You’ve been waiting for this one.

So how does this newfangled crabon contraption ride? Well, color me impressed. I have traditionally shyed away from the material when used as a frame. I love crabon bits on my bike, I have used crabon handlebars and seat posts on various bikes over the years. This is the first full crabon framed bicycle I have owned and ridden off road. Quite an experience to tell you the truth.

I had ridden some older crabon road bikes, and was unimpressed with the “feel”. On the road, I like to know where my wheels are, and on older frames I rode (12 years ago), crabon made the bike feel dead. No feedback or anything. Aluminum road bikes were ouchy to ride, titanium bikes were expensive (even though I owned a Lemond Tete de Course one summer -Ti AND carbon), so I have pretty much stuck with steel road bikes. Steel bikes have a nice sproing to them, and they let you know just what is going on underneath you in a gentle sort of way.

Now, mountain bikes are a different animal. They have big fat tires that can be run at lower pressures than a road bike, and sometimes expensive bump soaking suspension forks, mechanically damping the bumps that come up at you along the way.

Frame material does come in to consideration though for some people. I’ve ridden almost all of them extensively, and as you can imagine, I have some opinions that I’ve formed along the way.

Steel = awesome. Relatively inexpensive when compared to other fancy frame materials, but the long and short of it, is that you get a nice compliant ride. Up until just recently, most of my “epic days in the saddle” have been on Kermit. It’s comfy, and while steel doesn’t make the big bumps go away, it rounds them over a little bit.

Aluminum. Inexpensive. Stiff, resilient and light weight. Transfers everything though, and without squish on both ends, I find that I only really like aluminum on shorter rides.

Scandium. Delicious. It’s still aluminum, but with scanudlium added to allow for the use of lighter stronger aluminum alloys that typically don’t weld well. Straight aluminum doesn’t like heat, but hook it up to some compatible friends that do, and well, that’s the crap billion $ flying machines are made of. You get a lightweight, stiff frame with thin tubes that can flex, which if designed right, will give you a ride that approaches the quality of steel. Approaches, but isn’t the same. I was worried that SSAZ/USA would be a tough day in the saddle (which it was – but it wasn’t because of the bike).

Titanium. Nope. Not yet. I own a totally bitchin’ Moots YBB all pimped out and ready to ride that is collecting dust right now. Make me an offer…

Crabon. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

So many people are haters of this material, but I love it. It’s like crack. It’s wicked expensive, yet so temporary. I don’t know if crack is actually like that, but I do know that the ride quality is addictive. I’m still processing my ride right now, I saw things, amazing things…

I wish I had a helmet cam purely for chasing Seamus down the trail. That dog knows singletrack. He FLEW tonight. I wish I could describe it, but basically, it’s the back of an ass hauling skinny dog, massive tongue hanging out to the right, ears flopping in the rhythm of the gallop. He knows and loves the trail just as much as I do.

I hit a “something” in the trail really hard. Hard enough to flex the fork off to the non drive side, and I swear, I saw the front wheel in a position I didn’t ever expect it to be in, and then snap back. On a different bike, I might have  glanced off, and had to make a correction that wouldn’t have agreed with my trajectory, if I even had a chance to adjust.

I got lost in the bliss of the trail, and even took some lines I only ever do on my RIP.

Roots? Shut up roots! I own you!

Crabon can be engineered to be stiff where it needs to be stiff, and compliant where it needs to be compliant. This bike has a ride that is as stiff as scandium, but as smooth as steel. The back end does not skitter around on rough rooty stuff like Furley is prone to do.

I’m way into crabon.

The build:

Bobke’s Niner AIR9 Crabon, size large, in Vanna White

Reba XX, 100mm w/the schmancy Hydroloc lockout

Avid XX brakes, 185mm up front, 160 out back

I9 geared wheelset with Stan’s Arch rims

Geax Saguaro tires

Edge Composites low rise bars and seatpost

Thomson stem and seatpost clamp

WTB Devo saddle

Ergon GX1 grips

Furley’s Noir cranks and 33t Rotor ring, Black Box GXP Cereamic BB*

Boone 19t cog with Endless Fibonacci spacer kit and Chris King lock ring

SRAM PC991 chain

Crank Bros Candy 2Ti pedals

A little excessive, maybe, but without builds like this, we slack into complacency.

The ride?

Well, I’d have to say that I only got a short ride in on it today. The shop was going off gangbusters, and I didn’t really get a chance to put on the finish touches until right before I had to leave to get boy wonder from summer camp. I did get a quick ride to drop off some packages at Fed Ex up the street, and it was during this time I was very intrigued. It’s a feeling I call “stiffrent”.

