Dammit’s adventures in mountain biking

Well I'm theoretically spending @Dammit 's money here, not my own dwindling savings ;)

Having said that, even a cheapskate like myself can accumulate a pile of ultra-cheap pedals. I've got loads, many bought for £1/set, and I swap them around regularly for specific trips and things. If I bought some that ended up being no good for MTB they'd go in the pile for commuting or I'd sell them on or whatever. #csb

That’s just @frankenbike he caused Brexit and now the next financial crash

The DMR Brendogs seem to be out of stock everywhere.

Get the regular DMR Vaults, as they're identical, apart from the pins.

If they're not grippy enough ( they will be ), then swap over the pins to the type the Brendog uses.

If weight bothers you ( lol ), you can get a magnesium version....

And kiss goodbye to your shins

Scalpel with flats is WRONG

kiss goodbye to your shins

+1

And kiss goodbye to your shins

Scalpel with flats is WRONG

I want to work on skills - and whilst I have SPD's on I'll continue to just jump and bring the bike with me, rather than front-then-back and using the mechanics of the situation to bring the bike up.

I'm not convinced by the ride flats to learn skills approach. If you're going to ride SPD long term then why mess about with flats? Do a skills training day, it's the bike fit of mtb.

Shoes (five ten) matter more than the actual flat pedals as I understand it.

Go for the skills course. It's lighter AND more expensive!

#itoldyouso

I have an undisclosed motivation here:

In winter my feet suffer horribly, with the blood supply vanishing and the entire sole, all toes and the heel of both my feet becoming white and waxy.

This actually happens in summer as well, with stiff-soled shoes, but heat counter-acts it significantly.

This doesn't happen at all when I'm running, for the obvious reason that my feet are flexing and blood is being pushed through them.

I'd like to try using flats with flexible shoes this winter, most especially for the Festive 500 which I'm going to try to do off-road around Winchester this year. If I can cure "Feet Of Misery" then I'll be very, very happy.

I also do want to dick around trying to get the front wheel up "proper" high before bringing the rear up to chase it, without going over backward still clipped in.

=I just bought some DMR Vaults and Adidas Terrex with the 510 soles.

Orthopaedic!

You'll need to pair them with some waterproof socks...They look half constructed from sponge.

I'll take wet and present over dry and leprotic

waterproof socks are horrible to wear, you end up feeling like a sweaty eel
what you want is wool socks, which keep your feet warm, even if they're a little / a lot wet

I have many pairs of Wooly-Booly. Historically, they've never worked - but hope springs eternal (with new, bendy shoes).

hmm, you could try some warmer ones - woolpower are always nice. these should be toasty

https://woolpower.se/en/produkt/socks-800/

These might be worth an effort.

It's always baffled me why their aren't more goretex options for mountain biking.

I generally ride spds, but use flats for bikepacking as I want to be comfy when camping and because there is normally some hike a bike.

The ideal shoe would be a robust trail running/approach shoe, like the ones above, but with a goretex liner and a flat/sticky sole. Shoes on the market always have too much tread and so don't grip the pins. Anyone seen something like this about?

@Dammit have you considered trying some of these?

Once a goretex shoe gets wet inside it doesn't get dry again for days.
If you're riding in the rain a goretex shoe might wet out in 2hrs, leaving you with wet feet for the rest of your ride. This is shit.
You want a non-goretex shoe that drains well, combined with a sock that keeps your foot warm when wet.
I ride in Inov8 fell running shoes, combined with Defeet wool socks. It's a great combo.

Anyone seen something like this about?

Terraduro but it aint goretex, more like a well draining shoe as above.

OWN FR-01 is the answer. Neoprene booties ftw!

Slight change of direction - I'm 4kg lighter now than when I setup the shocks, is it worth checking the sag again or is that not enough weight difference to matter?