Niner Steps Up (Again)

Regarding the frame crack from last week, after contacting my trusted mechanic, he contacted Niner about my issue. Since there wasn't a Niner dealer in the immediate area, Niner called me directly to handle the warranty return. They paid shipping to and from the Niner shop. The Niner rep was very nice about the problem and the shipping was fast. Total turn-around time was 13 days from the time the old rear triangle left my house (on the East coast) to the time I received the replacement triangle (back from Niner on the West coast).



Since I do most of my own bike maintenance, I dismantled the RIP 9 myself, boxed up the broken frame part and shipped it out. I ordered new bearings for the pivots while I was at it. When I received the replacement parts, I made a jig in the wood shop to remove the old bearings from the linkages and installed the new ones.



Then re-assembled the bike. It's ready to ride once again - complete with fresh bearings. The rear suspension activates super smoothly, thanks to the new bearings.



So here's a huge Shout Out to Niner for once again standing behind their products.

New Bike Transporter

For the last seven years, I have been hauling my bikes, family, trail maintenance tools, and lumber around in my Toyota mini-van. When the load was too much for the van, I added an AirLift 1000 kit by AirLift to the suspension to help resist suspension sag. When the air bag sprung a leak, I purchased custom coils for the rear shocks. When space got tight, I hauled a trailer to add more room.



The van was starting to show its age and getting a little worse for wear due to pulling the heavy trailer up and down mountains the last two summers. It was time for a new vehicle. This time, I had one primary criteria - the vehicle had to pass the 4x8 plywood test. This ruled out 90% of the vehicles on the market. My final list consisted of the Ford F-150 SuperCrew, Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey. After all the suspension mods in the last van, I decided it was time for a truck. Introducing my new ride for the next 60 months:



I learned a few things from my purchase experience and I thought I'd share them here.

1. Buy on the last day of the month - dealers are hungry for a sale to increase their monthly totals (Ford even gave more incentives for Monday, Feb 28th - the day I bought my truck).


2. Selling your old car yourself does give you the most money for your vehicle, but that can be time consuming and, honestly, a pain in the a$$ sometimes. Trade-ins do help the bargaining process because it gives the dealer some wiggle room when it comes time to compute final numbers. Know ahead of time time the Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds value of your car. The more you know when you walk in the dealership, the better.


3. Know how much you want your monthly payment to be. Tell them what you are going to put down in cash and then say, "if you can make these numbers work, I'll buy the car". That's what saved me. I told them I want my payments at $XYZ per month and they went off and made the numbers work. They took a little off the price of the truck (under invoice) and jacked up the price of my trade in. Final offer from them was exactly what I told them I wanted it to be. To be honest, I was quite aggressive with my request, but I was also ready to walk out and shop again another day. It was the afternoon of the last day of a slow selling month. They worked hard to meet my numbers.


4. There's a 3% sales tax in my state, so include that in your budget.


5. Know ahead of time if you want:
   
   • extended maintenance plan (~$1000)
   
   
   • extended bumper-to-bumper warranty (~$1000)
   
   
   • GAP insurance (~$400)
   
   
   
   The finance guy will drive a hard sell to include those packages. If you finance these, your final monthly payment will change.


6. Pay $8 for your Equifax credit score before you start shopping. That will tell you whether you'll qualify for the good rates (like 0% financing or other financing deals).


7. Look at BankRate.com to find out what the going rates for auto loans are. Recently, no one has been able to come close to BankOfAmerica online. I called them and got pre-approved for a very good rate. In the back room of the dealership, the finance guy was able to beat that by 0.2%, but it gave me a starting point for calculating my monthly costs before I started haggling with the dealer.


8. Bonus tip - I downloaded a few "car loan" and "simple loan" apps on my Android Smartphone. When the dealer came back with an offer, I just plugged the numbers in my phone and showed him that it wasn't going to work out. This was very useful for the negotiation process.

So there you have it. My top tips for buying a new bike hauler. Drive safe and honk if you ride bikes.

