Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Dirt Home From Work

Brown ribbon of goodness.
Once in a while I'll get the itch to take a mountain bike off road, and many times I scratch that itch by commuting to work, then I do a "Dirt Home From Work" route.

I have whittled down the mountain bike side of the stable to one suspended hard tail with gears, a single speed with no suspension fork, and a front suspended single speed. I have platform pedals on the Singular Buzzard, so that is the bike I take to work most often.

Interestingly, the way I set up the wheels back a few years ago was weird.......then. Now it is becoming something that might be a lot more familiar in the coming years. Not "plus" sized, but not "normal 29"er sized either. I did mine by way of a little trickery. I used a really wide rim and some of the bigger volume 29"er tires around at the time.

The thing I was after was volume, but without the vagueness. Wider rims support sidewalls better, and with the really wide Duallys, I got max width out of a 2.35" and 2.4" tire. Now the back measures 2.45" and the front measures 2.5" wide. I can also run those tires down under 20psi with no worries about squirming or vagueness in handling. That's the goal of the new move to 2.5"-2.8" tires coming out now.They are big enough to translate the traction benefits without the issues with vagueness in cornering. But I could go on and on about that.....

The point is I got on a mountain bike. First time in a while too. I would assess the ride as being fun, but I sure am rusty! I need to get in a few more of these "Dirt Home From Work" rides and then hit up Ingawanis Woodlands for the real thing.

2 comments:

Doug M. said...

The first mountain bike ride each spring is the best therapy session money can't buy. No room for winter doldrums when you're eating up singletrack!

Ari said...

Our local singletrack is just piles and piles of mud!!!