you shouldn’t pollute the roads. Im gonna tell your kommune.
And they’re called widow makers, because if they are bound to break and squash you?
I copy that. I ran my 32" with 140mm for a few months, also when training for the Dutch Championships, but eventually went back to 150s. For me everthing 26" and up has 150s which feels the most comfy.
Some pictures of my ride in Iceland today:
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That’s it exactly. The loggers referred to them as such because heavy parts of them can break off unexpectedly or fall in unexpected directions.
Leaning ones weight against them just isn’t a very good idea, but I’ve used them to mount with in the past without even thinking about it.
I rode a little over 26ks this morning along the beachfront promenade and got to enjoy the moonset & sunrise.
This was also the first time I’ve ever hit 5/5 cardio load on my Polar HRM
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A forest road nearby where I live…
…that turns into a path…
…that after a while forces me to turn my nose back home (even worse further on, work for years to come)
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Great if terrifying day out on my G-KH26 - will probably post more on the overall geared experience in the Schlumpf learning journal - but suffice it to say I did manage to shift up from 1:1 even if the high gear was short lived. While pretty terrifying I’m hooked on the GUni feeling.
No shots from the bike-path today, but an after shot at my watering hole back home / plus park with UA and daughter.
Noticed photos being uploaded here from my phone keep getting mashed up and out sideways. Having to take screenshot of them and submit those. The photos are orientated correctly on the phone. Odd
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That’s a bit off topic but there are two ways to rotate photos, one is that you rotate the actual image and one is to store in the meta data of the image that it should be displayed rotated. My guess is that your phone does the second and the forum doesn’t comply.
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Skatepark session 
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Did a gentle 19ks on my 36er this morning.
I also put my KH Fusion One saddle in its flatest position for this morning’s ride and it was the most comfortable uni ride I’ve ever done, I look forward to going further on it.
Enjoying the moon going down
Stats from my HRM
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Sydney is still in lockdown but we are able to get out of the house and ride with 1 other or with your household. This is national park close to my home.
One thing I find though is offroad riding gives me a sore back.
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So yesterday was a practice 50km around the rail trails in my city in advance of a unipacking trip next week. I slept in my mother in law’s backyard to try out my gear and it went well.
Everything is sore and next week will be hard, but I can say I’ve done a proper unipacking trip
Canada has some really pretty nature about an hour or 2 outside of the capital where I live so this is going to be 1 of many trip to come hopefully.
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Our riding styles are constantly evolving. Some adjustments could stop the pain in your back during off-road riding. Perhaps you are tense because all the bumps force you to tighten up all your muscles. I don’t have enough information to make a guess about you, but for me, changes in my posture and handlebar setup have reduced the amount of stress on my back. Specifically, since I’ve been using handlebars, the setup has become lowered a few inches. When I first used the Shadow Handle setup, it was with the upwardly curving bar. Later, I switched to the straight extension and have never gone back. So, now I am leaning more forward at the hips, not unlike a b**e rider. I am also putting a lot more weight directly downward on the bar ends. In the past, when I had a somewhat higher bar setup, there was less of a feeling of pushing down, and instead my primary interaction with the bar ends was pulling. Not to oversimplify things, but pulling on the bar ends compresses the spine, and pushing on the bars releases pressure between the vertebrae. The way I interact with obstacles has also changed. Before, I tried to un-weight when riding over a bump. Now, I press down and into the obstacle. I spent a lot of time making adjustments to my bar setup before settling on its current state. You may consider experimenting with your own.
I think you’ll find that the more you ride offroad the less your back will hurt when you do it. Offroad riding involves a lot more getting out of the saddle, a lot more weight on the pedals and a lot more situations with serious side camber. That’s naturally going to stress your back a lot more than riding on pavement, but you’ll get both better and stronger with practice.
I spent part of the afternoon trying to get through these roots. I can’t yet get through them all, but I got halfway through a few times. I got a lot of practice freemounting and making the 20 yard downhill run then turning left into the root section.
The 27.5 with the Duro Crux is 29.25” in diameter and covers ground quicker and smoother than my 24” Koxx. It is a unique feeling to go up and over a root, and feel the tire “bounce”/“squish” on the downside. With my current abilities/skill-set, this particular root system is challenging as it causes me to make a lot of balance changes quickly. In time, I expect those changes to happen more naturally.
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Cheers. I might try making my handlebar longer. I also ride offroad on my KH24 and that’s handlebar-less. I suppose I do a lot more balancing refinement with my upper body and back muscles offroad than when I ride on smooth pavement.
Another thing is, on pavement I can pretty much always ride 2 handed but offroad I often only have only one hand on the handle. I know when I ride 1 hand on handle on long rides my back would get sore.
I think its quite mental. And then when you get it, it will always be easy from then on. Good luck, I’m sure you can do it.
At my home I have a gutter lip that goes up and then the road decends then I have a still decending right turn into grass.
It took me ages to have the courage to try riding it. But when I did, I thought, oh, this isn’t so hard. But I thought that lip plus decent was always a bit scary till I actually did it.
Something I had also previously done was focus on going over speed bumps. And going down kerb sized drops. Having practised these things specifically, then they aren’t particularly a problem anymore.
Enjoy the challenge of your tree roots!
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Another possibility is pivoting the nose of the seat downward. This would raise the back of the saddle and lower the bar ends. If you can already ride on the road two-handed, you should definitely keep working toward two-handed off-road. Regarding the length of the bar setup, my general recommendation for someone going from paved to off-road…would be to shorten the bar setup, rather than to lengthen it. Good luck!
I had a lot of problems with tree roots for months. My daughter would just glide right over them and I’d end up on my hands and knees…over and over again. What I found made it easier was taking my weight off the saddle. You don’t need to actually stand up, but support your weight almost entirely on the pedals when you’re crossing roots. Also, having a firm grip on the saddle with some upwards pressure helps keep your feet on the pedals, which helps with the roots when you’re climbing or descending.
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