OK, so if you were reading yesterday, you will know that today’s post features a bunch of stuff that I am getting rid of. For money. All the charity stuff is gone, but I can assure you that the prices are tantalizing, you know I like nice things… Some of this stuff I will be sorry to see go, other stuff can be replaced. But for now, it makes the most sense to let it make someone else happy being used, rather than making me unhappy and broke by sitting dormant.

The Trundleraptor

Shocked? Well, they say last in is first out, and this is true. This bike is fun as fun can be on snow, and has definitely saved my mental bacon, but where I am headed, this bike is unnecessary. Know I’ve been geeking out on it’s replacement…

Build spec is: 20″ Pugsley frame + fork, DT370.Surly hubs laced to Rolling Darryl 85mm rims with DT Super Comp spokes, alloy nips, Nate knobby tires, Surly Mr Whirly cranks with xtra wide spindle to clear those huge tires, WTB Vigo saddle, Thomson seatpost and stem, Easton EC70 bar, SRAM X9 shifter and derailleur, Avid Elixir CR brakes. Oh, and a very rare Chis King purple headset. It’s sort of a maximized Pugs, and I’d like $1500 for it. Would like to sell it locally as shipping this beast would be a small fortune.

The Gozarian

Yup, seeing as how all the cool places I used to travel to ride are going to be within a day’s drive, I won’t need this frame any more.

$650 – worth it for the S&S couplers alone. Plus you can run a belt on it if you are so inclined. The frame is a large Niner SIR9, modified to be single speed only.

SRAM XX 2×10 group

$1200 OBRO and you can tell me what size rotors (180/160/140) to send with it. Brakes are the World Cup model. Crank is the BB30 version, cassette is the 11-36t, and includes a new in box BB30 bearing set up. Very, very low miles on this group.

Rock Shox Reba SL

Enduro seals, fresh rebuild and oil. 159mm or ~ 6,1/4″ steerer. $200

Formula  Oro Pro brakes

No rotors, used but twice. These are good stoppers and are perfect for riders with smaller hands. They didn’t work for me ergonomically, so they got stashed in a corner a long time ago and forgotten about. $150, remember – no rotors.

All of this stuff is good stuff that needs a good home. I take Paypal or ca$hmoney. If anything here tickles your fancy, please let me know and I can arrange to have it in your hands as expeditiously as possible.

And if this ins’t enough stuff, I’ll probably find more to post tomorrow, along with another announcement that is completely not bike related.

 

 

It has been a month since I handed the keys to the retail shop back to my landlords. Sadly, not much has happened, with the one exception of a quick trip out to my old stomping grounds in San Diego. That was a nice break.

The weather here of course made my threat of riding bikes almost impossible, and my quick trip has reduced the number of rides to a mere handful. Normally, I have Off-tober, but seeing as I wasn’t bound to occupy the shop, I thought I’d enjoy some of that freedom before the next thing presents itself. Oh well… The online store has managed to do a pretty decent business, despite me not really playing with it. And I still have a pretty decent inventory of stuff left over, and now it is time for some deals to be made.

If you head on over to the Bike29 Sale page, you will see some rather crazy deals. So take a look, tell a friend, get a bargain, so I don’t have to resort to doing something like this:

 

The Strip, Las Vegas, NV

On with the show. The Sands Convention Center, one of the most wretched hives of scum and villainy, and also free beer and tequila if you know where to look.

As I said before, I had sat out the last few Interbikes, I’m not really a fan of being cooped up indoors, breathing conditioned air with a bunch of people milling about and touching everything. I’m not a germophobe by any means, I just have little patience for annoying and deliberate gawking in artificial environments. There are also the constant interruptions when you are talking with people, the butt-ins, the “hey, real quicks…”. I find that to be especially annoying, and completely counterproductive. Especially because I have such a short attention span and I am likely to forget what I might have been talking about. I’m of the firm belief that if you are going to discuss serious business with someone, you give them 100% of your attention, and the hi-5s with passers by should wait until said business is concluded. Just an observation, and a bit of a rant. This happens all the time.

The purpose of my visit was very focused, I had a couple of “important” meetings that I had scheduled, and those took place away from the isles and potential interruptions. This ain’t my first rodeo… they were productive, and I came away from them feeling like it was a good thing I had made the plane ride. This left me with a lot of well organized free time to mill about and gawk.

Unfortunately, my point and shoot camera has decided that it is going to take mostly lousy pictures from now on. Most likely a result from being jammed in my jersey pockets on hot sweaty rides over the last few summers. It has outlasted all the others I’ve owned, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. The flash does send up a puff of smoke when it is used, which is rather exciting.

want

Up first is this new crabon bike from Ellsworth. This bike fits in the trail category, along with bikes like the Santa Cruz Tallboy LTC, and the new Niner RIP RDO.

hey, isn't that Mike Maggs?

