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.
I heard that Mountain Biking Georgia
is the best georgia trail book so when I saw it used on Amazon for 1 cent (and $3 shipping) I grabbed it. It’s pretty good for $3.01.
It doesn’t have any south Georgia trails, probably because it was published in 1998. I guess it should really be called Mountain Biking North Georgia though.
None of the trails are particularly long so I think the trick would be to link together a few of these like the Fools Gold course does. A nice addition would have been a chapter on how to link up a few trails to form an epic.
10 years later White Lightning is still a crappy lube. I’m not even sure why I decided to try it again.
It only works for about 3 hours of ride time and after that I got the squeaks bad. There is no tell tale single link squeak to let you know things are getting frictiony. One minute you’re nice and quiet and the next it’s like Deebo on a beach cruiser. I don’t like getting surprised but a sudden onset of the squeaks 1 hour into a 4 hour ride.
On top of that it’s so gunky. It’s advertised as a lube that keeps your chain clean by sloughing off old lube with dirt stuck to it. What they don’t say is that the old lube sloughs off right into your cassette and forms solid grey matter between your cogs.
Maybe I applied it wrong? I didn’t read the instructions.
It seems like a lot of lubes these days have application rules. I know I’m lazy but I’m not really into that. I just want to wipe the chain, lube the chain, let the chain dry, wipe the chain and be done. It’s back to Finish Line Dry for me. I keep a bottle of wet around too just in case.
I finally got around to investigating my stove up bottom bracket. Apparently the bearings that come in the Race Face X-type brackets suck really bad. Between the 5 or so creek crossings at Fools Gold and the 4 at Tom Brown every bit of grease washed out of the bearings and the gritted up and rusted. It’s a poor bearing design. More about that here.
That dog won’t hunt.
I picked up some new bearings and bearing grease from the Enduro Fork Seals guy. He does away with the lame plastic shim/dust seal thing and makes the inner diameter of the bearing slightly smaller which allows bigger bearings with a retainer. The Enduro stuff is top notch, their pictorial archive alone is pure gold.
I have to wonder. Is the increased stiffness of the outboard bearing design enough to offset the increased maintenance and failure? Isn’t there way more flex in the frame anyway?
I’ve got skinny feet. I mean really really low volume snow ski feet. Needless to say finding a cycling shoe that fit my foot has always been a challenge. In the old days I would just shove two insoles in there but that always sucked. So when I started riding again I was determined to find a shoe that fit.
I started with the Sidi Dominator in the narrow width. It fits pretty good but there’s a little bit of play in there when putting the power down. It’s my fault though, I got a 44.5 and I should have gotten a 44. The only way to stop the wiggling is to cinch the straps down tight but that makes my toes numb. I thought about getting another pair of these in 44 but Sidi only offers the narrow with in the Lorica model and in a Florida summer they give me a serious case of hot foot. Besides, at $225 these shoes are to expensive not to have a carbon sole. *
Enter Big Worm. He says the Adidas Adistar XC runs narrow, breathes well, and has a stiff sole. I always listen to Big Worm so I decide I’ll practice patience and wait for a pair to appear on Ebay cheap. Finally two weeks ago I score a pair for $117.66, what a bargain.
This is a great shoe. Light, breathable, stiff, snug…. everything I’ve always wanted in a shoe. I get teary eyed just talking about it. I wonder how those straps with the nylon cord will hold though. Time will tell.
One word of caution. These shoes run big. I wear a 10.5 Adidas running shoe and a 44 / 44.5 cycling shoe but in Adidas cycling shoes I wear a 9. They say that equals 42 2/3 euro sizing. My toes are right at the end but not uncomfortably so, they’re just right. I also recommend an after market insole for your cycling shoes, they really improve the comfort. I use Superfeet but I hear Sole are good too and plan on trying them out soon.
*Zach F told me he heard Sidi shoes had gotten floppy but I suspect it’s more a case of them feeling floppy now that all these carbon shoes are on the scene.
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