Filler

Every once in a while, I like to slack off completely, hence no riding shots or recent updates.
Well, now my slackometer has reached peak levels, and I can now resume my normal duties.

We never did go ride last Thursday, mainly because it was my birthday. We had to get our BBQ and drink on before the kids needed to go home and be put to bed. Plus, by the time we would have rallied everyone together for the ride, we would have been in pitch black darkness an hour from the car. And I, like my friends, have no idea where my lights are right now...

So here is the promised picture of Orange Bike.


It is a size large AIR 9, with a 100mm Reba, set up with a 1x9 drivetrain. I really like the way this bike behaves in the woods. It reminds me of a bike I once had about 10 years ago, a 16" GT Zaskar. It was anodized ink blue, and had a White Bros SC90 fork on it. It was (for me, then) the perfect woods missile. I had IRC 2.2 Missiles for tires coincidentally. It's funny how things always come full circle. And so it is again that I ride a longish travel, smallish sized hard tail with fat tires. I call this style of bike a "Gun", poached from a type of surfboard used to play in big waves.

What fun it is to ride the same terrain that you used to only trust with your long travel full suspension bike.

But wait, after the hard tail, I started riding a full suspension bike..................

In the shop we have lots of new products.
I recently took delivery of the Superior Blue Salsa El Mariachi, and the new polished Salsa Delgado rims.
Also new is the Fisher Caliber, of which I will post some pictures of when it stops raining outside.

I also stumbled across a website that resonates with me. This guy rides all day epic rides out in the magnificent South West, and drinks beer afterwards. And he does it on a 29er singlespeed.

Now I feel older and fatter than ever.

More to come!

Riding with the Scandium Twins

An Orange Bike report
I had a chance today to get out for a good ride. Despite the heavy rains this weekend, trail conditions were nothing short of fantastic. Ponte and I cranked up Perry Hill, he on his One 9, me on my Air 9. We pretty much put the pedal down and gor to the top, pretty beat. Fortunately, the weather up here has been really nice and cool, almost late September like, and we had a good rest, before heading down Joe's Trail.

As I've said before, it doesn't get much more intense than Joe's.
The trail features lots of big slabby step downs, giant granite whales and ridgelines, all linked with tight and twisty singletrack. Did I mention off camber?

Here is Ponte in total control, riding down an off camber whale.
One of the main reasons we rode Perry Hill today was to check out all the work that Ponte and the rest of the volumteers have done, and to see if it's holding up well. The two biggest issues we have are errosion, and running water. There are just some spots that are always wet, and there are others where bridges need to be made.

After inspecting the work, we headed out to a trail called Disneyland, one that I generally don't ride that often, but is a ton of fun. It's one of the lesser ridden trails, partly because of the huge climb out, but also because the entrance is so easliy flown past.






This trail meanders through the woods, in and out of big drainages, and most of the upper part has some fairly large exposure. The top third runs along a cliff band, where a screw up would have you wind up about 30 feet lower in elevation in a hurry. You would have to really screw up, but the edge is there, and it does mess with your head.


There are a couple of the standard Perry Hill boulder rollers, and a couple of lines that require you to really pay attention, and it is all big fun.

The climb out is tough.

So now I will reveal my opinion of the Orange Bike.

I love it.

The smaller size (large from XL) took a bit of time to get used to, but it has really improved my ability to hit the tough stuff with confidence. I built this bike up with my standard build. King/WTB wheelset, SRAM X0 shifter and derailleur (1x9), FSA Carbon crank with Ti BB, with Spot 34t rampless chainring and bash guard, the usual Thomson bits, Easton carbon Monkey Lites, Avid Juicy Carbon brakes (185mm rotor front, 160mm rear), an Exiwolf up front, and an Ignitor in the back. It weighs 25lbs on the nose with my Time pedals.
I will get a good shot of it tomorrow, as I left it at the shop after my ride.
It corners like a scared cat, probably due to the shorter wheelbase compared to the XL bike I was riding. Overall the handling is top notch. Very easy to please, and has a penchant for catching air. I have grown much more comfortable putting this bike anywhere I want on the trail, and every time, it makes me smile. Having the big rotor up front really helps bring the speed down when I run out of room.

Tomorrow, another ride is planned, and there will be more pictures!

It's All About Getting the Kids Hooked on the 2 Wheeled Junk

My wee boy, not even three, ripping it up all by himself.
Not much else to say about that...

