They aren’t glamorous. Nor are they frequent. But they can be the difference between a great day and a truly awful one. I had a day of small victories.

In the bike shop, some days you get beaten back three steps for every one you move forward. Other days, it’s as smooth as silk. Yesterday, I was winning. An otherwise insignificant bolt could have ruined everything. This bolt was part of a stem that needed to be swapped out for a repair, and it could have well been the difference between no repair and a surly customer, a bad repair and a surly customer, or me outsmarting the situation and making a good repair, thus keeping my customer happy. It took me about 20 minutes to address the problem, from beginning to end. The cool thing about it all, I kept my head, knowing I have the tools to deal with this sort of mechanical insubordination. I had that offending bolt out of the picture with no damage to the surrounding parts in a relative jiffy.

And I also had a complete resurrection go my way 100%. A rusty old bike that had been left for dead for 10 years is now rolling around as good as new. I felt really good after that one, like I flexed a muscle that has been dormant for a long time. While the war is far from over, it was one of those days where having a couple of things go my way made the battle a little easier.

OK, now that there are trails to be ridden, it’s time to resume my experiment that began a little too late last year to garner any conclusive results. Weapon X was built as an experiment, to see if I could get RIP like finesse out of a much meaner beast.

Weapon X

This WFO is no slouch, at 30.8lbs (as pictured), it is a veritable lightweight when you consider the capabilities of such a machine. My initial findings were good, with the Cane Creek Angleset the bike handled as I suspected it might, maybe even a bit too crisp. After nerding out a couple of times over the winter, I decided I needed to see how the bike handled with a “normal” headset. I had a sneaking suspicion that it might not actually be working in the fashion I expected.

One. With the Angleset installed, I measured my head angle at 69°, using my hardly reliable iPhone angle finder app. Most folks use the Angleset to slacken the head angle, not steepen it. This headset comes with a 10mm protuberance from the bottom of the headtube, thus raising the headtube, making it more slack. The offset in the cup is supposed to correct this, but still, we have a net effect of slackening the head tube.

Two. If I install a standard inset, I’d loose the 10mm under the head tube, theoretically steepening the HA. Or, in a nutshell, restoring the HA back to “stock”. I feel that the Angleset might work better for making more slack than it makes more steep.

object of my nerdisms

Three. I was not aware that the offset of the Fox 34 is 51mm, which makes for a quicker steering feel at the bars than a standard 46mm offset fork. After checking out some more facts and figures, I found that Rock Shox tapered steerer assemblies have a 38mm offset, so in theory, I might not even need the Angleset to get the quickness I want.

To be honest, I still have yet to find the sweet spot on this bike. Like every Fox fork I’ve had before, dialing them in takes FOREVER. At the moment, I have the high and low speed compression adjustments backed all the way off, and I’m still trying to get the right air pressure to make it even approach plush. As it is right now the front end feels kinda dead. The back end is a bit easier to deal with, but I still can’t seem to find the right balance between the front and rear of the bike. More tweaking will be necessary.

So my first trail ride in VT was taken on this bike just over a week ago at Pine Hill Park. Yeah, it was a little overkill, but I really wanted to get a sense of how the bike rode before I started farting about with it. Speed over the chunder was easily attained, but I did feel that the bike tended to get hung up on bumps rather than absorbing them. I’m pretty sure this is because the fork is not working the way I think it should.

Subsequently, I had a hard time figuring out where to be on the bike to get the snap out of the rear suspension I’ve come to know and love on the RIP9. Let’s just say, I didn’t find it on that last ride, but I know it’s there, my last WFO had it, so I just need to fiddle with it some more.

I’ve removed the Reverb seatpost until such time as I can fix it. It has been a pain in my ass since day one, and I just need some time to bleed the hydraulic system to make it work the way it’s supposed to. I’ve also switched the tires to the Schwalbe Hans Dampfs, which I am going to just come right out and say it, they are firggin AWESOME. Review coming after a few more rides.

Has everyone seen these? These are good!

I love big cans (of beer)

I’m totally digging the good beer in cans movement that is happening right now.

