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.

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!

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.

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.

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.