Mountain Bike - Hard tail

whats the trail / area?

i live down South here, but am always up that way for work. i habitually contemplate taking my bike w/ me, but need a clearer direction for where to head.

vince

 

Its in Los Gatos, Trail is called El Sereno (off of Overlook/Sheldon Rd), theres a bunch of trails on the other side of 17 too--by Lexington, St Joe's, Lime Kiln, Dogmeat etc--basically the same elevation rise.

El Sereno is a lot less crowded--but I generally ride at 6:30am--so no big

They are all fire roads--so dont get too excited. You need to drive 30 min to Saratoga Gap, Soquel Demo Forest or Skeggs for good single track--but you can get at least 3K of climbing on any one of those in 2-3 hours- mostly on single track

 

Thanks! I will look to check those out....

vince

 

the starts should be a breeze compared to a roadrace start. Just dont blow up! Practice some short sprints for 50-100 yards.

 

dude in los gatos... 2 questions:

1. how long does it take you to drive to santa cruz? doable as a morning commute?
2. so you know where they are digging for CruzFEST?

ima be out there in a week chillin, kinda wanna see it. sad to see post office torn down too. that area is so dope tho.

 

1) 30 min with no traffic--about the same to Demo Forest--an hr with traffic
In the am going from LG to SC theres little to no traffic--in the am coming from SC to LG its pretty bad
2) Dunno website says SC

 

Is it xc racing? Point to point is usually a little better. Thats the trick tho, of course.."don't blow up". Easier said then done. Old bicycle racing saying.."pick a pace you can't possibly maintain..now maintain it for 2 hours". Thats xc racing. I forget how hard it is, (most every race lol), till I get back out there again.

If you don't go hard at the start, besides just being behind,..you'll also get to the singletrack behind the leaders. This exacerbates the problem. Typically, there can be a small short-lasting bottleneck early on in the first tight tech-ish stuff. Thats hard to make up. Especially in Beginner class(if you can, you prolly shouldn't be in Beginner haha). Just no time to make all that time up.

But fear not..the pace WILL let up after a couple minutes. ..some. Just enough tho that the leaders don't blow up(and if they were smart, of course). Thats all the reprieve ya get. Remember, with very few exceptions, the fittest man wins.

 

What he ^^ said. Very accurate.

 

word man.

yea i know its supposed to be SC, but i wondered if anyone found it yet. my buddies out there haven't ran into it in their ridings yet. and yea SC to LG was what i was thinking... bout the same as DC i guess then. was thinking about maybe moving out to SC in a year or so. i really like it.

 

Off the start this year I just started spinning into pace. The start area was ~200yds long to the single track. My trail knowledge had me on the right and everyone else setting up to the left. Went into the trail ~4th or 5th and there was a huge pileup behind me. Kept pace with the leaders until we got to some minor technical stuff... where my hands were completely asleep.:wow: Made for an interesting first and second lap.

 

I remember that race. TurboBlew "I CAN'T FEEL MY HAAANDS"

 

I just got them even cheaper from Chain Reaction. I needed a super low stack-height headset and they seemingly had the last one in existence. I shopped around to see what else they had so I could get my order over $100 for free shipping. Picked up a front SLX for $71, added some bar tape for my road bike and got another $15 off...

 

i'd had a Pugsley previously, but after i rode a friend's 907, I grew to hate it... the pug geo is pretty old school XC, w/ a 71º HTA, which for a XXL frame, that put my weight really high and forward, my hands were pretty much even with my front axle. It was also wicked heavy, 37#s with/o pedals. I found a 135mm offset frame on closeout for $399, sold my pug frame for $300 and swapped parts over, upgrading when I could. 1x XT, raceface turbine cranks, Crank Brothers Candy 3 pedals, Avid elixir 9 brakes (soon to be shimano SLX), KS Lev dropper, WTB Volt Saddle, hope rear hub, Lefty; it currently weighs about 32 #s. I'm planning on some carbon rims and an easton carbon bar and I'll probably call it done, although a set of 650b+ wheels for racing, have a definite appeal...

