u/yertipy

What's the consensus on leaving vs removing dead leaves on the trail during winter? Do they protect the soil against erosion or make it worse?

Here in Austria we have a ban on mountain biking in most places from November to February. Some people still ride but there's generally a low traffic period for 4 months a year. In fall we get a lot of dead leaves on the trail in the forest. Rainfall isn't super regular, we sometimes get dry spells for a while in fall/winter, sometimes it rains a lot. We sometimes get snow, but it usually only stays for a few days, maybe 2-3 times per season.

I just finished reading Ursula K Leguin's _The Word for World is Forest_ and stumbled upon the phrase _"What is, is"_ in the epilogue.

I'm sure I'm not the first to notice this. Is there any evidence that James SA Corey took inspiration from that book? To be fair I don't think they mean exactly the same thing. But the resemblance is striking.

Could Eywa kill, incapacitate or influence a Na'vi individual if they went against the interest of Life on Pandora? We know She can control Ikran and other animals to an extent by asking them to attack human equipment and people. Does that control extend to the Na'vi?

And by extension again, let's say some humans are allowed to live there, or manage to reverse engineer what happened to Spider. Does Eywa then have a killswitch for them too? Could it be one way of living peacefully, all humans accepting that they will be terminated if they go against the greater good?

After multiple attempts, I wasn't able to find a way to mute Gemini's voice replies when I speak to my Pixel 8a. For instance I'll long press the power button, then say "add milk to my shopping list", and Gemini will speak out loud something like "okay, I've added milk to the list named shopping list". I would like to mute that voice reply. I know I could lower the media volume on my phone but I feel there ought to be a better way to do it.

I'm used to the old Google Assistant app where there was a simple toggle somewhere in the settings. I'd gladly continue to use it but i got a notification saying that Google Assistant is going to be retired soon. So i thought I'd do the switch now to have time to iron out any kinks.

I tried searching for "voice" in the phone settings. None of the matches helped. I tried the Gemini app settings. There i found a drop down list of all available voices but there was no option like "Silent" or "None". I looked into the app permissions, no luck there either.

Is it just not possible to speak to my phone but not get a voice reply? I often sub vocalize straight into the phone's mic while in public. I really don't need it to confirm every time by spring back to me!

I'm sure it's been discussed before, but it occurred to me that in the first movie, Jake kind of cheated to become Turuk Makto. After they escape their first encounter with the beast, Neytiri tells the story of how Turuk came to the chosen ones in times of great sorrow. The key point here being that _it_ came to them. A bit like the Thanator comes to Neytiri during the final battle.

But i feel Jake just thought outside the box and hijacked Turuk to establish the bond by literally jumping on its back while it wasn't paying attention. You could argue that, hadn't he been the chosen one anyways, Turuk would have just rejected the bond and made a meal out of him.

Anyways, I think it's interesting to see it from this angle. That Jake does not think the same way as other Na'vi people. Just like his willingness to use weapons of metal and to embrace some of the ways of doing of the humans.

Do you think he's a legitimate Turuk Makto or did he outsmart Eywa's rules?

For Way of Water we got deleted scenes and an early script in text form. I haven't come across any of that for F&A. Is it just too early? Do we know if they're going to release any of that?

I've been enjoying 2.6in tires lately and I read that they're at the edge of what works on a standard 30i trail rim. So I'm looking into getting wider 35i rims but i wanted to ask the good people of Reddit what they think first. I did notice the tires getting a bit squirmy on hard side loads. I usually run about 16psi front and 18psi rear. Maxxis Rekon is my current tire of choice. I do a mix of natural and machine built trails. Has anyone got experience? Is the difference noticeable? Is it worth the switch?

I just went for my first bike packing trip with my full suspension mountain bike. The frame bag takes up all the space and I can't fit a water bottle in there. I'm using an old man mountain Elkhorn rack in the rear to carry my sleep system. The side mounts are free. So I thought I could put my bottle there. But I use a fidlock bottle and I'm wondering if it would get thrown out from not facing the direction of travel. Has anyone tried it? For context I do tend to ride some pretty rough single track.

The fidlock system is rock solid when mounted inside the frame, I've been riding for about 5 years with it on 2 bikes, including proper bike park days with no issues. But since you removed the bottle by twisting it sideways, I'm not sure it will work on the rear rack.

So I am a big fan of 27.5 * 2.8 tires on my trail / bike packing / adventure steel hardtail. But I feel that size is dying out. So I was thinking of buying a few Maxxis Rekon 2.8 and stockpiling them down in my cellar. Until the day I need them. How long does a new tire that's never been ridden stay good under these conditions? I live in Central Europe and my cellar is pretty dry and has mild temperatures all year round. Are there tricks to keep them good for longer and i guess prevent dry rot?

Just a disclaimer, I'm not here to discuss whether 26in is better or worse than other wheel sizes. You ride what you like, that's good enough for me!

Context: I'm looking into buying a hardtail frame that is intended as a 27.5 in front and back. Stanton Switchback Gen 5 if you're wondering. It's a brand new frame with all the modern standards including udh, boost spacing, long dropper insertion, the whole lot. Well, apart from the wheel size, haha. I would be upgrading from a pretty beat up previous gen frame of the same bike, which i absolutely love.

Hence my question. 27.5in is kind of dying if I'm to believe YouTube/PinkBike/TheInternet. So I'm wondering if it's a smart thing to invest into a 27.5in frame. The two main concerns are the long-term availability of tires and forks. I'm not worried about wheels because you can always buy a hub and a rim and have them laced by a shop.

But tires, especially in the 2.6 or 2.8 sizes that I tend to favor on my bike don't seem to be very popular options. That's why I'm asking the 26ers out there, can you still source the tires you like in that size? Or are your options limited to older models or just fewer SKUs in general?

And on forks, same question. How hard is it to find a modern 26in fork? Or are you still running the same old gear you used to back then and just keeping it going by maintaining it well?

TL;DR: Will I be able to source a decent 140 mm 27.5in trail fork 5 years from now? Will I be able to buy a 27.5*2.8 tire 5 years from now?

Any Austrian bikepackers here? I'm planning a 3-day trip spanning Styria, Lower Austria and Burgenland. But I'm confused as to where I am allowed to ride. As far as I understand in Lower Austria it is completely forbidden to ride on forest roads. In Styria it seems to be a mix and in Burgenland it might be more relaxed. So what's the deal? Where am I allowed to ride?

Ich breche am Freitagmorgen zu einer Bikepacking-Tour auf und möchte mir vorher noch einen neuen Sattel kaufen. Ich habe mich sofort in den SQLab 611 Sattel verliebt, nachdem ich ihn auf dem Fahrrad eines Freundes ausprobiert hatte. Schmerzen im Gesäßbereich müssen beim Radfahren also doch nicht zwangsläufig dazugehören! Dies ist keine Werbung, ich habe nichts mit SQLab zu tun.

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Ich möchte mir also eins vor Ort kaufen. Kennt jemand ein Geschäft in Wien mit einer guten Auswahl an Modellen und Größen? Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass ich die 14-cm-Version brauche, aber es wäre schön, sie vor Ort anprobieren zu können.

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Danke!