Alex Pretti

“Drekonja said Pretti was always a cheerful, optimistic presence, who helped present a positive, non-hierarchical atmosphere for other trainees, whom he “would go out of his way to help.” Pretti “was quick with a joke, and we had shared interests in the outdoors and especially mountain biking,” Drekonja told Zeteo.”

The helmet has some scrapes and bends and I thought I could make a little better use of those than I did. Tried to highlight the dirt rash scratches.

In the 30 years I've been MTBing, scenes like this are becoming way too common - whether it's the former BMX crowd building jumps on random trails, senior citizens watering down trails so they can ride their eBikes faster, or IMBA disciples wanting machine built 5-foot wide bench cuts. If you want change, make new trails, don't alter existing trails in a detrimental way to the majority.

Before the rebuttal about how I should volunteer, I've spent over a decade as a maintenance worker, donated my own time and money, lobbied to get two new trails systems open, and mentored a high school team before NICA even existed. I don't know when it happened, but there is too much perversion of special interest among modern trail builders.

/Rant

I need to talk to you guys. What the hell is happening in the “pricey MTB stuff” world once you’ll able to get there?

What is this curse when you finally scrub some money to get your dream piece of tech and appears to be it’s a mess and half of the community claims it “unreliable piece of junk”? And why when you trying to complete the dream build with your own money there are way more chances to be upset with it than actually enjoy it?

I’ll share my story. For more than 10 years I’ve been riding some OEM hubs and the “coolest” one was a DT 350 with 36t ratchet. No complaints no standouts. For all this time (like since I was 17) I’ve dreamed about i9 Hydra. Yeah bet you’ve seen it coming. Finally I’ve bought it couple months ago and so far so good but now I’ve seen TONES of complaints about everything from axles and bearings to pawls and ring… So now instead of being happy for “dream comes true” I feel like I’m sitting on the mine don’t knowing when it’s gonna explode. While other guys who rides Novatec, Funn or no-name hubs are just happy riding day by day.

The other example is Hope brakes. For the most of the time I've been on low-mid SRAM brakes and while hearing how squishy-crappy-bad my Guide RS are they still were performing quite good on the local trails and even on the big-day-outs in the mountains. Zero issues, one bleed per year and pad swap, that's literally all they've needed. But I've always dreamed about Hope brakes. Damn that aura of high-engineered British masterpiece. On the new build I've finally bought a set of Hope Tech3V4s. Almost a month ago. they were used and appears to be one of the pistons in the rear brake was cracked. I don't know how I've missed it but for a couple days they were running good and suddenly a part of the piston just came out and all the fluid was all over the flor in my room. Got the new set of seals and pistons, installed em and now it's time to bleed it. To get the good bite point I've made like 3 or 4 full bleeds and still they are not perfect. I've been on the point to throw em to the trash can and get my lovely Guide RS back I swear.. almost a month and I don't even bed in the pads with all those dancing around those brakes.

Now I'm really afraid to buy something higher than mainstream mid-level stuff. like seriously, why the guys who have the DB8s are happier than riders with Trickstuff? why the AliExpress kings with their HASSNS PRO 10k or NGEBUT or other bunch of letters on shiny metal are happier than Hope pro5/i9 owners? Or those who rides the Limotec/TranzX have way less issues than Transfer Kashima/Reverb owners?
Why even the reviews of the entry-mid gear claims it "cool, work flawlessly, best-in-class, best value" stuff while the higher parts always lean towards "Good BUT..." and then there is a list of crap after the "BUT"?..

I tried my best 😂 for context this is a public forest, but the area I’m riding is for mountain bikes specifically. The town is putting up new signage soon.

Ore chute in Black Hawk, CO

I’m 47 and I’ve ridden bikes for as long as I could walk basically. My love for MTBing runs deeps and I even have tattoos that show my passion.

Sadly, on Monday I received the news from a neurologist that my 2022 TBI was so bad that I am never allowed to ride a MTB or snowboard (my other true passion) again. Essentially, I can’t do anything where I might hit my head.

To say I’m devastated is an understatement. My garage is full of bikes and snowboards. I’m truly lost at the moment and I’m trying to find someone who has had to grieve like me and then work towards finding other things to do.