 

Or, “objects in catalog are marketed to be bigger than they really are“, which was kinda too big to use as a title, and maybe a little bit too snarky. It’s been a while since I’ve had a good rant on here, and this time I am setting my sights on the apparent lack of standards regarding tire size. It seems that these days you can say a tire is just about any size, regardless of how accurate that measurement is, and that it is totally OK. This especially burns me because I feel like I have been personally gypped.

I have been eagerly awaiting spring as there were 3 new tires I was expecting this year that got me really fired up over the winter. See, I’ve always had a thing for big tires. Mountain bikes with skinny tires look just plain silly to me. Obviously, there is a place for such a thing, like race bikes, however, I don’t think I know anyone that likes to roll around on skinny tires for recreational mountain biking. And let’s face it, 7-900g tires are not really race worthy, and this is not where my complaint lies. See below.

Tire # 1

long time coming

The WTB Weirwolf LT 2.5 TCS.  I LOVED the old WW LT. High volume, low tread and fast fast fast. WTB stopped producing these in 2010. As stocks dwindled, I did my best to get as many of them before they were gone for good. Sadly, I was unable to hoard any for myself. Then I heard they were going to rerelease the tire, so things were not sounding so grim anymore. I waited about 14 months before I finally got my first set of new WW LT tires.

Well, the first thing I noticed, was that I could not for the life of me get the tire on a Stan’s rim. I tried, breaking several tire levers before giving up. Irritated, I tried a Salsa Delgado I had kicking around. No dice. I did however get it on a WTB TCS rim with minimal fuss, and I inflated it to finally get a good look at this tire I had been waiting for for so long.

ummm...

grrr

You can just imagine what happened after I inflated the tire. Phone calls were made, emails were sent. Clearly not even close to the 2.5 size emblazoned in huge numbers on the sidewall. On the plus side, the tread pattern looks pretty good, and the weight comes in around 720g. Not bad for the amount of knobs protruding from the casing.

Tire #2 (Electric Boogaloo)

and...?

...meh

Continental X-King 2.4, also coming up short in the size department, although it is noticeably bigger than the 2.2 version. My hope is that the tire will continue to grow a little as it gets ridden. But even now, after a couple of rides, measuring out at 2.2, this “2.4″ is bigger than the aforementioned “2.5″.

What the hell?

Now I know that some of you might be questioning my method when it comes to measuring these tires. I’m using new Park digital calipers, bought specifically for nerding out like this. I have the tires aired up to 30 psi, with no inner tubes. I am measuring the casing, not the tread, which can stick out a little further on some tires. Not that it really matters though, because with the sheer amount of daylight between the rubber and the caliper speaks volumes. I expect that the inner rim width would affect the inflated size of the tire to some degree, but 1 or 2 mm isn’t going to be enough of a difference to make the tires what they are “supposed” to be.

And finally:

Tire #3

???

winning!

Schwalbe Hans Dampf 2.35. Hey look, with only one ride, these tires are actually pretty close to the size printed on the box!

So what gives here? Is it the economy? Are we making cutbacks in tire size? How is it that a major component manufacturer like WTB can fall so painfully short on a tire that is supposed to be what fans of the old version were waiting for? Did they really mean version 2.5? I hate to lampoon a company that makes so many great products I use and enjoy, I love their saddles, have been a huge fan of their tires for ever, I am a big believer in their new TCS system, but the size on this tire just bums me out.

Conti should be held to a higher standard when it come to hitting their tire sizes. They make every kind of tire for every type of thing that has tires. I’m not as bummed with them as I am WTB, but when they can make two sizes of a tire model, let’s get closer to the mark. They can obviously make a 2.2, so how about that 2.4? Companies like Schwalbe seem to be able to hit that mark a little more accurately. Sure they are also the most expensive tires in this little missive, but hey, I feel I’m getting what I pay for. And maybe that’s just it. Maybe they cost more because someone has their finger on the pulse.

What do you think?

 

Gone are the sunny days and summer like temps of last week, now it’s back to where we should be for this time of year, gloomy and in the 40s and 50s. I had a free Saturday afternoon, but little motivation to ride. I was going through warmth withdrawal, but somehow, I managed to rally.

