With the weather forcast calling for up to 2″ of rain to fall through the night, with the occaisional thunder bumper. Instead of racing at Catamount, I thought today was a good opportunity to check out the Mobbs Hill trail system.

After several days of no rain, trail conditions were perfect. There were only a few wet spots, which I would imagine are always there, and the only real mud we found was right at the end.

It’s a good thing we got out early, the skies opened up right after I got home.

I can safely say, that the folks at The Fellowship of the Wheel have been doing a bang up job. These folks maintain this, and several other Chittenden County trail systems.

Helmets off to you all.

We checked out Arcana first, a new trail system, that will be really good once it’s worn in.
There were a couple of ugly spots that caused the Magic fork to “POP!”, but this is exactly the kind of riding I love to do. A full body workout on a singlespeed.
It ‘s also a really good way to put any fork through it’s paces.
Most of the transitions are short and violent at speed. The fork soaked everything up, and performed better than expected, but I still wished I had the plushness of the Reba. I experienced some pain in the wrists early in the ride.
I added 3 clicks to the IMV setting, increasing the amount of force required to activate the shock, which seemed to help. I was definitely getting full travel again today.

The trails on Mobbs Hill were excellent. There were a lot of exposed rock spines, which are fun to ride on. Having big wheels helps keep your momentum over the hollows and ruts, allowing you to clean sections that render most “small wheelers” working hard to keep up.

There is some very cool Waterbury style rocks to roll down. You definitly come across some cool features, you ride on drainage ridgelines, and down small chutes, always rolling and twisting through the trees.

There are some really old trees out there.

I didn’t get any shots of the vintage car graveyard that you weave through on the way out. About 5 or 6 cars from the 40s and 50s are scattered about in the woods, riddled with bullet holes.

This is Vermont after all.

Needless to say, this was way better than racing in the rain.

Today we finished another cool bike. Another one of our friends has stepped up to a 29er.
I’m not sure if he was feeling inadequate with his small wheels, but the outcome is the same.
One more rolls large.

After fine tuning the cockpit, and getting the last few adjustments dialed, these words were spoken:
“I feel like I am flying. This thing is amazing, I mean, I rode your bike, and that was OK, but this thing is AWESOME!“
Yes, it is awesome, and thanks Randy.
Fly.

I definitely noticed the change in handling. It was a little quicker than I normally like, but not
something I couldn’t get used to in a few rides.
The fork definitely works, there is no noticeable fork bobbing when cranking away out of the saddle. The zip tie I put on the stanchion was telling me that the fork was compressing under bump force.
First we climbed out of the lower parking lot, up through a couple of meadows, and up a short singletrack. This is where I noticed the steering change. Much quicker, but not quite twitchy. No complaints with the fork at all in twisty singletrack with the occasional root thrown in there.
When we got to the top, we opted to try out a new trail called TNT.
Needless to say, we all had a blast (ha ha).
It’s a new trail, not quite broken in yet, and it is filled with hollows, roots, tight turns, short evil climbs, and descents down sketchy off camber roots.

The perfect testing ground for a fork.

One of the tell tale signs that a fork isn’t set up for me is wrist pain and arm pump. While I never experienced either of those symptoms, I had to back of the IMV 3 clicks for a more plush feel during a particularly rough section of trail. I kept it there for the rest of the ride, and noticed the same level of fork performance.
One of the things that struck me, was that this was a noisy fork in certain scenarios. Imagine flying around a corner, and having to go through a large hollow in the trail , followed by roots or rocks on the other side. Speed and gravity will naturally compress the fork as you transition into the hollow, but not this one. It gives a little on the G-out (bottom) but as soon as you hit those roots or rocks on the other side, that valve snaps open.
Not only do you hear it, you feel it. The sensation is not unlike riding with your headset incredibly loose. It make a loud clunk sound. But you are on the other side before you know it.
I’m going to need to fiddle with it some more.
On the way back to the car, we went downhill through the meadows. With speed, they exhibited some ripples, which the fork gobbled up with no movement at the bars.
I had to not stare at the fork. I wanted to see it move.
The zip tie told me I got 89mm of movement. Knowing that White Bros includes the 10mm bottom out bumper as part of the travel, I’d say we are spot on for travel.
I have a few more rides planned this week, where I’ll be trying to find the sweet spot in the set up.
Stay tuned.
Ignitors rock too.

Boy, this is going to be a tough one.
The match up:
Rock Shox Reba Race 100mm vs White Brothers Magic 100mm

The subject vehicle will be the One 9 (aka Red 5). Having logged several hours with the Reba on some of the best riding this region has to offer, I am going to put the Magic to the test on some of the same trails over the next week or so.