Power transfer was immediate, step on the pedals and you are rewarded with forward movement. While riding over big cracks in the pavement, the bike displayed some compliancy that is more like a steel frame. I can’t wait to take it for a real ride in the woods!

Another thing I found out was that I can fit two full sized bottles on this bike. Booya.

Well, as it turns out, I may not be upgrading to the 34t Rotor ring after all. I am still missing the crank that was supposed to go with it, and I can’t make the new ring fit on Furley’s Truvative Noir crank, so I’ll be using the 33t ring unless the new cranks show up.

I will be upgrading the bike though.

I’ve been waiting for this bike for quite some time now. Rumor has it, that a certain celebrity may now be waiting for a bit too, as this frame might have been going his way. Good thing for me, and I’m sure he has plenty of other bikes to ride in the meantime.

This should come as no surprise to anyone that reads this blog with any sort of regularity. I have a severe case of bike ADD.

Not to say that Furley wasn’t up to task. He was, but has had a bit of a complication that will put him on the 15 day DL. So the new hot sensation is signed, wearing the team kit, and is in the starting lineup (almost) ready to go. What about Kermit? Well, Kermit needs to stay retired. He’s earned his rest, and has been invaluable in helping the new kids get sorted out on the team.

So new bike-without-a-name will go into the fire this weekend at the DH40. I still have yet to decide upon the time and location of the shakedown ride, but we are on the fast track to get it dialed in quick.

So, start thinking about names. The christening will happen early next week.

Oops, I almost forgot…

All the stuff you want to know about this bike will be coming up next. It is way more preposterous than you might imagine.

And have I been training? No, not so much.

I have been riding, but I haven’t been spending quality time in the saddle. Meaning that I have not been getting those long base miles in on the bike I will be racing on. Instead, I have been frivolously goofing around on my RIP9 on short rides with friends. A ride is a ride, and always good for the soul, but I have a feeling that this upcoming 40 mile ride will hurt.

So, I will be changing some aspects of my equipment to gain whatever advantage I can. It isn’t like I’m going to loose 10 lbs and get ultra fit in the next 6 days.

One of the things I will be using is the new 34 tooth singlespeed specific Rotor ring. I snagged this one from Niner rep Mike Stanley during the VT Mountain Bike Festival.

I am in fact singed up for the Dark Horse 40 in the single speed category, further showing my lack of good judgement when it comes to these sort of things. I haven’t picked out my rear cog yet, but I think I will be bringing a couple of extra and some tools, and make a game time decision after checking out the course.

We have been trying to do a pretty consistent shop ride every Thursday, but sadly, the weather has consistently been total crap on Thursdays. After the tornados and heavy rains of Wednesday, our trails took a serious beating. Lots of trees down, and lots of mud. We are going to have to do a good bit of clean up before things are somewhat back to normal.

In an effort to not be total slackers, we decided that we would ride our bikes on the road. We ended up doing an 18 mile out and back to the Jonesville bridge. Mostly flat and rolling, and mostly a ride I do on my La Cruz. I rode Pale Horsie, as everyone else brought mountain bikes to the road ride. I also rode in my finest leotards, something I initially got crap for, but hey, we were riding roads. Once I put the lead on them, I couldn’t hear them anyway…;) I’m pretty much over riding in bulky shorts on the road these days.

I was a little bit cooked from the KT scouting ride, and a mostly flat, high speed spin was just what my legs needed. And what ride would be complete without beer?

Joe had stashed some mid-ride beverages near our turnaround point, which improved the overall mood of the group immensely. While drinking the beer, Jonsie found some weird looking rock, it looked as if the pieces had been joined at one time, and was pretty neat to look at. I’d never seen anything like it. I’ll bet it’s actually petrified raccoon poo or something.

I had suggested that we add the Camel’s Hump Rd climb in to add a little mileage and elevation, which was shot down, and I was OK with that. After all, I’m not training for the VT50. Instead, we raced the coming darkness. I kicked up the tempo and had a couple of chasers and we motored back to the shop in good time.

I guess I’ll go in order.

Wednesday was a semi pre-planned hookie day for me and my partner in crime E-Dog. We were going to head up to the Kingdom to go and scout out a course for some shenanigans that Mandy and I have been brainstorming. It was a beautiful morning, nice and cool, with low humidity.

In an effort to make the trip in one less car, I met E-Dog in Morrisville, where I hopped into his truck with what I thought was all of my stuff. Upon arrival, I realized a couple of things. One, I had not eaten enough breakfast, and two, my helmet was still in my car. After a quick trip into East Burke Sports, I came out with a rental helmet ($5) and 3 Clif bars (also $5).