Killed a Niner (again)

Two years ago, I bought my first Niner bike. I was very stoked with this purchase. At 6'5" tall, this was the first bike that felt like it really fit. Four months after receiving the bike from Colorado Cyclist, I had to warranty the rear triangle on it due to a frame failure. Niner stood behind their product and warrantied the frame right away. I'm sad to report that today I found another frame failure on the bike. Again, it's the rear triangle, but a completely different problem.





I was surprised by both the location and the severity of this crack. I didn't expect this location to be such a significant stress point. You can see some scuffing on the edges where the chain slaps against the frame on bumpy trails. Here's a modified shot from Niner's website showing where the crack is located on the frame.



Aside from the headaches dealing with the frame failures, I have to say I love this bike. I ride it about 3 days a week year round, so it gets lots of use. I still wish it had another 1/4" - 1/2" of BB clearance, but I have no further complaints after two years on this bike.

I'll contact Niner on Monday and see what they say about the replacing the rear triangle (again). I'll post when I hear back from them.

Reach and Stack of a Santa Cruz V-10

It's impossible to judge precise bike fit using measurements only. You'll never know how the bike fits until you get on it. This is especially true for downhill bikes. These bikes are intended to have a very small fit so you can let the bike react to the rough terrain while you float over the bike. Recently, a new measurement pair has come along that promises to help this problem - Reach and Stack.

In essence, these new measurements draw a right triangle using only the center of the bottom bracket and the center of the top of the head tube. The idea is a wonderfully simple one. Your feet are attached to the pedals and your hands are attached to the handlebars. Regardless of whether you are standing up bombing down a downhill run or seated grinding out gears in a cross country race, you're always attached to the handlebars and pedals.

2010 has seen a significant increase in the number of manufacturers publishing Reach and Stack data for their bikes. Santa Cruz is not one of them, though. I own a Large Santa Cruz V-10 and thought I'd measure and publish the Reach and Stack for my bike.

The bike is running 26" wheels front and rear, Maxxis Minion tires front and rear. The front fork is a Fox 40 with a Fox drop upper crown (because the head tube length + FSA PIG DH Pro headset stack height is too tall for the stock flat upper crown).



To start with, I used a four foot level to ensure that the tires' contact points on the ground were perfectly level.



Then I setup a self-leveling, cross-hair laser level aligned to the center of the bottom bracket and center of the upper head tube openning.

I measured the Reach to be a little under 16 inches and the Stack to be a little under 24 inches.

For a bike that touted to be one of the largest downhill bikes on the market, I was very surprised at how small the bike measured. It does confirm how cramped I feel on this bike. It also gives me a useful measurement with which to compare different bike frames.

Cleaning Anodized Frames

Both my downhill and cross country bikes are black anodized aluminum frames. When it comes to cleaning them, I long for a clear coated painted bike. Nothing shines when clean like paint. The process of anodizing aluminum is dipping the bare metal frame in acid and letting the acid etch the top layer of metal. During that process, the color of the acid is impregnated in a very thin, very hard upper layer of the metal. It's resistant to scratches and holds up very well over time. However, there's never a "showroom shine" thanks to all those little pits etched into the metal.

Since the top layer of metal isn't smooth, when oily, slick, wet clay coats the frame, the pores in the metal are filled. Washing the bike off with a soft brush, rag or sponge doesn't dig deep and pull out that crud. The bike looks great when wet, but once dry, you can see the mud splatter design in the anodized aluminium.


I did some research and tried some new products this weekend to help spruce up the apperance of my bikes. The first product is Tutle Wax ICE Car Wash - a new "2-n-1" pH balanced car wash. Having a pH balanced wash is important because if the wash is too acidic, it can fade the anodized paint over time. This wash foams up very well and cut through the grime on my bikes without a problem.


