Latest news
Fort William DH track: 1 Dan: 1
Dan had a score to settle at No Fuss Events’ Fort William Enduro downhill. After a huge and very painful stack at last year’s event he was out to show the mountain who’s boss and it sounds like he managed it (in a small way):
“Now we are even!
After having my arse handed to me last year by a big pointy rock garden I was back with a rather large amount of trepidation to tackle the endurance DH on Saturday. I managed 13 laps and came 13th overall (out of 130, results here) and even though I was a passenger a few times I stayed on and bike and body sort of survived. It is an epic event, so hard on the body it is untrue. I need to get my lap times under 7 mins though if I am to do any better but after last years efforts I’ll take walking away without crutches as a result ;-) Oh and the 785mm bars did the trick, I might have to cut them down now for normal use as I still have a sore shoulder from hitting trees at Innerleithen last time out.”
Bit more of an update soon…maybe some pictures too.
Maxxis tyres under 1 kg
We often get asked tyre weights around the mid-weight tyres where people don’t want to be dragging round a Dual Ply Maxxis DH tyre (always over 1kg) and are looking for something quicker for all-day use but still able to handle some rocky stuff.*
New Exo sidewalls (July 2010)
Ardent 2.25 Exo 60a Maxxpro – 675-685g (2 weighed) average of 680g
Ardent 2.4 Exo 60a Maxxpro -794 -814g (2 weighed) average of 804g
Minion front 2.5 Exo 60a Maxxpro – 846-849g (2 weighed) average of 845g
Ignitor 29er 2.1 Exo eXCeption 62a 593-607g (2 weighed) average of 600g
Ignitor 2.35 Exo 70a 767-785g (2 weighed) average of 776g
All tyres are single-ply wall thickness & 60a MaxxPro rubber compound unless stated:
Advantage 2.25 Wire – 740-770g (2 weighed) average of 755g
Advantage 2.25 Kevlar – 664-687g (10 weighed) average of 662g
Advantage 2.4 – 821-857g (5 weighed) average of 828g
Ardent 2.25 kevlar 70a – 621g – 658g (8 weighed) average of 642g
Ardent 2.4 wire SPC – 930 -950g (2 weighed) average of 940g
Ardent 2.4 kevlar 60a 838 – 854g (2 weighed) average of 846g
High Roller 2.35 Kevlar – 621-657g (5 weighed) average of 646g
High Roller Wire 2.35 60a – 735-780g (6 weighed) average of 758g
High Roller Wire 2.35 42a – 840-860g (4 weighed) average of 845g
High Roller UST 2.35 42a - 930-950g (2 weighed) average of 940g
High Roller 2.5 Wire – 870- 890g (2 weighed) average of 880g
Ignitor Exception 62a 2.35 – 579- 598g (2 weighed) average of 589g
Ignitor Exception 2.35 LUST – 823 -830g (2 weighed) average of 827g
Larsen TT 2.35 – 595- 607g (2 weighed) average of 601g
Minion Kevlar 2.35 Kevlar fr – 741-757g (2 weighed) average of 749g
Minion Kevlar 2.35 Kevlar rr – 731g
Minion Wire 2.35 fr – 810g
Minion Wire 2.35 rr – 810g
Minion Wire 2.35 42a rr – 870g
Minion Wire 2.5 fr - 860-870g (3 weighed) average of 867g
Minion Wire 2.5 rr – 900g
*Disclaimer: These are some weights of tyres that we’ve got in stock today (5 December 07, updated 4 April 2008/ 6 September 2008) and should be used as a rough guide only as tyre weights will vary from batch to batch.
Seb’s Bala movie
Seb’s been at it again, filming during practice at one of the best DH courses in the country (at least, south of Scotland anyway) – Bala, also known as Rhyd-y-Felin. It’s a fast course, with some riders hitting 63kph (!) on the fast fade jump at the top. You might recognise some parts of this course from most recent mountain bike movies such as Seasons, and anything to do with Clay Porter.
Movie not embedded? Click here to view on YouTube.
NoTubes Alpha 340 road wheels – first look
At last they’re here – the NoTubes Alpha 340, Stan’s first foray into the world of road tubeless rims. The high pressures used on the road makes special high strength carbon beads essential to keep the tyres on the rim, but since Hutchinson solved that problem a Stan’s NoTubes road rim has been inevitable.
Despite all the work that’s gone in to the road rims it’s cyclocross riders who’ve been pestering us the most about these rims. The ability to reliably run normal CX tyres tyres as tubeless is something of a holy grail for ‘crossers and that’s where our test set of Alpha road rims will be heading – offroad.
We’ve built some onto some American Classic 105 and 205 hubs with Aerolite spokes and I’ll be fitting them with some Maxxis Raze CX tyres to start with. Price of wheelsets comes in at £637.20 with the American Classic Micro 58 front hub, or £677.70 with the 105 front hubs as shown here.
