re: Getting into mountain biking, any tips on gear? Update: Arm is healed, I’m back baby

Went on my first ride today and had a blast, going uphill was tough because I’m not in bike shape (and drank 8 beers and smoked 14 cigarettes last night) but going downhill and hitting those turns is so much fun.

The last two turns of the ride is when I caught the bug, hit them just right going pretty fast and it was a hell of a rush! The buddy I was riding with had never done anything like that either, kinda scary at first but exhilarating once you do it successfully.

Update: Broke my arm and wrecked my knee and shoulder on my second ever ride, lol. Came around a berm too fast and my front tire went over the edge and I got flung through the air. Tumbled a few times really hard, broke my radius and got banged up pretty bad.

Still had a blast and rode back to my car with a broken arm. Ready to get back out there in 6 weeks or so!

Bike pron. You can see a spare tube strapped to the frame. Have a couple of CO2 cartridges wrapped in the tube. I also carry the OneUp EDC pump which holds bacon (tire plugs), the EDC tool set, and of course is a pump and has a CO2 tool built into the head.



How the tubeless work is you fill the tire with sealant and the sealant fills in all the holes that keeps the tire inflated with air. You no longer get pinch flats and small holes from thorns will seal up quickly. Bigger punctures can self head with the sealant but you can lose quite a bit of air out of the tire while the sealant does it's job. I run around 23psi in the rear and I was down to around 4-5 PSI in this picture when the sealant finally plugged the hole. That's barely enough air to keep the rim off the ground. Didn't notice until the back end squirmed bad on me in a hard corner. A minute with the hand pump and I'm back up to full speed riding another 7 miles that day after the puncture. Limping it back to the car cause I didn't have a pump wouldn't be a very fun way to spend the afternoon.

I would recommend some brakes and elbow pads, baw. And possibly a membership for the helicopter ambulance deal.

Solid update!

now on my second back surgery in a few weeks.

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So much fun, hope I can get back into it eventually.

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If it’s worth two back surgeries and you still want to go back for more maybe I should check this out. I didn’t know anything was that much fun.

Bogue chitto trails and bike park is pretty cool.

LINK

The saying is:

Pre Ride
Re Ride
Free ride

Pre Ride all trails learning the features and obstacles rolling all the features.

Re Ride to get a feel for the flow and work yourself up to speed in a controlled manner. Work up to the edge of traction pushing each reride faster learning your limited on all the features.

Once you know the trail well and have a feel for the flow and understand your limits then you can free ride and push the boundaries.

As you found out pushing the boundaries on your 2nd ride on a trail is a recipe to put you over the line and get hurt. Mountain Biking is a dangerous sport doesn't take much of a mistake to get seriously injured.

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Bike pron.

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Checking in.

Norco Sight custom build 29x2.4/2.5:



Salsa Fargo 27.5+ with 100mm fox 32:



Newest addition is the new Salsa Timberjack Single Speed:



Action shot from HiLine trail in Sedona:



For OP: helmet, glasses, gloves, if rowdy I wear knee pads, 5-10 shoes and bibs or other compression shorts on lower body. Multi tool, chain breaker, tire levers, patch/plug kit, mini pump, and a tube strapped under the saddle.

I've never had an issue with this setup and I put in thousands of miles a year sometimes in very isolated places (i.e. big bend NP). I do run a top tube bag on all bikes now. In there is the pump, my phone, keys, snacks, and a small .380 pocket pistol.

Feel better. It's a fun sport. I really picked it up in about 2017 and have ridden everywhere from north Baton Rouge trails to The Whole Enchilada in Moab.