I didnt get any good pictures of the RIP RDO, thank you camera. So you’ll have to go here to see them. It’s a neat looking bike for sure. And I’m sure anyone glued to Facebook or MTBR last week has seen and read up on it already.

There wasn’t much in the way of awesome new tires out there. I, like The Dickness, feel that anything named for viral video sensation that was over long ago, lacks long term relevance in the market place. Besides, when the tire company in question actually has such tires in stock, it will be 18 months from now, making them even less relevant.
The only cool thing I saw was this:

white walls!

The white compound is supposed to provide a more supple ride. Whatever, it looks cool and I want them.

There are some new 29er suspension fork choices out there now.

"we'll never make 29er suspension forks!" oh, wait...

improving, updating and expanding

Then there was this. I really want one, just like this one. Anyone want to hook me up? It’s a damn good thing it was bolted to the ground…

double want

There were quite a few 650B bikes out there. They looked cool too, but reports coming back from the on dirt demo from trusted sources say that they either rode like 29ers or 26ers, begging the question, do we really need another wheel size?

Intense Tracer 275

The overall vibe of the show seemed pretty subdued to me, almost sleepy. There wasn’t much going on that had people buzzing. I think it might be time for the Marzocchi girls to come back…
Many of the regular players weren’t at the show, instead choosing to hawk their wares at the Outdoor Demo. Interbike is pretty expensive for an exhibitor, I imagine that hard choices have to be made as to which eggs are going into which basket, especially in this uncertain economy. I mean, you could literally do 5 or 6 events in a targeted environment, reach more consumers and have better results for the same cost of being stuck indoors at Interbike along with most of your competitors. There’s a reason why there is a Trek World.

That being said, I don’t regret going at all. It was great to catch up with friends, old and new, and making sure to enjoy some of the local “real”, off Strip flavor really made the trip for me. Vegas is no longer my least favorite place on the planet.

Change is good. I needed a little something different to do, so after work I hopped on my skinny wheeled bike and went for a road ride. I was kind of in a grumpy mood, but I didn’t feel like lugging the monster bike up any hills. I figured I’d do my standard “round the block” loop, but this time getting the climb over Duxbury Gap out of the way first so I could have a lice lazy spin next to the river all the way back to the shop.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, mid 70s, no humidity, and just a hint of a headwind. It totally reminded me of Switzerland. The miles were rolling by pretty quickly, and once I reached the intersection of 100B, I decided I’d ride into Waitsfield instead of heading back. It’s a nice rolling piece of road with good pavement. Then I had the bright notion that maybe I’d attempt the App Gap. But I was only going to do it if I could have a beer at the top. I popped into the grocery store in Waitsfield, and clip clopped around to the beer section which was in the far back corner. Of course, it was prime grocery shopping time in the quaint town of Waitsfield, and I felt like a tool awkwardly staggering around the linoleum isles in my slick soled shoes. But SUCCESS! Heady Topper cans in singles. A 4 pack would have been a really bad idea…

I stuffed the beer into my back pocket, now committed to make my attack on the summit. I’d been threatening to do the App Gap for years and years and years, but this is only the second time I have done it, the first time being last year. It isn’t as bad as I had cranked it up in my head, except for the last 5000m, which are conveniently marked on the side o the road, as this is part of the Green Mountain Stage Race. Also, all the Strava data will reveal that I am a fat sack of shit compared to the “fast guys” that fly up the mountain. Oh well, the downfall of being twice the man of these guys, literally. I was only passed by one person on the last 1000m. He made me look like I was standing still. Bastard. But I bet he didn’t have a nice cold beer in his pocket that was about to get enjoyed with a lovely view.

my own personal beer garden

Well, I had made it. Now I just had to get down without killing myself. Incidentally, I’m pleased to report that the Jet gloves passed the one handed tab pull. Victory!

I really enjoy road riding, but have yet to find a bike I really like, plus most of our roads locally are total crap. I like my Fisher/Trek Cronus, and all of it’s lightness, but the geometry is still too much of a race pedigree for me to feel comfortable, especially descending. The Heady Topper did take the edge off a bit, but I still had to keep the velocity reigned in. Some of the switchbacks come at you fast, and the steering on this bike gets downright twitchy at speed. Unfortunately, this is not a bike I ride enough to make any grand plans of replacement, although I do have my ideas….