The samples we’ve weighed come in at just 357g each on average (4 weighed, 352g to 366g). The braking surfaces are machined flat for consistent braking and they’re tubeless compatible by running two layers of Stan’s 21mm yellow tape round and fitting the dedicated Alpha valve stem.
Seb’s first movie
Seb Frost is one of our team riders. He promised to make some nice movies if we supplied him with a GoPro HD camera and chest mount, so we did. This is his first effort from Todtnau in Germany, following Jim Coneron on some classic fast Alpine DH trail action.
Seb uses the American Classic hubs and NoTubes Flow rims, has earned his Expert category race licence and he also runs rootsandrain.co.uk. Embedded movie not showing above? Click here to view on YouTube.
Megavalanche 2009
The Megavalanche has always been on my to-do list and finally this year I got round to doing it. Even the tall tales from people who had ridden it couldn’t do justice to the scale and craziness of the event. Even the start above the snow was bordering on unrideable, let alone with 500 riders breathing down my neck, it was just a case of getting out of there as fast as possible and trying to leave the carnage behind.
Mega Avalanche start
The action started with the qualifying rounds on Friday, with 9 rounds of 200 riders each. The tight gravel hairpins straight out of the gate were the first potential for carnage, remember there are 25 riders per row all going to single file within the first 10 seconds of the race, but I left everyone else to pile up on the popular inside lines, scooting round the slower but safer outsides instead. 25 minutes later and barely able to grip the bars I finished 8th in my round, good enough for a 3rd row in the main event.
popping out at the end of the qualifier
Normally the race starts on snow. Well it did this year too I suppose, but the patch of snow was only just big enough to line everyone up on before it turned to piles of shattered rock which we were to ride along at a 30-degree camber. This was a recipe for disaster and I picked a safe route, it wasn’t fast but I got out of most of the trouble pretty quick. Not everyone was so lucky and as you can see from the picture below it quickly turned into a scene from Dante’s Inferno or perhaps an Orc battle in the Lord of the Rings.
Megavalanche start turns into a battleground
After the rocks the course went back onto the more traditional glacier, followed by the most amazing high Alpine singletrack you could ever imagine. Actually most of the course was singletrack this year, great for riding but not so great for passing and after I binned it up on the snow there was nothing for it but to be patient and wait for safe passing places. Still I got to the bottom in one piece, in 71st place which is OK for a first attempt. I guess I’ll be back for more one day with a load of lessons learned.
Riders spread out across the glacier
Maxxis XC Tyre weights 2009
Finally we’ve got round to weighing the Maxxis XC tyres.
Maxxis Advantage
Advantage 2.1 Kevlar 70a : average weight 624g
Advantage 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 548g
Aspen 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 478g
Aspen 2.25 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 591g
Crossmark 2.1 wire bead, SPC, 70a: average weight 650g
Crossmark 2.1 Kevlar 70a: average weight 569g
Crossmark 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 479g
Crossmark 2.1 UST tubeless: average weight TBA
High roller 2.1 wire bead, SPC, 70a: average weight 550g
High roller 2.1 Kevlar 70a: average weight 514g
High roller 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 481g
Ignitor 2.1 Kevlar 70a rubber: average weight 580g
Ignitor 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 480g
Larsen Mimo 2.0 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 484g
Larsen TT 2.0 Kevlar 70a rubber: average weight 568g
Larsen TT 2.0 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXCeption: average weight 496g
Larsen TT 2.0 LUST tubeless: average weight 679g
Monorail 2.1 Kevlar 70a: average weight 559g
Monorail 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62A eXC: average weight 502g
Monorail 2.1 LUST tubeless: average weight 657g
Medusa 1.8 Kevlar 70a: average weight 489g
Medusa 1.8 Kevlar 120tpi 62A eXC: average weight 491g
Medusa 2.1 Kevlar 70a: average weight 531g
Medusa 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62A eXC: average weight 482g
Medusa 2.1 LUST tubeless: average weight TBA
Rendez 2.1 Kevlar 70a: average weight 557g
Rendez 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62A eXC: average weight 481g
The post bike
JRA Post Bike - Surly Big Dummy
After last years experimentation with the post-trailer we found it wasn’t so easy to use we’ve upgraded to a post bike, the Surly Big Dummy with Xtracycle freeloaders.
We stayed near the Xtracycle people at Interbike a couple of years ago and we always jealous as they loaded up and rode round the carpark with ridiculous things on board.
After a while we went for it and got in the que for the full Surly frame option. Its been in operation for a while now, its much easier to ride and we can get more post on for buzzing round to the post office.
Just don’t ask ‘whats that?’ if you come in as we’ll unhelpfully say it’s a bike.
