opening up the throttle

First MTB race ended up in a 4th place finish.

New attraction in place at Rocky Hill Ranch

A day late. I was too busy riding! To be fair, this picture WAS taken on Friday =)

Enjoy the weekend folks. May the weather smile upon you and the trails be well swept.

You can see the race takes place partly on the Laguna Seca road course, and later veering off into the trail section. It looks like an absolute blast to ride! Another thing to note is how smooth the XC courses are compared to our local trails. You can take a good look at the riders dragging the rear tire coming into downhill corners and then whipping the bike around the tight sections.

As a drinker of the proverbial 29er koolaid, it’s pretty interesting to see the wheel size making a move towards the mainstream. Personally, I like them because I have odd proportions that put me pretty much sitting “on top of” most 26″ frames, geometry-wise. As you hear one of the riders say, the bigger wheels really do provide a little boost in the flat sections. I have found myself punishing the local trail with a lot more speed and confidence than I ever had before (although most of this is due to a proper frame size)

Check out the video, and leave some comments.

-video courtesy of I Am Specialized

174 grams. Shiny.

This week Crank Brothers announced an entirely new product line, including a replacement to their 2ti and 4ti lines of ultra-lightweight mountain biking pedals. We managed to get our hands on a set of the outgoing 4ti, at a reduced rate, in order to see if they live up to the hype and flashy gold coloring. Still no verdict on the new ones unless Crank Bros decides to take pity on a budget weight weenie.

roughly 18 number 2 pencils, a.k.a an egregious abuse of scientific equipment

If you just have to have the blingingest and lightest pedals out there, consider throwing a set of these on your weeniebike.

How lightweight are they? Glad you asked. Let’s make some stupid comparisons: each pedal weighs about the same as 18 number 2 pencils…(I would have used jellybeans but Whitey a.k.a. C-Dub a.k.a. Chris Wellhausen ATE ALL OF THEM. THOSE WEREN’T JUST JELLYBEANS! THEY WERE PRECIOUS SCIENTIFIC EQUIPMENT YOU PIG.) Needless to say without the precise comparative analogy of jellybeans, we were forced to make do with office supplies.

The new pedals feature improved needle-style bearings and apparently better sealing to reduce the frequency of required rebuilds. My old Eggbeaters (steel model) are holding up fine a couple years later, though not nearly to a high level of abuse. The new pedals are 10g heavier but reported to be a lot more durable.

At the moment I am eagerly awaiting the sound of a postman knocking to deliver the “old news” 4ti pedals which I’ll throw on the scales and possibly on the bike, time provided.

The old pedals were no slouch, and I’m sure the new ones will be just as reliable, albeit a lot more sexy.

The old 4ti eggbeater: reportedly 167g for the pair

Notice how the construction of the new pedals seems to be a lot more seamless. The spring mechanism still looks pretty much the same, but the spindles are noticeably shorter, probably affecting “Q factor” (the distance between both your feet as you pedal. Road bikes tend to be narrow, MTB tend to be wider stanced). Indeed the major complaint a lot of people had on the 4ti was remedied in purchasing shorter spindles from crank bros. I’m guessing enough was heard that they just provided them from the factory now. Also the reduced length should reduce the effective torque on the threading and hopefully help the pedals last longer.

Check out the new and improved specs over at Crank Bros. They’ve got a whole host of new sweet gear for the mid-year.

]]> http://highflange.com/2010/04/20/crank-brothers-new-titanium-pedals-eggbeater-11/feed/ 3 http://highflange.com/2010/04/16/giant-xtc-29er-gets-some-weight-weenie-love/ http://highflange.com/2010/04/16/giant-xtc-29er-gets-some-weight-weenie-love/#comments Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:28:51 +0000 Milin http://highflange.com/?p=489

Cyclocross season is short. When the leaves start to change colors (here in Houston they go from green to insta-dead brown) many bicycle racers put on their 3/4 length knickers and race their knobby shodden road bikes through muddy, mucky slop and get insanely dirty, much to the amusement of spectators.

There’s beer too. Did I mention that?

West End Bicycle Gallery, close to the mountain biking trails at memorial park, has been taking a few of the dedicated dirt lovers on a periodic ride which embodies the spirit of cross. The “Crappy Road Ride” rolls onto some of the rockiest roads inside the city, with plenty of quick 90 degree turns and curb hopping, and even an included stair run-up. If you wanted to try your hand at cross, but aren’t quite ready to throw down and pin numbers on your jersey (or to your skin, cos ‘crossers are TOUGH. Rawr!) this ride should give you a taste of the flavor, hold the puking please (race cross just once and you’ll know what I mean. No pre-race burritos.)

If you’re going to come along, bring a mountain bike, or cyclocross bike preferably. I just finished riding the course on my GIANT XTC 29′er and had an absolute blast. I kept the FOX fork on full lock for that nice bumpy gravel massage.