One of my favorite features on the Reba, is the handlebar mounted lockout. It works when you need it, and I have only ever forgotten that it was locked out once. The Dual Air chambers on the Reba are also some of the most versatile on the market.
You can control how plush the fork feels by changing the air pressure in the negative chamber relative the positive one. I have mine set at 95+/95- with the rebound setting 2 full turns back from the slowest position.
It is a very plush fork, with an even feel throughout the travel. I have measured a full 98mm of travel on this fork. Not too bad.
The Reba also features huge 32mm stanchions which provide outstanding torsional stiffness, with superior tracking through rough singletrack.
The axle to crown is 495mm (eyeballed)

Both forks in this test weigh exactly the same, so this is going to be a performance test. That’s all we really care about anyway right?

The Magic has a single air chamber, with this fancy Inertia Magnetic Valve. What is it? In a nutshell, it is a smart valve that can tell the difference between forces coming from above, and forces coming from below. Once it figures it out, it can then react accordingly. In a sense, the fork is supposed to be able to tell if you are huffing and puffing up and out of the saddle, at which point is restricts the amount of oil that can travel through the damper assembly, thus firming up. Once you hit a rock or a hole though, it opens right up, allowing the fork to absorb the bump force.

Sounds cool doesn’t it?

Well, one of the things that will affect the test, is the Magic’s lower axle to crown height, a measured 490mm (or there abouts…). This will effectively steepen the HT a small amount, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it will drop the bars by roughly 5mm, which will in turn change the steering.
That is bad, as I love the way this bike handles.
There was enough room on the steerer tube for one 5mm spacer, which put the bars right back where I had them relative to the ground, which should help the bike maintain it’s feel. I measured all of these things in my own half-assed way, just to keep everything consistent.
Some folks might take a more “scientific” approach to it, but frankly, all I care about is the ride.

I set the single air chamber up with the factory recommended 80psi, and the IMV at 16 clicks in (I counted 33 possible). I will be fiddling with it tomorrow at the Millstone Trails in Barre.
It will be nice to see what kind of travel it actually gets. I’m still disappointed with the BW 0.8, but this is a whole new fork.

On a side note, I have also switched my trusty WTB Exiwolf 2.3s for some Maxxis Ignitor 2.1s.
They are practically the same size, with the main differences being tread style and weight. Look for that review in a few days, after I have had some time on them. As I currently have only 1 ride on the Ignitors, I am not really prepared to say anything more than, so far, I like them.

Like my Reba, I also really like my Exi’s.

But that, is another show…
I’ll be back tomorrow with my initial thoughts on the IMV, and some pictures.

One of the cool things about all the rain we have gotten (and by “one of” I mean the only) is that it makes things grow. Besides making me grow impatient, it has really made the wildflowers explode.

Can you imagine having to ride through fields of these?

I have found an area that, unbelievable as it sounds, is very dry.
A bit off the beaten path, there are some very nice trails. I will post on them in the near future, but right now I am trying to work some things out with the development of this area.
Needless to say, you ride through lots of pretty flowers to get to some fun, rolly, twisty stuff. I kept the exploring to a minimum, as I had to race last night, but there is more than enough offshoots that I passed to keep me interested.

Lots of climbing is involved.

As for the race last night, well, I probably shouldn’t have gone exploring. I felt like there was a wall in front of me the whole time. The Hill Side course was modified to keep things interesting. This has been the longest that the Hill Side has been the race route. The rain has made the Woods Side a muddy, mucky mess. We’ll be lucky if we get to ride on that side next week. It just needs to not rain for a day or twelve.
The new course was fun, but not conducive for good singlespeed riding when tired.

Exciting things on the horizon. I did receive my new and improved White Brothers Fork. While I have a few miles on it, I am going to wait for a few more before I review it. I also have 2 sets of rubber that I have to give an opinion on.

Also in the works, is a new Dos Niner. We’ll get to welcome another local to the world of 29ers as he relinquishes his old tiny wheeled ways.

Another Niner makes it’s way into the home stable. Current weight is 24.5lbs with pedals, but we are still waiting for the Niner Flat Top bars before we get everything into it’s final position. Then we’ll cut down the steerer again, and shorten the brake lines and derailleur cables.
Still, a very respectable weight considering that we didn’t build it up to be light.

We built it up to be guch.

The SRAM X0 Mid Cage derailleur is about as decadent as you can get, not to mention the Chris King hubs. The cassette is a SRAM PG990, which features a machined billet aluminum cog carrier. It’s anodized red.

The tires are Maxxis Ignitors, almost as wide as the Exiwolf 2.3, but about 100g lighter.
If the rain holds off, it gets to go for it’s maiden voyage tonight. We’ll get to see how it measures up, and more importantly, we’ll see just how comfy that WTB Deva saddle is.
It certainly looks sweet….