I made it down unscathed, and the slight headwind out was now a gentle push from behind. I ended my ride in about 3 hours, twice as long as I had planned on being out, but I was in a much better mood than when I started. It’s good for me to occasionally do something out of the norm, I sometimes surprise myself.


 

 

Finally! Some nice weather. I had made my very best attempt at getting out and riding during the week, while still taking a much needed couple of days after SSAP. I had been having some issues with the outsides of my feet falling asleep, which was quite uncomfortable, especially after 26 or so miles blasting around Stewart. Something was to be done. After some consulting with M2, a little cleat position fiddling, everything seemed to be OK.

My first ride was an out and back up Camel’s Hump Rd, a little jaunt from the shop, featuring a stiff climb after a good warm up. This road had been nearly washed away during Irene, and the rebuilding process took a while, finishing up in early winter. They seemed to have managed to find a way to make it steeper and longer. The good news, foot pain gone, the bad, post race tweaks to the bike need to be made. The rear wheel is no longer straight, and the dust coated chain sounds like a Sherman tank. Still, it felt good to get the legs going again.

I also bagged another climb mid week, which was awesome because Seamus got to go with me. He loves riding bikes. I headed out to Cotton Brook on a chilly damp morning, and made the ascent, about 3 or so miles of elevation gain with grades ranging from “this isn’t too bad” to WTF?”. I figured out that Seamus’ top speed is around 25 mph on the descent, so I had to keep it reigned in on the way down. He found a big mud hole towards the end, and came back another color.

into the clouds

Then Saturday came, and it was glorious. Blue skies, and perfect riding temps. My schedule had me free for 2 good rides over both days of the weekend, and my mind was racing trying to figure out where I would go. And then I got a text from Mandy saying I had a package at the house, which happened to be the one I had been waiting for the last half of the week. I needed a part for JayPro’s Niner RDO, which was necessary for it’s completion. Seems that they forgot to include the BB cable stop/guide at the factory, making running the cables impossible.

RDO Speedwagon

Instead of riding, I cranked up some tunes, and spent the afternoon finishing the bike. It came out super nice, full XX build, Stan’s ZTR Race wheels, Fox Talas 120 fork. 22.55lbs. No joke. This is the bike Jay will be slaying on at the BC Bike Race.

waterfalls are pretty

So Sunday, I spent my morning on my own RDO, which I had also mounted a Fox Talas on. More on that in a future post. I pieced together a nice little ride from my place, hitting some of the local favorite spots, plus a few that I hadn’t been to in a number of years. About halfway through the ride I became really hungry, so instead of forcing a bonk, I called it and went home and made a big pile of steak egg and cheese tacos. Mmmm, tacos…

 

 

before

I guess we shall see right? I mean… I’ve been riding, “training“, making a dilligent effort to not suck on my bike. I’ve even upped the ante and made a few changes to Rambo’s set up for Singlespeedapalooza/summer. Let’s call it updating. Gone are the OG white Arch rims, they have been replaced with the new Stan’s Arch EX in black (lighter, 510g vs 450g each rim). This means 120g less rotational weight, which I don’t have to remind you means that it will pedal a POUND lighter (rotational weight =x4). And the rims are wider. My tires seem really big now, will follow up with the measurement after they sit overnight. Result, leaner machine.

lighter, wider, faster?

And also I have removed the rigid crabon fjork, and have replaced it with a new SID XX. I opted not to go with the World Cup edition, I heard that the crabon crown was a bit flexy under 200lb+ fat asses like me, and let’s face it, I could skip a meal if I was that concerned with such a paltry weight savings. I sold my last bump taker, a Reba XX at the end of last year, and have been without since. My time on the Spot Brand Rocker enlightened me that having a QR15 in addition to something that takes bumps makes things more amazerful. Stiffness, precision, all super good things. And now I have a SID XX bump taker, and in it’s uncut form, weighed a mere 3.7lbs, .2 lighter than the Reba it replaced. It’s actually my very first SID. I’m actually tearing up a bit as I type this… Right out of the box, this thing feels fantastic. Seems preposterous that such a flyweight piece of equipment can work for a lardass like me, but initial parking lot tomfoolery points to good results. I havent been able to glean any additional gems about this fork, but the stanchions are a different color than the Reba. It almost reminds me of the old Slippery Silver coating the SIDs used to have in the days of yore. There is no doubt that secret sauce is standard equipment in this new fork. It is plush, feels bottomless, and the remote lock out really locks out. Holy crap! I’m happy.

less ounce for the bounce

I still have a little bit of time to get used to the new machine, but I’m not taking it on my local trails. I’m worried about screwing my knee up before SSAP, for reasons I’ll talk about after. I am not changing the gearing, it stays 34/19 for those that are counting. I’ll get some more base miles on it in it’s new form, and hopefully get it in the woods for a turn or two before having to take it into battle. But, here it is, 22.3 as pictured. Not too shabby.

after

From Cyclingnews.com

“It must be confusing for some riders to see the new 650B wheel size now becoming available and under discussion. Not to mention what will bike shop owners think if they have to start stocking three standards of frames, shocks, tires, wheels and forks. How can you still recommend a bike and not confuse your customer?

