u/archerdynamics

I'm a co-founder of a small org that mostly does PvE combat and I mostly do group play, typically 4-10 people, with maybe only 20% of my time spent flying solo and a little bit of duo or trio.

I think I'm pretty happy with the fleet comp but I'm lacking a medium cargo ship now, and I dislike under-utilizing big ships, plus the TAC and Railen are both too big to fit in the medium hangars at QVs. I'll probably add a Hermes or something similar when I can. I'm also tempted to CCU the Paladin to something else (can't melt because it's in a pack) because I rarely use it.

Any thoughts?

Just picked up this 2018 Salsa Timberjack NX1 27.5+ last week, my first MTB since I was about 14 and I'm a few weeks away from 40 now. I moved to Central Oregon last year and bought a motorcycle pretty quickly, something that had always been bucket list for me, but this area is a total Disneyland for mountain biking and I need the exercise so I figured it was time to get a bike with pedals. I spent months scouring FBM and other local venues and had almost given up and gone for an Ozark Trail when this Timberjack showed up at the local outdoor consignment and bike service place.

It came with a few upgrades including a tubeless conversion, Ascend dropper, and for some reason a brand new Brooks C-17, which I couldn't handle. The shop went through the bike before selling it and set the suspension and tire pressures up for me after I bought it. I've already done a few upgrades of my own, swapped to a used set of 30mm riser bars, Cromag grips, Race Face Ride pedals, and swapped that Brooks for a WTB Silverado, which is a big improvement for me. I want to convert the rear to thru axle - something that's thankfully possible with these Salsas - but I think I'll need to change the hub for that so it's a farther future thing. I also think a brake upgrade is on the shortlist.

I live at the edge of town and am lucky to have some gravel and informal dirt paths (I took the first pic on one of them) basically right out my back gate, so I've been riding those and just trying to build strength for more serious stuff. I went to an actual trail system a few days ago but a green uphill kicked my ass and then I got rained out. I think I'll be good to go in a few more weeks though and I'm really looking forward to it.

I grew up riding MTBs in the hills outside LA, but stopped after a bad accident in my early teens, and now I'm almost 40. I have a motorcycle but the only time I've been on a bicycle since then was during college, when my roommates and I had some cruiser for quick trips to the store. I moved to Central Oregon last year and the MTB scene here is so good that it felt like a huge shame not to take advantage, plus I need the exercise. A downside of the area is a severe lack of good affordable used bikes though - I think most local riders came here as transplants who already had much nicer bikes - and it took around 3 months of checking FBM and the local outdoor consignment shops before a good bike in my size and price range finally showed up.

It's a 2018 Salsa Timberjack 2.75+ ("28") and is a little scuffed up but is in good mechanical condition, verified by the very well-regarded consignment and service place where I bought it. It's got a few upgrades on it, most notably an Ascend dropper with a Brooks C-17, which looks and feels brand new (still has the "fuzzy" stuff from the mold around it). It's also got some Wellgo metal pedals and pretty new-looking aftermarket grips but I think I'm going to replace both of those. It's also tubeless, which I think is a conversion, but it's gonna need tires relatively soon, probably end of this season. I paid $735, which I think is decent given that it came from a brick and mortar store that serviced and guaranteed it.

There's a gravel road and some woods with mini-trails behind my house so I took it out and rode for maybe an hour, admittedly with a lot of stops. My last MTB was a full rigid late '90s Gary Fisher and I can't believe how far the tech has come. (And my bike is 8 years old now!) I'm in way worse shape than I was as a teenager and yet stuff that I think I would've struggled with back then was doable on the new bike. The one thing that's really giving me a hard time is that seat though, I'm gonna have to go get some padded shorts and try it with those, but may end up selling it and getting something a little comfier. Once that's dealt with I'm really looking forward to getting out on some of the local beginner trails.