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The last person to post a picture from their last bike ride wins access to the white courtesy phone.

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,999
9,661
AK
This is where you see that yes, you want brakes that can clamp down HARD real fast to bleed speed, without causing your hands to cramp up and arms to get all pumped. Lots of people will take rest-stops on it, so that's always an option. The real "qualifier" is about 3/4 of the way down, where it crosses the road. A feature like that should be at the top.

It's also not like some impossible trail or anything like that. You just need to mentally be prepared to kick it's ass IME.
 

Jozz

Joe Dalton
Apr 18, 2002
5,887
7,424
SADL
I've ridden it in the misting wet, but I had to slow down some. Pretty sure that was my first time on it.

A lot can be rolled...some has to be committed to though and you need the forward momentum (critical) to clean a lot of stuff. Barring that, you need to be comfortable kicking the front out at the last minute off a drop-steep roller to prevent it from digging too far down into a wheel-catcher. Again, not so much that they are outright drops...but you need significant forward momentum on a lot of them and the commitment can be pretty scary to make that work. Just look at the trailforks elevation profile and how much it drops in the distance. That gives you an idea of how steep it is and how much brakes you need for control (a lot). IMO, having ridden in Whistler and now Whitehorse, Predator is appropriately rated. It doesn't have any 40 foot drops from skinnies or any of that kind of crazy stuff, but for the vast vast majority of riders, it's appropriately rated and a step up from NOTG or some of the other trails.
Great. :rant: now I want to ride Predator.
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,756
5,656
Went for a short ride today and saw an older gent awkwardly slumped on a chair on the bike path. I asked if he was okay and he said that he was just looking at the ants because they are so amazing. So we ended up talking about ants and curing Tourette's, hahaha!
IMG_20231222_191726.jpg
 

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,524
19,533
Canaderp
Didn't go far, but damn hero dirt out there. Super shocked, was expecting it to be a mud swamp fest after all the melted snow and rain.


The hazy fog made it tough to see at times though.


Shorts in December :)
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,756
5,656
Planned on going for a bit of MTB but there were so many damn mosquitoes so it was bike path only.
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I'm fine with snakes and Goannas but I really try to avoid mozzies, the Ross River Fever cases are on the rise and I don't want that.
 

jstuhlman

bagpipe wanker
Dec 3, 2009
16,698
13,051
Cackalacka du Nord
50* and nice out. rode the local fun trail. went up on the hill to hit one of the pirate dh trails. two years ago there would have been kids all over the hill but it blew up a bit and i didn't see a soul today. steep rocky sketchfest. measured the grade of the top of the hill which is between 35* and 45*. so good. and you can even see the queen city from the top if you squint. in the last pic, at the last push to the too, you can see the old rusty cable from when they mined up there in the 50's. lots of bunkers, tracks and roadbeds too if you know where to look.




 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,999
9,661
AK
Temps -5 to -10, trails setting up really nice and overall just great to ride, perfect temps for this kind of stuff. Unfortunately, dropper failure. I think it just needs air, but when I was pulling up on it it stopped self-bleeding too, so hopefully more air pressure does it.

XLtoI96bCiiIO3azS9KpyhH_1LWJqMVYrQgBZGsxJGk-2048x1536.jpg
5n4CUapbxV_XkPNwzP0c65uYpj24QdbnNGw49eqJnFk-2048x1536.jpg
 
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Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,999
9,661
AK
Nope, dropper's f*cked. They assured me this would work great down to -20...This is why you keep prior warranty replacements on hand :) PNW to the rescue.
 
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HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,756
5,656
Not really a riding pic, but this was just supposed to be a back up bike in case my double boinger bike breaks.
In 15 days it's done 170km and the other bike hasn't been touched, fuck I love hardtails!
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The tire and insert combo is great for XC, you can get a good lean angle on this thing and keep pedaling.
I also prefer the 35 fork to a Z1, it's still shit, but in a better way.
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,756
5,656
Back in my old stomping ground, seems anything that isn't a line in to a big jump no longer gets ridden.
IMG_20240104_230829.jpg


Coming down a bit of singletrack and spot some tire width mine sub, haha!
IMG_20240104_230824.jpg

Will be interesting to see how the new subdivisions go with all the mine subsidence.
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,756
5,656
What was the mine, and where?
It was a coal mine, I live in Newcastle Australia.
We've come across some parts of old coal wagons and possibly some sort of vent that looked like a nice little square spa in the middle of the bush. I'm pretty sure there was a decent size opening a few hundred feet from where we ride, there's an oddly flat section that is built up with chitter and it looks like the hill in front of it has been blasted/closed.
Across from where I was riding they used to have a sign on a gate saying not to report smoke to the authorities as it was coming from an underground fire. Where I work was an old mine equipment repair shop, I believe 20m from where we park was the old shaft entry.
A bit much info on this, I'll see if I can find a more basic map some other time-