Hello from Flanders

that VW guy

that VW guy

Member
Hey guys, just wanted to introduce myself. I'm chris and I just started getting into mountain biking with my wife. I went to tourne park some years ago with a bunch of my friends, it was am absolute blast! I wasn't financially ready to spend money on a good entry level bike. Finally the time has come, and I just so happen to be married now. My wife is also enthusiastic about it. I picked up a '14 specialized hardrock disc and bought the wife a specialized myca a couple weeks ago.

I'm looking for a good set of mild beginner trails. I can make it through a patch of rocks no problem but my wife does not have the confidence to do much at all. She definitely tries but can't seem to grasp that she has to keep her feet on the peddles and keep peddling! So I'm looking for a very mild trail to get her going. Any recommendations in the North Jersey area?
 
Welcome aboard!

I think for a northern area Lewis Morris or Kittatinny maybe good spots to check out.
 
Hello Chris from Flanders!!

lived on top of Tinc road for a bit way back when......(hint: school was not there)

Good place to start for her pleasure is patriots path/columbia trail - nice easy confidence building stuff.

Nassau trails in high bridge wouldn't be an unreasonable distance, and is a couple steps above beginner.

lewis morris as clark suggested is another step up in challenge, with non-technical trails and lots of climbing.

There is a ton of riding north of you - someone can get you a proper tour.

There are a couple of women's clinics per year, and they are noted on this site, keep checking.....

Welcome!
 
Welcome fellow VW guy...😀

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-Jim.
 
Welcome! I used to live in Flanders also.

Deer Park is good to start...its where I spent a lot of time when first riding. Kittatinny also has some good stuff to progress on.
 
There is supposedly some easy trails in Randolph, somewhere off of Sussex Turnpike that can help your wife. I'll have to ask my chiropractor... because that's where he takes his son to develop his skills at a very tender age.

And... I used to have a modded MK4 Golf TDI.... and now a lightly modded Passat.



If you need Vag-Com help, let me know.
 
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Thank you all for the suggestions! We went to deer park to ride for a few miles, pretty easy for me but not so much for her. We parked at the school a hair south of exit 19 on 80. Went around the lake and made it to the white path split (I think...its the trail that does a huge circle that we stopped at) and headed back.

I live in oakwood village and had no idea that there is a trail literally in our backyard. I believe it goes to mountain road, coincidentally ends across the street from my parents house in ledgewood. I gave her homework to do since I work all sorts of different hours, basically going on that trail and going at her own pace to gain confidence.

The day we got the bikes we did 20 miles total on the Columbia trail beginning just before west morris central highschool. She has no problems doing the straight easy stuff! My legs were kicked after that one, so I know o definitely need to work on my endurance.

Couple of vw guys on here...awesome! And even another B6 wagon! I've had a slew of VW's for the past 10 years. Posted above is what I've been rocking since October. 3.6 4mo, 2008 so it automatically came with the sport paxkage 🙂 it is fully loaded with mfd2, bixenons, dynaudio, etc. This is the first car I've really loved. Way more than my old mk2 8v gti, mk2 jetta with a vr swap, and mk3 vr. I've had a few more in between those but they weren't really anything special
 
Wait, do people still go on WhoreTex!!?? I hit the classifieds when I need something for the car or to buy another car but not too much more than that. Luckily I'm behind on all the trends and I pick up everyone's leftovers cheap...😀

-Jim.
 
Yeah I still frequent there. Without a doubt a very good resource for mk2s. B6s, not so much. I knew mk2s and mk3s like the back of my hand, but the B6/newer gen cars are like Chinese to me.

The classifieds are hit or miss. For example, I was looking for a mk5 roof rack for my wife's au4 (they use the same yakima towers) and there's a local that's looking for 340 for the towers, bars and a fairing for $340. I can get the same setup, with the correct Q clips, new for $380.

Its definitely a good source for used coilovers though since the new trend is air. Is love to get rid of the junk Solowerks I have (hey, I got them for $400 shipped new...) but its not in the budget for the next couple years. I should have known cheap coilovers suck. I've always had dampening adjustable coilovers but I didn't want to spend the money at the time :hmmm:
 
Up until my current VW I had MK1s. There's a ton of cool stuff there in the MK1 forums. The MK4 forums only have dudes bashing you about your car not being low enough. I posted about putting a hitch on my GTI and got a few pages of guys telling me what an ass I am for doing that. On the flip side I was also able to buy that complete Sawblade set-up with spacers, bolts, and new tires for $700, so that was awesome.

I buy a lot of stuff at WaterFest too. All the companies have all kinds of cool sales and whatnot. Last year I bought every light and all the motor mounts for the GTI at the BFI booth. This year I'm hoping to find an RS bumper and big brakes from someone and then the car is done. It already has headers, straight exhaust, Unitronic chip, H&R coil overs, intake, Vento interior, blah, blah, blah...

Best mod so far was doing the hitch though. Pain in the but to install it but my gas mileage has gone up by 5MPG and I can take the rack on/off easily when I'm not using it...

-Jim.
 
I noticed a big difference going from roof rack to hitch as well. But i drive an Si...So....Lol
 
Still need to buy a replacement 1up hitch rack after some a$S hit it at Jefferson Diner... so it's the roof rack for time being
 
tednugent said:
Still need to buy a replacement 1up hitch rack after some a$S hit it at Jefferson Diner... so it's the roof rack for time being
Click to expand...

NOW I know who you are on the vortex. That is so fucked! :getsome:

If only I didn't work all weekend, wifey and I would be out riding. 😡 Such is life being 25 with no education. Biggest mistake of my life 🙁

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just ran into a couple from coolwater at the Wantage dog park... that recognized me back from my MK4 days.... I guess wearing a Waterfest T-shirt was a give away
 
My condolences 🙁

Since I'm extremely bored right now, might as well pass the time by giving a short history of the mk2 I parted to get the old man wagon.

I went through a bunch of phases with it. It was love/hate, mostly hate. I put so much money into that car it was ridiculous. It put a huge strain on our relationship (she was just a girlfriend back then) because of how much money I was spending on it, and how little income we had at the time. Ultimately that's the reason I got rid of it despite the fact that we are making much more now. I still have a burning desire to build a mk1 or an early 50s pickup, and it will happen sooner than later...

It all started with a rust free 90 Jetta ce2 shell I picked up from a friend. I knew most of the history of the car, it was owned by a few of my friends for years. Just before I got it, the dude had a 16vt in it that really ripped.

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blah blah blah, a few thousand bucks later I arrived at this point
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Finally got it to a running state, which took almost a year and a half. At this point I was in the 'let's make it super bare bones, no interior, just badassery!' mode. Literally, no interior aside from the cluster, the steering column, two seats, pedals, and the shifter. I did have pictures of this but I can't find them
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Then I decided 'hey, I drive 30 minutes to work and I want to listen to music...', so I put a full interior back in it including power recaros, an Italvolanti VWMS wheel, VWMS shiftknob, euro small center console/delete plate, black carpet, adjustable b pillar seatbelts, and all black plastic trim. Also put in a mk3 deluxe radio with the aux input for my ipod, and Infinity speakers. Lots more money down the drain...
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Then I found some RMs that I didn't have the money to refinish, so they made a sweet coffee table that my wife HATED
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Sold those and picked up another set of stupid wheels
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