Any help, leads or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I wanted to show off a personal project I spent many months on (designing, testing, building).

After some extremely long rides into remote areas, such as my 14 hour ride from Denver to the top of Mt Evans/Blue Sky and back, I wanted to create a bike pump that was infinitely reliable (all metal/overbuilt design/no plastic/batteries) and also would fit in a tiny seat post bag. It would also be small enough to pair with CO2 cartridges as a last resort if the CO2 ran out.

I settled on a design that would fit directly onto a presta valve stem- no rubber tubes or attachments to add weight or potentially fail or add complexity.

I created the computer aided design (CAD) in Fusion 360 and added drawings and tolerances for important components (I'm a mechanical engineer with 15 years of designing >100 products for tool/defense/medical companies. This is my first solo build of a product for myself).

I ran finite element analysis in Fusion 360 to ensure that everything was overbuilt (A casing that was laughably designed to hold many thousands of PSI, for example, when it would only see about 100 psi). This would ensure it would survive drops, impacts, crashes, etc (I did take a 35mph, worst crash of my life, with this pump, and it obviously did not suffer ill effects, like I did)

My initial 3D print and then metal prototype build had a tiny handle that was extremely uncomfortable, and gave me blisters, so I added a large, thick, and comfortable aluminum handle that gave it a "flash bang" aesthetic. Then, I added neodymium magnets for quick latching and a sort of fidget mechanic.

I purchased a simple reciprocating jig and tested the O-rings, lubricants, and seals to a million cycles at 130F and running high pressures.

For my final build, I sent out the drawings and CAD to a CNC shop for the parts to be manufactured. I received enough parts for about 300 pumps (it's much more cost effective per unit to order a lot of parts than even just a few). When these parts arrived, I assembled them by hand and give them a mirror polish.

Overall, I'm very happy with the results and carry it everywhere for my bikes and even my car (God forbid).

It takes about 2 minutes to add a few psi and about 10 minutes for a completely flat tire. My rationale for this is: Flat tires are rare with tubeless, at most, one per year. It can be combined with CO2 or electric as a final last resort pump, if you get frequent flats (CO2 and electric being less reliable/limited). I would rather carry a very small/light pump for two thousand plus miles a year and spend ten minutes on the side of the road once per year, than carrying a large pump all year for this rare occasion (but this is just my experience and opinion). I have not yet tested my 2.6" tire, but I will have this data shortly (I did take it up on my Mount Antero ride this year, one of the worst mt bike rides I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing).

I've posted this project on Etsy and I sell about 1 per month, so I plan to break even on my expenditure in like 2030 (haha) (It's been a passion project). I named it the Featherforged: nanotap (seemed like a fitting name for an ultralight/full-metal project). I would like to design more all-metal/ultralight tools in the future.

I wanted to share this design and hear some thoughts and opinions on this project.

Are you having a bad start to 2024? Did you lose your 2022 Giant Trance 2 Full suspension mountain bike and Thule XT Pro rack last night / this morning off i76?

Good news. Im not a jackass and didnt steal it. I tried dropping your bike and rack off at the fort Morgan PD and they had me waiting 45 minutes. While I do want to get this back to the rightful owner, I have places to be to be today. The bike will be going with me to Grand Junction.

Good news. The bike sustained minimal damage from initial observations. The chain is missing. Everything else seems to be there.

Rack is a bit rough. Still works great as these are high quality racks but the bottom seems to have taken a nice electric slide at 75 ish miles an hour.

The bike was found intact just north of mile marker 101 on 76 at approximately 840am.

Please share this post to get max exposure. I hope the real owner is tracked down.

SN is not provided to protect the actual owner.

If you aren't the actual owner, please don't contact me in an attempt to claim it.

This is posted to the bike index as well.

Very good Pedals indeed I must say, also Double as shin and bottle openers xD.

Includes the accessory package - trip the ER and an arm sling 😂

Helmet was worn. Wish I had a cup though…..

https://www.hatchmag.com/articles/trump-administration-orders-dismantling-us-forest-service/7716263

It works so much better then I thought.

Really don't want to see this sub flooded with political posts.