My first Ti or the Lynskey Review

I'm not afraid to admit, I've never ridden a titanium bike before.
I've always wanted to give it a try though so I was very stoked when George said that we'd be building up the small Lynskey Pro29 in my size. And if it wasn't enough that I'd get to test out this cool new bike, George also got it into his head that this would be a Ridiculight build. What started as a straight part swap from my Niner EMD to the Pro29 - became an exercise in shaving grams.

He weighed every Schwalbe Racing Ralph in stock to find the lightest pair in stock. The front was a not very heavy 551g, the rear 547g. All in the pursuit of Ridiculight.

The Mother's Day Royale wheels were deconstructed and rebuilt to go tubeless using the 355 rim.

Every part was carefully considered for it's weight contribution. Of course, in order to have it ready to roll up at the Kingdom Trails over the weekend, we had to make a concession or two. For example, the new Easton bars and stem didn't arrive in time to make the initial build.

Completely built, with Speedplay Frogs but without a water bottle cage, the bike weighs a respectable 22.6 pounds.

But how does it ride?

Fantastic.

It's light and zippy. Very responsive - but not twitchy in any way. It handles like a dream on singletrack. I was very pleased with it's ability to scale technical steep sections, and since it hardly weighs anything, you feel like you're just flying up the hill.

The curved top tube offers a lot of standover - I've said it before, although 5'6" isn't that short, I have short legs. This frame has plenty of standover and could definitely accommodate a much shorter rider than myself.

The Ti frame is stiff, but soaks up a lot of the trail chatter, making this bike inherently more smooth and pleasant than aluminum hardtails that I've ridden recently.

The only negative for me is occasional toe overlap with the front wheel. This is probably peculiar to the small frame, and happened only randomly on tight switchbacks, but nonetheless it was a little disappointing for a fame of this calibre.

Other than that, this bike is fast and solid. It would be a fantastic choice for racing and I hope to be able to test it out at some off-road tris, one of these days.

Long Time Coming - The Slingshot Farmboy Review

In mid summer, Slingshot saw fit to send me a frame to test. I am always grateful for the opportunity to try something new, but my dance card was pretty full this summer, so I asked them to send a medium frame size that I could get under more people.

People who may not get the opportunity to test many bikes.

People who haven't necessarily ridden everything under the sun.
Ordinary folks who just like to ride bikes.


Folks that had no idea that they were even riding a 29er.

Folks that pointed to it wondering "what the heck is that?" that got a chance to ride it, and still came away smiling.

Folks that knew what it was and came away smiling after a ride.

Here is an unedited first ride report from my friend Scott. For those of you who don't know him, he is an engineer for a prestigious "active sports" company, has won several industiral design awards, has a dog that eats the inside of cars, a man who loves Iron Maiden, beer and riding bikes.

He is also a pretty good bike rider, and has crashed enough to know what he is talking about.

***When I woke up Sunday morning, I was fighting a good-sized hangover from two straight nights of partying like I was still in college. At the ripe old age of 34, it takes me a bit more time to recover than it used to. So after I called George to confirm that our prearranged afternoon ride was still on, it was with a sense of mild apprehension and slight nausea that I headed out the door to meet up. As I drove bleary-eyed to the shop, little did I know I’d be adding to the fun by popping my 29er cherry too, by demoing the Slingshot Farmboy at George’s suggestion.


As we rode from the parking lot to the trailhead, I noticed two things. First, that my cold-weather riding gear is woefully inadequate. And second, that the front derailleur was adjusted a little off, so I couldn’t get down into the small chainring. Unfamiliar equipment, cold limbs, no small chainring, and oh yeah, that hangover - things were adding up to make it a less-than-pleasurable ride. However, I’m here to tell you that the Slingshot put those worries to rest.


Like I said, this was my first ride on a 29er. I’ve been listening to George sing their praises for years now, and I have to say, after just one ride, I might finally be a convert. So I’m not exactly sure how much the following impressions were due to the Slingshot itself, and how much they’re due to the big wheels under it.

