Whoops

Can anyone see what is wrong with this picture?

Seems I forgot to tighten a couple of bolts.

Needless to say, I was very rattled from this experience, I had just completed a pretty high speed descent on part of the Perry Hill Trail System, and was on my way out, when my handlebars slipped in the stem.

I was riding a section we call "ZZ", a section of switchbacks that trail through a pine forest . The name of the game is momentum. I always play the "no pedal, no dab" game on this section. If you are unfamiliar with the trail, you will most likely dab once, or crank 1/4 of a pedal stroke to keep you going. It is a very BMX'y trail that requires a lot of body english to keep you rolling. I found that my handlebars were loose during a high speed manual through a dip, and lost control of the bike. In the picture, the bike points left, but the trail goes right...

After that, I was completely unable to get back up to speed.

I had lofty goals of getting the rest of the data for the Jet vs. Spider shootout, but today, I just had to get out of the woods safely.
With only my pride bashed up, I will regroup and try again in the morning.

Upgrades - Cake and Eating It

I didn't think it was actually possible, but I managed to find another upgrade to my RIP9.
I have been ecstatic with every change I have made to the bike, which I like to think is a good thing. I recognize it as progression.

It began with the fork upgrades, I went from the ubiquitous Reba, had a brief stint with a Maverick, then settled on the Fluid 135 from White Brothers. Not only did the fork feel great, it virtually eliminated a whole range of nitpicks I had with the bike.

Then, about a year ago, I took off the Juicy Carbon brakes and replaced them with the Avid Code brake. This was another good move, I could brake later into turns, and count on them grabbing hard when needed. For those that do not know, the Juicy is a 2 piston brake, perfectly adequate for all around riding, the Code is a 4 piston DH brake, which incidentally, are only about 42g more per side (non-rotational weight folks, totally acceptable) than the Juicy Carbon. Big kids take note - this is an upgrade worth considering. I'm still running the 180/165mm, front/rear rotor combo. Plenty of power.

With the new fork, I was beginning to really push the limits on my RIP. With the new brakes I was able to get away with a lot more.

Then I got a pair of the Ergon Enduro grips. Weird as they look, they make a huge difference to my paws, which would often get sore and beat up on rough downhills.

And now, just when I thought I had the bike all figured out, one of these found it's way on the bike.

For a long time I have poo-pooed the adjustable seatpost thing. 'Set and forget' and 'Run what ya brung' had always been my mottos, until about 4 hours ago.


This is the Crank Brothers Joplin post, a design licenced from the Maverick group. I can't see myself without this gadget on my RIP now. I was able to ride sections of trail so much faster, just because "the boys" were not in any danger. I have the Remote version of the post. The total travel range is about 3", which you can change at will with a weird, but cool and well thought out lever. You can literally adjust your saddle height within a few mm if you are talented enough.


But just imagine, if you could drop your saddle height 3" for just a few seconds on a trail, and then have it right back up for when you need to climb....

Oh yeah.

An unfortunate side effect for me, has been the amount of time I am no longer "on" the trail. With the family jewels safe, I can loft the bike higher up in the air without fear of retribution from the saddle. For the longest time, saddle height has kept my speed in check, but now, I'm beginning to find the limitations of the brakes....
...maybe time to get bigger rotors...

Why would you buy this post? If you are like me, you aren't getting any younger. My knees hurt from years of "splitting the difference". Our trails are technical, and have intermittent and sometimes long and technical climbs. I and others like me have set their saddle height in a spot where strong seated climbing is still possible, and out of the saddle BMX style flow through the flats and downhills can still be achieved.

Now, I can have the correct saddle height for climbing, and the right saddle height for wailing the crap out of my bike on the downhills! Woo Hoo!!!!!

What a Weekend - Part Deux!

Let's go back to Friday shall we?

Keller "Hey, I think I can get Maiden tickets for tomorrow night, do you wanna go?"
Me "ummmm, YES!"

Saturday marked Catamount's 30th anniversary. Nat and I showed up with his truck full of 11 of our demo bikes. We were able to get some new folks a taste of what the big wheels are all about. The weather was beautiful, trails were fun, and turn out was great. After packing up, I had time to head home and get ready for Maiden.

We were able to go to the show in REAL style.
Just recently you see, Keller bought an 81 Z-28 Camaro. Beasts like this were the most coveted things for males our age back in the day (high school). I mean, who gets to drive to another country to see Iron Maiden in a Camero? With T-tops?


We do.

So we left on Saturday evening for Montreal.
Awesome!


Thank goodness for the internet, as we found a place to park right outside of the venue, just one stop away on the Metro. We rolled right up to the ticket booth and got our passes. We were at the headlining act of an all day metal-fest in Montreal, a beer in each fist, enjoying our favorite band, after spending 3 hours in some of Detroit's finest steel getting there, just in time for the band to go on.