Progress continues to be achieved with the Meat-up. We will be having a raffle, with cool prizes supplied by Niner Bikes, Twin Six, and others. We will be updating the official blog in the next day or so, with pics, and details of the Magna races that will be held on Saturday night.

With the weather taking a vacation from being nice, now is a good time to post a review.
I was hopefully going to get some good ride shots on the Orange Bike, but it looks like I will be off trails for a few days while things dry out.

One of the many cool things about social riding, is normally we'll all have a post ride beverage/recovery drink, and toast each other's success. We've been doing it this way for as long as I can remember.

One of the many choices we have here is from Long Trail Brewing Company. I am a huge fan of any IPA. Crisp, bold and refreshing, this IPA is one of the most drinkable around. And it's local.

Hopefully, the weather will improve soon, and bikes can be ridden again.

The Other Green Monster

Wednesday was a day I will not soon forget. Besides not having to work, I also didn't have to be a parent. For Father's Day, I got 2 tickets to see the Sox play Detroit's Tigers. Detroit has come from out of nowhere this season, and up until last night, they were soundly whuppin the Sox.

Our journey from VT included a stop for lunch at the 7 Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon, NH. I stuck to small beers, as we had a long way to go.

The fuzz was out in force, so we kept the cruising velocity in check. When we got to Beantown, I found my old reflexes come back to life, and I got us to our hotel with zero fuss. Fortunately, I spent quite a bit of time in and around Boston, so it wasn't really that hard. Except for all the one way streets. And the cars.

It was really nice to take the cliche walk down Memory Lane (Boylston), and reminisce about the days of capricious youth. It was also pretty weird going into Newbury Comics again. I used to buy a ton of CDs in there, and now, all my CDs are stashed away in boxes, because everything is digital now in our house. The Fens are still quite nice.
Boston crazies are some off the greatest people on earth too. I was a little disappointed to be harassed only once, but this guy was good. He was not afraid at all to get right in my face and accuse me of being a member of the Back Street Boys. I had to laugh.

We got to Fenway early, and got an outdoor table at the Cask & Flagon, and did some serious people watching. I'm pretty sure I saw the Stanley Cup. Anyone reading this, please verify...


The game was awesome. Wells was on the mound, went deep into the 7th, and got the win. We saw Big Papi crush the ball out of the park, and Papelbon shut the Tigers down.
Big fun.

It was good to be out of town, away from emails and phones, but it is also really good to be back. And shortly, there will be some Meat-up updates to talk about...

First Ride achieved

Well, it only took 2 days, but we were finally able to get the maiden voyage out of the way today. The weather cooperated, and gave us an overcast night, which helped reduce the radiational cooling that gives us near frost level conditions in the morning, along with lots of glistening dew.

As stated in the last post, surface moisture is bad.

The temperature on the climb up Perry Hill was a balmy 60 degrees.


After Keller found his lung, we headed off to the summit, where the flavor of the day would be 6 Flags, and then Joe's. Our trail crew has been busy at the bottom of Joe's, where traffic and erosion have had their way with the trail. The work they've done is fantastic.

Notice the intense look of concentration on Nat's face as he gets his carve on down Moby.

Our ride, which started out as a foursome, turned into a fivesome with the addition of Jay Pro, one fast guy on his Dos Niner. He caught up with us at the top, and joined in the battle against gravity and pointy rocks and slippery roots.

We all had a blast. You couldn't have asked for a better day. Getting a solid ride like this in early in the day is awesome.

In other news, there are now Bike 29 stickers to be had.

Want one?

Send an s.a.s.e to:
Bike 29
113 Thatcher Meadow Lane
Waterbury Center VT 05677

We'll get you hooked up.

What else is happening?
Well, we are in the stages of getting some raffle prizes together for the Meat-up. There will be an update on that site as soon as we have those details locked down.

Also look for the Orange Bike ride report in the next few days...

A Disappointing First Ride...of sorts

While it wasnt necessarily the worst ride of the year, we did get run off of Perry Hill by rain, that wouldn't normally mean much anywhere else. Dark grey clounds were mounting to the west of the Worsceter Range, some getting snagged on the tops just north of us. We decided we would push it, because that's how we are, and we needed to break in Nat's new ride.


