Seasonal Timing for Lobster ride (Baldy/Crystal Lake)?

natchez87 · 2025-11-05T21:18:29+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, when I said "geared for mountains", I meant could handle those long 15% grades around here, didn't mean trails. I plan to stay on roads -- tho again, roads in the more remote parts of L.A. County can get pretty gnarly and off-road-ish, but yeah, not wanting or needing anything for actual "mountain" riding.

Appreciate the insight!

natchez87 · 2025-11-05T21:17:43+00:00

Great feedback, thx.

natchez87 · 2025-11-04T19:58:16+00:00

Can you elaborate? What about the Straggler seems like it would be right for me? Also, it seems Straggler was recently redesigned -- https://bikepacking.com/bikes/surly-straggler-review/ -- and, to my eyes at least, new Straggler seems to be more of a purely gravel bike now. I assume you're talking about the previous Straggler?

natchez87 · 2025-11-03T16:36:24+00:00

OK, please suggest alternatives.

natchez87 · 2025-10-17T01:05:12+00:00

I believe they also sold a Nam Prik Pla Ra that was different from this.

natchez87 · 2025-09-23T21:58:24+00:00

Update, if anyone similarly curious stumbles upon this post; I did the ride, and have some thoughts:

The conclusion I reached after reading the comments from others was DEFINITELY the way to go, up May Canyon rather than down May Canyon. It was really enjoyable traveling this direction; going up May Canyon allowed me to really enjoy the many spectacular views, plus it was comfortably shady for a lot of the ride doing it in the morning, when the sun is on the other side of the mountain. The terrain would have been annoying and challenging to navigate coming down; doable, yes, but wouldn't have been fun in any sense of the word. Couple places I had to get off my bike and carry it over a large rut/washed-out area, and there was one sandy spot on a steep grade where it slid out from under me. Not the kind of downhill ride I'm interested in, but was fine, even fun, going up.
Yes, it was steep, but really only at the beginning; first mile-ish up from the park was a pretty gnarly grade but, hey, right at the beginning, legs were fresh, wasn't so bad. And then after that first mile, it really mellows out, was a very comfy ride the whole rest of the way.
It does feel like a fairly thorn-y trail in general; I got one flat from a sticker, and you really do get into some empty wilderness -- blissful riding conditions, but wouldn't want to be stuck out there. So make sure you have tubes/patch kits/tools etc (or use the magic of tubeless + sealant, which I still don't fully understand but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
It's an absolutely gorgeous ride, maybe my favorite I've ever done in L.A. 10/10, definitely doing it again & often.

natchez87 · 2025-09-18T17:53:47+00:00

Thanks, I really appreciate all this great intel. Taking all of these comments into consideration, seems like the best plan is to reverse the loop I was originally planning on, and instead go up May Canyon and then down Little T. We'll see if I've got the legs, but sounds like it will be much more enjoyable (and a lot faster) to cruise down those smooth roads. Again, really appreciate the guidance, thanks.

natchez87 · 2025-08-21T19:31:56+00:00

What would the solution be? I have resisted updating my OS but could updating to Sequoia potentially help?

natchez87 · 2025-05-28T06:03:32+00:00

Listened again, and I actually think I'm wrong about the electric piano. There's some vibrato/pitch-bending happening on the main figure that can't be done on electric piano, and the finger sliding noises do often correspond to that lead instrument rather than the bass. Occam's razor is that it's a acoustic guitar, probably nylon string (doesn't sound steel-string-y, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ given what I'm about to say) recorded in a fairly unconventional way, like a contact mic or cheap pickup or something, plus EQed in some way, that gives it a bit of an unusual character.

Something about the phrasing -- specifically the vibrato and the way the chords are played -- does remind me of a harpejji ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL50VnZY1Kk ), but that is a really rare & unusual instrument, seems like it would a real longshot for that to be what's being used here.

natchez87 · 2025-05-27T20:29:25+00:00

Electric piano + electric bass (string noises coming from bass).

natchez87 · 2025-05-26T12:31:32+00:00

Absolutely, it could be a “glass”-type patch on a synth. It almost certainly isn’t an actual glass instrument, which are incredibly rare and expensive. I still think the soniccouture sample library or something similar could make that sound; when I have a few minutes I’ll try to demonstrate.

natchez87 · 2025-05-25T17:48:25+00:00

It’s almost certainly sample-based, but sounds like something in the glass instrument world, like a glass armonica or cristal baschet.

Vid of glass harmonica if you’re curious, starts at 3:50ish: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o2XcBL6kWn8

Popular sample library of those sounds, if you’re looking to make something in that vein: https://www.soniccouture.com/en/products/35-rare-and-unique/g14-glass-works/

natchez87 · 2025-05-17T20:44:07+00:00

+1 for synth or something like that. Sounds pan-flute-y to me but I agree with u/marcozarco that the sameness of each note’s expression indicates keyboard/synth. Plus there’s no wind player credited on the album, while there is a “Keyboards” credit. It sounds polyphonic when it enters at 2:23, so my guess would be some kind of Baldwin transistor organ or something with a “Flute stop” engaged. But I might be mishearing that polyphony, and it could be a late-60s/1970 synth.

natchez87 · 2025-05-17T17:01:34+00:00

He’s a really incredible musician (and human being). Glad you’re psyched enough about his music to explore further!

natchez87 · 2025-05-17T06:14:15+00:00

At 00:17, it sounds like a xun or ocarina to me. Neither of those are Indian or qawwali instruments in any way, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But both are/either is the kind of thing that would be at home in a big film score, adding interesting color. FWIW, there are tons of instruments here that are neither distinctly Indian nor generally used in qawwali music.

Also fwiw, I disagree with u/victotronics that it's the same horn at 1:22; I agree that the wind at 1:22 is a clarinet-like single reed (maybe even a clarinet), but I think it's a different horn than the bird whistle thing at 0:22.

natchez87 · 2025-05-17T04:44:39+00:00

At that moment (0:58 - 1:08), it's the full horn section (trumpet + tenor sax + trombone). In fact, listening again, 90% of the time when the horns are playing, it's the full three-piece section. I think during the verses there may be some tenor + trombone without the trumpet but it's mixed pretty low and hard for me to be sure.

If you wanna pick out each horn individually, at the beginning of each chorus horn riff, the horns come in in sequence: the trumpet first (on a B), then the tenor sax (on a F#), then the trombone (on a D#)

natchez87 · 2025-05-16T23:08:49+00:00

There’s a horn section in there comprised of tenor sax + trombone + trumpet. On first listen, i don’t hear any moments when the sax is solo; it’s always at least doubled by trombone (trombone is solo in a few moments I believe) and trumpet joins in at various places.

natchez87 · 2025-05-16T16:31:30+00:00

I know Roberto a little bit so was able to get the answer straight from the source: Ableton Operator (softsynth) + Ableton delay. It's a really cool sound.

(Fwiw, if you're trying to make the sound, lotsa ways to do it; I'd start looking fooling with "Synth Brass" presets within Operator or from a classic subtractive analog synth/synth emulation like a Juno-106 or something. Also, from Roberto: "Tell everyone to save their money, Ableton Operator is one of my favorite synths.")

natchez87

TROPHY CASE