In that case, I would focus totally on a concept bike shop with only 29ers because I totally believe in the biggest wheel size. I think it would work for 95 percent of bike shop customers just as it works for myself.”

Christoph Sauser — World Cup Champion

You can read the full article here.

 

Hmm, does anyone know of any shops that do this?

In the end, it doesn’t matter what size your wheels are, you just need to use them. Get out there and ride! Have a great weekend!

The experiment in headangle nonsense continues.

After much geeking around with M2 with various angleometers and plumb bobs, I had decided to try the WFO with a standard inset. I popped out the Cane Creek Angleset, and pushed in a Chris King, the last black one they had in stock. I had some other minor tweaking to do to the bike while it was in the stand, so I took the opportunity to take care of these niggly little adjustments.

new headset

My schedule had me free in the afternoon, which was right about the same time the nasty weather was supposed to arrive. It was cold and windy when I loaded the bike onto the car, but I was pretty sure I was going to be able to sneak in a ride up at the Loops. While passing past the old shop, I saw the rather nasty sight of snow falling up on the Worcesters. Meh. I was going to ride anyway.

My knee at this point is still recovering from last Saturday’s attempt at a ride, so I had to take it pretty easy. Out of the saddle pedaling was not an option, so I ended up not being able to climb up the things the way I wanted to without my leg buckling. Double meh. But that is not what this ride was about. I could afford to take it easy on the climby parts.

I had fiddled with the fork some more, and I felt like I was getting close to the sort of performance I had been expecting. I’ll have to keep playing with it, as a phone call to PUSH learned me that they do not yet service the new 34 platform. With that out of the way, I can now focus on getting the rear shock more to my liking. The Monarch feels plush, but I’m still having fits getting the air pressure right.

I like big tires and I can't deny...

The Schwalbe Hans Dampf tires continue to amaze. They have now grown a little beyond their 2.35 designation, and are approaching 2.4. Grip is amazing. So far 20 psi seems to be a good pressure. Not the fastest rolling tire, but that isn’t what it is about. It simply hooks up, on any type of terrain, wet or dry. Possibly my new favorite aggressive tire.

storms a comin'

In the tight and twisties, the bike has taken on a new level of lethatlity. The steering is so much better with the standard inset. In fact, it sort of surprised me a little, I was expecting the bike to be heavy handed through certain spots, but I actually felt I had better control and speed through some of the tighter sections. In fact, there is one particular turn on Squirrel Land that has a long perpendicular root right in the middle of a turn, which you normally hit at speed. My normal line is to the outside, but for some reason at the last second I thought I’d get after the inside line. The bike obliged with no hoohaw, and I was able to set myself up for the next series of roots rocks and turns.

Super awesome.

The weather was deteriorating the whole time I was out there, but I decided I would ride my test loop in it’s entirety. Besides, Seamus was having a good time, and he doesn’t care about getting wet. It hadn’t started raining in earnest, but the wind was picking up, and it was DARK. I finished my ride and got back to the car just in time.

deluge

Haha! Snuck that one in!

Preparations for the Gravel Grinder are going quite well. With a little extra help from our friends at MTBVT, we have a few extra surprises in store for this year’s aid station (s?). We will be supplying snacks from some of Vermont’s finest snacky type food vendors, Cabot is on board with a sampling of the worlds most awesome cheese, and VT Smoke n’ Cure will be supplying meatstick and wait for it…. bacon. Yes, there will be bacon out on the course.

After the ride, you will be treated to a fantastic feast courtesy of Frida’s Taqueria. I still have yet to finalize the course, but I expect road conditions to be fantastic due to the speedy and early mud season. Spots are filling up, so be sure to get signed up!

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been asked “what sort of bike should I use for the Grinder?”. We will be riding on mixed surfaces, and there will be a fair amount of climbing, descending and pedaling. Narrows it down right? Well, there is one guy that has done every Grinder to date on a downhill bike, but he is special, because he often finishes among the faster riders on CX bikes. There will definitely be a lot of folks on singlespeeds.