Follow the ride on facebook.

-Photos by Blaine Grove

"Fred Oswald, who commutes by bicycle...said he has no trouble sharing the road with vehicles" BECAUSE HE IS CLEARLY VISIBLE FROM OUTER SPACE (via Cleveland.com)

Companies convince us that we continually need to buy the latest product. It’s essential to them to convince  us that whatever amazing product they came out with last year is now obsolete and useless and that what you really need is their newest product.

We all know that guy. You might BE that guy for your group of friends, while simultaneously knowing a handful of those guys who are WAY MORE “that guy” than you are and thus justifying your being a total consumer whore.

In the world of cycling, there is a term, “Fred,” for “that guy” who seems to be more obsessed with bike gadgets than he is about riding his bike. I’m here with a confession: I am, kind of, totally, “that guy.” I’m obsessed with the latest gadgets. I want them, despite never being able to afford them, and am absolutely in love with them. Wikipedia has this to say about us:

“Recently, particularly in the US, a Fred is more often somebody with higher quality and more expensive gear than his or her talent would warrant. For example, a Fred could be guy with little cycling experience who watches the highlights of a few Tour de France stages, then goes to a bike store and buys a Trek carbon fiber Madone in Team Discovery colors, along with Team Discovery shorts and jersey, and then rides it on a cycling path at 15 mph (25 km/h)”

-via Wikipedia

While, a year ago, I was touting the superiority of a mechanical system such as the new Campagnolo 11-speed Super Record, I am now obsessing over electronic shifting from the new Di2 Dura-Ace. These days, I’m eagerly tracking the development of this system for those of us who crave a bit more mud in our diet: Electronic shifting XTR. It’s coming, and it’s going to be awesome. You are all going to hate it, just like you hated Di2, and then you will love it because it will win you over once it trickles down into the affordable spectrum, which for a true Fred is just below the price level of “I just won the lottery and am buying one of everything Seven makes.”

via polyvore

It seems like an obsession with gadget over substance is truly taking over the sport. On one hand I’m glad because someone has to spend a lot of money to make cycling look “cool” and “cutting edge” when all you’re really doing is getting yourself around town on a machine that has existed since the early 1800′s and remains unchanged from the “safety bicycle” introduced in the 1900′s. All I ask is we bring back a few other cool things from the 19th century and dump a little money into making those look cutting edge: steampunk fashion, for example. (I’m eagerly awaiting my velo-mounted blunderbuss from you, Rivendell.)

Is the constant flow of new technology helping cycling reach mainstream? For me, I see a lot of guys who used to obsess over getting more HP out of their honda civic starting to get pulled into cycling. Anyone willing to dump $15k into a honda civic obviously has money to add to the growing industry, so maybe it’s good for us as a whole.

Then again, these are the same guys who made honda civics one of the top stolen cars in the US, so hopefully that new lock I just bought is good enough to stave off prying hands.

If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em. I’ll be outside fiddling with my Garmin 305 GPS, wearing my Catlike Whisper and trying out that new flavor of accelerade hydro in my Rapha t-shirt. See you guys in my helmet mounted mirror!

(Feel free to use the comments to make extreme fun of me. I deserve it because I was recently crushed by a group of men in their 50′s on steel frames and one on a Cannondale Lefty MTB while I was on my full “crabon” Tarmac with Reynolds wheels. It’s not my fault, my normal wheels had a flat. I swear.)

We did a review a few weeks back on the GIANT XTC 1 29′er. We gave it a good review. In fact, I liked it so much I decided I had to bring one home.

Some financial piddling later, I brought home my new baby, and sure enough the heavens opened up and poured down rain on all the trails in Texas.

I am NOT amused. Actually, I’m really muddy. No I didn’t rut up the trails. The streets were just covered in nasty water and puddles with pollen (tree semen) floating on the top. Joy.

CENSUS Mountain Biking – 7D from Trunk Films on Vimeo.

Why do we ride? For many of us, it is a double life; a secret identity and life which we have. While we sit throughout our week in our offices, workshops or retail shops we tolerate the mundane hours knowing that after we return home we are someone else. Marx’s views of capitalism included an essential representation of each individual by their mode of production, or job: You are what you do for a living. Cyclists have proven him wrong. We have transcended the boundaries to commune with nature and the path that we choose on our own.

When others return home to their television sets, passing by the restful leisure time of the weekend until they return to work, we spend each moment planning and dreaming of that end of the week ride, agonizing over clearing that root-covered section, or shaving a few tenths off your favorite climb or sprint.

We are not merely what we do for a living. Our day jobs, family life, political affiliations and personal affairs vanish once we put on our shoes, shorts, jerseys and helmets: We are cyclists, and we work to live, and live to ride.