Ride Review & New Toys

In our last episode, I made three easy changes to my mountain bike in an attempt to improve it.  I have mixed results to report, but know that most of it is my fault.




The stem is doing exactly as advertised.  The first ride with it I was much, much slower in the twisty stuff, mostly because I had no idea what the front end was going to do.  Steering was fantastic in longer turns, but in quick, decreasing radius turns the bike just felt like I couldn't turn it enough.  To compensate I would try to dig in a little harder and push the front end through, but that resulted in the wheel washing out and me falling.  Pleasant side note; I can get my foot unclipped pretty damn quick.

My second ride with the stem felt much improved.  Matt was riding behind me both days and he noticed I was quicker the second time.  I have a feeling it's just going to take me a few rides to figure out how the damn thing turns and then I'll be just as fast.  However, the fit is so much more comfortable now and my weight is better balanced that I consider it to be a massive change for the better.

The adjustments to the shock have been working well.  I'm not sure if I need more compression (air) or less rebound.  I'm going to play around with it some more because over roots it feels like a flat tire for a moment.  My money is on less rebound (towards the rabbit) but on log overs it feels perfect.

Brakes.  Fucking brakes.  If Isaac didn't have XTRs, I wouldn't know any better and I wouldn't notice most of the things that bother me about my brakes.  After I cleaned both the pads and rotors and trued the rotors, the bike was church mouse quiet.  It stayed that way for two thirds of the first ride before the rear brake started sounding like the angry hamster again.  Then, on todays ride, the brake started making an annoying squeaky sound for the entire ride.  The hamster sound is a result of Avid brakes being Avid brakes.  They just do that.  But the squeak is fucking annoying.  That shit has got to go.

The best part is that right after I made all of the changes, I loaded my bike onto my roof rack, carefully made sure it was locked in place and not going to go anywhere, got into my car and then backed over my front wheel.  Once I realized I was crushing my wheel, I pulled forward and got out.  I had stopped with my cars tire squarely on the wheel, so I hopped back in and backed off of it.  The wheel was then trapped under my car, so I got out my jack and lifted my car up enough to pull the wheel out.  It spun true enough in my hand and I was riding in less than 12 hours, so I just drove home and rode it the next morning.  The wheel is pretty out of true, and I'm not sure if the rim is bent, but it makes for some unpredictable handling.  I'm not entirely sure the front tire washing out is entirely the stem's fault.  I'm a jack-ass.  I plan on seeing if I can get the wheel true and then going from there.  We have a replacement  wheel at the shop I could get, but if I can get the wheel in true, I'm going to write a letter to Specialized praising Roval wheels.  Hey, speaking of Specialized...

New Toys!

I got myself some new MTB shoes and some tires.  I broke the return spring in the right shoe a year and a half ago because they're a design that is well thought out in a world where you don't fall off you bike. I've been making due ever since by manually locking the strap in place, but there have been multiple times where half way through a ride I would look down and the strap was fully undone.  I finally have had enough and plunked down coin on some S-WORKS Evo shoes.  The most common question I get is "why did you go with the Evos over the normal S-WORKS shoes?"  The answer to that is that the Evo is a beefier shoe.  Having easily broken a normal shoe, I decided if I was going to get a pair of light weight racing shoes, I was going to get the tougher of the two.  And they come in all black.

While I was at it, I picked up an S-WORKS Ground Control 29x2.1 Front and an S-WORKS Fastrak 29x2.0 rear tire.  I plan on running this combination in the spring/summer when there are less sticks on the ground to stab the ridiculously supple/light weight/little protected S-Works tires.  Both tires are close to 50g heavier than advertised, but they're about two thirds of a pound lighter than my current tire combination.  And we all know that's what really counts :)

I'll have reviews up of the tires in the spring and of the shoes in about a month.  but for now, look at these: