Rain, upcoming events and my $.02 on the Maxxis Ardent

The weather here has been monsoon like to say the least. June featured 24 days of rain, some of it quite heavy. July has been trying to catch up. We were lucky with the Festival, a week of dry weather that held on until the very last day of the event. Then it stayed rainy.
This last week we had 12" of rain!
Needless to say, the riding here is quite poor. Even Perry Hill has succumbed to the relentless rain. The lower trails, which are still quite fun by most standards, typically stay pretty dry due to the sandy nature of the soil, but now have some really nasty spots of standing water. Everything up high is closed. Slippery rocks and ledgy terrain is not so much fun when the ground is this wet, not to mention downright unsafe.

The Pittsfield 666 Race has been postponed until August 23rd and 24th due to the soggy nature of the ground. We were to be providing neutral tech support during the race.

There is a Fisher demo event at Catamount this Wednesday. If you haven't had an opportunity to check out a Hi Fi or Suprfly, this is your lucky day. You will be able to try out these fine bikes on real mountain bike trails.

Fool's Gold is August 16th and 17th, and DA and I will be there for the Bike 29 Gathering of the South East. This should be a fun event, not only is it a 50/100 mile race, but a festival too. We will be handing out prizes for "blingiest","lightest", "ugliest", and "most creative set up" for anyone attending who is lucky enough to be riding a 29er. A road trip is always fun, and we'll be swinging through Asheville NC on our way down to check out the magic that Industry 9 makes.


Now, you have read Mandy's review on the Maxxis Ardent. We have very different riding styles and very different tastes when it comes to tires. Mandy is more deliberate in her riding than I am, she picks lines and sticks to them, where I tend to have a severe case of Trail ADD. The faster I go, the more likely I am to change my line at any given time. Sometimes it works to my advantage, other times I get into trouble. The only things that can make or break my poor riding choices are my tires. What works for Mandy doesn't always work for me, and vice-a-versa. I like the Nevegal, she does not. She likes the IRD Fire XC Pro, I do not, etc etc.

Well, I think we may have found a tire we both like. I have had the Ardent on my RIP9 since the beginning of July, and have had the pleasure of learning this tire's traits in less than stellar riding conditions. And because Mandy instantly liked this tire, I felt compelled to find something wrong with it. I have a hard time with trusting new tires, especially ones that roll fast. The Ardent is an incredibly fast rolling tire. It has decent volume, and weighs in the low 700g range. It also has good cornering knobs, which I have learned to trust a little more each time I ride.

That spectre of doubt hung on for dear life though. I kept threatening to switch my tires back to the trusty Nevegal, but never did. And finally, last night, we had a great ride on the lower Perry Hill trails that permanently changed my opinion of these tires.

First of all, there is no tire out there that is good on mud, wet rocks and roots. They all slide, some more than others. The Ardent is a tire that slides very little on off camber rooty climbs, even it those roots are wet. On descents they are fast, and provide enough cornering grip to install superhero like confidence in high speed turns.

Maybe part of it is that I finally accepted the awful trail conditions. I like to think that the tires have proven themselves. And for a tire to do well in these conditions, they must be alright.
They get to stay on my bike.

Whoops

Can anyone see what is wrong with this picture?

Seems I forgot to tighten a couple of bolts.

Needless to say, I was very rattled from this experience, I had just completed a pretty high speed descent on part of the Perry Hill Trail System, and was on my way out, when my handlebars slipped in the stem.

I was riding a section we call "ZZ", a section of switchbacks that trail through a pine forest . The name of the game is momentum. I always play the "no pedal, no dab" game on this section. If you are unfamiliar with the trail, you will most likely dab once, or crank 1/4 of a pedal stroke to keep you going. It is a very BMX'y trail that requires a lot of body english to keep you rolling. I found that my handlebars were loose during a high speed manual through a dip, and lost control of the bike. In the picture, the bike points left, but the trail goes right...

After that, I was completely unable to get back up to speed.

I had lofty goals of getting the rest of the data for the Jet vs. Spider shootout, but today, I just had to get out of the woods safely.
With only my pride bashed up, I will regroup and try again in the morning.

Rolling with the Squadron

Mother's Day.
Three guys, out in the woods. The spouses had first dibs on the singletrack for the day, and fortunately, they were kind enough to leave some scraps for us.
Trail conditions were awesome. Dry as dry can be.

Nat, JayPro and myself headed up Perry Hill for some great riding today. Nat logged some flight time on my RIP, while Jay and I spent some time fine tuning our Jet 9s.


While the shop continues to be very busy, I did manage to get out for a ride last week, and I actually rode my RIP. I had a great time riding it. With any luck, I'll be able to spend a bit more time on trail, and now that both bikes are set up just the way I like them, I ought to be able to get a good comparison between the two. They are very different bikes.


I thoroughly enjoyed my Jet today. However, I took some time pre-ride, and swapped the Conti Mountain King tires for the Schwalbe Racing Ralph (2.4s). I think that I will go back to the Contis when it is a little colder and wetter, but for now, I am enjoying the high volume and very round profile of the Schwalbe much more. The tire swap was a good move. Cornering is very predictable, rolling resistance is lower, and I dropped .5 lbs in overall weight.

It was nice to let the Jet loose on some familiar, yet rugged terrain. I maintain that it is a quicker bike than the RIP. While not as sure footed at times in certain scenarios, it more than makes up for in maneuverability. You can change your mind at any point and switch lines at will. It outclasses the RIP in it's ability to climb technical sections with ease. We made the climb to the top of Joe's in no time at all.

I remain steadfast in my thinking that the Jet is a race bike. There have been some folks out there on the interweb that have complained about the weight of this frame, but I built Jay's bike at a respectably raceable 24.6lb (with pedals and bottle cage folks - real weights here). Take weight out of the equation, and what you have is a bike that can outclimb, out corner and straight up out perform the competition. The rest is up to the rider...