Stowe Town Loops “officially” opened this weekend, despite how evil the parking lot over at iRide looked. I opted to pop into the trails the back way, through Bears. I was very surprised to see just how dry the trails were. Nary a mud hole to be found, and only one puddle. Seamy and I tooled around the woods for about an hour, enjoying every second of trail.

stomping the climbs

I opted to ride Rambo. Having sold my bump taker at the end of last fall, I rode fully rigid, and with my “training gear”. When I’m not riding trails, I run a 34×19. Normally, I run 34×21 on this bike, but that is too spinny on the roads that I ride during the off season. I was quite taken aback at the apparent ease at which I was able to make the climbs. Normally, I’m coughing, wheezing and sputtering my way up the hills, but this time I was able to easily stay on top of my gear, and power over the roots and rocks. And there aren’t really any big hills out on the Loops…

I’m not going to lie, it felt really good. I’m going to keep that gear on my bike for as long as I feel I can keep turning it. I’m really glad I made myself ride.

Sunday was a different story, wet, drizzly, and kinda chilly. A bunch of us Waterbury folk had made plans to go and do some trail clean up, knowing that the second half of the weekend was not going to be the nicest day for riding bikes. About 6 of us headed into the woods with rakes and loppers, and set about the arduous task of cleaning up the near 15 miles of trails on Perry Hill.

twisty turny rakey

I chose to hike up Rasta Man, one of the oldest and most ridden trails up there. Having an abbreviated schedule for the day, I hiked up and raked as far as I could go, before bailing. I just gotta say I love wool jerseys. In fact, I was decked out in all wool, knowing I was going to be breaking a sweat and standing about in the rain. I managed to stay pretty warm the whole time, despite being soaked.

On my way back, I saw this evil rock.

Rock of Doom

I’d never noticed this before, mostly becasue whenever I’m out this way, it’s summer and the leaves obscure its evil gaze. It peers over a particularly tricky section of trail, one that has sent me to the ground several times. Now I’m on to it.

I’m going to get back out there this week to finish what I started. In the meantime, bikers should stay off the Perry Hill trails. The State has not yet given approval for MTB use, and as it is their land, respecting their policies is good for everyone. They are out there surveying the trails and general condition of the forest, so it would be wise not to jeopardize our privileges. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t be out there, in fact, there is still much to do. If anyone wants to lend a hand, let me know and I can point you in the right direction.

Up next, that rant I was threatening.

 

Yeah, it’s obvious isnt it?

Truth is, I have been out riding my bike, and/or walking the trails. It’s still pretty wet out there, despite the record breaking temps, but we’ll be in the woods soon. Very soon though. And with the nice weather, comes the repairs. All manner of bicycles are making their way into the shop for a spring tune up. It’s good to be busy, but it can be a struggle to fit it all in. So the blogging has suffered.

I do have some interesting topics of discussion though, ones that I hope to get to over the weekend. There may even be a rant in there.

I’m not talking about my return to blog posting, of course that’s worth the wait….

I love me that new tire smell

No, I’m talking about new tires. Continental ones specifically. We never got the tires we were promised from Continental last year, despite them teasing us with new tread patterns and rubber compounds. To let you know just how late these tires are, the preseason order I placed in February 2011 is beginning to trickle in.

The first tire to arrive is the much anticipated X-King (“cross” King). I say “X” King, because it sounds like X-Wing, which is just plain cool.

X-King

X-Wing

The X-King comes in a 2.2 and a 2.4, and is designed to be a fast roller with widely spaced knobs giving more sure footedness in loose conditions. The weight is a little on the portly side, the 2.4 pictured above coming in a 780g. If it is anything like the Race King tires, they will still roll fast, and you wont necessarily feel the weight. Fingers crossed there. They have a nice round profile, much like Race Kings and they certainly seem like a quality tire. I mounted one up to the front of my A9C to get a little more cush from my current rigid fork set up. Sometime soon, I will re-install a squishy fork, at which point I’ll mount another on the back wheel for maximum plushness.

falling a bit short

Sizing is a bit off, which seems to be the trend these days in 29er tires. Although, these 2.4s are bigger than the WTB 2.5s that I got in, even though they measure out at a hair under a 2.2. I measured the casing at 54mm at 33psi. I’m hoping that they grow a little after the first couple of rides. Mandy is checking out the 2.2s, so I’m sure she’ll provide her initial impressions soon.

