If youre looking into new wheels. Give Fulcrum a try. I have a set of
Red metal 1 on my BMC and they are awesome. Stay true, roll great and look good w/ the flat blades.

what roof rack system are you using?

So where in Louisiana are you? I've ridden the trail in the bonnet carre spillway a few times and it is decently fun cutting through the woods against the waterway... just park by the boat launch.

Baton Rouge, we ride the Comite and Hooper road trails here. Definetly a workout. The comite trail system is just one hill or drop after another. If your looking for a good ride its worth the drive. I don't think there is a straight stretch for more than 100 feet.

The St. Tammany trace is nothing but straight stretch, but just about every time I've been there I've come across lots of wildlife like deer etc. on the trail.

Ar there any decent places to kayak near those trails? If we make the drive to BR i'd like to make a full day of it at least. Well I have family up there in Zachary, I guess I could visit them too.

*edit* Just looked at vids on youtube of those trails, definitely added on the list of places to bike!

I don't know too much about kayaking in the area, I know some people do it in the LSU lakes. Just picked up a Thule 916xt rack so can't wait to throw the bikes on there and head to the trails.

If you do make the trip you won't be dissapointed. But if you ride with people that aren't really up to some bigger stuff then get ready to hop off your bike and walk up and down some hills.

Yeah, we don't really have hills down here... there is some up and down at the spillway trail, but nothing with any kind of steep grade like I saw in the videos from up there. I have a few friends at work that really get into mountain biking that would love those trails, maybe get them to go sometime.

Yakima crossbars w/ lowrider max claws that attach to the existing roof rack.

Nice bikes guys! I'm riding a Specialized Stumpy 29er and love to ride single track around the NOVA area. The dog's put on a few miles and can't keep up any more so I have to pull her along.
I'm currently trying to figure out how to get my buddies bike on my X since he's got the 20mm thru axle. I don't have a hitch and I can't lock his front fork on my Yakima bike rack since the fork is a 20mm and not the standard QR fork.
Does anyone have any experience with the BMW OEM Touring MTB rack? That way I can leave the front wheel on the bike and mount it up top.

Here's a pic of my rack and bike.
(I'll have to add the rack pic later, it's on my other laptop)

I haven't used the BMW version, but I have used a Thule version of the same style. I got rid of it because it was an earlier version, and didn't accomodate a wide enough range of frame tube diameters. Thule fixed that by moving to what they called a 599 Big Jaw version (first picture), and now they have three similar styles for roof mounted, wheels on, support arm, bike racks. If you know that you will always be carrying the same frame style of bike, any one of the styles can work. Bikes have gone to bigger frame tubes, different frame designs, etc, over the past few years and so the safest purchase is one that only contacts a wheel. Three Thule racks are shown below. The BMW rack (not sure who makes it for them, but possibly Yakima) uses a frame clamp with a side arm, similar in concept to the 598 Criterium (second picture).

I would look at Yakima or Thule before the BMW product, myself. I would also lean towards the design that contacts only the wheel (third picture). I use wheel-off roof carriers now, because I have road bikes where I don't want clamps contacting the lightweight frame tubes, but for mountain bikes but any of these styles works well.