I told you there would be more. These are just a couple of stragglers I couldn’t round up in time for yesterday’s post.

First up are a set of I9 singlespeed wheels. You may recognize these as the wheels I built up for Kermit when I went to SSWC09 in Durango. These are great wheels.

They are laced to Arch rims with DT Aerolite spokes and alloy nipples in. Looking for $400. They are high mileage, well traveled wheels, but they are in excellent shape, and I think these might be the quickest wheels I’ve ever built up. These spin up so fast it’s mind boggling. I think it has to do with the spokes in conjunction with my mass, but one thing is for certain, they have earned me the title of best “coaster”.

Then I have this 17.5″ Trek Superfly frame.

The direct mount for the front derailleur is broken, but I bet it can be epoxied. Or run it as a 1x? and not even bother with it. Looking to get $200 for it, pretty darn reasonable, and if it were a larger frame and I was sticking around, I’d probably keep it and build up a winter dirt road cruiser.

Schwalbe 700x35c tubular tires.

I don’t even know why I have these. Actually I do. Anyone remember BikeCX? These are the tires that used to retail for $150 each. Now I’d like $50 for the set. It’s the older Racing Ralph pattern, and they are tubular, meaning you have to glue them on to the rim. My experience with tubulars has not been good., but some people swear by them. The last time I mounted up a set, it took me 2 days, and I glued my fingers to my hair. Not pretty.

Oh yeah, I said there was an announcement to be made. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow, because it has nothing to do with bikes, and I can’t figure out how to segue into it. But it will be worth tuning in to

I have recently received a whole bunch of new rubber from our friends over at Schwalbe. They seem to be the only European tire company that can deliver a tire these days. The bad news, is that they can be quite pricey. The good news is, they make one heck of a tire. For my money, if I were buying my own tires (as a consumer) I would not bat an eye at the price on them. They are really really good tires.

Having undergone a rubber compound update early 2011, the once “so so” tires gained superstar status, at least as far as our local Waterbury crew is concerned. I’m sure the sentiment is echoed throughout the entire cycling community as well. The tread patterns have always been pretty dialed, but since riders are more commonly accepting the tubeless concept, ghetto or otherwise, the rubber compound can either make or break the tire. Schwalbe is a company that gives me the impression that they are paying attention to the needs of the market.

I’ll give you a snapshot of what I’m talking about  (29er tires only):

• Their first real MTN 29er tire in 2008(esque) is the Albert, a narrow but blocky tire, kinda heavy but durable. Hardish rubber.
• Racing Ralph, 2 sizes, big and bigger. Light, but also flimsy sidewalls left them prone to tearing.
• Snakeskin casing introduced to combat delicate sidewalls on the smaller Ralphs. Rubber is still kind of hard.
• Furious Fred makes an appearance. Pissing war for lightest 29er tire in full effect. Sadly, the tire is both fragile and completely impractical for most applications.
• Rocket Ron and Nobby Nic appear. Grr baby, very grr.
• Schwalbe runs out of tires late 2010, revamps rubber compound to triple durometer, AND classifies tires as “tubleless ready” which basically means approved for use with sealant.
• New tires show up, Ralphs in Snakeskin, the 2.4s, but the best selling 2.25s are nowhere to be found.
• Rons follow next.
• Nics available in 2.25 and 2.35. Can be run at redonkulously low pressures (16psi).
• Ice Spiker Pro comes out late 2011, 850g studded, tubeless ready, and high volume tires. Yes please.
• Finally my best selling tire to date, the 2.25 Racing Ralph shows up with a modified tread pattern and new Pace Star rubber, and tubeless ready of course.

Ralphie, you'll shoot your eye out!

Obviously reacting to a market recoiling against $85 mountainbike tires, they release the Rapid Rob, the old Ralph tread pattern in an affordable package (wire bead, old rubber compound, 750g).

And 2012, Hans Dampf. Where have you been all my life? 2.35, Snakeskin casing, 850g and Trails Star rubber.

mmmm new tires...

In the dead of winter, I can only imagine what the Dampf rides like, but having spent some quality time over the years on their offerings, I can safely say this might be my go to tire on my fun bikes. The new Nic was a sure favorite of mine. I’ve run every single one of these tires tubeless with Stan’s with no problems, except that some of the lighter Rons and Ralphs require a bit more sealant than their bigger brothers.

German for awesome

You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if they drop a tubeless ready 1200g fat bike tire on us at Interbike this year… just saying…

 

So over the last few months I have had my Jet 9 set up as a trail bike, a do all, go anywhere sort of ride. I had initially set it up with some fairly beefy wheels, Royales with Flow rims, and great big Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.4 tires. This was all about finding where exactly the Jet fits in my stable, while retaining a level of comfort and familiarity with a similar set up to my RIP.

The Jet more than proved itself on the big road trip south. I found it to be a very capable machine.It begged to go faster than I had gears for on the buff singletrack of Pisgah and north Georgia. it flew over the ground when the trails got ugly and rough. It shot around corners like a comet shoots around the sun. It descended like a bike with more travel than it actually had. 

All in all, this bike is a clear winner no matter how it’s built.

So, now is the time when I can build the Jet as I had always intended it to be, a race bike, knowing I can depend on it in just about all but the ugliest of scenarios.

The original build came in at 28.21 lbs, ready to ride (with pedals that is). Not that light really, but totally acceptable for a FS trail bike in my book. The single biggest beneficial weight savings was to be had by changing the wheels and tires to a more svelte set up, and I chose a set of Industry 9s laced to Stan’s Arch rims.

