jeremyridesbikes

zendoughnut:

Free Forest Park! Stickers will be available next week on the store.

Here at Zendoughnut we love our dirt.  

Whether it be riding around in circles in the fall listening to cowbell and drums or flying through the woods in the summer listening to the bees. While it is great to drive out to Sandy or to Tillamook State Forest to ride we would really love to have something closer to ride.  Forest Park in Portland is one of the nations largest city parks and covers an amazing amount of land (5100 acres). We want to ride it and enjoy it like the other trail users! There have been many attempts to open up the trails to cycling on multiple occasions. All of which failed due to random stalling or NIMBY’s blocking access.

This sticker is a venting and an awareness tool. We could just ride the hiking trails at night like los banditos. But in the end that just gets us cyclists bad press and actually works against the cause. A simple sticker won’t change the world, but can be an effective tool to affect change. One of the cores of ZD is to affect social change. Here is one way we can help.

75% of the proceeds from this sticker go directly towards the NWTA our local IMBA chapter. They have fought for and have built some sweet trails for us.  Please help out and put a cool sticker on your car, bike, or dog.  Or click on the link and donate to the NWTA directly.

Focusing on the doughnut,

Jeremy

NOTE: After the stickers sell through.  I will donate the moneys earned to NWTA and then I will be releasing the image above as Creative Commons Commercial Use License so others can use it.

Free Forest Park! by Jeremy Schroeder is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I pulled the trigger and ordered up a bunch of Free Forest Park! stickers. Check out the zendoughnut store to order. 75% of sales goes to the NWTA for trail building and access rights.

Please contribute and get a sticker.

Jeremy

note: Sticker are designed for indoor/outdoor use.

First ride on the Titus FTM carbon

WOW. I miss being on squishy bikes. This bike is too much fun. I have been on a hard tail 29er for about 2 years now.  There is something to be said about preloading before an obstacle and popping up over it instead of bashing straight through it. I know that has nothing to do with this bike, but it has to be said. It is almost like being a monk locked in a monastery for years and then visiting Portland on vacation.  You’d be hard pressed to walk back in to the monastery. 

The Actual Ride

It was rainy and muddy up around Saltzman and Firelane 5 this morning. It is to be expected for the end of February. It just means slow down a bit going around corners, and your wife will have a conniption if you bring those dang muddy clothes in the house. I figured I would ride down F5 and back up Saltzman, a short ride but being the closest trail to me it would have to do before the workday began.

Firelane 5 is all down hill and Saltzman is all up, unless you take them in reverse.  F5 is mostly double track/unimproved road until the bottom section which is twisty singletrack. Saltzman is a road, err unpaved stretch of scenery. I’ve ridden all my bikes on it so it proves to be a good short tester.

The FTM, being a trail, bike eats this stuff up for breakfast. Having ample suspension both front and rear brings smiles all around. I found myself going a little faster and pushing a little harder through the techy stuff. I didn’t think about the suspension as I was making my way down hill. Which as you know from my previous posts this is a good thing.

The FSR type suspension has been around for a while and as I posted before, feels comfy to me. I know what the bike is going to do and it does it. The new thing to me is the Rockshox Monarch doing the business on the rear end instead of Fox. You have a couple settings (Rebound, Air pressure, and Floodgate) which make it dead simple to setup. A funny thing happened and I left the Floodgate closed this whole ride. I guess I didn’t need it. 

I mentioned on twitter last night that I love the thru-axle. Having one on the front should be mandatory for longer travel forks. some may say it is a “nice to have” but once you actually ride with one on your everyday trails it really make them more fun. When you put the wheel somewhere it actually goes there with no complaints. My only complaint is now I will need a new fork, front wheel, and rack. ;)

The bottom line

I am not one to tell you to buy this bike or that bike. I think you are big boys and girls and can make that decision on your own. If you are in the market for a carbon trail bike I definitely would put this one on your list to check out. 

