Two Wheel Blogs

Tonight a group of us met up at Rockbridge State Park, (the venue again for the Show Me State Games this weekend), and threw down a few laps. There was about a half dozen of us all togeather with John L and Flying Nick in attendence. I was very reluctant coming out tonight as I have a pretty nasty knee injury I've been dealing with for the past week. It has kept me from riding, and consequently has made this week hell.

I rode a solo lap to see how it would feel and I was fine luckily. Then the group showed up. We tried to do an easy lap with everyone but a few of them got left to the back of the pack with some mechanical issues resulting in them being lost for the rest of the night. We happily finished out the first lap only to met up with some expert riders from Columbia for the second, my third, lap. These boys put the hammer down but I was doing good in staying right behind. That's until my front sqewer come undone and I had to stop to redo it. Okay, 30 seconds lost, cant see the rest of the group, guess it time to see what I really have. I gritted the teeth and gave it hell for the next 5 minutes until I finally caught back up with them on the flats. They dropped Nick and I on the last hill but we caught back up due to them having to stop for a second to pull a stick out of Johns back wheel. I think overall though we had about a 25 minute lap which was blazin.

I wanted to take a moment and put my final thoughts down on how this new bike has been doing. As many of you know, I've been riding a Jamis Dakota 29r for about the last month or so because of some frame issues with my Jamis Exile. I've had time to put a few races on her, and take her to Colorado to put some HEAVY abuse on her. This bike is a beast but it is starting to show signs of wear, pretty much just in the drivetrain and the cockpit. I most likely just need to adjust the drivetrain, but the cockpit is starting to creak quit badly. It made up of mediocre components with mostly Easton EA30 supplies. I'm not a big fan, this stuff bends and creaks badly.

The set up is a bit different than the Exile. The cockpit is much tighter and the overall clearance is a bit higher. It also has a 100mm Rock Shox Tora front fork. This fork is plush, and the lock-out feature is a neccessity. This thing bobs for apples when you hammer climbs. The wheels are Dual Duties and these things are SLOOOWWWW. Once you get them going their not too bad but getting them there takes more work than any other wheelset I've tested. The flip side is these things can take some shit. I took downhills in Colorado with speeds I never should have been at on a hardtail and this thing ate it up. The extra travel in the front was need, especially for the high speed terraces we were launching off of on the fireroads. This thing can fly, let me tell you.

Overall this bike is what I'd call a good mediocre trail bike. It's not an outstanding climber, but its a great decender. The tighter cockpit makes it real easy to toss this thing around like a rag doll. The ignitors ignite, and the lockout is a godsend. There are to many cables up front and to be honest, I'm not to wippy on the 3x9 setup. I much rather prefere a SS, or my 1x9 for racing. For the price you get quit a bit of bike, and if you're looking for a good sturdy, comfy 29r to start out on, this is your bike. Long epics, it can handle it... Narly downhills, yup, it eats it... everyday rides at binder, well it does that pretty good too. It's just not the bike for me, I need something a bit lighter, and something that can handle hills a bit better along with some better acceleration.

With that being said, I've got some plans in the mix. I'm going downgrade my Exile this fall to a SS ridgid again. I plan on buying a new frame, and Salsa is looking pretty good right now. Of course it's going to be a 29r. I also have plans on picking up a set of these this fall. I plan on making one bad ass racing machine for next year. It's gonna be expensive, but its gonna be nice. I thought about a custom built frame but I know I won't have the dough. It's gonna be hard enough to save for the contraption I have planned. Any suggestions on frames would be appreciated. As for now, ride on my friends....