However, once dry, the bikes still looked splotchy. So after drying the frame, I tried Tutle Wax ICE Liquid Polish. This is a new, gentler, silicone-based wax. It comes with a foam applicator and a microfiber towel. I made sure the frame was dry before applying the wax. It went on very easy - it's a clear liquid that's maybe a hair thicker than water. I wiped it on generously making sure to catch any runs or drips. I waited 5-10 minutes and used the supplied microfiber towel to wipe down the whole frame. It looks great! I've had the bike for over nine months and now the bike finally looks clean.


Not only does it look clean, but it should be easier to wash the bike next time since the frame is covered in a wax. Oh, the wax is a UV protectant, so that will help keep the anodized color from fading.



Two thumbs up!

Update on Things

It has been a while since my last update. I thought I'd take a few minutes to post a Winter 2009/2010 update.

Injury

On 16Nov2009, I managed to sustain a serious injury while biking on a paved greenway. I was coming in way too hot on a hard left-hand turn. The back end washed out and I crashed. I instinctively put my left foot out to try and catch myself, but I was moving too fast. About the only thing I remember from the crash was seeing my left foot up by my left elbow. Ouch! That's what snapped my MCL. The PCL snapped when my upper tibia slammed into the ground as first point of contact.

The orthopedic surgeon decided to let things heal on their own and see how things felt after two months rest and two months of physical therapy. I'm coming up on five months post-injury and things are looking very well. My knee joint is still weak and aches at some point every day, but I'm stable and I have no problem riding as hard as I want.

Cross Country

I'm still enjoying the Niner RIP9. I rode it about 3-4 times a week all Summer and the first part of Fall. The Niner has been the workhorse of my rehab from my knee injury. The first post-injury ride was 01Jan2010. I stuck to gravel roads for two months. On 01Mar2010, I ventured back on single track. I've been on the bike 3-4 times a week since then. Ah how I've missed single track.

Downhill

2009 saw an unprecedented four trips to Snowshoe, WV. The first trip of 2009 was with the Big Hit. The last three trips were on the v-10. When I last blogged about the v-10, I mentioned that I was disappointed with the Reach of the bike. I had done a ton of research and found that the v-10 was about the biggest DH bike they make (without getting a custom frame).

I'm still disappointed and feel a bit out of control on the bike. For someone 6'3" or less, I think it's an amazing bike. The rear travel is endless and super plush. I love bombing down the mountain on that bike. However, as the speed ramps up I begin to lose control. It's like I'm falling off the back of the bike. I've got some thoughts on this and will save them for a later post. Let's just say that I really wish the bike fit me better.

So that brings you up to date with me. Other than the injury, it's just more of the same.

New Kid In Town: V-10

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a new downhill bike. I wanted a bike that fit a bit better (longer reach) than the Big Hit. As is usually the case, there wasn't a bike available to me to test ride, so I had to surf the forums and compare manufacturer's stats to pick the new bike. The winner is...a Santa Cruz V-10.

Those are very expensive so I had to browse the used market until I found one that was a few years old but didn't look abused. I found a 2007 V-10 that appeared to fit the bill. After some lengthy email exchanges, I was the proud owner of my very own V-10. Here's what it looked like when I built it up after it arrived from its previous owner in New York.


There were a few problems with the bike that needed to be addressed right away. It needed new cranks, a new rear derailleur, new wheels, a new rear shock and the fork was leaking oil. Some of that was known at purchase time, others were surprises after the fact. Oh well, that's to be expected when you can't test ride it before buying.

I called Fox and got some new seals and an extra firm spring for the Fox 40. I completely dismantled the fork and installed the new spring and seals. Here's an exploded view of the fork just before reassembly.


After consulting PUSH Industries, I called Go-Ride and ordered a new 2010 Fox Van R shock. I had Go-Ride send it directly to PUSH for custom tuning. I also picked up a new SRAM X.9 rear derailleur, Mavic 823 UST rims, and Maxxis Minion 26x2.5 UST tires.

