Capture Colorado 01 TRD Taco - GOAE build
- Thread starter capturecolorado
- Start date
capturecolorado
Hooray bikes!
Yeah dude! Thanks for the compliments!
capturecolorado
Hooray bikes!
Got something fancy...
285/75r16 Cooper Discoverer ST Maxx. I wanted something with 3-ply sidewalls, AT tread that doesn't look like it would suck. These things are really impressive up close and personal - from far away or pictures, they don't look all that aggressive, but when you're next to them, the tread is deep (19/32), the voids are quite substantial, the shoulder lugs are scalloped nicely, and the sidewall tread looks really nice. So far there's very little road noise with these, and I'm pretty sure what I was noticing will go away after getting an alignment.
I know this tire is pretty new, but it's truly impressive. I believe it will outperform the Duratrac, and it's a better value, deeper tread, and stronger casing. I would bet before long these things will pick up some momentum with the off-road community. They even make a 255/85r16!
285/75r16 Cooper Discoverer ST Maxx. I wanted something with 3-ply sidewalls, AT tread that doesn't look like it would suck. These things are really impressive up close and personal - from far away or pictures, they don't look all that aggressive, but when you're next to them, the tread is deep (19/32), the voids are quite substantial, the shoulder lugs are scalloped nicely, and the sidewall tread looks really nice. So far there's very little road noise with these, and I'm pretty sure what I was noticing will go away after getting an alignment.
I know this tire is pretty new, but it's truly impressive. I believe it will outperform the Duratrac, and it's a better value, deeper tread, and stronger casing. I would bet before long these things will pick up some momentum with the off-road community. They even make a 255/85r16!
austintaco
Explorer
I just went through a similar dilemma about carrying bikes. After I added a swingout, I bought a Yakima spare time rack. It attaches to the spare, so it swings out when I open it up, but it beats the crap out of the bikes on a trail. For this Summer's trip, I planned on rethinking the swing arm of my bumper to include a high mounted receiver hitch so I could use any hitch mounted bike carrier, and particularly, a tray mount so I wouldn't have to take off the front wheel.
I ran out of time, but I found the Saris Freedom tire mount rack. It fit the bill, and I found one on ebay that was a returned item to a bike shop for $80 shipped. The bikes are held up high and its sturdy. Here's a shot of it on my truck.
I am still thinking of reworking the swingout, but this works for now. thumbs up on the build.
I ran out of time, but I found the Saris Freedom tire mount rack. It fit the bill, and I found one on ebay that was a returned item to a bike shop for $80 shipped. The bikes are held up high and its sturdy. Here's a shot of it on my truck.
I am still thinking of reworking the swingout, but this works for now. thumbs up on the build.
capturecolorado
Hooray bikes!
That's a nice setup! I'm not stoked on the tire carrier attachment for the bikes.. too much money and too much leverage, so I'm working on some other schemes... Might do something that folds down off to the side..
Anywho, I don't have time for projects right now
----------------------
WARNING: lots of pictures... and rambling.
Went out to Moab last week for 5 days of mountain biking and a little bit of wheeling. I left Golden at 7:30 Wednesday and made it to Moab by 12:30, got about 2 hours of sleep in all before I had to wake up and get ready to shuttle the Whole Enchilada trail as a pre-ride for the Moab Big Mountain Enduro race a few days later. Woke up at the crack of way too early in the parking lot of the bike shop and made the shuttle.
Friday rolled around, and I was exhausted, sore, and didn't want to ride much with the race (theoretically) being the next day. So I sat around and hung out with the Shimano crew all day. Night time rolled around, and I went into town to grab dinner with some tentative plans of a night run on Fins and Things.
Those tentative plans became reality, and I forgot my real camera.
Having never run that trail in the first place, I wasn't sure what to expect. The ridges, chunky sections, and most of all - the steep descents off of rock faces were exciting and a little....puckering....to say the least. All in all, it was a lot of fun, I had a good friend in the passenger seat that knew more about what my truck is capable of than I do, and was able to spot me through everything I needed spotting on.
Saturday rolls around. Race day. Well, in theory. I get up early to hit my shuttle time and it's raining. Hard. We stand around for about an hour and the race director calls off the race until Sunday, resulting in a whole lot of disgruntled mountain bikers with not a whole lot to do.