In about 5 minutes, my set screw problem was solved.
Not even I could have predicted it would have been as easy as it was.
The non drive side set screw came out easily. The drive side needed a bit more work.
I drilled a hole in it with a sharp, new TiNi coated bit, used plenty of cutting fluid, got the Easy Out in place, and presto! The stripped screw backed right out with minimal fuss.
When originally putting the bike together, I used a ton of Ti antiseize compound, to which I attribute the ease of this operation.
I used 2 tons when I put the new screws in…just in case…

For a weekend that was forcast to be rain rain and yet more rain, it certainly turned out pretty good.
Last night we did some exploring on the Waterworks trail network. Much potential exists up there, it is in need of serious work. There are trails that simply start and end up nowhere. Really. You find these disjointed gems by luck. We found most of them because the trails we did try dead ended. We’ll be making a push for more and better development up there. It’s nice to have fun stuff in your back yard.

This morning we did a Niner ride. DA, Ponte and I took off early morning to Millstone, to go and see the trails that we have been hearing so much about lately. A 1×9 SIR 9, a rigid One 9, and my One 9.
We were not disappointed at all. We only had a few hours to play, so we tried to keep things mellow, but it was very easy to get carried away. Pay the $8 daily trail fee, it is worth every penny.

Millstone features a long network of rolling singletrack trails that weave in and around old granite quarries. While the trails aren’t extremely technical, they are hard to ride fast. They are very rolly, and dart around trees and granite blocks. I call it big grin singletrack. Amazingly fun, it reminded me of a flat Perry Hill, only with lots of nice water filled quarries.

There are lots of cool old quarry leftovers dotted about the trails. Besides seeing the old water filled pits, there are chunks of granite everywhere, from small to huge. Every once in a while you cross a buried anchor cable. It all adds to the experience. These trails are very well mapped and marked.

The only cloud that passed over us during the ride, was my poor bike. I have been too lazy to replace the stripped set screw for my EBB. I clipped a couple of rocks which caused the EBB to rotate, which in turn, pretty much eliminated any chain tension I had. Needless to say, I kept dropping the chain. Not so good.

We finished the day with some fun little bridges, some exposed granite slickrock, twisty tight singletrack, and a trip up a giant rubble heap that overlooks more giant chunks of rock.

I managed to get back to the truck, and open the store, just in time.
Tomorrow we will be performing surgery on my One 9. It will involve drilling, cursing and other ugly stuff.

We aren’t messing around with this one.
This is going to be a hot bike when finished. It will be a Niner EMD, that we are building up for the wife. She has put many long hours into this project, and it’s time she had a fitting reward. She deserves it.
Drivetrain componenets will be all SRAM X0, with Avid Juicy Carbon brakes, Truvative Stylo Carbon cranks, Thomson stem and seatpost, Rock Shox Reba 100, and the super nice wheelset I built her for Mother’s Day. blue Kings on Delgado rims.
I hope to have it finished by next week, all the parts are en route.

I was very fortunate to be able to get a ride in with the “dads” this morning. My wife left for a week of lame trade shows yesterday, leaving me and the boy to fend for ourselves. How will we ever manage? Beer/milk, meat and baseball of course! Shaun’s wife offered to watch the boy so we could sneak out a ride in the AM, before it peaked out at 92 with 80% humidity.
Shaun was also kind enough to snap the pictures on this post too.
While it wasn’t the first time I’ve ridden the Perry Hill trail network this year, it is the first time I’ve climbed up the front side on the single speed. Ouch. Now that the KM is rigid, it will stay parked for the more serious off road excursions.

Basically, you climb about 900ft in elevation in 1.5 miles. It sucks on a bike with gears too. But the rewards are well worth it, because the grunt up the Hill is a ritual we repeat over and over and over.
Today’s route took us down 6 Flags, where DA drew the blood that qualified this as an actual ride. I’m pretty sure it was because he rode his 26er full sus. He ate it on the rock that I previously posted a picture of him making it look easy.

I rode it.

We then proceeded to thread the needle though all the tight, twisty and wicked fun singletrack that exists on the lower section of trails on the town side of the Hill. Sections called Taint, Butter, Jedi and Barbwire. Don’t even ask us how we come up with these names, they are super fun trails, and it helps us keep everything straight when enjoying “recovery” beverages post ride.

This is a shot of E-Dog ripping through a section called 1/2 Stick (it’s the lower half of Butter). E-Dog has a brand new baby girl, and I’m pretty sure this is the first ride we have done as our group since he became a dad. 1/2 Stick winds through a section we call the Pine Barons, it’s a fast hard cornering ribbon of singletrack, on a bed of pine needles. Payment for carelessness usually involves hitting a big tree, or sliding off the trail in a pile.
Big fun.

All’s well though, we got out of the woods alive and no worse for wear (except DA). I had a toast (beer at 11AM is fun!) with the dads and went off to work.
The One 9 gave me an awesome ride today. I recommend this bike to everyone that wants a lightweight single speed that handles the way a good bike should. I like this bike so much, I’ve even named it. Red 5. I am a true Star Wars nerd.