Bling!

I had to seriously think about my tire choice. Having destroyed the rear 2.4 Racing Ralph on a sharp mystery object, it was time to maybe think about getting something a little more appropriate for the bike. I had originally thought about a Maxxis Ignitor front and WTB Vulpine rear, which would be a very fast rolling combo, but with our weather, the rear tire could be something I’d have to change all the time. I’m lazy, so that option is out. I looked at the Karma 1.9. Both Jay Pro and Nat has been singing praises about this tire, but lets face it, Jay is about 155lbs, Nat is 175lbs, and I’m 225. Nope. I need more air volume under me. The next lightest tire I could find with decent volume was the 2.25 Racing Ralph. I am already a big fan of the tread pattern, so it was a no brainer to switch to the skinnier version of the same tire I’ve had on the bike all along.

They roll fast, are predictable when they break loose, and have good bite on our local trails.

I also took the time to switch the cranks from the “all mountain” double set up of the Truvative Noir, to a set of XTR M970s I’ve been sitting on all summer. The gearing changed from 24-36 to a 22-32-44. I measured 1/10th of a pound savings, even after picking up the third chainring. 

So with the wheels, tires and cranks swapped out, the new weight is 26.98. That’s a savings of 1.32 lbs of rotational weight. This is a pretty significant loss, and I’m pretty happy. I suppose if I tried really hard, I could probably get below the 26 lb mark, but then I’d have to compromise on some parts that I’m already quite comfortable using. To me, it isn’t quite worth it. Considering that I’ve already lost the most rotational mass I can safely get away with, I’d call this project done.

I managed to sneak out for a quick ride on it, climbing up to the top of Perry Hill from the shop in just under 30 minutes. I noticed that the bike was much easier to climb. Not only did I feel the lack of  weight in the wheels, I appreciated 2 less teeth on the granny ring. The wheels are stiff and spun up very quickly, and, looking down at my blue spokes, I felt like a million bucks. I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting another set of these wheels in the future.

 

I heard an interesting statistic on the radio this morning, 17″ of rain has fallen in Vermont in June, July and August this year. As you can imagine, mountain biking has been marginal at best. In fact, I haven’t been on my mountain bike in almost 3 weeks! Fortunately there was a very small break in the weather this weekend.

Sunday started out as gloomy as usual. Nat, Zack and I met up at the shop at 8, with the plan to head up to Easy Burke. The forcast for the Kingdom Trails was better than our local one, and it seemed like a good idea to get out of Dodge for a while. With the bikes loaded up we headed out into rapidly improving skies.

 

The morning fog had lifted by the time we got to the Trails, skies were blue and we started our ride. Burke’s soil is generally very sandy, and it drails quite well. There were only a couple of really messy spots, I actually sank up to my hubs once, but for the most part, the trails were a solid 9 out of 10. You could see that they had done a lot of work to keep the water at bay, and it was definitely paying off.  Burke has posted that their trails are 70% open, which is fantastic when you take into consideration the sheer amount of water that has relentlessly fallen out of the sky. Good work guys!

I took the fall for the team on this ride. Somehow, I managed to flip over the handlebars GOING UPHILL. This is not easy to do, especially on a 29er. I was only minimally banged up, so we continued on our way.

My bike developed a nasty creak that worsened as we went on. We stopped just above the notorious Sidewinder trail so I could investigate the source. Turns out, all my lower pivot bolts had decided to come loose, and were creaking and popping at an alarming volume. I took this opportunity to fix them, as I did not want a mechanical that would have me walking out from the bottom of the ravine we were about to ride into. 

I will have to say that I am thankful for modern mountain biking technology. With my Topeak Alien, I was able to remove the cranks, and tighten my pivot bolts with a minimum of fuss. This is not something you could easily do with most older cranks. This was also a good time for me to remove the mud that was packed into every nook and cranny on the bike. I was amazed that the huge Schwalbe Racing Ralph tires could still turn, the mud was packed right in there!

Nat decided to mess around with his bike too.

We finished the rest of the ride without incident, and made our way back to Waterbury muddy and tired. The most important thing was that we had gotten a great ride in without damaging the trails. It was great to get out and recharge the soul.

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.

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

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 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.

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…

As some of you may have noticed, it’s been a while since I posted. Over a week!

The shop has hit ludicrous speed. Repairs and sales are way up, and I mean WAY up. The new location has already proven itself as a good move, and continues to perform in a way I couldn’t have imagined.
In addition to our screaming retail business, Bike 29 continues to gain momentum. Last week I filled our Outback wagon with packages just to go to the post office. That’s a lot of boxes.
The weather has not been the best for riding, so we’ve been keeping our head down and grinding on.

Here are some important updates.

Schwalbe Racing Ralphs are in stock in both sizes.
Niner Jet 9s continue to arrive, but I am almost sold out of my entire order, not just the ones I brought in early.
09 Fox F29s are here, update soon.
Several sets of I9 wheels have arrived, with more on the way. Call for details.

Bike 29 is proud to announce the addition of Lynskey to our catalog. The Lynskeys are the family that originally brought you beautiful titanium frames under the name of Litespeed. While what happened to Litespeed was truly tragic, and out of the Lynskey family’s hands, they pulled themselves up by their boot straps and rose from the ashes under the Lynskey Performance Designs name.

And guess what?
They have a 29er that will blow your socks off.
Look for more on that very soon.