn't charge me anything. I told the guy I prefer to have my tires really full and he said that actually makes the sealant work better, not having them loose like I have heard.

Taking a break off today I was out riding for like 3 hours yesterday I need some downtime.

I have been looking into more social biking stuff now that COVID restrictions are winding down. I went on a crazy ride where we rode through the downtown and had riders blocking the streets people were giving us the devil horns sign and screaming "HELL YEAH!" it was a blast going to the next one for sure. During the break in the ride I talked to a girl on a nice bike got her cell number. I'm a solo biker at heart but group rides are fun.

You know it's been hot when 95-100F feels like a cooldown.

I think it got up to 109F one day.

There was a huge biking meetup today and I thought the rides started at 2pm but I misread and they actually started at 10:45 am and the food was being served at 2 pm, I got there crazy late but there were two other dudes who also got there late and we went on our own little ride together it was a lot of fun. One had a Slash 7 and the other a Fuel.

Went by Trek and got a new chain put on my bike and finally got a front fender as well.

Oh yeah biking attracts some of the worst elitist personalities there are and they make us all look bad. I mentioned to the guy on the Slash 7 I thought about getting a Topfuel and he said that there is no point in doing that if all I do is ride trails. I went to an indie bike store and the dude tried to get me to cancel my Fuel Ex before it was here and said Trek was probably going to go out of business lol. I understand selling bikes is how he survives and if he could convince me to cancel my order and go with them he might get commission or something but was a bit over the top with his anti-Trek stuff

There was a ridiculous road bike at the Trek store today for like $7,750 and I was sooo tempted but outside of social events I don't road bike or commute to work. Whenever I ride on the streets I am always tempted but I don't think its worth it.

Also forgot to post I did this lol, I really wish I had a GoPro for stuff like that.

Yesterday was crazy.

So I went on a huge group ride a 45 minute ride outside of the city at 8:30 am. There is a new trail with a 3 foot wooden jump. I have gone off jumps like that but never on my new bike. I went off the jump and managed to land at an odd angle and wrecked pretty good, fucked my arm up:




Was scratched up and dirty but still riding fine. I got home and scrubbed out my wound pretty good, I bled all over the center console driving home lol.

I had also got invited to a full moon ride at 7 pm, because I wrecked so hard I wasn't going to go. Around 6pm I was feeling ok and was like fuckit yolo, if I am too sore or tired I can drop out.

For the full moon ride we met up at the parking lot at a liquor store. This was a street ride and everyone was on a road/gravel bike besides me. I had a massive energy drink right before we started glad I did that with how the night played out...

So anyway we roll out and there are 13 of us to start. I had been talking to a younger guy on a 1990s Trek who was really excited to ride but he dropped out 5 minutes in lol dunno what that was about. Maybe nerve or shyness who knows.

We went for a bunch of long downhills then ended up going up one of the tallest and steepest roads in the city, I was worried I would be left in the dust but nope I was not last place. We got to this huge graveyard at the top of the hill and hung out. We leave to go back to where we parked. Down to 5 people at this point.

The road we went down was one of the steepest longest downhills in the city. We were hauling ass one dude had an expensive road bike and he might have hit like 50 mph I don't know. My Fuel isn't up to that lol.

We get to the bottom of the hill and notice we are missing a guy. After 5 minutes the last guy rolls up on a single speed and he said he fell in the graveyard. He said he didn't need to rest and was good to go despite having blood on his face. We get to a bridge and notice the guy who wrecked is stopped. He finally rolls up to us and is like "I thing I broke my arm I need to go to the hospital, I just got out of the hospital a bit ago"

Oh shit.

We have someone lead him to a parking lot then me and the only other guy who drove rode back as fast as we could to our cars. I have an EX SUV that has a shitload of room in the back fits my XL bike. I get back to my SUV and haul ass back to where we were.

When we got back the dude who wrecked looked like absolute shit, his eyes looked sunken and he was gray. Luckily he is a little guy and his bike was a small, it was like a kids bike. I get his bike and mine in my SUV at the same time..........but my passenger seat won't go back....

Unlike my last bike the Fuel does not have a quick release on the front. A guy with tools tried to remove my front tire but couldn't get it off. Finally he said fuck it and he drove the guy to the hospital and I just got his number and took his bike back to my apartment



He went to a hospital a 5 minute ride from my apartment.

Anyway he called me at 6:45 am today and I went and picked him up from the hospital. His arm is broken and needs screws put in later this week, they gave him pain meds now. I helped him get his bike into his apartment, just met the dude Friday lol

Crazy night.