On the used market, I grabbed a Truvativ Howitzer XR bottom bracket, Truvativ Holzfeller-OCT Crankset, Crank Brothers 50/50 XX pedals, and a Hadley 150x12 rear hub to match the Hadley front hub I already owned.

Today I picked up the rebuilt wheels from my trusted local mechanic/wheel builder and got the bike put together in its final state. Here are some beauty shots.

With the addition of the rebuilt wheels, I've now completed all upgrades planned for this bike. It took a couple of months to get to this point and I've taken it to Snowshoe twice already this year. The next trip is coming up in a few weeks.

With the bike fully built and running smoothly, the question remains, does it fit better than its predecessor? Well, it's about the same reach as before - maybe slightly less. However, there are some benefits to the new bike. Most significantly is the weight. The Big Hit was about 55-56 lbs. The V-10 is about 46 lbs. For the most part, weight isn't a big deal with a downhill bike. A heavier bike is more burly and, like me, has more mass for gravity to pull it down the mountain. Where I do notice the weight loss is when jumping the bike. This bike gets scary high. Way more air than I can handle right now. I'm still learning how to deal with that.

So, had I known then what I know now, would I have purchased the V-10? Probably not. It's an excellent bike, but I don't think I gained any reach with this purchase. I might have been better off had I held on to the Big Hit a little longer and purchased either an extra large 2010 EVIL Revolt or an extra large 2010 Turner DHR. However, since those frames alone cost almost as much as I have invested in the V-10, I'm not sure when I would have been able to afford one of those. I'm sure I'll post again when one of those frames arrives on my doorstep. Stay tuned. ;)

Snowshoe Videos

At this point, I have been on three trips to Snowshoe this year. I bought a new helmet camera, the ContourHD, and have some footage of this year's trips compiled into a few videos I thought I'd share. All of these are available in full HD. Enjoy.

August 2009 - Highlights Video



June 2009 - Basin Trail Montage



June 2009 - Ball-n-Jack Trail



June 2009 - Chainsmoke Trail



June 2009 - Pro DH Trail

Big Hit Make Over

I built up my Downhill bike last June. It has been to Snowshoe three times and worked great each time. At 6'5", I'm a tall rider and have a hard time finding bikes that fit me well. Although the Big Hit rode really well (and I just love the Monster T fork on that thing), I decided I'd see if I can get a better fitting bike; but more about the new bike later.

On my last trip to Snowshoe (June 2009), I damaged the rear derailleur and bottom bracket. So it was time to give the Big Hit some new parts. Today was the big day for the Big Hit. All of the parts arrived this week and it was time to strip it down and built it from the ground up.

Here it is broken down to just the frame, shock, and headset cups.


The Monster T had started leaking oil recently, so I broke it down, too. Completely dismantled it, replaced the oil seals and dust seals plus I replaced all the oil - nearly a liter (960 ml to be exact).


After a day's work getting everything just right, here's how she looks.


Here's a rundown of the build specs:

• 2003 Specialized Big Hit, Size Large
• 2003 Marzocchi Monster T with integrated headset
• Avid Juicy 3 brakes
• NEW SRAM X.9 rear derailleur
• SRAM X.7 shifter
• Truvativ Hussefelt DH Riser Bar
• Bontrager Big Earl pedals
• NEW Panaracer Fire FR rear tire
• Maxxis Holly Roller front tire
• Nearly new Truvativ Howitzer XR bottom bracket
• NEW Truvativ Hussefelt DH cranks with 38t chainring
• MRP Chainguide (ISCG mounted)
• Stock Fox Vanilla R rear shock
• NEW chain
• NEW 12-23 cassette

My trusted local mechanic has the bike now giving it one last blessing before its off to a new home for the Big Hit. Without a doubt, I'm going to miss that bike.

Niner RIP 9 Update

I've had the 2009 Niner RIP 9 for about 4 months now. I thought I'd post a preliminary review.

