Phil

Yes, it is true - the rumor that guys with big feet wear big boots is very true.:D

10! 10? No worries!! I have size 15 and have gone as narrow as 18cm. New angles might take some getting used to, but if he wants to carve, it will work. Tommy D - there are things you can do to help with that knee thing. Different angles and/or cants/lifts. Also, if you get someone to look at your riding there might be something you can do there.

I have heard speculation that the lack of suspension is due to the long head tube. I would think that he could get a suspension maker to make a long steer tube though. Either way, it would have to be a fork for a 29" wheel. I know Marzocchi makes them, but I don't know if anyone else does.

For those of you who don't know, Yao Ming is the Houston Rockets' center. He is 7'5" tall. Check out his mtb. This is a custom Gunnar Rockhound. It really looks big - and then if you realize that his wheels are 29" instead of the usual 26" - you realize just how big this bike really is! Enjoy.

My old one was me dirt jumping on my Azonic DS-1. This one is me doing the Big Air Jump at Mammoth a few years ago. It was the worst example of "I am going to hit that one more time before I go home." that I have experienced. I had been enjoying that jump up until then, but on my last run of my last day of my trip, my legs just did not have it in them. As soon as I hit the face of the jump, I compressed right through my legs. In the picture, I was half way to inversion. I was almost fully inverted on the landing. If the landing for that jump was not as steep as it was (or if I had not made the landing) I would not be writing today. I was out cold for a while. I woke up to some jibber saying "Dude, you gotta get out of the way." I wanted to ask him if he would move me. I was face down in the snow with a broken helmet. The most important thing, though was that I was on my F2 GS rig with Bombers and UPS boots.:) Old one:

Nothin' to it but to do it.

This is a great point. One thing that bikes and snowboards have in common is that you have to consider where your center of mass is over the tool that you are using. This is why I started the snowboard turning thread. In order to make a bike/SB turn, you must get it to counter steer just enough so that you can lean your center of mass off of the side of the bike/SB that you are trying to turn. An easy way to think of it is to watch a child with training wheels who is new to riding a bike. They will turn the handlebars the way they want to go and/or lean the direction that they want to go. You cannot do this without training wheels because, as the child will demonstrate, the bike will lean to the outside of the turn. In order to get the bike to lean to the inside of the turn, you must counter steer (or counter lean) for the split second that it takes to get your center of mass inside the turn from the bike. This is not something that you would really teach in order for someone to ride a bike - it comes naturally to most. At a high level of riding or coaching for most disciplines, it is important to measure each movement, and therefore becomes important to understand the extent of counter steer/counter lean involved in a turn. Now, back to the no hands on the bar - this is a great way to illustrate how steering IS involved. Simply watch your bars next time you ride with no hands. Due to the rake of the fork (trail of the tire) and the head angle of your bike, the handlebars and front wheel naturally turn when you lean the bike. Furthermore, in order to turn without using your hands, you must do a carefully timed counter lean to get your CM on the side of the bike that you need it. This would be different if balancing on two wheels was not involved - say on a four wheeler or if you had training wheels. The fact that you are on two wheels, even with the gyroscopic effect, means that you have to take these steps to make a turn.

Every once in a great while, there is a kid who can SB at that age. If you try to teach your kid to SB - DO NOT have any expectations as most likely 99% of kids could not do it. BTW. - I would not recommend it personally. Skiing is a better way to start that 99% of the time.

I don't want to highjack this thread, so if you would like to discuss this topic as it relates to snowboarding go here: http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?p=53637#post53637

O.K., I did not want to highjack the bike cornering thread, so I started a new one. It seems that there is some disagreement in the other thread as to how to turn a bike. Let's make it about snowboarding. I would think that everyone would like that a little more anyway. Your first turn on a snowboard is inherently different from the rest and that first turn seems to be what was discussed on the biking thread, so let's stay with that. You point your board straight down the fall line. Now you want to make your first turn (I hope that on this forum I do not have to specify that it is a CARVED turn:o ) what is involved? Which muscles and joints are you using. How do you make the turn happen. If you think this is an easy question, don't answer it (it is not as easy as you think). I look forward to the discussion.

Blue B - We do everything that you stated at our mountain and I think that all of those things are great. However, have you tried a harness? I never said that the harness was a substitute for teaching the important things like stopping. I just believe that it is an easy way to help a child experience more of the mountain and learn to turn and control speed in the process. I have taught both ways and the harness is just my personal preference. Maybe I should have said that in my first post. I don't think that they need to miss out on any part of instruction just because they are on a harness.

