RickySilk

After trying out the 40 tooth big ring for a while I needed to investigate the 38. The only time I spun out the 40-11 was on long road downhills so I it seemed like I could go even lower and stay in the dog full time. I also wanted to try running only 2 rings using the granny and middle positions. I went with a 26/38 and kept the 11-34 on the back. I only lose a tiny bit on the ends of the gear range and with the 38 in the middle position I have a really good chainline with easy gear access from the 34 all the way down to the 11.

I’ve been riding it for a couple of weeks now and even when doing hard intervals up and down the hills out at phipps I haven’t spun it out yet. For most of the courses I race I think it could be the perfect setup. My only concern are the steep hills at the Thunderbolt course. I was in the granny for several of those. I think the 26 will be low enough though.

One thing is for sure though, after riding it at Tom Brown/Cadillac I know it will be perfect.

About 6 months ago I had a little too much to drink and clicked “buy now” on a cheap carbon hardtail frame on eBay. At $289 my drunk brain could not resist. I did have buyers remorse… still do. The frame arrived quickly and in fine shape but I really shouldn’t have bought it.

I quickly built it up when it arrived but only got two rides on it before I needed to scavenge some parts from it. So it hung in the garage until this week.

On Sunday I’m racing in Fernandina Beach on a course that is flat, smooth and has over a mile of pavement per 7 mile lap. Everyone said it’s a hardtail course so I built up the carbon hardtail again. It’s kind of rough since it’s mostly garage bin parts but I’ve been riding it all week and it’s holding up ok.

Thanks to MacGyver who inspired me to use two rubberbands, a zip tie and a piece of an old grip to hold the cpu to the stem.

It’s been a while since I raced a hardtail. I rode a steel hardtail all winter but come March I went to the race bike. The ride isn’t near as jarring as I was expecting and of course it accelerates super fast. Feels good. I used the 40t chainring off the fully so I shouldn’t need to shift at all up front. The old R7 fork is a little rough but still does the job.

Without any hills or technical stuff to make gaps I’m expecting this race to be tactical. Should be fun.

Just got a wheel upgrade from my man Kent and it’s amazing. My old wheels are 2006 Crossmax SL’s weighing 1685 grams total. It’s funny, but I always thought these wheel’s were light cause they had “SL” in the name. Marketing.

The new wheels weight 1390! I knew they would accelerate quick and all but dadgum it’s like having a jet pack on. Something I didn’t expect is that the front wheel would turn easier. The first little tech downhill I did I got squirrely and about ate poo. Everything is easier with lighter wheels. Takes a lot less body english to wheely the roots and hop the logs. If I ever nut up and run some lightweight standard tires it’ll knock off another 200 grams easy.

I guess I’m ready to race FSC #1 Sunday. I’m thinking the competition is gonna be tough. With Shawn Smith and former Semi-Pros Bounds and Andy Mills it’s gonna be fast. I’ve been trying to remember the course but it’s been about 10 years I think, so memory is hazy. Some steep ups, ride around some fields and a climb out of a quarry is what I’m planning on.

Wish my bottom bracket wasn’t creaking like mad. I went to fix it and it figures Shimano created a new tool for the m970. Gonna have to wait on that.

I figured it was time to put on a new chain. The old one is a little stretched but not too bad. Put on the new chain and all is good EXCEPT the 23 cog. That mother trucker wants to skip all over the place when it’s in on the 23. All 8 of the other cogs are ok. This is new to me. The chain rides up a little on the teeth then skips forward one tooth and drops back down where it should be. So I guess I spend an inordinate amount of time in the 23.

I’m gonna keep riding this chain and see if there’s some kind of break in period cause if this 5 month old XTR cassette is toast imma be irritated if not downright angry. If it doesn’t get better I’ll try my older XTR cassette that came on the Anthem.

That KMC chain that came on the bike was ok at first but it didn’t last very long and it hasn’t been shifting too good for quite a while.

I’ve got some Stan’s wheels coming in from bikechain. I’m pretty excited about that. According to Stan’s wheel weight calculator they should come in at right about 1400grams. Wooo boy. That’s 280grams less than my old Crossmax SL’s. Should be feeling that.