I've taken time to play around with shock pressures now and think I have it where I like it. I'm 220 lbs, 6'5" and ride an XL RIP 9. I have 160 psi in the RP23 and about 90-95 in the Fox fork.

I only have one complaint about the RIP 9: the bottom bracket height is too low. I'm constantly hitting rocks and roots with my pedals, feet and big chainring. I've already destroyed my outer chainring thanks to a collision with a rock. Bummer. I had the same low-bottom bracket problems when I test rode the Gary Fisher Hi-Fi Deluxe 29er, although the Fisher was quite a bit worse.



I've had to warranty my rear triangle already because the press-fit bearings on the top of the non-drive side seat stay loosened. (see image above) I guess the frame around the press-fit bearing enlarged allowing the bearing to move freely within the frame. This caused a few scary moments when g-ing out on big whoop-de-dos. Basically, the rear triangle moved out of plane from the front triangle during the heaviest g-forces at the bottom of the whoop-de sending me shooting a few feet off trail in a hurry.

I checked Niner's website and found the closest Niner dealer - Back Alley Bikes in Chapel Hill. Rob at Back Alley promptly called Niner and got everything taken care of for me. To Niner's credit, they wasted no time in replacing the rear triangle.

Today was my first ride since the bike was repaired and it's back to its original rock-solid platform.

Overall, I love this bike. The ride is wonderful, stable and plush. There's no noticable frame flex when riding. The 29 inch wheels just eat up the roots and rocks, which makes climbing loads easier for me.

Two Big Thumbs Up for the redesigned Niner RIP 9!

Ride Report - Delta Ridge Trails

95% of my riding over the last few years is done on weekdays during my lunch "hour". There is a good crew of about ten riders at my work that share my passion for moutain biking. A subset of them head out at lunch time just about every day.

We've heard about some new trail relatively close by and have wanted to sample them, but the weather hasn't been very cooperative. The Southeast has had a wonderful break in the Winter weather this week, so today was the day we tried out the Delta Ridge trails.

We knew where to find the trailhead and understood that it was a pretty good distance from work. Slghtly further than our usual trail systems. After having ridden five days in a row this week, it turned out to be a long haul to get to the trailhead for me. I felt exactly like Ben Stiller describes in his account of a night mountain bike ride. After biking for 30 minutes, I was tired, ready to turn around and declare the ride a successful workout. That’s when we got to the trailhead.

The trail itself was great. It’s a varied trail system - flowy in some sections; technical in others. I remembered riding parts of this trail 10 years ago. We were surprised to find a lot of new trail. Some of it a few months old, and one or two sections that must have been cleared within the last few days. I’m not sure how much trail there is – 6 miles? There were lots of spur trails off of spur trails. At one point, it felt a bit like our Behind the Rocks epic adventure at Moab – the trail kept going and going; getting further and further from where the trailhead was.

It’s definitely a challenging trail system. Of the four riders today, three of us had some really hard falls. When we finally emerged from the trailhead having completed the ride, we were left with a very hilly ride back to work. Long, grinding climbs are not my strength. This was reinforced as I watched Eric and Jon pull away from me fast on the first climb. We regrouped at the top of that climb, but they were gone again once we started the grind up the next big hill. I believe they beat me back to work by a good 15 minutes.

Overall, I had a lot of fun on these trails. We’ll definitely incorporate them in our normal routine, but we’ll need to find a better route there and back.

Sanford Trails

Some biking buddies and I drove an hour south to Sanford today. We rode San Lee Park and Governors Creek trails. The most surprising thing about riding these trails was how groomed they were. Over-groomed, in my opinion. Not one log crossing in 2 hours of riding. Don't get me wrong, we had a blast. There were plenty of creek crossings, climbs and all-out fun descents - but no logs.

At the end of the day, we all agreed that the trails were really fun, but not quite enough to warrant coming back too soon. With three kids, I don't have the luxury to drive 2 hours in addition to my biking time. It was precisely this problem that caused me to shift from primarily mountain biking over to road biking ten years ago. There are three decent trails in the immediate area. Otherwise, I have to drive 45 minutes or more to find some trails to ride.