But if there was a special type of bike for this type of ride, this would be it.

grinder ready

I just finished this build for a customer that wanted just such a beast. We opted for maximum versatility, with maximum comfort, so we went with the steel Niner SIR9, matching steel fork, and used Niner’s crabon seatpost and flat bar. Drivetrain is a 1×9 SRAM X9, and the speedy WTB Nano/Vulpine tire combo is mounted on an American Classic’s Terrain tubeless wheelset.

 

If you don’t have a bike, but want to do the Grinder, you should give a call at the shop. I’ll need about a week or so to build you something like this, but you’ll have it for many many miles!

Yet another exciting installment of Ask George greets you. The questions have been a little slow in coming, but I see no reason to stop posting, even though Dicky has been posting on Wednesdays. So, this next question was one from Team 29 rider Emily Brock:

What should I be doing to keep my fork riding well? Is custom fork tuning just kind of a scam?

Good set of questions. For the most part, forks these days are pretty low maintenance. They aren’t no maintenance, but you really only need to make sure you aren’t doing awful things to them. Back in the olden days, this was not the case. I was an early adopter of suspension, and learned the hard way what to do, or sometimes what not to do. Basically there is a short list of simple things that you should do regularly.

1. Keep it clean. A clean fork is a happy, good working fork. It’s actually pretty easy for dirt to compromise the seals, which if unchecked can deplete the oil bath (if your fork has one), or worse, scour the stanchions.

2. Inspect it often. Look for any signs of damage on the stanchions, check for any excessive oily crud build up on them. If it’s really bad, you have a defective seal, or you didn’t follow step 1.

3. Check for any play between the uppers and lowers. This can be a sign of premature bushing wear. If there is play or knocking and your headset is tight, you need to get this addressed, or find yourself a new fork before too long.

4. Get it tuned up once a year, more if you ride in excessively nasty conditions. This means new oil and O-rings. It’s a good idea to get this done during the off season, when you don’t need your bike. Most good LBSs will have the capability to get this done. Not all shops will have bushing presses, and if your fork needs those replaced, it’s generally best to have it sent back to the manufacturer.

As for the second part of the question, is custom tuning a scam? Well, it is my opinion that it depends.

One way to consider custom tuning is the  ”hop ups” one can do to a fork to make it behave differently/better than stock. An example would be the Enduro Wiper Seal upgrade I like to do to all my Rebas. Besides upgrading the fork’s seals, this also gives me the opportunity to make sure that the oil bath is actually there. These days, the forks are mass produced in China like everything else, and quality is not always job 1 with products that are assembled from lots of little pieces. There is a reason why my forks feel super plush.

The actual “custom tuning” aspect is a bit more complicated, and can be interpreted 2 ways. One is correctly setting the fork up for the individual rider. Making sure the air pressure or spring rate is correct for the rider, and adjusting the compression and rebound settings to their preferences. This is all pretty straight forward, and can be done by either the rider themselves or the LBS.

The other would involve tearing apart the whole damper assembly to achieve a specific performance trait. Here is where I call BS on some claims to custom tuning. Some forks, like Rock Shox, use a modular cartridge for the compression damper. The cartridge must sit in an oil environment for it work properly. Others, like White Brothers, treat the entire leg like a cartridge. On both of these systems, oil height is crucial for proper performance. There are stock damper components specific to each fork, that should provide enough of a range of either compression or rebound to please most folks. If it isn’t working properly or feeling punky, chances are the oil height isn’t right.

Forks like Fox are more complex, and use a series of washers, or shim stack, that are easily accessed when the fork is apart. In the right hands, they can be rearranged to gain a certain performance trait. In some cases there are negative springs, that can be rider weight sensitive. Having the right one for rider weight is also crucial for the fork to operate properly. These forks come from the factory with the 175lb rider in mind… This is where having a fork like that can be “customized”, but in reality it’s just being appropriately set up for a rider’s weight and/or riding style. I myself have found it hard to get an aftermarket Fox to feel awesome right out of the box, the adjustments are far too finicky and in some cases redundant (RLC), all of the OE models (RL) have felt fantastic after the seals have had a chance to break in.

But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that your fork has the right set up and oil height. Maybe you have spent $70-100 at your LBS making sure the oil heights are correct, and spring rates are appropriate. 99% of riders out there -professional athletes included, are more than happy with the stock manufacturer’s adjustment offerings between + and -. If you can’t find a setting you like, you have a very specific set of needs, oryou might be too picky, and should try riding a rigid fork for a while.

The fork on my bike costs more than my first mountain bike, and I expect it to perform as advertised. We should hold the manufacturers to a higher standard when it comes to these forks, but the reality is that they are mass produced things that may or may not be assembled correctly. If you are not happy with your fork, you should get it looked at.