Perry Hill is one of the worst places to be caught out in wet weather. The place goes from highly technical, yet flowy, to downright evil. I don't know anyone that has tried to ride it in the morning before the dew has burned off, and not been thrown to the ground at least twice. Lots of roots and rocks, that have some sort of vendetta against mounain bikes.

We got to the top when it started raining for real. We decided to abort the ride, and get back down as quickly as possible. Because we are such horrible Star Wars nerds, someone yelled "All craft pull up!", and we peeled back and around and bolted. Some of the lower clouds were very ugly, and being high up on a ridge, we decided that being electrocuted before the Meat-up would be just awful.

We scarpered back down the way we came up. Ride over in 45 minutes.
And wouldn't you know it, it stopped raining when we got to the bottom.

Tales From The Weekend

So on Sunday, while I went for a really fun ride with a couple of friends I don't get to see that often, others went against the race of their lives. I went out for a good ride at Millstone. I snuck out before the boy woke up, and we got to the trailhead before 9:30. We rode our asses off. Sorry, but there are no pictures of our fun. But I can tell you that the "Orange Bike" performed flawlessly. There will be some action shots soon.

All of the suckers went to the Jay Challenge.

This is a contribution from a fellow 29er rider and Vermonter. He raced in the Jay Challenge. a very silly race with massive vertical gain mixed with distance. It is unedited and completely uninfluenced...

Starting with a beautiful day it was off to a good start until delayed
race start. After making us get up an hour early they then held us there
for about half an hour. I only noticed a handful of riders with big
wheels. Surly seemed to be the manufacturer of choice. The race begins
with a brutal climb straight up jay to the top of the tram. This helped to
spread the field out, with a loose, steep climb this forced many to
walk/run with the bike. After making it to the top there was a great
decent that had many people again off their bikes. I found this a great
place to open it up and pass many people. Once to the bottom of the
mountain I began to have many problems with my 1*9 setup. My chain popped
off many times. A short stint on the road to the top of the 242 and then
ducking into the woods for great single track. Any time there was
technical terrain my chain popped off. After trading spots with some
riders becuase of the chain problem a nice gentleman Dave with a chain
tool stopped and lent me his tool to shorten my chain which helped
emensly. Thanks Dave. The 29er was a great advantage for the next 20 or so
miles of dirt roads. Cruising quickly, I began to run out of steam. Going
through Montgomery and seeing my friends and hearing cheers from
spectators I was reivigorated to continue. Through a great single track
loop down to a road section the race began to get long. My legs were
beginning seize. back to dirt roads and climbing which there wasn't a lack
of. Becuase of chain issues my easiest and hardest gears weren't
functioning properly. After a tough dirt road climb there was a nice 9
mile section of single track. With insuffecent training I began to lose
enough steam to make it uphill in the woods. Level and downhill sections
were fine. Popping back onto 242 from the Montgomery side proved to feel
like an endless climb. In the easiest gear i could barely turn the pedals
over. My knees were shot and running on E I exhaustedly made to the top of
242 again. With legs and lower back cramping I barely made it back to the
resort. I was delirous after the 50 miles and tons of climbing. I pulled
the plug knowing there lie 15 miles and another climb, equvilant to
climbing to the top of Jay again. I do think 29er is the way to go for
this race with the majority of miles being on dirt roads. With the winner
of the overall (Brook Scatchard- Karate Monkey) and the winner of the
single speed (Jason Achilich- Indy Fab) both on 29ers I think it says
something for big wheels. next year I plan to train more or enter the
shorter 45 miler. According to post race chat it was over 70 miles with
11,500 ft of climbing. A great event that proved to be painful like no
other race. Thanks to all the aid station workers and everyone that
cheered.

Sefton Hirsch

The decision... Magic vs. Reba

So, I have made my mind up.
And I'm quite sure that you will be disappointed with my findings.

The Reba
Flawless in just about every aspect. Having dealt with Rock Shox' Dual Air dampers before, I found it very easy to get the sweet spot dialed in almost immediately. Set up is a snap. The fork is stiff, it goes where pointed, and doesn't deflect off of roots, rocks and noseeums.

The Magic
Better than I expected. Despite the learning curve needed to get the most out of this fork, I did manage to figure it out, and enjoy my ride time with it. It also was stiff, tracked well, and was responsive in it's own way.

The Details
Both forks are marketed as 100mm forks. Both forks get their stiffness from 32mm stanchions. They both track where you steer them even in the roughest stuff. Each fork requires a bit of time to decipher how it will behave in tricky spots. It's especially bad when going from one fork to the other, as they are so very different.