Anyway, here goes. It was a really fun ride. It climbed easily, even without access to the small chainring, and that’s saying something for me, because I hate climbing. Granted, the trails we were on don’t feature any of the extended brutal climbs that I’ve come to know and despise here in VT, but still, I had no problem getting up even the trickiest sections this ride had to offer. It felt solid when getting up out of the saddle, and was light enough to really make use of the big tires’ ability to roll over roots and rocks. In other words, it seemed to roll over stuff really easily. Not a huge difference from my normal ride (a 26”-wheeled Heckler), but enough to notice. It handled surprisingly nimbly. It adjusted course without any backtalk or fuss, and held onto a line nicely when I was on-track.


The bike really came into its own when descending through a series of slightly bermed switchbacks. It was then that the Slingshot really felt like... well, like a slingshot. The bike really felt like it was loading up into the turns and getting shot out of them. Good fun. Really the only issue I had on the ride was a couple of instances when riding over obstacles on flat terrain where it felt like I was about to go over the handlebars when I wouldn’t normally expect to. I felt like I could have used another inch or so of wheelbase towards the front of the bike. However, as mentioned before, this was a demo bike, so it certainly wasn’t set up optimally for my body geometry. A different stem or fork might have gone a long way to eliminate that issue.


Overall, it was really fun, and I have to say I enjoyed the ride a lot, even if there were a few moments where I thought I might have to hurl up all of the previous night’s vodka and wedding cake all over the trail. For a first time, the Slingshot sure was gentle on me.***

I value an unbiased opinion more than anything else. and the feedback I got from this frame was very interesting. It certainly is an odd duck, but that doesnt make it bad. In fact, the Farmboy could be the exact thing you are looking for.

MOOTS!

I'm very pleased to announce the arrival of our first Moots. For those that do not know, Moots handcrafts their frames in Steamboat Springs Colorado, exclusively out of that most coveted element, titanium. They are truly works of art.


This is a YBB, a pivotless soft tail, that will give up just enough flex on a big bump, but will remain stiff when you need to get the power to the ground. The YBB is heralded as the first softtail, and the first ever production 29er.


I was riding full suspension DH rigs back then, so I can't comment on these claims, but I can say, that even then, I aspired to owning one of these. Moots and beauty are synonymous. The welds are flawless. The finest of details are well thought out and executed.


Sadly, this one is not mine...

Interested in getting one? Well, lead times can be long. They are hand made one at a time, and good things can never be rushed, but at the time I ordered this frame, I was given a lead time of 8 weeks. It actually was ready in 5. You can pick from an extensive selection of stock sizes and geometry, with custom options galore.

Could be a good winter project.

A Pleasant Surprise

When I was putting my bike on the roof of my car in the pouring rain, I was thinking to myself at just how much fun this race was going to be. I mean, it was POURING! It had rained all night, and it didn't look like it was going to stop.

I picked up Nat, and we headed north and west to Catamount, where the race was being held. We were commenting on just how cold, muddy and miserable we were going to be. Well, wouldn't you know it, when we came out of the mountains, everything was dry! It hadn't rained at all. What a fantastic surprise. Needless to say, the weather greatly improved our outlook. On arrival, I found I had managed to forget my gloves, and glasses. Good thing I didn't need them.


There was no standing water on the course, the wooded sections were tacky, and the grass sections of which there were many were fantastically grippy.
So how do you do a tire comparison in near perfect conditions? Well, it isn't easy.

Bontrager Jones
My race rig was my Niner SIR9 (Kermit), set up as a rigid singlespeed. My wheels are Bike29 Royale Singlespeed, using Stan's Arch rims. I am running them tubeless, and had 35 psi in both tires. The ground is still pretty soft, even the slightest incline would sap all your strength, but it was not the tires. For being such a blocky tread pattern with a soft rubber compound, they roll fast on anything hard. They stuck to the dry grass like velcro. I was really able to lay it down in the turns. About the only time they made we nervous was when going over wet roots. I don't know any 29er tire out there that is good at that. Racing rigid was interesting too. I felt a little skittery in the rough stuff. I may rescind my weight weenie ways and put a fork on Kermit this summer, but I am going to give it a few races.

