Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Next Up On The List

Well, since things have cleared up around here as far as the trails go, and that one race I'm involved with is over, I have been working through the fleet to get some things back on track again around here.

The next bike on the docket is the Big Mama. I have a "proper" fork on it these days. It was designed for 100mm of travel, but darn near the whole time I've had it I've run a 120mm on it. Last fall, I finally got this 100mm fork to try on it, and only got in a few rides before the weather set in, and then it got parked.

So, now the bike will get a sealant refresh, and a brand spankin' new WTB Pure V saddle. Next upgrade will be on the brakes at some point. I also may swap out the crankset to a SRAM Stylo.

The idea will be to get this rig all ready to go to El Paso Texas soon. More details on that trip will be told later, but for right now, I just have to get this fully going again. One big upgrade that may be coming in is a dropper seat post.

I've never even considered using one of these multi-height posts. Never really saw the need, but I keep hearing they are really nice to use, so I figured that going back to the crazy rocks of the El Paso area would be a perfect place to try one out.

I thought about taking the Snow Dog, because I heard it would make an excellent Desert Rat bike, but......

Snow Dog Down: 70 Days And Counting.......

Thanks to Phil Wood And Co. 

5 comments:

mw said...

pure-v...best saddle ever

Stephen said...

What he said (about a Pure V),and you'll like them Stylo's,I have a triple (used as a double) on the Bandersnatch,and a single on the Jabberwocky-good cranks :) Looking forward to seeing the update on the Mama!

Steve Fuller said...

GTed - You are welcome to borrow my rear wheel if you want to take your Mukluk to El Paso.

Ari said...

G.T.
Is there a width of bar that works better with 29er full suspension bikes?
Also do you know of any 700x45 tires like the panaracer firecross or the wtb mutanoraptor? Bontrager?
Ari

Guitar Ted said...

@Steve Fuller: Thanks! I'll consider that.

@Ari: Most traditional XC bars are 580mm-600mm and usually have very little bend- 3-5* at most. We at Twenty Nine Inches almost all universally do not like these bars for our 29"ers.

We tend towards 680-700+mm bars with at least 10* sweep. I have noted that most Pro XC guys are going this route on their 29"ers too.

As for a tire, a fast tire, but one that still has grip, is the Jones XR in 1.8"

http://www.bontrager.com/model/02864

Many XC Bonty 29 inch tires come in under 2", so there may be something else you could use there. (29-0, XR-1, Rear specific 29-3)