So what did we do? We went to the Love Muffin and got rowdy and stir-crazy. Then went and watched TV.
Noon rolled around, the sun came out, the clouds were insane, and I wanted to get out of the hotel room... it's MOAB after all, gotta get out! So my friend and I decided to go into Canyonlands and explore.
Upheaval Dome
Meditating cairn
I'm not good at figuring out how to photograph broad landscapes, I've been so focused lately on having a subject in the foreground, that vast landscapes like this are a struggle for me. So out came the 85mm.
On the way back, I decided to see if I could find Long Canyon (I was only given an obscure description of how to find it...once, ever). It looked as if a river had washed through the narrow part of the canyon up top over the last several days, everything was churned up, loose, and wet. Given the growing dark stormcloud that chased us off the slickrock at upheaval dome was still coming our way, this drive probably wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done...
Obligatory pose.
Immediately after the rock tunnel, we crossed paths with some locals in a stock T100 warning us of a "ditch" that they couldn't make it through. I decided to keep going and see for myself.
It wasn't bad, but we were soloing it, so I wanted to make sure I could get out. The entrance was suuuper soft, and the driver side shoulder looked like it could give out if not careful, the exit wasn't bad, the only other consideration was weather or not I'd get traction in the sloppy trickle of water in the riverbed.
Stayed really far right to avoid the softness...
Nice fit...
And came out no problem!
After that we rolled back to the hotel to join in a rain-delay BBQ for the racers, hung out, played some yard games, etc. etc., good times were had by all (who stuck around). My friend and I decided the party wasn't our style (you know, one big social situation) so we bailed and went to enjoy the land of the red dirt some more.
If you head back north to I-70, East to Thomson Springs exit, and continue north through town on the main road, you'll eventually find some pretty awesome petroglyph panels. Carrie got a good bit more pictures of these than I did, I was distracted looking at the details and almost forgot to grab my camera. This particular panel is at ground level, and they're f*in lifesize, so if you're not expecting it, they'll scare the hell outta ya! (especially at night, I knew they were coming when we went through after dark, and it still got me).
Continue up the road, make a right, and pretty soon you're in the ghost town of Sego Canyon. A small town formed around a coal mining operation. I believe the last remnants of the town was abandoned in the early 1940's, but I could be wrong.
We decided to continue wandering up the main road/old railroad bed to see what we could find. It turns out the road dead-ends into a locked gate and fence, with Ute Territory north of where we were. However, on the drive up we went from whatever desert elevation was (5000ish?), to 8300 feet, surrounded by dense(ish) forest of scrub oak, pine, and aspen. We popped out to an overlook just in time for sunset.
And that was my weekend. Lots of fun, with a good mix of intense mountain biking and racing, photography, and wheeling.
Anywho, I don't have time for projects right now
----------------------
WARNING: lots of pictures... and rambling.
Went out to Moab last week for 5 days of mountain biking and a little bit of wheeling. I left Golden at 7:30 Wednesday and made it to Moab by 12:30, got about 2 hours of sleep in all before I had to wake up and get ready to shuttle the Whole Enchilada trail as a pre-ride for the Moab Big Mountain Enduro race a few days later. Woke up at the crack of way too early in the parking lot of the bike shop and made the shuttle.
Friday rolled around, and I was exhausted, sore, and didn't want to ride much with the race (theoretically) being the next day. So I sat around and hung out with the Shimano crew all day. Night time rolled around, and I went into town to grab dinner with some tentative plans of a night run on Fins and Things.
Those tentative plans became reality, and I forgot my real camera.
Having never run that trail in the first place, I wasn't sure what to expect. The ridges, chunky sections, and most of all - the steep descents off of rock faces were exciting and a little....puckering....to say the least. All in all, it was a lot of fun, I had a good friend in the passenger seat that knew more about what my truck is capable of than I do, and was able to spot me through everything I needed spotting on.
Saturday rolls around. Race day. Well, in theory. I get up early to hit my shuttle time and it's raining. Hard. We stand around for about an hour and the race director calls off the race until Sunday, resulting in a whole lot of disgruntled mountain bikers with not a whole lot to do.
So what did we do? We went to the Love Muffin and got rowdy and stir-crazy. Then went and watched TV.
Noon rolled around, the sun came out, the clouds were insane, and I wanted to get out of the hotel room... it's MOAB after all, gotta get out! So my friend and I decided to go into Canyonlands and explore.
Upheaval Dome
Meditating cairn
I'm not good at figuring out how to photograph broad landscapes, I've been so focused lately on having a subject in the foreground, that vast landscapes like this are a struggle for me. So out came the 85mm.
On the way back, I decided to see if I could find Long Canyon (I was only given an obscure description of how to find it...once, ever). It looked as if a river had washed through the narrow part of the canyon up top over the last several days, everything was churned up, loose, and wet. Given the growing dark stormcloud that chased us off the slickrock at upheaval dome was still coming our way, this drive probably wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done...
Obligatory pose.
Immediately after the rock tunnel, we crossed paths with some locals in a stock T100 warning us of a "ditch" that they couldn't make it through. I decided to keep going and see for myself.
It wasn't bad, but we were soloing it, so I wanted to make sure I could get out. The entrance was suuuper soft, and the driver side shoulder looked like it could give out if not careful, the exit wasn't bad, the only other consideration was weather or not I'd get traction in the sloppy trickle of water in the riverbed.
Stayed really far right to avoid the softness...
Nice fit...
And came out no problem!
After that we rolled back to the hotel to join in a rain-delay BBQ for the racers, hung out, played some yard games, etc. etc., good times were had by all (who stuck around). My friend and I decided the party wasn't our style (you know, one big social situation) so we bailed and went to enjoy the land of the red dirt some more.
If you head back north to I-70, East to Thomson Springs exit, and continue north through town on the main road, you'll eventually find some pretty awesome petroglyph panels. Carrie got a good bit more pictures of these than I did, I was distracted looking at the details and almost forgot to grab my camera. This particular panel is at ground level, and they're f*in lifesize, so if you're not expecting it, they'll scare the hell outta ya! (especially at night, I knew they were coming when we went through after dark, and it still got me).
Continue up the road, make a right, and pretty soon you're in the ghost town of Sego Canyon. A small town formed around a coal mining operation. I believe the last remnants of the town was abandoned in the early 1940's, but I could be wrong.
We decided to continue wandering up the main road/old railroad bed to see what we could find. It turns out the road dead-ends into a locked gate and fence, with Ute Territory north of where we were. However, on the drive up we went from whatever desert elevation was (5000ish?), to 8300 feet, surrounded by dense(ish) forest of scrub oak, pine, and aspen. We popped out to an overlook just in time for sunset.
And that was my weekend. Lots of fun, with a good mix of intense mountain biking and racing, photography, and wheeling.
Patrollife
Explorer
Great looking Taco. I love the soft-top look. Any plans to black out the wheels?
capturecolorado
Hooray bikes!
Thanks! I don't intend to keep the stock wheels, I'd like to get a complete set of the OE spare 16-hole wheels and give them a good coat of fresh black paint, but those are hard to find. There's a possibility that I'll get a set of D-windows, but I'm still up in the air about that. At least that route, they'd be stronger wheels... the 16-hole spares aren't all that durable...
Short answer: yes
Short answer: yes
capturecolorado
Hooray bikes!
Thanks! Yes, those are the Expo springs. They're terrific, I like that they added the half-leaf for anti axle-wrap, they're certainly stiffer than stock, but the stock springs felt overly squishy - shock choice is really the limiting factor for me now. The springs settled in a LOT, and with my SAW coilovers set to 3" with 650# springs, the back end settled in a little less than level. I would imagine my front lift is effectively greater than just 3" though. In order to bring some of the rake back with those springs, I added a set of adjustable lift shackles and set them to 1.5" lift, that brought back a good amount of rake unloaded, but fully weighted down, it levels out nicely. The expo springs have done great, a while back I had to transport a full bedload of bricks across town and they handled it like a champ (we stacked the bricks pretty much to the rails). Off road, loaded or unloaded these things have proven to still articulate terrifically. I'm going to relocate my shocks back there by welding in a new crossmember, adding some mounts on the axle and angle them inward just a tad on the top, then get different length shocks to try and optimize droop.
capturecolorado
Hooray bikes!