But I digress. Back to Sanford.

The 29er loved the fast, flowy Sanford-area trails. I was especially pleased with the RIP9's performance in the rock gardens in San Lee Park. I dabbed only once in The Gauntlet, and saw many preferred lines in Free Fall. Although I dabbed many times in Free Fall and tried more than a few sections over again, I was really pleased with how well the RIP9 lead me through these technical sections on my first attempt. Having ridden those sections now, I'm certain I can get through The Gauntlet with no dabs and Free Fall with only a couple.

Back at the San Lee trailhead, we met some guys from 29eronline.com. They were really nice and were shocked to see a 2009 Niner RIP 9 on the trail. The frame isn't supposed to be shipping to customers for another month. After tooling around the parking lot on a Turner Sultan while he test rode my RIP9, I realized that my rear shock is setup too stiff. I'll lower the air pressure in the RP23 and see if I can find the buttery smooth plushness I felt on the Sultan. Wow, the DW-Link on that bike was plush! It felt way too soft - like it would bottom out on a small 2-foot drop, though. I think it was under-sprung for my weight. Regardless, it did feel really nice.

Considering I have never bottomed out the fork or rear shock on the RIP9, it's time to lower the pressure a little. I'll do that and report back. Current pressure is 100 lbs up front (25% sag) and 180 lbs. in the RP23 (27% sag). The weather this week looks phenomenal. I'll have plenty of trail time to play with sag in the next few days.

Dry, Warm Weather Finally

For a nice change of pace, the wet, chilly East coast weather subsided for a few days. The trails are dry enough to ride and it's warm enough for shorts and only a single layer of shirts - well, it was toward mid-day.

I met a group of four guys this morning at a not-so-local trail system - Garner Recreational Park. It was my second single-track ride on the Niner RIP 9. Ah, what fun.

This trail was an excellent opportunity to get used to the new bike. These are some of the most varied trails in the area. Technical climbs, a few 2' drops, jumps, creek crossings, rooty descents and the ubiquitous log crossings.

Of course, the RIP 9 ate up the trail. The Niner is really more bike than I need for this area, but it's nice to know that I'm not pushing the bike too close to its limits. At 215 lbs., I really prefer a bike that feels stable no matter what I do to it.

Looks like tomorrow's weather will be a repeat of today. Yea! I just love a taste of Spring in the middle of Winter.

Yeti For Sale

It's a bitter sweet moment for me. As I put the finishing touches on building the Yeti, it's time to offer it for sale. A comment was added to my last posting asking about the bike build. Here you go:

* PUSH'd Fox RP3 rear shock
* Cane Creek S2 headset
* SRAM X-9 shifters
* Shimano XT front derailleur
* SRAM X-0 rear derailleur
* Race Face Evolve XC stem, seatpost and cranks
* Avid Juicy Five brakes with 185mm rotors
* Yeti grips
* Mavic 317 Disc rims, Shimano Deore rear hub, ARC front hub
* WTB saddle

All pivot and rocker (dogbone) bearings are brand new.
All cables and cable housing are brand new.

She weighs 30 lbs. as shown in photos with heavy Maxxis Minion DH Downhill Specific tires. You can get a sub 28 lbs build really easy with the 575's.

Classified Ad over at MTBR.

Yeti Lives Again

I received a call from my local bike shop on Friday afternoon. They had just gotten the 2008 Yeti 575 replacement frame from Yeti Cycles. I rushed over to pick it up. I immediately had the bike shop press in the headset cups, and then I spent Friday night and Saturday morning building it up.



I pressed in new sealed bearings in all the pivots and installed new shifter housing and cables. It's practically a new bike.



I knew this would be hard, but before I ride it and scratch anything, I'm going to sell it. I may ride it on some bridal trails just to make sure it shifts and brakes well. Otherwise, I'll sell it while it's still pristine. She sure is pretty, though...

