trunk rack?

[DeniseGoldberg]

Mtbiking is a bit different. You have to be able to kind of "throw" the bike around underneath you. Your bike can get pretty sluggish if you put weight on it. It really changes the handling to put weight at different points on the bike.

Thanks for the clarification - that makes a lot of sense. Sorry for any confusion I added to the issue with my own confusion! Then I suppose when you're riding a mountain bike off-road it would matter whether you were primarily doing technical mountain biking or riding on a relatively flat surface.

--- Denise

[SadieKate]

Well, I've ridden some, maybe all, of the route Brandi is doing (Telluride to Moab). Yes, it is forest service roads but . . . the year we did it there was freshly laid gravel for the logging trucks. Things got really squirrelly at times. Also, you get any storm damage you'll have a lot of ruts and/or mud to negotiate. No, I wouldn't call this a technical ride but you need to find a kind of happy medium equipment wise. You'll sit on your saddle a lot more than normal for a dirt ride but any washboarded roads can be rough and tiring and force you off your saddle. If you hit any newly graded roads, you could have a fun time also - could be good or bad. This ride is an odd mix and you don't know what you'll get. Weather and the friendly road maintenance crews could be popping up anywhere. The road report was from last week is not a guarantee.

This sounds kind of negative. It's not. This is the only non-singletrack mountainbike trip I go do again in a heartbeat. A spectacular area.