In other news... Picked up a large bomb-shaped object yesterday. Threw a few coats of paint on it, it should be cured today sometime. I picked up a 150psi regulator from Wheelers Offroad, grabbed a super quickfist for securing it in the bed. This'll be a nice addition to everything.
capturecolorado
Hooray bikes!
Vinyl Monkey hooked it up on some Expedition decals.
And finished / mounted the ghetto 15lb Powertank. Tested it, and discovered Wheelers didn't teflon tape the air chuck fitting (or really tighten any of the regulator bits down properly); I'm glad I pressure checked the system. I picked up a Powertank handle and ARB deflator today from Slee - no more valve cap deflators for me!
And finished / mounted the ghetto 15lb Powertank. Tested it, and discovered Wheelers didn't teflon tape the air chuck fitting (or really tighten any of the regulator bits down properly); I'm glad I pressure checked the system. I picked up a Powertank handle and ARB deflator today from Slee - no more valve cap deflators for me!
austintaco
Explorer
Is Vinyl Monkey the same as Sock Monkey? I thought he quit making bedside decals. I have kicked myself numerous times for not getting them sooner.
capturecolorado
Hooray bikes!
I'm not sure if it is or not. But he's on Facebook, solid price on the stickers, too - $30 shipped. https://www.facebook.com/VinylMonkey
capturecolorado
Hooray bikes!
I've gotten a good bit done lately, but haven't *finished* a whole lot of projects entirely... I bought and welded on sliders, worked on a new design for a hitch mounted bike rack, built a spare tire mounted shovel and axle carrier, and bought and am preparing to install a new shiny...
The bike rack still needs some final tweaking before paint, and I'm lazy and want to go play on my bike rather than build **** to carry it with, so I'll finish it eventually.
The shovel / axe mount is inspired from the EXO Rack from Vector Offroad, it's bolted on through the spare, and has space for quick fists, RotoPax, etc., it's a sweet, versatile system that allows for quick and easy access to tools if you're loaded up with gear in the bed and don't want to fuss with digging through stuff. Vector Offroad EXO Rack
Now, aside from the pretty, precision-cut bits, and it probably weighs a few pounds less than what I came up with, it's really straight forward. I have a bunch of 3"x3/16" plate sitting around, as well as a ton of sch40 tube that's about 1" or 1.25" OD. So a few cuts, some squaring up of the tube, a weld here and there, and some quality time with a drill... and...
It's a boy! er... girl? Ah, whatever.
Since everything was drop, my perceived investment into this product is 2 sets of quick fists, and a can of spray paint (already had primer, too). I think I might look at adding some tabs to carry a hi-lift in between the two quick fists, I'll have to see how it mates up between the shovel and axe when I get them all on there. The center bolt is 1/2" and uses the same size socket as the lug nuts on the spare, which is also the same size that I need for my bike rack bolt. If I do the hi-lift mount, I'll stick with 1/2" hardware for unanimity and limited tool variety for those ****ty situations.
And for the something shiny....
The bike rack still needs some final tweaking before paint, and I'm lazy and want to go play on my bike rather than build **** to carry it with, so I'll finish it eventually.
The shovel / axe mount is inspired from the EXO Rack from Vector Offroad, it's bolted on through the spare, and has space for quick fists, RotoPax, etc., it's a sweet, versatile system that allows for quick and easy access to tools if you're loaded up with gear in the bed and don't want to fuss with digging through stuff. Vector Offroad EXO Rack
Now, aside from the pretty, precision-cut bits, and it probably weighs a few pounds less than what I came up with, it's really straight forward. I have a bunch of 3"x3/16" plate sitting around, as well as a ton of sch40 tube that's about 1" or 1.25" OD. So a few cuts, some squaring up of the tube, a weld here and there, and some quality time with a drill... and...
It's a boy! er... girl? Ah, whatever.
Since everything was drop, my perceived investment into this product is 2 sets of quick fists, and a can of spray paint (already had primer, too). I think I might look at adding some tabs to carry a hi-lift in between the two quick fists, I'll have to see how it mates up between the shovel and axe when I get them all on there. The center bolt is 1/2" and uses the same size socket as the lug nuts on the spare, which is also the same size that I need for my bike rack bolt. If I do the hi-lift mount, I'll stick with 1/2" hardware for unanimity and limited tool variety for those ****ty situations.
And for the something shiny....