Titus sells the frames online ($1199) or full builds (X9/Rockshox)($3299) at their location in Portland. Contact me if you are in the area and want to see it I may or may not let you ride it :)

Final note: The Crank Bros wheels are niiiiiiice!

Before getting her dirty

Taken at speed

The road out.

Initial photos and thoughts on the Titus Carbon FTM.

I dropped by to see the folks at Titus today to pick up a new fun bike to play with for the week.  I am planning on attending the NWTA tail build day out at L.L. Stub Steward on Sunday so I figured it would be fun to take something out there to play with after digging in the dirt.  The FTM is Titus’ 135mm (5.31 inches) travel trail bike with 26 inch wheels.  It comes in carbon and aluminum.  

The medium sized frame given to me has a 13.25 inch BB height and slacker 69.25 degree head tube angle. The suspension is handled by Rockshox with a Pike on the front and a Monarch RT3 on the back.  Shifting is handled by the workhorse XT line from Shimano and braking by Magura. Amazingly some Crank Bros Cobalt wheels were also on the bike. I have been wanting to test these wheels for a long time now.

My initial thoughts of the bike are that this thing would be the bike to sway me back from the 29er team.  I made the move a couple of years ago and haven’t ridden a small wheel since.  I am also really excited to be back on a FSR type rear suspension package.  It is the last type of suspension that I actually felt comfortable with riding up and down trails. The frame itself is a masterpiece to behold with internal cable routing and inset graphics [Pictured above]. 

Internal cable routing and smooth lines

One more picture of the inset graphic.

I think I may sneak out early in the morning to get an early morning ride in on it.  It is that type of bike, that makes you want to get up a 6AM to ride.  

More thoughts to come as I put some miles in on it. 

Jeremy

Titus FTM link.  Online shop link.

Today was the maiden voyage with the @ruckuscomponent Chain Guard.  The best thing one could say is the they didn’t notice the fancy new bike component on their bike. The reason this is a great comment is that it means the system is working as designed and they could focus on other things like getting lost in the woods or out-running honey badgers.

This is one of those items. I didn’t notice I had it on.  Meaning my front ring is SOLID now. No tossing the chain to the inside and now no tossing the chain to the outside! I would have a chain mishap once every offroad ride with the 1x9 setup on the Karate Monkey.  Now nothing.  I didn’t even think about the issue at all today.  That piece of mind is priceless in my book.

Riding Scappoose.

I took the KM out to Scappoose today to clear the head and get a little dirty.  I got up and tossed everything in the Element.  One of the good things about breaking the roof rack (twice) is the bikes now go inside.  This is the way it should be :)

All packed and ready to go.

Here is the deal with Scappoose: I get lost there every ride.  I should know the trails pretty well by now, but everytime I go it is a different season and every trail looks different.  I would say that I spend about 60% of the time wondering if I made the right turn, 15% walking or turning around, and 25% actual riding with intent. I love it though because every time I go I find a new route.  One day I will learn to link them all and flow.

There are white markers that sort of point you in the right direction and they help out tremendously. Just look for them at trail intersections and go.  I would like to thank the blessed soul that put them up over the last year or so.

One of those white markers

Playing find the Monkey [hint: standing in the dark]

I have come to the conclusion after riding today that I am not satisfied with my technique.  After watching countless MTB movies and instructional videos I realized that I have become a lazy rider.  That is probably the reason why I don’t crash as much as I use to when I first started Mountain Biking.  In the late 90’s when I started I would come back from the trail every time either bloody or bruised.  I think I need to step up my game a bit and take the next step.

After I fix my style issues.

Carbon: check
Bamboo: check
Fat Bike: check
Belt Drive: check
Lefty Fork: check
IGH*: check 
Monster Cross: check 

And there you have every niche in one bike. I hope you are happy now! 

Found via BikeRumor

*IGH = Internally Geared Hub

I love this shot from @bikeshopgirl. It looks like the bike is stalking you, saying “Hey, why don’t you come out and play?!”  

I need to go mountain biking….

(via bikeshopgirl)