All in all, I will have to say I greet this new series of tires from Conti with optimism. I was never a fan of the MTN King, I found the casings to be too pliable for the hard knobs that adorned them, but I was really impressed with the Race King. I’m still waiting for a new and hopefully greatly improved MTN King, and there is also a Trail King which has my ears perked up. I’m hoping we see them soon.

 

Yeah, lame I know, but I’m furiously getting all my crap together so I can finish up my year end/taxes and other such nonsense. Oh, and all the bikes I need to work on. And wheels to build.

So I’ll just tease you with pictures of one of the wheels I had time to build yesterday.

 

Pretty nice huh? It’s the first set of these I’ve built, and I can say that some day, I hope to have a set of these on one of my bikes.

Now it’s back to pushing paper.

Wow, we’ve just been having a run of good weather lately. It’s really hard for me not to just shrug off every responsibility and go for a ride, although nothing would make me happier.

uncommon blue for this time of year

I’m really trying to behave, both in terms of getting my work done, and resting the knee. There is still a long way to go until dirt, and I want to be in the game and not on the sidelines. Still, it’s really hard when you are presented with sunny skies and temps creeping up into the 60s.

rocking the roadies

This Sunday, Nat and I cranked out a mellow ride to Richmond and back, a short 27 mile ride that is relatively flat. I have pulled my road bike out of the trainer for the season, and am slowly becoming accustomed to it. It’s been a nice distraction while the dirt roads thaw out. I am anxious to get busy mapping the Grinder. With temps soaring into the 70s and maybe even 80s next week, should be long…

On Saturday, Mandy and I loaded up the Pugsleys, boy and dog to attend the first annual Winterbike. It is a winter fun bike festival held by our friends at MTBVT.com. Actually, it was a veritable who’s who of cycling aficionados from all over VT and beyond.



There was a large fat bike contingent, more than I’d ever seen in one place, but conditions were so good, you could have ridden your regular skinny wheels, and many did. All in all about 80 folks showed up to partake of this stellar event. The weather was perfect too, a big high pressure mass had settled over the area the day before, and with no cloud cover, radiational cooling brought the temps well below freezing overnight. Blue skies made the colder temps easy to bear. It’s been so warm lately I was half expecting it to be a total slush fest, but this little injection of cold air helped keep the trails in primo shape.

Mandy went out with the main group of riders, while I hung out with K and Seamus. Before too long, another dog showed up to the party, and Seamus was otherwise preoccupied updating his facebite status. It was really just a nice day to be outside, and I realized my biggest fail was not bringing a bike for the boy. Oh well, next year.

After a while, riders started trickling back in, and before I knew it, I was handing the kid baton off to Mandy, and I headed out solo on the trails. I ran into Ryan, one of our illustrious hosts, who decided to pedal back out with me. We shot the shit, caught up on our nefarious plot to make this year’s Gravel Grinder the best possible event ever (next to SSUSA) and proceeded to climb the most ridiculous hill I have ever ridden up on a Pugs. It was UP. In fact, I remember Mandy telling me at hand off about this really amazing downhill, and I was riding up it.

The good news is that it would wind us up at the comfort station, which Ryan had arranged to be as comfortabl as possible. He said he was inspired by our aid station from GG2011. Well played sir.

mmm refreshments...

The fire was nice, as was the keg, cheddar and hooch. Ryan made me a cocktail of VT vodka and Waterbury’s own Cold Hollow Cider. It was amazing. I forgot to mention, that I was a bad dog owner while hanging out at the registration area. Seamus had taken off with the folks that owned the other dog. He was having a good time, and was thankfully hanging out at the comfort station. He likes to hang out where the fun is. He also left the aid station before I did, bad dog…

fire is cool

Eventually, I rode back to the base area, where I caught up with everyone else, and Seamus. The circus was about to start. There was a 6x snow DH Chinese Downhill race for all the spectators, run by Knight Ide. Knight is an icon in the VT mountain bike world, responsible for much of the gravity fed trails on the Mountain side of KT, and he had spent quite a bit of time prepping a course for this very spectator friendly event.

