My current top rated rides: SWEET!
UPDATE: 11/1/11 - Tallboy
recovered!
Thank you San Francisco police
dept!
NOTICE: On 9/27/11 my
Tallboy described below was stolen
Please keep an eye out for it!
As many of you know I keep up pretty
well on all the cool new cycling innovations and personally try out
many products. I go to the Interbike trade show every year and there are always new
and exciting products that are introduced. Some work out and become
a main stay of the cycling world and some do
not.
I love cycling and I love the
technology that goes into them. I try to find and ride the very
best of everything there is to offer... within reason ;-)
The numerous questions about my
bike(s) I ride might be answered below. I have
posted up my current ride(s) and will add reviews and comments as I
have time. I will try to keep it
up to date as my bikes are in a constant state of change.
YOU CAN BE SURE OF THIS:
If you have not checked out the newest technology of the last couple
of years you are missing out on substantial improvements that have
been made in this industry.
Santa Cruz is again
a great sponsor for us this year and the Tallboy 29er is still my
weapon of choice:
This is now my favorite bike.
This bad (and tall) boy rolls over everything sooooo nice! The bike build is currently a
pretty "stock"
Santa Cruz
XTR XC build with
Stan's Crest wheels. 23.4 lbs as you see it.
Until recently I was running a Fox 120mm fork
with a
Terralogic damper (It's like having an automatic lock out).
As you see I currently run a Cannondale Lefty at 120mm using the
adapter kit from
Project 321.
I run this in my "all mountain" mode.
If you want the stiffest, plushest sweetest ride, go Lefty!
For racing however, the Fox
Terralogic fork is the bomb... with no bob! ;-)
How do I like this bike? Well,
pretty much on any ride this is now my bike of choice. It plain and
simply rolls over stuff faster. On any given ride at the end of the
day I feel I expend a fair amount less energy on this 29er than even
my flyweight Mojo below.
At first it did not feel as quick in the
tight twisties, but I've gotten used to it and now I'm faster soooo
much faster!
Here is my
Ibis Mojo
It is a flyweight (yet
long travel) XC
racer at 21.8lbs.
Frame:
Ibis Mojo SL - Medium w/Fox RP23
"Fork":
Cannondale
Lefty Carbon 140 PBR
Steer tube:
Project 321 Lefty adapter
Wheels:
Stan's NoTubes Olympic rims on American Classic
rear hub and
Project 321 front hub.
Rotors:
Scrub
Components - 160mm Ft, 160mm Rr
Tires: Changes with conditions,
WTB,
Kenda , Specialized, Bontrager
Crank: Shimano XTR M970 - 175mm
Pedals: Crank Bros 4 Ti Egg beaters
Cassette: Shimano XTR 12-34
Derailleurs: Shimano XTR M971
Brakes: Shimano XTR hydraulic
disc M975
Brake line:
Jagwire HiFlow hose
Der Cable:
Jagwire Ripcord
Stem: Ibis 3D forged 110mm
Handlebars: Easton MonkeyLite XC carbon
Seatpost: Easton EC90 carbon
Saddle: Selle San Marcos Caymano -
carbon/Ti
Grips: Bontrager XXX foam
Additional
Info:
Current weight 21.8 lbs
5.5" travel front,
5.5" travel rear
The Mojo is an awesome bike. It it really
"flick-able" and I love it for popping of of every little bump. It is
extremely cushy... yet I consider it
an "All mountain cross country racer" It does both extremely well. I
suppose if I were to going to seriously set it up for race the only
thing I might change would be to go back to
my Fox 130 or 140mm fork with the
Terralogic inertia dampening valve for
a better pedal platform. The Lefty has a lock out, but during racing I'd
rather not fiddle with it.
The Lefty that is on there now is simply the plushest and laterally
stiffest "fork" (actually a strut) I've ever ridden. It tracks superbly
and it's point and shoot over the nasties.
The "DW LINK" on the rear suspension works awesome, plush yet minimal
bob when you stand up, no wonder so many frame manufacturers are using it
now. You turn on the "Pro-Pedal" on the shock and the bob really goes
away... but I almost always run mine open for better bump roll over.
This bike is basically a full Shimano XTR rig and the new XTR stuff
works great. The shifting is smooth
and the brakes are very good at my weight (145#). The current Lefty is more more "all mountain" oriented, but
has a push button lock out, so still OK for XC racing.
General opinions and recommendations:
Here is a question I get ALL THE TIME: I want to do some upgrades
on my bike and cannot afford a new bike, what should I do? The first two
things I would recommend are:
-
Go tubeless! You can run lower air pressures
(you roll OVER the bumps instead of bouncing), you won't get flats
(OK I've had one flat in 2 years) and if you do it right you will
lose some rotating weight.
-
Go tubeless "correctly". What I mean is buy or
build a set of wheels set up for going tubeless instead of using a
conversion kit. Conversion kits typically use a thick rubber rim
strip, that adds weight. I highly recommend the
Stan's NoTubes
rims or full
wheel sets. Even their set of "house brand" Alpine wheels for only
$435 weighs around 1350 grams. Any other wheel set and you'd have to
spend $700, $800 or 900 to get that.
I admit... I was a real hold out on the tubeless thing... I was
then kinda
"forced" into tubeless when I bought a used single speed. I could
not believe how well it handled over the bumps! I was used to running
35-38 lbs of air pressure, now I am running only 22-24psi! Amazing!
What about rolling resistance? With high pressures the very small gain
you might see in reduced rolling resistance (and only on flat, smooth
hard pack) is negated by the bouncing up and back over anything else. The many benefits
of tubeless outweigh tube tires by far IMO:
Better handling, better bump roll-over - this is where you really make
up a lot, and better traction. I actually run my
tires as low as possible, until I start to feel excess side wall flex,
or I'm in danger of hitting my rim. Currently I run 22-24psi.
To
be added onto as I have time....
A few more pic's:
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