As far as the gearing goes, I have a Wolftooth 32t narrow/wide cog up front and a 11-36 cassette in back. There are only a handful of climbs in my area, grade 4, 400ft climbs that I can't clean, but i struggled with them when i had a granny gear. I had a 42t expander cog in back, which helped, but it didn't last as long as i'd have liked, I got about 1000 miles/4 months of riding out of it, which was disappointing. When it wore out, i didn't replace it and within a couple weeks of riding, I'd adapted. I'll be replacing my cassette in a few months and I'm thinking about either upgrading to one of the new 11-40 10 speed cassettes, or upgrading my drive train to the new SRAM GX groupo, which should run around $300 for the cassette, derailleur and shifters.

It's a super fun bike to ride and will go anywhere. Even though I race it and did ok, I wouldn't describe it as a race bike. The wheels are kind of heavy- the tires themselves weigh about 1200 grams and each wheel is also in that ballpark, which means that acceleration is not a strong suit, although after riding fat for 3 winters and spending all of last summer racing against some really fast cat 1 & 2 racers in a local underground series, I've learned to compensate. It was pointed out, and likely rightly so, what i probably would have done a lot better if i had a proper XC bike. But as Monte will undoubtedly attest, I'm the kind of hard-headed masochist that does everything the hard way; my teammates have nicknamed me "sledgehammer," until recently, my fatbike was my tool for mountain biking, gravel & randoneuring and road rides... I plan on racing as much of the Mid-Atlantic Super Series as I can and will likely do an enduro or 2, but i have no illusions that I'm showing up with a limited tool kit.

I recommend riding a fatbike to anyone, I have have the same giddy feeling riding it that I did when I was 12 years old on a BMX bike. they have gobs of traction and are incredibly confidence inspiring. While they can be ridden fast and raced successfully, they're not race bikes. They will however, make you hella strong, though. When i get on my SSCX bike, i'm a monster on sprints.

I was fully expecting to be fighting for last in my race last weekend, I was amazed to find myself in the lead pack going into the first turn, after a 3/4 mile long fire road sprint. It was then that I set my sights higher. If I hadn't gotten lost or mechanical-ed... oh well, next time. you know the saying, "wish in one hand, shit in the other, what do you have?"

 

given that my RR starts are normally on a torque-less 2T, i'd tend to agree! lol

i honestly have no expectation other than to feel out the race scene a bit and hopefully not finish last. i'm mostly just curious as to what kind of pace dudes run.

i skipped the 'beginner' class altogether and am in the next one up. while i'm not looking to get totally beat on by going straight to pro, i'd rather get pushed a bit than not. i think the passing element will be interesting as it seems most pushbike guys are a more tentative than not. maybe its diff under race condition(?).

this is, apparently, a XC race and i am decidedly NOT a XC focused rider. that said, i like the suffer and while I dont expect to be makin up time when pointed down, i do think i'll be relatively quicker when gravity is with me.

....we'll see!

vince

 

yeah I skipped beginner class my first time too. A 1 lap sprint (7 miles) didn't seem "challenging". Glad I got in the clydesdale... cause 40-49 is pretty cut throat.

 

:up: Sounds like it's a good do all bike.

I was just reading about the gx groupset, significantly cheaper and ~20% weight penalty to X01/XX1 but likely last longer anyway. Makes you wonder what will happen to all the 1x11 DIY companies that have sprung up in the absence of cheap 1x11 ratios from shimano/sram - adapt or die I spose.

Was thinking the other day the only thing SRAM doesn't do, afaik, is frames.

 

If they did, they would be competing with their customers and everyone would spec Shimano....

 

Lance..You seem to get terrible life from drive components. I change chains every 60 days ($31) like clockwork and I have never bought a cassette or chainring. What are you doing o these things? Lots of mud?

 

funny you mention the 40-49 bit: i was perusing the previous year's results and that age group had the fastest time! ....concerningly, it is also my class. lol

vince

 

hey monte, i've caught you mention your chain-changing regime to avoid wearing the chainwheels/cogs a couple times. do you do it just by time? or, is there a way to actually determine / measure chain wear?

i know they have those little chain wear gizmos...but i've been religious in measuring chain elongation and i cant seem to actually see ANY stretch. certainly nothing approaching 1%. my own strategy has me (really thoroughly) cleaning my chain almost every time i pedal. wondering if that is helping me reduce wear?

thoughts?

.....and my take is Lance is a big dude. wondering if that has some effect too in contributing to more wear.

vince