I used to give harness lessons to young children. I am assuming that the equipment is the same. The harness is NOT to stop them, it is to steer them. There should be a loop on each side of the child's harness. Then there should be a strap that goes around you and connects to each side of them. Gently pulling on one side helps them to turn. This helps them get the idea of going side to side and making round turns to control speed. If you use it to stop them, as stated above, they really are not learning anything. When my kids are old enough, I will be using a harness.

Hollywood and controlled training environments make people think that being a hero is easier than it really is. By trying to take the situation into your hands, you are assuming that the person has slower reflexes than needed and that they are not already jittery. If you are wrong about either assumption, even without training, a person can shoot you. People like to think that they are more in control of their situation than they really are. All of that being said, 99.99% of the time, if you are not looking for trouble, you will not find it. That is being said from someone who has spent a lot of time in the worst parts of many towns and has worked with a lot of troubled youth who were packing. In answer to the question, I have a S&W snubby 38 that I do not carry. I have a license just in case.

I hear you. I started on a steel rigid and when Rock Shox came out with the RS-1, I was all over it (I still have that fork hanging on a wall). I really enjoyed my steel hardtail as well. Once I got on FS ('95) I never looked back. Of course, we have different riding styles. I like to blast through stuff, and take the fast line regardless of what it looks like. Personally, I would rather take a ski lift and forget about XC bikes altogether, but that is not an option.

Jeeesh. Now I want a Blur.

In the real world, people ride mtb trails where FS can be a lot faster. Most pro XC race courses might as well be road races. In that case hardtails are faster. If your trails have any gnar on them, FS will be faster. Today's FS bikes really are not that much heavier either. Years ago it was a different story - FS was heavy and did not pedal as well. Find a good solid gnarly loop to test this theory. Take your fastest hardtail and time yourself on the loop. Then borrow someone's blur and do the same. Ride it like FS, not like a hardtail. Stay seated more and take inside lines whether they are gnarly or not. Most likely you will find that you have a faster time on the FS. Where I live, I smoke people who are in a lot better shape than I am simply because I have an efficient FS bike and they are riding hardtails under the same assumption that Derf has(I did ride hartails for eight years before I converted). If you lived where I do, there would be no reason to have a hardtail. So your choice comes down to the kind of trails that you have. P.S. I also chose FS to save body parts that were being destroyed on a hardtail.

Those three choices seem like a no brainer. I would go with the Santa Cruz. If you like the 29er, have you considered the Sugar 292?

Man, I always forget how little newborns are. Don't you just love it when she sleeps on your chest!?

Congratulations. Now I guess we all know what your preseason warm up was last year. I hope that everything goes smoothly for your first couple of months. May she sleep through the night SOON!

Give your Heckler some love Big Mario. Either that, or send it to me and I will. I have been riding a minimum of 5 days a week. That is how I get over the snowboard withdrawal.

RT has opened in November already. Of course that only means a couple hundred yards of beginner slope. I feel you Scott. Whatever you do, don't get any new gear before the season starts - that makes it 10x worse! Taf is due Sept 4, so I think that my mind will be occupied and the time will fly. She will go back to work in Nov. and a couple weeks later the (man-made) snow should fly. How is Holly?

Oh yeah, and Jack - you can watch ESPN classic if you like watching guys play ball in nut-huggers, but I like baggy shorts better.

It was a great series. San Anton did what they had to in the end. Congrats to them.

The Pistons were not SUPPOSED to beat the Heat either. They ARE a championship team whether the world wants to recognize it or not. As far as tonight is concerned: both teams obviously have a legitimate shot. I hope the Pistons win, but the Spurs are a great team and either team will deserve what they earn.

"gymnastics" Yep - as a matter of fact, Danny Kass was coached by Phoebe Mills for a while. That does not make him less of a snowboarder though. He is still better than most of us during those brief times that he is on the ground. "I'd have to say the older freestylers can carve really well, but I've seen many younger freestylers who can barely turn and are out winning comps." While that may be true at the local (maybe even regional) level, it is not true in the pro ranks. The problem at the local level is that skateboarders come out to local jams just to hit a rail or jump, but cannot ride the board. I have seen kids roll into the park on every body part but no board - then they hop on a rail and stomp it better than I could - doing all sorts of sick slides. Then they come off of the end and can't ride the board down the hill. These kids are most likely great skateboarders, but the translation between boards (as we all know) is not direct. They are probably great athletes as well, but until they learn to turn, they will not go far on the snow.