29'er Revealed

I recently wrote about my first exposure to the 29er craze. After test riding that bike, I knew my next bike would be a 29er. I assumed I'd ride my beloved Yeti 575 for another season and then upgrade to the big-wheeled bike in the Fall of 2009.

When I destroyed the Yeti, my timeline for going big-wheeled moved up. Since test riding the HiFi, I have been researching 29-inch-wheeled bikes and had already decided on the bike that I wanted to get - 2009 Niner R.I.P 9.

With the help of Brett at Niner Bikes, I tracked down a demo 2009 R.I.P 9 in XL at Colorado Cyclist. At 2:00 this afternoon, UPS delivered some boxes to my front door.

Here's the puzzle that was in the bigger of the two boxes.



And here it is less than an hour later.

Death of a Yeti

One of the newest trails in the area recently had some new sections added to it. The new sections include a few small kickers, or small jumps, for added fun. Of course, they are optional features since you can easily pedal around them. However, I like them. After going to Snowshoe, I crave air time now.

Being the Winter season on the East coast, the weather forecast is wet and chilly. Not too cold to ride, but usually too wet. After a small dry spell, we hit the trails again. Sure they were soupy in a few spots here and there, and the wet leaves and roots made cornering tricky, but we were finally riding again!

During the ride, we approached one of the new kickers. It's a small thing, really. Only about a foot or so high. The approach is a slight downhill and the landing slopes off a bit more. It's a great way to catch some air - albeit small.

As I approached, I sprinted for the kicker. I sailed into the air and cleared about 15 feet. The Yeti soaked up the landing with no problems at all, but the trail had a slight right-hand turn ahead. Unfortunately, I now had too much speed to get traction on the wet roots and leaves and missed the turn. I crashed into a small tree. I walked away with nothing more than a slight abrasion. Neither the tree nor the Yeti were as lucky.



Andrew, who was the rider following me, later described the crash like this:

"I only heard two things when this happened. A slap/snap sound which I am guessing was the tree protesting the blow. And what sounded like a 6 year old girl wailing because their favorite dolly lost her hair.

I saw the tree and it won’t be long for the world. But I never saw the girl or her damaged doll."

Ouch!

26er or 29er...

I'm 6'5" (36" inseam) and weigh about 210 (minus bike gear). I've always ridden a 26-inch-wheeled mountain bike. Over the last few years, I've brushed off the 29er craze. Most of it was centered around light, fast hardtails. I'm never going back to hardtails again, so I just ignored the ridiculous 29er fad.

Within the span of about 2 weeks this past November, the guys I ride with have expressed how "weird" and "odd" I look riding a 26er. They said it's like watching one of them ride their bikes with 24" wheels on it instead of 26" wheels. One guy compared it to watching a clown ride one of those tiny clown bikes at the circus.

So that got me thinking about the 29 inch wheel "fad." Maybe it was a good idea after all. It certainly makes sense for the vertically gifted; but has anyone decided to put a decent amount of suspension on those bikes, yet? Time to fire up Google...

As it turns out, there are a few decent fully suspended 29ers out there now. They've cropped up within the last three years, and a couple of them get very good reviews.

As a coincidence, about this time, a local rider posted his 2008 Gary Fisher HiFi Deluxe 29er for sale. What a great opportunity to test ride one and see if it lives up to the hype. I met the seller at a local trail and we rode for about an hour together. The HiFi weighs 3.75 lbs. less than my Yeti (with the big Marzocchi 66 ATA SL1). I noticed the weight loss right away as the HiFi climbed very well. I found it very responsive to accelerations and just a little bit sluggish when cornering - most likely due to the larger wheels size and greater centrifugal force to overcome when steering. However, I seemed to hit a lot of roots with the pedals. I found that quite unsettling.



