What in the hell do I want for a future Mountain Bike - Part 1

Guest Blogger: Tyler Loewens

Lets establish something right off the bat --> I am a gear nut. Just ask Jonathan when he worked at Greenstreet Cycles how much effort I put into building up my road bike (which turned out pretty fantastic by the way). I love to break apart what makes up a particular bike so much, that most folks (including my loving and patient wife) get sick of talking to me about it.

So I know road bike gear really well - spent a year demoing bikes and products to figure out what I wanted in my road bike. Now it is time to figure out mountain bike gear. I have recently got into mountain bike racing a bit, and am already hooked. Something about the atmosphere (holy hell...ever try and spell atmosphere while drinking?!) and camaraderie around a mountain bike race is hard to replace (well maybe gravel racing could overtake it).

Currently I race with a 2009 Trek 69er hardtail. For years I felt like this was one of my best bikes until I actually realized how fast some folks go around singletrack courses. Sure my 69er did pretty good at a couple of gravel races, but the demands there are not even remotely close to the demands of a singletrack race. So now that I have found that I love MTB marathon racing, and may want to do some longer courses before I turn 40, it is time to figure out what MTB would be best for such a pursuit.

Trek 69er before 1X9 conversion

So do you want a hardtail, fully rigid, full suspension, far bike, mid-fat, or yellow bike? - uh who in the hell knows right? One person will tell you that "Around these parts you only need 5mm of travel from your tires" and another person will tell you "You're racing over 3 hours? You need 200mm of travel at least." So who is right and who is a freaking moron? The answer lies somewhere in the "what do YOU really like about a MTB mister reader?" For me it started with what I don't like about my current bike.

My current MTB is skittishly frisky with an overabundance of "stiffer is better!" applied to the frame. You go down a twisty-turny singletrack descent and you better have your senses tuned to 11 to be sure you navigate everything perfectly. On top of that it is such a short-chainstay "trek-type" bike that the front end wants to come off the ground at the hint of a steep ascent with the drop of a hat (even with a 12cm stem). On top of all of that the frame has only a single place for a bottle holder which is a bummer for those of us that do NOT want to use a hydration pack during a race (makes me look fater than normal - ooooo look some Pizza Rolls!).

Did I miss a "that's what she said" somewhere in that last paragraph? Crap, well use your imagination please.

So what I am trying to figure out is:
1) Do I need full suspension
2) Can I get away with a modern full 29er hardtail?
3) Will those seductively looking "plus" tire bikes be the best of all worlds (to eventually dominate with the Oreo Overlords?)

The lovely folks at Dundee Cycles in Omaha NE hosted Niner bikes in a demo day out at Jewel Park, to which I said "Yes please!". Jewel park is a very small loop of single track that is packed with as much steep climbing and roller coaster descending as you can handle. Pretty much the perfect place to figure out what I want in the future, with the exception that I have very little knowledge of the trail and mother nature decided to grow all sorts of tall grass so you can't see where you are going.

Seriously though, big thanks to the folks at Niner Bikes and Dundee cycles for helping folks like me get out on many types of bikes.

JET 9 RDO

So the first bike I take out is a JET 9 RDO built up with SRAM X0 2X10 drivetrain, Rockshox Pike 120mm fork and some sort of Avid brakes. This is the cross country full suspension bike from Niner which has been praised for many things.

 - Quick insert here: I have NO experience with full suspension bikes on an actual trail -

I almost wrecked TWICE, once where the front end of the bike washed out and I had to grab a handful of brake to keep from running into a ditch (which put the saddle square into my back). The bike wallowed when you were seated and riding the trail, and ultimately just felt out of control. I ended that ride pretty disappointed and expressed that to the guys at the tent (Rob asked me if I wanted some cheese with that wine".

JET 9 RDO

ROS 9+

I hopped on the ROS 9+ bike next which is a 29er plus bike (30+mm rim with 3" tires) that is fully rigid. I immediately felt at home on the bike. I have no other way to describe this thing - it just felt right. The grip going around corners and up and over roots was just superb. My preconceived notions about the bike were that it would feel sluggish much like my fat bike (Salsa Mukluk which I love...screw you if you don't like it - OK, I'm sorry let's be friends again). This bike was nowhere near what a fat bike feels like out on singletrack. It was nimble, frisky (yet stable), full of grip, and just plain grin-inducing. This was a STARK contrast to what I had felt previously on the JET 9 RDO, and frankly made me a bit of a short term Preacher for the bike to anyone that would listen.

