Marlin29

I've been fortunate. There are some really good and legitimate trail systems in my area that never seem to get this kind of activity. One area is pretty much mountain bike only but also has a disc golf course in the lower area. No conflicts there, as it doesn't seem to get used all that often. I'll very rarely see hikers here, and usually only on the lower, less used trails. Building is condoned and encouraged, as long as a plan is submitted and approved first. The best part: it's a city park. The local state park (Riverside State Park) has an enormous trail network, and again, no traps found by myself or anyone I know. I do get some glares and muttered insults occasionally, as the trails are multi-use, but not because of my trail behavior. I'm the guy that slows down and tries to make myself know when overtaking walkers and hikers. The ones that glare are also the ones that won't give any ground and cause me to nearly ride off-trail just to get around them. Many of the dog walkers typically have a leash in hand, but the dog is not attached to it, which is against regs in a Washington State Parks. Dodging loose dogs sucks, as does dodging their messes. I hope to never find booby traps on trail, but it's probably only a matter of time.

The end result of properly set up damping is being able to relax your grip on the bars. Relaxed is better. Relaxed will keep your upper body more fresh and the bike more under control.

This. I'm a career auto mechanic and my hands/wrists/forearms get abused on a daily basis, so I'm not as sensitive to arm pump from braking on downhill runs, but tweaking the bar position, controls, and grip size only helped so much with the intense wrist pain I was suffering after about a half hour of riding. Bigger grips helped a whole lot, but more was needed. I found that in my newbness to dialing in suspension, I had too much compression and not enough rebound. Getting the rebound on my fork set up so it was slow enough not to pogo over big chatter (rocky trails) helped immensely. I just set it and forget it, so it works for the majority of my riding. Same with the compression, I get it close to where I want it and adapt from there, with plus or minus a few clicks as needed. Now I can ride for a few hours, until I'm pretty much spent, and no outrageous pain in the wrists and hands.

I. Love. Internet. Forums.

Oi, what a sh*t show. I love internet forums. smh