The seller suggested I take it home for a few days and really get to know it. How could I refuse? As I drove home grinning from ear to ear about the graciousness of the seller to let me drive off with his bike, I realized that I had a very big problem ahead of me. Two problems, actually. First, I had no idea how to tell my wife about yet another bike in our garage. Second, I'll either have to spend more money that I don't have on bikes or I'll have to give the bike back. I didn't like either of those choices very much.

I rode the bike for four days on my home turf. To my surprise, I was able to clear technical climbs that I had previously not been able to do on the Yeti. That's no fault of the Yeti. I believe it's the bigger wheel that makes the difference. The 29 inch wheels want to go over all the small rocks and roots in the trail instead of bang into them and stop. I didn't have to wrestle the bike up-and-over all those small momentum-stealers anymore. +1 for the 29er.

While killing some time in a parking lot before a ride one day, I noticed a set of concrete stairs that I normally ride down on the Yeti. I thought it would be a good test to see how they feel on the HiFi, but I wasn't keen on the idea of circumnavigating the parking lot just to ride down about 14 stairs. Hmmmm... How about riding up the stairs instead? I gave it a shot. To my surprise, I made it up every one of those 14 stairs with ease. That's crazy! I could never do that on a 26er (which I proved a few days later). Ok, so that proved it to me - the 29er "attack angle" on obstacles is far superior to that of the puny 26 inch wheeled bike.

After four days with the HiFi my initial impressions of the HiFi hadn't changed much, but my prejudice of the 29er "fad" certainly did. The deal breaker for the HiFi was the low bottom bracket height. It also felt a bit delicate under my 210+ rider weight. After some research, I found that the HiFi has one of the lowest bottom bracket heights of the full suspension 29ers out there.

Reluctantly, I gave the HiFi back and thanked him for his generosity. This test ride has me convinced that my next bike will be a 29er (just not a Gary Fisher HiFi 29er). Out of curiosity, I asked the seller why he was selling his bike. He admitted that he's selling the HiFi so he can build up a 2009 Niner RIP 9, which has a higher bottom bracket and are built much burlier.

Out for a Spin

With the BigHit built up (and weighing in at 49.5 lbs), it was time to take it for a spin. There's nothing close by that would test this DH machine, so I decided to try the Morrisville creek jump again. It's easy to get to and will let me know how the bike will handle when it gets some air.

It's a very short pedal to get to the jump. During the little ride, I was overjoyed with how the suspension felt. The Monster T was incredibly plush - just stunning! I hit a couple of 2' drops-to-flat and it was like they weren't even there.

Here's some video of a few of the jumps:

I hit the same jump when I built up the Morewood. Note that I had a hard time keeping the nose down on the Morewood. No problem at all on the BigHit, thanks to the 12+ lbs. Monster T hanging off the front.

Only 6 weeks until Snowshoe!

Ready for Snowshoe!

I called Snowshoe on opening day and asked what make/model bikes they'd rent a 6'5" guy. I went online and got the geometry of that bike and realized that I wanted something bigger than that. So I found a couple of Specialized BigHit's for sale locally. Bought them both and took the best parts of each to build a Snowshoe bike for me.

I started with thse two bikes:

2003 Large BigHit DH	2004 Medium BigHit

and created this:

Here are the specs:

• 2003 Specialized BigHit - Large
• Frame has four-position adjustable shock mount offering 6.8 or 8.1 inches of plush FSR travel
• Stock Fox Vanilla rear shock (8.75x2.75)
• 2003 Marzocchi Monster T (mint condition)
• SRAM X0 rear derailleur
• SRAM X7 rear shifter
• Stock Hayes Nine brakes and 203 rotors front and rear
• Custom wheelset - Hadley hubs and Sun Intense Mag30 rims
• Truvativ ISIS Gigapipe 4 bearing DH, 73mm shell, 118mm spindle, E-Type bottom bracket
• Truvativ Holzfeller 7050, ISIS spline, 7050 alloy, 170mm cranks
• e.13 SRS chainguide with 38t chainring and bashguard

Now I'm ready for Snowshoe in July!