Game on.

E-Dog lulling me into a false sense of security on the first climb.

The goal was to scope out a route that was going to be about 25-30 miles long. We were a couple of miles shy of our goal, but I think our pace was pretty good. The weather forecast was for severe thunderstorms in the afternoon, so we chose not to dilly dally once we were done. We grabbed lunch and hit the road for home.

On the way back south and west, it was apparent that the incoming rain was not messing around. It was heavy at times between Burke and Morrisville, but when I got to my car, it was even more apparent that something big was about to go down.

I loaded up my car in a big hurry, dodging huge raindrops, and set off to go pick up the boy from summer camp in Stowe. The sky was already dark, and it seemed almost impossible, but it was getting darker. By the time I reached town limits the rain had let up, but I could no longer see the mountains. I could see some of the most intense lightning strikes that were merely 100s of feet from the road. I would have stopped to take some pictures, but the camera was in my trunk with all my smelly bike clothes.

I saw a big cloud that looked like a funnel, only it wasn’t swirling, but the clouds above and behind it sure were. Then the sky turned green. I have no idea why it does this, but you hear about it in the midwest where tornadic storms are more frequent. Then the rain came.

I was on Mayo Farm Rd when I had to stop because I couldn’t see the road anymore. It was almost like I was floating on water it was raining so hard. It was the wind that was the most alarming. The car was being pulled and shaken in all directions, the fact that I had a big sail attached to the top of my roof rack probably didn’t help. I saw something big and dark haul ass right in front of the car, likely a frightened moose or a big deer. It was huge, and it was raining so hard that I couldn’t really see what it was but it was moving. It was likely scared out of it’s mind, and was trying to run from the branches and leaves that were flying across the road. I’m glad it had the presence of mind to avoid my car.

I had the rear windows open a crack to try and get some air movement in the car, but my windshield fogged up anyway, and now it was raining in the car. And once it turned to hail, marble sized ice chunks were bouncing off the car, and the ones that got in ricocheted off the seats, roof and my head. After about a minute it was all over, it eventually let up and rained too hard for my wipers to do anything useful for another few minutes, then relaxed to the point where I could see the road again with my wipers on light speed.

There were big branches down on the road in front of me, but I was able to eventually get to where I needed to be. Others weren’t as lucky. Route 100 was closed north of Stowe because of some large trees blocking the road. It was the most intense storm I think I have experienced.

This is going to be a big one. If you want more amazing trails, please join in and help!

Adams Camp property| Saturday July 24 | 9am-1pm Join the Stowe Mountain Bike Club at the Adams Camp property for a trail work day this Saturday, July 24th from 9am-1pm.  Volunteers will help clear brush from new trail corridors, which will be part of the Vermont Mountain Bike Ride Center. Please bring leaf rakes, loppers and clippers if you have them. Meet at the Matterhorn at 9am (please park in the north lot, the one closer to the mountain). Wear sturdy shoes, gloves and work clothes, bring snacks, water and bug spray. A $50 gift certificate from the Stowe Area Association – redeemable at participating SAA lodges, shops and restaurants – will be given away to a lucky volunteer! For more information please contact Rick Sokoloff rick@stowemtnbike.com or 802.253.1939

I’m pleased to say that we had a fantastic turnout to this weekend’s event. Almost 300 riders came from all over the north east and Canada.

This is the third year of the festival, and it definitely feels like it is coming together as an event. We had demo bikes from Niner, Trek/Fisher, Specialized, Norco, Felt, and Cannondale. Our friends Skye and Meg from Mocean were there pedaling their new natural energy drink, Mocean Mate. It is friggin delicious, and you can expect to to pop up in stores in our local area pretty soon.

I helped Mike from Niner sling bikes all day Saturday and Sunday, and I don’t think I’ve spent that much consecutive time outdoors in a long while. We put a lot of folks out on 29ers, some for the first time. It is always nice to see people’s reactions when they bring the bikes back with big grins on their faces.

A big thanks goes out to everyone who helped make this event the huge success it was. I’m already looking forward to next year!

We all know that helmets are a mandatory bike riding fashion accessory. They protect the noggin, which is by far their most important task, but they fail to do one important task (at least for me). Moisture management. I’m not going to lie. I sweat a lot. Especially out of my head. On more than one occasion it has brought me down. Let’s face it, the crappy little pads in the helmet don’t really do much of anything except provide a comfort barrier between the foam and your skull.