The set list was the same as the last show, which was EVERY song that you need to see live. This time, instead of the second row, we were at the back end of 60,000 screaming Maiden fans, and I'll have to say that I really enjoyed the show. For one, I was not being crushed into the first row, and I could see the whole stage. They put on a very good show, lights, fireworks, explosions, and a giant Eddy.


To us, it was well worth the trip.


Sunday was spent lugging huge rocks around the forest in the rain, as we still have a lot of work to do on the new re-route. The trail is taking shape, and we got a lot done on some of the more difficult sections.

I need a week off to recover from the weekend!

The Spider - Some Thoughts

It's been my goal to make a solid effort to get the Intense Spider on all of our local trails when weather and time permit. While conditions are less than perfect, the window for riding has been open. I'm having a ton of fun on this bike, but now that the newness of it has passed, I'm beginning to experience some of the bike's capriciousness.

I've spent a fair amount of time fiddling with the rear shock, trying to get the pressure /sag just right. I eventually wound up with 200psi, with the ProPedal set on 2, and leaving it on. This seems to do the rear end of this creature a lot of justice, especially since that once it's set, no more fiddling (yay!). It climbs amazingly well, and has a springy snappy ride. To me, this is the perfect setting. Funnily enough, a customer from out of state came in with a Spider he had bought elswhere, and I set it up for him. Just one ride later, he also agreed this was the best setting.

Me, 230lbs, sag at roughly 2o%, which is Intense's recommended setting. I found that the sagged angles of the bike feels far more relaxed than you would imagine, as steep as it's static angles are. The bike will still steer through just about anything at any speed. This can also somewhat of a drag, as the BB drops as the suspension sags. On my very first ride, the first thing I noticed was sporadic pedal strike. Now that I have it set up in "the zone", it is far less pronounced, but my feet still tag the ground from time to time.

It's on sustained high speed rutted downhills however, the bike seems to lack progression in the rear shock. The rear shock has a very short stroke for the amount of travel it has, which leads me to the first thing I would change about the bike (if I were to a> have that power, and b> have only one bike).

I'd do whatever it took to get the shock travel ratio to 2:1. The rear shock seems over worked on big hits, and I have now noticed that the back end seems to wind up on any of our regular local Waterbury rides. Seems to me that a longer stroke shock could handle different types of bumps at varying speeds, which leads me in to the second thing I would change...

...which would be to update the design with the new fancy 15mm axle pivots of VPP2, as seen on new Santa Cruz Blur LT bikes. It would be a welcome addition to the construction of this bike. Our local stuff is quite ledgy, and there were a few times that the rear of the bike felt like it was going a different way than the front.

Despite these gripes, I have no doubt in my mind though, that Intense achieved what they set out to do, which was to create a lightweight race bike, that is dependable enough to get the job done. While this bike is slightly less adequate for our local trails, it shines on others. I'll be riding it this Saturday on our local race loops, and will hopefully be comparing it to a couple of other bikes.

BTW, I'm totally going to race this bike on Wednesday at Catamount, which will be the first time I get to do so this year. Nat has gotten fast (and cocky!), and needs to be put in his place!

Post Father's Day Ride Syndrome

A group of us dads headed out for a ride on Sunday morning. It was beautiful and sunny. It had rained all night. Needless to say, riding was very interesting indeed. Our normally technical trails took on a new note of difficulty. While the mud made things interesting in the turns, it was the slick wet rocks that were the real problem.

We have a lot of exposed rock in Waterbury. We chose to ride 6 Flags and Joes, and there were several visits to the ground among our group. I took 2 rather spectacular tumbles on Joes. I chose to ride a couple of rocks that I should have taken the alternate route (around) on, and paid. I really should have known better.

I will say that I'm impressed with the paint on my RIP9. I dragged the non drive side about 10 feet down a steep rock, leaving marks in the rock, but found no damage to the paint. It's been a while since my last visit to the ground, and I hope to not go back any time soon.

I'm pretty banged up, but the ride was totally worth it.

Intense Spider - First Ride

While the rocker issue on the Jet 9 is truly frustrating, I've decided to take the opportunity to get to know one of the other bikes we sell, the Intense Spider. These bikes are similar in that they are both geared towards XC riding and racing, so the comparison should provide some interesting results.

This bike is one of our demo bikes. It is a large frame, with a Fox RP23 rear shock and F29 100mm fork, SRAM X9 shifters and derailleur, an old but perfectly good set of XTR M960 cranks, a sweet looking set of Bike 29 Royale wheels (pewter hubs, black spokes, red nips on Arch rims), Easton EA 70 stem, Monkey Lite carbon bars and EC90 seatpost, and a white WTB Deva saddle. I originally had the white Juicy Ultimates on the Jet, but since it is grounded, I pulled them off to replace the Juicy 7s I had on the Spider. The bike has a lot of white on it, which I hear is the new black, so I have decided to name it "The White Shadow".

