klopp

I am really impressed by the top times in the Junior category! That is damn impressive, and the time difference between the top 3 is just a fraction of a second!

Oh man. That video was incredible. I was planning on doing a very similar thing for this summer, but yours will top mine a hundred times over. My stoke level is through the roof right now. Thanks for posting! Now I just have to find a friend to join me this summer for my trip...

I finally got around to reading this article and watching the video. Well done. I'm glad you like it out here - I know I don't want to live anywhere else...

Bikes are becoming very complex...that is part of what I like about. Sometimes I simply enjoy riding, sometimes I enjoy admiring and maintaining my bikes. I became a mechanical engineer because I am huge slut for the "elegant mechanical solution" to any problem - look at hydraulic disk brakes, suspension forks, composite frames/components, etc. Bikes are an incredibly awesome, purely mechanical multipurpose machine. What more could you possibly ask for?!? While I am a huge slut for the elegant mechanical solutions on bikes, I do not like the implementation of electronic components on my bike - the only exception being a suspension data logger I am working on right now. Electronics are just not as interesting to me, so I tend to avoid them. (My data logger is only going to be used so I can record changes in ride data as I customize the internals of my forks...that is the engineer in me.)

Living in the PNW things get mucked up and ground down pretty quick if you ride year round. I am sure to clean up my drivetrain after every seriously muddy ride, or after every few normal rides - this keeps everything in top shape longer. I also clean and lube my suspension regularly, properly torque all bolts, etc because I ride hard and break a lot of parts, so I do everything I can to keep unnecessary stresses out of the equation. Maintaining bikes is fun - modern bikes are a work of art. Being an engineer, I really appreciate how modern bikes are a pretty elegant combination of my favorite engineering subjects, so maintanence is never really a chore (unless you are working on someone else's crummy bike lol). I enjoy keeping my own bike dialed and often help with friends bikes. However, I have no problem riding a bike in poor condition, just as long as I am confident it won't break/kill me. Sometimes klunking is fun!

I don't mind my Fox 34 CTD, but I do wish my Float CTD had more compression damping. I run my suspension pretty stiff, but the Float always seems to ride deeper in its travel than I would like. But hell that is just nitpicking, overall my 2013 Fox set up is killer!