The one day last year I didn’t wear something under my helmet to absorb the sweat, I ducked under a low hanging tree limb, only to have the mostly useless helmet pads squeeze out just enough liquid to sheet over the inside of the lenses of my glasses. This would have been fine if I hadn’t been going down a pretty technical downhill section of trail, but seeing as I was going at a pretty good clip, I couldn’t actually see that I was in fact, flying over my handlebars. I landed on my bad knee, and was hit by my bike to add insult to injury.

So, at least for me, it is good thing to have some help.

I’ve been using an old Chris King cycling cap, but it has gotten to the point of not really doing much anymore. It’s getting pretty manky, and the visor is permanently flipped up because of too many trips through the washing machine.

After sitting on my ass watching the Tour on TV, I decided to try out one of these Head Sweats that Bobke is all about. I went with the head band, as I thought that it might be a little cooler if heat could escape my head through the top vents. I’ve gotten a couple of rides in with it, and so far, it works pretty well.

Then I started thinking about the other things I have seen people wear under their helmets.

And then sometimes, you see people bombing around the place with no helmet on.

Make sure you at least wear a helmet when you ride your bike.

Take it easy.

I had to make a change in plans as Seamus the dog decided he would mope around the house with a goopy eye. Not his normal self at all. I had fully planned on rallying up to the Kingdom to scope out a big loop for a future ride that I will talk about later in the summer. I had a call in to the vet, some stuff to get done at the shop and I was loosing motivation to spend 3+ hours in a car to ride for 3+ hours by myself.

Fortunately, there is enough riding close  by, not all singletrack, but what there is is pretty epic in it’s own right. I decided on a Stowe “classics” ride from the house. I left later than I wanted to, in a light drizzle that turned to a hard rain by the time I made it to the top of the Barnes Hill climb. Fortunately, you can see what the weather is doing in Stowe from where I was, and I was pleased to see that it was sunny over there. In fact, as I crested the top of Stowe Hollow, it was nice and sunny, and that is the way it would stay for the rest of the ride.

I pieced together a couple of my favorite trails that I seldom get to ride. Back in the day, before we had even discovered the Waterbury Trails, we used to ride out in Sterling Valley all the time. It is classic old school VT singletrack, and you really get the feeling of being in the wilds, even though you aren’t really that far from town.

I climbed the road on Weeks HIll, to Percy Hill to West Hill, and snuck into the woods on the Billings Road. As you can see by the map, I got turned around a few times, but hey, I haven’t been up there yet this year, and I was in no real hurry. I rode out and back on Maple Run, then climbed up the Billings Road to Godstreet, and connected to Seamus (the trail, not the dog). I got a little turned around at the end of Seamus. I knew there was a way to get back to West Hill, but I just didn’t know where exactly, so I had to do a little poking around.

I ended up in this very sketchy Deliverance-esque back yard, littered with trash, an 85 Mustang 5.0, a boat and all sorts of other crap. The oddest part, is that it looked to only be accessible by 4 wheeler, and I decided that it was time to find another route. I eventually got to where I needed to be, and I even found this cool old tractor skeleton in the woods.

I was getting low on water by now, but it was all pretty much downhill from here. I exited the woods right on target, across from the Tamarac trailhead, and bombed my way towards town. My plan was to meet up with Mandy at her work so I could refill my Camelbak, but by then it was quitting time for her, and I really needed to be thinking about getting home to take the dog to his vet appointment. Not only was I almost out of water, but I was pretty hungry too, and of course, I had no food. Time to turn and burn back for home.

Seamus made it to the vet just in time.

The weapon of choice for the ride was Pale Horsie. I haven’t spent much time on him lately, due to a fork issue that I had been waiting on some parts to resolve. I found that it was riding pretty harshly, almost as if it was locked out all the time. It turned out that there was an issue in the air spring, where the negative air chamber was leaking into the lower leg, which subsequently blew the wiper seal up the stanchion. After replacing the air spring assembly, and installing Enduro wipers and seals, I bled the X-loc, and was rewarded with a fork that was as plush as any I have ever ridden. Yay Me!

I’m also checking out the new aluminum bodied Crank Brothers Candy 3 pedals. They are blue, and look cool. Also different, is the Race Face Evolove aluminum riser bar. I had a bit of a Tuesday with my handlebars, after I decided that I was too low with the Ritchey 10D carbon bars. Last minute equipment changes are always a PITA, and since Easton will not have my favorite bar until after Interbike, I’ve had to go searching for a suitable replacement.

The bike rode great, and I even used all my gears!