This weekend's weather was perfect for staying indoors next to an air conditioner, high 80s, and the air so thick you could eat it with a spoon. I'd been as sick as I've been in a long time all week, and I was certainly not in the mood to push it. It seemed as the most logical choice would be to head to Stowe Town Loops, which is ironic, as this is typically my new bike proving ground.

So how does it ride?
I will preface this by saying I am not really in any condition to "push" a bike to it's limits, but I was able to get a good measure of the bike's qualities, based on my familiarity with the terrain.
The ride starts with a gradual climb that will make you suck wind if you are out of shape, so I spun up in an easy gear. The hot muggy air didn't help either. I did all of the sustained climbing with the ProPedal on, and was rewarded with a firm ride that moved on only the biggest obstacles. I rode a the medium Spider way back in 06, which was definitely too small for me, but I was impressed back then at the climbing prowess of this bike. Perhaps there is something in the name...?

Once the hill crests, the trail rolls down some rocky double track, before turning into rooty rocky single track through a pine stand. This is where it gets fun. It's relatively flat, but still rolly, you can really milk your momentum. There are some large decomposing shale outcroppings to negotiate your way up, which can end up in disaster it you fall the wrong way.
Ont the right, there are hard rocks and tree roots, on the left, about a 70 tumble down a steep ravine into the Little River. Well, I did not make the first big outcropping. I had to put a foot down about halfway up. I attributed this to the back end being too firm.m I used this opportunity to turn the ProPedal off, and ran the shock wide open for the rest of the ride (with the exception of the last climb out).

That was much better. The biggest thing I noticed, is the the bike took on a slightly different personality. With the ProPedal off, the bike sank a little deeper into it's travel. It pedalled very well in the rough stuff, bumps large and small disappeared and the bike seemed to levitate over the trail. I was expecting a fair amount of feedback from the ground, but was pleasantly surprised to find it was minimal. The VPP suspension design does a very good job of soaking it all up, and the F29 was dialed in. Not once did I feel a hard bottom out, despite how deep into the travel I was sitting.

Climbing with the ProPedal off was no problem, the back wheel stayed on the ground for the short techy climbs that are sprinkled throughout the ride. This was a relief, as I seldom have the presence of mind to flip the switch when I need to. As we climb up to the "upper" Town Loop, there are a series of bridges that take you over some very mucky ground, and the terrain becomes a little more difficult as the root and rock population increases.

It was here that I found the single thing that I found to be a negative on the bike. Pedal strike. While not a persistent problem, it is enough to get your attention, and on one instance I came right out of my right pedal at a time that was less than convenient. As I spend more time on the bike, I will likely adjust my riding style by timing my pedal strokes a little better. Like I said before, I was definitely not on my game, so some of it could have been attributed to that.
With my one gripe out of the way, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

The suspension is very plush, and handling is very predictable. It almost has a playful feel to it. While last minute course corrections are a snap, it isn't quite as fractious as the Jet. This was appreciated, as I was on the edge of control on the fast single track descents.

The crucial piece of hardware I attribute the playful handling to, is the Chris King Tall Baseplate. It adds 5mm to the axle to crown height, thus slackening the head angle by about a degree. The Spider is renowned for it's aggressive 74° head angle, which some find too twitchy. This baseplate and correct sag on the rear shock makes the bike very manageable.

All in all, I'd say that if you were in the market for an XC bike you can race or ride all day, this bike would certainly get the job done, and is well worth a good look.

Updates

The most important thing to report on, is that Niner has requested all dealers to halt all sales of the Jet 9, due to an issue with the upper rocker links. In some instances there have been failures, IE breakage of these links. They are quickly determining a solution to this problem, but in the meantime, for liabilities sake, they have asked that Jet owners keep their bikes grounded for the time being. Not one of the breakages have occurred from a bike sold from Bike 29.

Anyone that would like to know more specific details about the Jet 9, should contact me directly.

I haven't been able to ride my Jet in a while anyway, my work schedule and the rainy weather has kept me off the bike, up until early this week, when it was being horrendously sick that kept me on the sidelines. I don't often get sick, but when I do, I come down hard. I'm still trying to peer though the fog as I write this.

And on a positive note, the shop got it's new sign. It is absolutely killer. More details about the install can be found on the Five Hills Bikes webpage. It's water jet cut aluminum over a painted plywood background. The light is from an LED rope light that is mounted to the back of the aluminum. It looks awesome. A big thank you goes to Dr. Jones is on order for making the sign everything it is.


I hope to get out on the bike soon, I'm starting to get stir crazy!