ROS 9+

ONE 9 RDO

I next asked for an Air 9 but was instead treated to a One 9 RDO setup so choice that I frankly was a bit taken aback. Full carbon frame, carbon wheels, XTR brakes, SID carbon fork, XX1 drivetrain, and all carbon cockpit. In short a XC riders wet dream hardtail. That bike reminded me of everything I both love and hate about my 69er. It was overly frisky with a skittish behavior that I was "so over" before I was even half way through the lap. I would imagine that racers weighing 30lbs less than me, and not wanting to race more than an hour or two, would be totally happy with it. My fatass endurance focused self was just plain over it. Gorgeous super lightweight and wet dream bike for many turned me right off.

ONE 9 RDO

At this point I was feeling a little worn down, so I was excited to hop back on the Jet 9 to see if a full suspension bike could help out as you got more tired. Rob had just come off of the bike and had the rear shock in some sort of pro pedal mode, so I decided to stick with that and see if it made me swoon. About a mile in I switched the rear shock to full open and let it rip. Turns out the bike felt out of control the first lap because I was going that much faster. You have to think about your turns so much quicker with a bike like this. Once I got used to this the bike transformed into something I was much happier with. The thing that surprised me the most was how well the bike climbed out of the saddle....felt like the One 9 RDO hardtail but with more traction.

I briefly hopped on a WFO (150mm travel) to see what that was like, and quickly realized I did not BRAAP enough to justify it...plus how in the hell do you traverse a tight switchback uphill on that bike?!

So what did I learn from my demos?

• A hardtail 29er in some sort of carbon hi-zoot guise is going to piss me off as much as my current 69er does. 
• A full suspension bike can be a LOT of fun and really fast
• A "plus" tire sized bike could RULE THEM ALL with the right configuration

In my mind the upcoming Specialized Fuse at a 27.5+ build with a 120mm fork and dropper post just got that much more sexay. Really I see no advantage to a full suspensions traction going uphill that a plus sized tire can't match. When you turn downhill the plus sized tired works wonders in soaking up any bumps. For me the plus sized hardtail makes the most sense right now.....totally willing to be proven wrong if you want me to try your S-Works EPIC or Stumpy :).

Alright folks, that is it for part 1 of my MTB self discovery series. Questions or comments just post them below for me to ignore (not really, I watch that section like it will give me a promotion at work). Seriously though, thanks for reading!
Tyler

The OTHER brothers race report: Platte River Battle Royale (Marathon)

Coming up to the rock garden (photo credit: Michael McColgan)

Guest blogger: Tyler Loewens

If I had to sum up my first Mountain Bike Race (and first Marathon race at that) in one twitter-like sentence it would be: Singletrack looks way different when you ride at a walking pace J

As I state previously, this was my very first true mountain bike race. I have done criteriums, road races, and gravel races before with mixed results, so this was not necessarily my first rodeo. My goal this year was to try Mountain Bike Racing by doing the entire Psychopath Marathon series, however the first event at Tranquility was postponed to a day where I had other family things going on.

The whole week leading up to the event I was very anxious mainly due to the weather we were having. If I had to miss another event due to a weather postponement I was going to sell my mountain bike (not really….n+1 and all). Hell, Thursday morning saw just shy of 5 inches of rain in the rain gauge at my house. As luck would have it the rain stopped two days before the race, and Platte dried out enough for a bunch of us to get out and get some pain in!

Rain rain go away

The morning of the race I got to Platte early to help setup the Bike Way team area. Tom Solberg arrived shortly after with the big blue Suburban followed shortly by Michael McColgan and the three of us got to work. I may have not spent much time at our team area that day (was racing for over 4 hours after all), but I can tell you it was very nice having a set area where I could setup “home base”. Hell Tom even passed me a bottle on one of my laps after I gave him some good natured crap for not having one ready for me on the last lap.

Setting up with Tom (photo credit: Rob Evans)

Bike Way Truck

So the promoters of this particular event decided to have a Le Mans style start. For those unfamiliar, that means we all laid our bikes down about 164.02 feet or so ahead of us and then ran to the bikes when the race was on. I know many people are not a fan, but I have a pretty OK short-distance run in me so I had a blast running ahead of most of the pack and grabbing my bike! Pretty sure I was chortling like a big excited, but slightly over-zealous, rhino during that run. That good run means I had pretty OK positioning inside the pack heading towards the first big climb of the day. By the top of that first climb my heart rate was at 185bpm and people were passing me into the first section of singletrack. I slotted in between two other racers and proceeded to go full blown race pace through the first third of the singletrack, hanging with the guys ahead of me for most of that section. As we got out of the trees and into the open area I was passed be more racers (including my brother…what a jerk J) but decided to stick it out with two other guys that were going at a more moderate pace. I figured that if I wanted to survive 4 hours out at Platte I needed to conserve some energy by backing off on the pace.