The Reba is oil damped, and for preload, has an opposing dual air chamber making adjustments almost infinite. It also features a Floodgate adjustment with the Poploc (handlebar mounted lockout) which controls how much oil gets through he compression circuit. You can set it up so that the lockout shuts oil flow off completely, or restrict it to the point where only bigger hits activates the shock.

The Magic is also air sprung, but utilizes a "smart" valve for the compression circuit. Essentially, the fork can tell when the compression force is coming from above or below, and acts accordingly. There are 32 clicks on my fork that will make the compression circuit more or less restrictive.

Both forks have an independent rebound control. Very tunable on the Reba, somewhat inconsequential on the Magic.

Both of my forks weigh exactly 4lbs with cut steerers.

The Magic has a lower axle to crown than the Reba, but only gets a measured 88mm of travel. On the roughest stuff, I found that I ran out of travel.
While the Reba is relatively taller, it gets a solid 97mm of travel, and I never felt it bottom out.

Conclusion
Both forks work really well. I happen to think that the Magic would be better suited to racing, where you wouldn't want to have to worry about an overactive compression circuit. You could dial in the threshold of the smart valve and race away.
For general riding though, I give the nod to the Reba. If you know you are climbing, lock it out. When you get to the top, release it.

So did I make a decision?
Yes. The Magic will live on my single speed, where I don't have to worry about shifting or anything. I'll deal with the lack of travel, and be happy I'm not riding a rigid fork.
The Reba will be on my fun bike.

Let's Meat Up!

For anyone that doesn't follow the mtbr 29er forum, we have officially launched the Bike 29 Meat-up. The official blog is for everyone and anyone who wants to know more, or just be heard.

In other news, I built a pretty sick wheelset today. WTB Laser Disc front hub, with a WTB Single Duty SS rear, laced to Stan's ZTR 355 29er rims with DT Super Comp spokes with blakc nips. Super Stealth
This wheelset got the Stan's Yellow Tape treatment.
While my scale is on the fritz, my best guess, is that the wheelset is a hair under 1600g, which is pretty darn light. My Bass Pro Shop fish scale said both wheels weighed in at just under 4lbs, and this was with a steel 16t cog, and the rear axle bolts. While no one knows exactly how accurate a fishing scale really is, I can assure yoou these wheels are light.
I hope their new owner enjoys them. Ihad a goood time building them.

Orange Bike Report

After another ride on the AIR, I began to come to terms with the new frame size. While conditions were not great, we do have a little secret stash that drains well, and generally is 100% better than most other trails after 2 days of torrential downpours.
We had no electricity for over 4 hours yesterday because of a nasty little squall that whipped up though the mountains here. Lots of lightning, fun to watch in the garage with a beer.
It rained all night, and most of the morning, but this little stash holds up well. Don't ask me where it is, I can't tell you...
We got back just before dark, so the only picture that got taken is a dirty garage shot.


I do like it though. It is making me re-evaluate the way I ride, which is good. One of the main reasons I like to change my setup as often as I do, is because I am looking for the "perfect setup". I'm lucky in that I get to ride a bunch of different stuff. While I may never actually get it crammed into one bike, I always get it to 90%, which is pretty darn good. This bike likes to go fast. I even caught air with it. I know it may sound impossible, because 29ers can't corner or catch air, but it's true!

Bike 29 To Host a 29erstravaganza!

After some thought, I came up with an idea that got me all fired up! Why not throw a raging 29er Fest? Every year our group of friends gets together and rides he weekend after Labor Day. Typically we show up on Friday night, get a good ride in Saturday, have a massive party, and ride Sunday morning before we part ways.
Over the years, attendance has dropped because of growing families, conflicting schedules and a host of other lame reasons that go hand in hand with life as an adult.
I look at it as an opportunity to invite some new friends to share the experience, while keeping the focus on 29ers and why they are so much fun to ride.
I'll be making it official in the next few days, but for anyone that is considering a trip to VT, September 8th, 9th and 10th are very good days to be here. Contact me at the store for more details, 802.244.7330, or email me at georgew@bike29.com
We will base ourselves at the State Campground in East Burke, and we will be riding the epic singletrack of the Kingdom Trails over the weekend.

This event will revolve around the 3 Bs, Bikes, Beer and BBQ.
Come and join us!