Mountain Bikes!

Yes just got one due to my two riding buddies getting them and searing by them. Going up is almost as fun as going down. We were going on all the moto trails in post canyon at hood river up rocky hill climbs that’s Moto uses. Just awesome all around. Totally wiped out such a full body workout for 4 hours.

 

problem is that now you and your buddies are in a horsepower arms race. and will just keep trying to outdo each other. this will be expensive.

 

Haha true. There are very few batteries and motors to choose from. so we all have 630w batteries so if one person uses more powerful mode his will deplete faster. Typically we finish the day with 10% left but heavier riders drain it faster.

Also I try to keep my cadence in the 85rpm area where it’s suppose to be most efficient.

it’s great for getting more downhill practice. The trails in the PNW are not easy for me so I love being able to lap the whole mountain 2 or 3 times rather than once.

 

Well I think I cracked the mystery to sram brakes… gotta overfill it. These brakes now feel really really good. Very progressive and easy to modulate.

It’s amazing how much faster you can go when you trust your brakes. Set about a dozen PRs today.

I think I’ll stick with them for a while and save some $

 

If it came with 160mm fork thats awesome... $1000 right there. Standard carbon wheels & tubeless is nice as well.

 

are they dragging at all?

 

Not now. The front was dragging a hair so I barely opened the bleed screw and got a few drips out, then realigned and it’s perfect.

 

Headed to Post Canyon for the first time in a couple weeks for the Ninja Academy. I just moved to Vancouver and been turning laps on Thrillium/Cold Creek a few times a week. Do you live out towards Hood River?

Also, just had a Broome moment and put a deposit on a Transition Spire. The purple got me.

 

That shit looks real dope. ONLY thing that concerned me though was the fact they're spec'ing 165mm cranks because the BB drop is so low. I think in the higher setting its not TERRIBLE at all, but the other setting its pretty substantial. Fricken pedal strikes drive me crazy. It has a drop similar to my current Meta AM 29er and I've def killed a pedal or 2 in the past 6 years. The new Meta AM I think I gain like 11-12mm of BB height over my current bike which I like. We'll see though I guess. Post up when you get it... my buddy has had like 4 Transitions and whenever I go out to Cali or Idaho and visit and don't bring my own, i ride one of his. They're great bikes. He just went to full coil front and back on his Patrol and it rides real sweet.

 

Yeah, I ride a lot of rocks, and pretty fast. But it's never anywhere I'm pedaling. I get a few strikes here and there when I mess up on line choice or keeping speed on my Megatower, which is actually lower than the Spire. I think I'll survive though. Definitely not the right bike for everywhere. I think Transition pretty much designs bikes for the riding they have in Bellingham, which is just a few hours away and pretty similar terrain to me. Doubt I'll ever even try the low setting.

 

I've got the higher level SRAM on my MTB and it works great. No issues. Same on my gravel bike.

On my fat bike, it's the mid-level stuff and it was not great at first. After some bleeding (which I no longer will do on bikes, lol), and brake pad upgrades, they are the best working brakes from all three bikes. I kind of related them to GSXR brakes.

 

Certainly can't have a heavy hand with the XT's, the sram has a much wider, for lack of a better word I suppose, bite zone. I like the light one finger feel of the Shimano. The RSC on my Trance is good though, I have no trouble switching back and forth to it from the XT's on my Transition. Some of the Guides I've had though we're awful, very inconsistent.

 

I'm a Transition customer for life. Rad company, awesome people there and amazing bikes, and I own a Giant bicycle shop lol. My Trance 29 is one of the few bikes that has that same light poppy feel as my 15'-17' Transition Scouts which is my all time favorite bike. I have a 140mm fork on my Trance instead of the 130 and a 150 on the Scout instead of the 140 also. However, I've ridden all the newer stuff from Transition and you're 100% correct about their bikes working out there. We live in Florida and while we have some awesome MTB trails and much more elevation than people elsewhere think, it ain't out west lol. The Spur will probably be my next bike.

 

Funny, because I could never make the transition to one finger braking after roadracing so long using two. I can do it fine, but it feels so foreign. I'm two fingers on both sides still. Maybe that's why I like the SRAM's.

 

There's actually a lot of body dynamics behind using one finger for braking. The way our index fingers ligaments etc go up your forearm. Using two fingers loses x amount of grip strength because of how the middle and index fingers work together. Something along those lines. My girlfriend is a therapist, she explains that shit better than I can lol. Road racing it doesn't affect us as much of course but off road it's a big deal.

 

With these newfangled hydraulic brake thingies, is it an issue to have the front brake on the RH handlebar, just like a motorcycle? I swapped over my cable brakes on my mountain bike, because I like consistency.

 

In general, no not an issue. Some people do it, I never have. The biggest issue you'll come across is if the bike has internal cable routing and if there are internal channels for that cable routing. If there are internal channels for internal routing that enter the bike on the left hand side, you'll just have to create a little bit of a goofy loop if you switch your rear brake to the left. If internal but without internal channels, you use an open entrance on the right side of the bike. If externally routed, piece of cake.
You'll want to start with new hoses since the lengths will be different, and depending on brake brand just leave the levers in place and attach the other hose. Magura (what I use on all my bikes) can be swapped side to side, Shimano and Sram (and mostly all others) are side specific.

Short version - easy enough to do, just some messy work. Up to the rider if it's worth it.

 

My SRAM are not side specific... Guide R.

 

I swapped my first bike around for familiarity. However, I haven't bothered on the others and now I really have no issue jumping back and forth between them. I am one of those idiots that brakes with the outer three fingers on a motorcycle, and breaking that habit and only using my index finger was way harder to deal with than which side the front was on.

 

Front brake is primary on your road race bike, rear is primary on your mtb. Same hand doing the primary work. I leave em alone.