Le Mans start (photo credit: Cycle Works bike shop)

As I came into the end of the first lap I realized my cooler (with the bottles) was still zipped shut (*facepalm*)! I hurriedly unzipped the cooler and swapped a bottle out. With that longer feed zone time I lost the guy ahead of me for a short while, but made it back up to him on the climb largely due to my forced larger climbing gear.

Here is as good a time as any to talk about my bike setup. I have a 2009 Trek 69er that I have converted to 1 X 9. The gearing setup I used for this race was a 34 tooth chainring up front, and an 11-32 cassette out back. This is a hardtail bike with a very small front triangle (really the bike is one size too small for me) that only holds a single bottle. I am running the very excellent Bontrager TLR system front and rear (Duster rims, XR2 Team issue tires) which has never given me issues. The brakes are still the original turkey garble Avid Juicy Five’s which stop well but are just so damn annoyingly loud (and they shake the frame so bad it tickles your taint every time you apply the brake while sitting in the saddle….so maybe not so bad after all)!

2009 Trek 69er

So while I had caught up to the racer ahead of me again on the climb, my heart rate was once again over 180 bpm not out of some sort of race pace strategy but rather out of not a low enough gear.

Here is as good a time as any to talk about my fitness. While I would describe myself as having good power and Ok endurance, I would also describe myself as having twenty more “elbees” then my body needs. I would use my job and kid as an excuse for my lack of weight conscientiousness, but my jerk brother in his previous post already one-upped me with “I have three kids under the age of 4 and I still rock!” Seriously though, I need to drop this extra weight to make my racing life that much better. More seriously though, he’s still a jerk J.

Coming in to start another lap (photo credit: Rob Evans)

As the laps wore on a few things happened. Firstly I was very happy with my choice to have three different flavors of Skratch Labs already mixed in my bottles. Something very good for the mental game when you get a new flavor from time to time. Secondly I started crashing more often as I got more and more fatigued. Thirdly I was going so much slower the 5^th lap on that I was actually disoriented as I did not recognize certain parts of the trail! I had never gone slowly enough on those parts to actually look at what was around me! Fourthly I was starting to get pissed that I only had a spot for a single bottle on my bike frame. It would have been much handier to have two bottles on the bike (enough for two laps) and then cut my feed zone time in half. If I were truly in contention for any sort of placing (HAHAHAHA) that is time I could not afford to lose.

As I started my sixth lap of the track I was almost certain that would be my last. I was already walking the big climb at the begging of the course to try and save my heart rate and legs, I was having to still get out of the way of some of the non-marathon racers, AND my stomach was not too happy with what I had been eating and drinking. Right after the rock garden section one of the spectators said something along the lines of “You only need to soft pedal now man” to which I responded “all of my pedaling is flaccid at this moment”. We had a good chuckle - he probably thinks I’m pretty cool now - and I continued on my way.

 

Enjoying the big climb after 6 laps (photo credit: Michael McColgan)

At this point I had crashed at least three times, and nailed a tree with my shoulder good enough to leave a solid welt. I was so spent that I was riding like an idiot that had no fitness whatsoever. I kept thinking about how impressed I was that my brother was still way ahead of me killing it on the cross bike!

Welt

During this sixth lap I kept looking down at my Garmin wondering how far off the time was. I had my auto-pause set, so when I stopped for bottles, or was going slow enough (walking that climb) the time would not be counted on the head unit (future note -> do NOT use the auto-pause function for these races).Honestly I was almost apprehensive to get to the finish line as I was concerned I would have something like 15 minutes left till the 4 hour mark and need to continue on.

I get to the finish line and the announcers calls out “3 minutes left for any of you marathoners wanting to start another lap!” Pretty sure I let out some very choice words as I turned and headed back for another lap. In my mind there was no other alternative but to start another lap. What was I going to do, just stand there and wait for the three minutes to count down? Absolutely not!

That last lap was absolutely epically and pathetically slow. It was like I was out for a leisurely ride, except my body wanted nothing to do with it. This is where I really started to not know where I was on the course. I truly never go this slowly on singletrack so it was a new and pretty cool experience.  I ended up crossing the finish line while the race promotors had already started taking some of the course down. I was late enough that they had printed out the results before I finished my 7^th lap, so I really have no exact time on when I finished….guessing 4 hours and 40 minutes or so?

While I did not podium, or make any huge course improvements (I did PR that first climb on the first lap by a second though), I really appreciated the experience! In my mind if you are doing it right as an amateur racer, you are probably learning something new every time you race. I absolutely learned the following: A) I need to drop 20lbs ASAP J B) I need a lower climbing gear (ordered a 30 tooth chainring) C) Mountain Bike Racing is pretty damn cool!

Oh…would someone please buy my brother a real mountain bike so it doesn't suck as much losing to him? Thanks! J (seriously though, nice work bro!!) PROST

PROST

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