IRD Fire XC
Nat had his tires around 25 psi. I think this is way too low, but he likes the way they hook up at that low a pressure. We traded the lead over each other a few times over the race. Nat's EMD is set up with WTB Speed Disc Trail rims using tubes.

Kenda Karma
Jay had his tubeless Bike29 AYKM wheels on his AIR9, and had his tire pressure around 20. He really liked the tires. He commented on outstanding grip in the race conditions we had, and the ease at which the wheels could get up to speed. Not suprising for such a light weight wheel/tire combo.

For the time being, these tires will be camped out on the bikes. I'll be able to nit pick the tires a little better when there is more opportunity for on trail drama. There were folks running Nanoraptors, and even they had no problems.

The race results were not posted at the time of this post, but as usual, Jay won in his category. Nice job! There were also a suprising number of 29ers out there. The summer race season begins on May 30th.

Bandersnatch

Named after Lewis Carrol's mythical monster that travels the land at great speed, gobbling everything up it sees, this bike promises to do just that.
With a modest build, this machine weighs in at a respectable 26.5lbs. Not too shabby for steel.

The weather is turning. We still have a lot of snow on the ground, but it is melting fast.
We will probably have at least one more decent snow storm before all is said and done, but I'm OK with that.
I've had a pretty decent winter on the snowboard, and I will be sad to see winter go in that regard. I am really fired up for biking though. If only there was some way to keep all the snow at the mountain, and have everything else be nice and dry for mountain biking....

Weekend Update

Despite winter's unrelenting grip, it does actually feel slightly spring like. We received at least another foot of wet snow yesterday, but this morning's temperatures are well into the 30s. Once the sun crept over the Worcester Range, it really warmed up. The snow is wet and heavy and melting fast, but the snowbanks are still 3 feet tall and higher. I spent about an hour and a half shoveling already today. Hard work, but it beats having the deck fall off the house under the weight of 2 tons of snow. While I was taking a break out there, enjoying the quiet, I noticed it wasn't so quiet after all. The birds were making a racket. It sounded like spring. Music to my ears.


I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I arrived at the shop and found that Brown Santa had delivered a set of custom Industry 9 Single Speed wheels. I love these wheels. This is the first time I have almost been torn away from my old stand by, the Bike 29 Royale.
This particular wheelset has custom color blue hubs laced to the Stan's Arch rims with silver spokes. A very tricked out package.

New Stuff

Not only are there lots of new 29er specific products showing up, there are lots of new 29er only companies popping up. It seems that there might be a market for this after all.

While we are still shy a few extra fork choices, we do have some more frame choices.
One of these new companies I'm referring to, is Vassago Cycles. They are a 29er only company, with two frame offerings, a horizontal dropout bike called the Jabberwocky, and a geared only version called the Bandersnatch.

Both frames are made from 4130 CroMo, and are priced to be competitive against the ubiquitous Surly Karate Monkey.
Vassago has a unique take on frame geometry they call "Wet Cat Geometry". Essentially, they put your weight "in" the bike, vs. being "on top" of it, giving you better handling characteristics on those long uphill grinders.
I was instantly hooked when I first saw the site. My first Bandersnatch arrived today. I'm impressed. The paint is a cool grey color, almost a primer grey, only way better. It is also clearcoated, which was throwing some shine when I was trying to get shots of it. Once I have the camera settings dialed, and all of the lights adjusted, I'll provide more shots of the details that make this bike stand out above the rest.


Also on deck, is the new Niner M.C.R.9. Standing for Magic Carpet Ride, anyone that has spent time on Niner's S.I.R.9 knows, that this is the best description of how this Reynolds 853 frame rides.
Smooth.


The looks are familiar, it is the same tubeset as the SIR, only with a conventional bottom bracket. There is also a new cast Breezer style dropout, which helps to reduce unnecessary weight.
And the new color, A & W Root Beer...
Brown is the new black, and this particular shade is one of the nicest around.

Tomorrow, Stash Off pictures!