Man all this rain is working the ole Poprad over. That’s what I got it for but dadgum she’s taking a beating. I even had to start using the heavy wet “cross country” lube on the chain.

I’ve been running a 40 tooth big ring for about 3 months now. So much so I have to wonder why 44 is the default in the first place.

I used an FSA DH/SS ring with no ramps or pins and only 3mm thick. Definitely not ideal but it’s surprisingly hard to find a 40 tooth ring. I ended up having to use a 1mm spacer to get the shifting right since most geared rings are 4mm thick.

Two races and many hours on it and I’m convinced it’s gobs more useful than the stock 44 most cranksets come with. The only times I’ve gotten close to spinning it out is on long road downhills. For racing I’m thinking a 38 would be even more useful. To go even further, I think a 26/38 double ring setup could be the race ticket. The big test for me would be the steep climbs of the Thunderbolt course. I’m pretty sure a 26 would be low enough with an 11-34 cassette.

The bike JHK rode at Nationals has intrigued me. He ran a single 36 tooth chainring with the new sram XX 10 speed 11-36 cassette. Hmmmm.

The KHS came with a pair of Kenda Nevegals 2.1 DTC tires which I immediately took off. I stay away from big knobbies like MW stays away from snakes. For some reason last week I decided to throw one on the front and see if all the talk about the Nevegal grip was true.

It’s been many many years since I ran a full knobby tire. I’m just used to slowing down in corners with oak leaves or other loose stuff. It took me about 3 corners to realize this Nevegal grips like velcro no matter what is in the corner so I started throwing the bike into the corners and it wasn’t letting loose. The bonty revolt on the back was sliding a bit but the front was sticking.

So I start thinking maybe there’s something to this. Maybe the momentum you hold going through the corners makes up for the high rolling resistance and weight. At East Macon Andy J was running Nevegals front and rear and now I realize why he would get little gaps on me through the corners.

I’m definitely gonna try running the Nevegal on the front if I ever race Red Bug again. It’s just too much fun not to.

So I got these tires from Bikechain.com a couple days ago.

Rocket Ron 26 x 2.10 Evo, Tubeless Black Triple Nano 600 g
Racing Ralph 26 x 2.10 Evo, Tubeless Black Triple 650 g

I just cut and paste that from the Schwalbe site but I coulda sworn those weights were each 70 grams lighter when I ordered the tires. I think they’re reading my mind and changed the site. I’m wearing my foil hat now. Anyway, the weights they have on the site now are accurate which is a bit of a bummer. A little too heavy for the short xc races which is what I wanted them for. They’ll be great for long rocky races though… .like Fool’s Gold. They’re kinda skinny and low volume too, more like a 1.95. The carcass is 48mm wide.

I mostly got these with Bump & Grind in mind. I don’t like worrying about my sidewalls getting shredded. Then I got to thinking about the race as a whole, not just the tire eating downhill after blood rock. That downhill is such a small part of the race. Maybe it’s worth running light tires for the benefit on the other 95% of the track and playing it a bit cautious on the rocky downhill. So maybe you lose 10 seconds on that downhill riding cautious but I’m thinking it’s more than made up for on the rest of the course.

Hmmmmmm.

Then again maybe if these tires roll as fast as the intarnets says they do the combination of flat resistance and rolling is worth it.

I mounted the Rocket Ron on the front and rode it yesterday and I’d have to agree that the grip is stupendous and they felt as fast as, or faster than, the Larsen I had on there whose grip is less than stupendous.

Unfortunately in trying to find the limits of it’s grip I got dumped on the algae-over-clay fast downhill sweeper entering Phipps. Yeah, that was dumb. No tire can find grip there when it’s wet. Kinda sucked since I was headed to bike practice and I had to do it with stinging wounds on the elbow hip and knee. The knee being the worst of it. Managed to open up the same spot I ground down at TallyCross. Kept the hate flowing the whole practice though… mother trucker.

Kinda sore this morning… like I rode twice as hard as I actually did. Just reminding myself, sometimes you gotta pay to play. So I made my flesh payment.