untouchable

super awesome 6X

Brooke Scatchard eventually ended up with the W on his Lefty equipped Pugsley. Brooke is a trail builder, and responsible for many of the trails in Chittenden county. He is also an amazingly skilled rider. He is probably one of the few people that can outgeek me in bikes, and what makes things even worse, is that he is a tinkerer. He comes up with weird stuff.

like this

But anyway, I got a chance to ride his Pugs (wheels on both ends), and I have to say that I am sold. I took his bike out for a while at the end of the day and was amazed at how having suspension changed the capabilities of the big tire when grip is questionable. Actually, I wanted to keep riding, but it was getting late and the sun was dipping lower in the sky. Sadly you’ll have to wait until next winter to find out what I find out about squishy fat bikes. I’m hanging the ‘Raptor up for the summer, except for one maybe last ride …

St Paddy’s Day Pugs Crawl! You probably wont need a fat bike, but you will need a bike. We’re going to be meeting up at the town end of the Stowe Rec path at 3pm on March 17th. If this is the sort of nonsense you can truck with, then meet behind the white church in the Village. Or, meet us along the way!

I’m talking about the new WTB Frequency rims. It seems that component manufacturers are finally taking this whole tubeless thing more seriously. Only  a few short years ago, Stan’s was running amok unchecked with their tubeless system. They certainly didn’t invent the concept, but they did develop the technology that makes it what it is today.

Way back when, there was UST, the tubeless system developed by Mavic, which was the first, and actually still present system. Back then, the tires were heavy, expensive, and the caveats too great to make them accessible to the mainstream market. Stan worked on a better, lighter system that played better with others.

The only problem (or so the “industry” seemed content to convey) is that Stan’s didn’t adhere to any “standard”. This is legal BS concocted to protect the manufacturers from Joey Armchair Mechanic mounting up his tires incorrectly. I’ve had several tire manufacturers tell me that their tires aren’t tubeless ready, yet I have used everything I sell tubeless with the Stan’s system with minimal problems. But then again, I’m a professional.

To cut to the chase, there are now multiple systems out there. Bontrager has their own system involving a big plastic rim strip, Stan’s is now licensing their Bead Socket Technology to Sun rims, and then there is the “new” UST along with it’s varients. WTB is pimping out their TCS or Tubeless Compatible System, which is designed to work with UST type tires.

WTB has been making rims forever, and have some good technologies that make them a viable choice for riders looking for a lightweight yet strong rim. Their tech page is jam packed with easy to understand info on their system. I’d just be regurgitating it.

Let’s talk about these wheels!

Out of the box, the quality was what I expected. I kinda like the graphic treatment on the rims, but for those that don’t it is a sticker that can easily be removed. I had a set of I9s that were mis-shipped to me, so I decided I’d build them right up. I went with a classy triple silver build. The rims were nice and straight, and had a nice flat profile. They tensioned up nicely as well, which I attribute to the 4D spoke hole drilling. Basically it angles the socket where the nipple rests against the rim, aligning it with the spoke itself, and I was able to wind these wheels up a little tighter in the stand than a set of Stan’s rims.

silver niceness

So here are the numbers. The rims weigh 530g, exactly the same as a Stan’s Flow. Why one over the other? Inner rim width is the reason. The Flow is 22mm, the Frequency is 23mm (hence the name i23). Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it allows the tire to have a wider footprint. 1mm can make a big difference depending on the tire. Wider is better. The front wheel built up to 930g with rim tape and valve stem, the rear 1020g. About what you’d expect for a wheelset built to take some abuse. They also make this rim in a lighter more XC 19mm inner width.

TCS works, even without sealant

I used the new WTB Weirwolf, which I mounted up without using sealant. I wanted to see how good the TCS interface was. I was surprised to see that they held 35psi for a couple of days just sitting in the shop. I’ve been waiting for a while for the new WW tires to come out, but I was pretty bummed on the size. They come up a bit narrow, and are far from the 2.5 printed on the sidewalls. I’m hoping they grow a little with use.

So why would you get these over a Stan’s system? Well, the new TCS tires from WTB will not work on a Stan’s rim. I just about popped an eyeball, along with 4 tire levers trying to get one of these tires on a Flow. It didn’t even come close. It easily slipped on the Frequency rim though, and WTB does make some of the finest rubber out there. If you want maximum tire compatibility, I’d suggest giving these a try.