I have been neglecting this site for awhile as life was getting in the way and now its time to catch up. I now have a bunch of material to add and will once again be posting to this blog on a regular basis. I will be passing on my stories of training, racing, parts, setup, and interesting things I find in the world of mountain biking. Well, off we go then….
Slackers, made by Vince, the guy who machines parts for Intense Bikes, is a new product designed to take your Uzzi and Socom and make them a little more downhill friendly. What they are exactly is replacement dropouts that bolt on to your bike. They are very simple to install and if you understand how they are bolted to the rear triangle you will have no trouble with the install.
So what makes them different than the originals? The rear axle position has been moved rearward and upward resulting in a longer wheelbase, lower bottom bracket height, and a slacker head tube angle. Your next question is going to be by how much. Keep reading, we are about to get to the hard numbers.
This was just insane. You have to see it to believe it. He did this last night, New Years Eve ’08
For those of you that don’t know what a Gravity Dropper is, it is a seatpost that you can adjust while riding. If you get the version with the handlebar mounted thumb switch (which I highly recommend), you can change your seat height at any time, while riding.
At first the uses might not be as obvious as you would think. Normally you have to raise your seat to climb, and lower it to descend. This is what this product was designed for. For this it works perfect.
I’ve had my Yeti 575 since July ’08. It has undergone quite a transformation from when I purchased it at Jenson USA. I bought it with the Enduro build kit which is basically the cross country package, including Fox 32 Vanilla forks and a Fox RP23 shock.
As my ability to ride more gravity oriented terrain increased, these cross country components became less than able to support my 240lbs in a matter that I would consider safe. The basic issues were torsional flex in the forks, blowing thru the travel of the shock, and severe flexing of the Mavic Crossride wheels.
- Crank Brothers Mallet 2 Pedals – 8.4ozs (238gms) each
- Crank Brothers 5050X Pedals- 11.2ozs (317gms) each
- Crank Brothers Candy SL Pedals – 5.1ozs (144gms) each
- Stans No Tubes Rim strip – 2.1 ozs (59.5gms)
- Kenda Nevegal 26×2.1 – 21.3ozs (604gms)
- Maxxis Flyweight Tube – 4.2ozs (119gms)
- Continental Mountain King Supersonic 26×2.4 – 20.1ozs (570gms)
- Maxxis Minion DHF 26×2.35 Kevlar bead – 27.6ozs (781gms)
- Maxxis Minion DHF 26×2.5 Wire bead Downhill specific 2 ply – 44ozs (1247gms)
- Maxxis High Roller 26×2.35 60A compound – 24ozs (680gms)
- Maxxis High Roller 26×2.35 ST42 Single Ply wire bead – 29.5ozs (836gms)
- Maxxis High Roller 26×2.5 ST42 Double Ply wire bead – 43ozs (1219gms)
- Maxxis High Roller 26×2.7 ST42 Double Ply wire bead – 44ozs (1247gms)
Specs: 26″x 2.4″ Actual width 2.3″ Weight 1lb. 4oz. (570gm)
These are just great, all around tires. They are very light, so light in fact that you need to baby them a bit. The side walls are very thin and the tread isnt much thicker. Twice I got flats from very small thorns. On the flip side, I ran them through some rocks that I was sure was going to tear them open and ended up with not a single scratch. If durability is a major concern then Continental makes a protection version that offers a bit more in the way of a sidewall and tread thickness with a small weight penalty.
Specs: 26″x2.1″ Actual width 2.1″ Weight 1lb. 5oz. (603gm)
I would like to say that I could agree with MBA magazine that these are the best tires ever. Problem is I cant. Granted I don’t have 127 different tires to compare to each other, but against what I do have, the Nevegals come in last.
The best thing I can say about these tires is the are light for their size. They seem to be fairly durable. But for me, that’s where the good ends.
I did a back to back comparison of the Nevegal with the Continental Mountain King 2.4 Supersonic and it wasn’t even close. The MK 2.4 won very easily.
A few weeks back I tried some very technical terrain that was beyond my current ability. At the time I had the pedals installed on the Yeti and found that I never clipped in all day as I was a bit nervous about the obsticles I was having to navigate.This pretty much led me to decide to give straight platform pedals a try, and my search led me back to Crank Bros.
I bought the 5050 pedals from Jenson USA as they were on sale and they are also located in my hometown so I could get a good look at the pedals before I bought them.
These pedals were the answer I was looking for. As simple as these are, they made me a better rider. Now I could try hard stuff and bail out if I didnt make it. Riding is fun again.
There have been plenty of reviews about the Mallet, so I wont be breaking any ground here. These are good solid platform pedals if you want to be clipped in. They are lightweight, very well built, and look good as well.
Weight wise my set comes in at 238gm’s each (8.4oz’s each)
They come as a complete kit including cleats and shims. The shims seem to be needed for most shoes to make these pedals release reliably.
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