Weekend Report

<===I'll shoot my deer with a camera, thank you!

Wow! If you didn't drop the rake, leave the dishes unwashed, or forget about washing the car and get outside, you were daft! It was a beautiful last chance to get out and enjoy shirt sleeve weather in 2009. (I'm betting)

I got out Saturday and rode at the camp- for a short bit! My chain sucked on the Big Mama and then not 50 yards down the trail it snapped in two. Not good for prospects of forward motion by two wheels. And I without a chain tool! Bad me! I should know better. I should have been riding a single speed!! Ha! So, now a full drive train replacement will be in order. It's time, and this was a sign.



<===Wait just a gol durn minute!

The fork for then Gun Kote El Mariachi came in last week. A 100mm through axle Manitou Minute 29"er fork. This will determine the wheel set now, which will be a Bontrager Rhythm wheel set I have had in reserve for months now. That means I'll most likely set it up with some Bontrager tires, or Specialized 2Bliss, which works well on the TLR rim strip too.
This Minute has the Absolute Plus damper and lock out, which could be upgraded to the MILO remote lock out if I wanted it. The fork, with an uncut steer tube weighs a paltry 4.2lbs. It'll be less than that once I cut it down a bit.



<===A bear of a tire.

The WTB, Niner Bikes distributed, Kodiak 2.5" tire showed up here too. I've gotten them mounted and ridden a bit too.

What do I think? Well, you'll have to wait for the Twenty Nine Inches reports, but I will say that it is a very different tire from the WTB Dissent that I also am testing here. Actually, they hardly share anything at all in common! Wire beads and Inner Peace sidewall protection, and that's about it from what I can tell so far. Stay tuned!


<===Some long overdue "love" for the Fargo.

I got a Chris King bottom bracket a while ago now. I finally installed it in the Fargo the other day. I think the green goes good with the stock paint, but really, the King BB is smarter than that!

I can maintain this one by injecting grease from time to time ala the King grease tool, which I have to get yet. Hopefully the Fargo will be fine for some time to come, but I need to order that tool anyway for customers at the shop that will be wanting a fresh shot of grease in theirs soon.


<===The frame isn't tiny, the wheels are big!

I saw a thread on mtbr.com that showed this prototype 29"er DH rig from Intense Cycles.

This is serious folks. Intense doesn't fool around with DH. They helped define the genre', and if they are fiddling with wagon wheels for DH, they have an inkling that it might just work.

This would be revolutionary if it proves out. DH has long been thought of as an area of mountain biking that 29 inch wheels were just ridiculous for. They would never be used in that application other than by experimenters and dreamers. The debates will rage now, but if racers start showing up on these, and more importantly- winning on them- then the last barrier to big wheels will have fallen. Will it happen?

Well, it doesn't really matter in the end, but what will happen is that many new ideas will be birthed from the experiment that will benefit long travel and any full suspension 29"er bike. Rim technologies, tire technologies, and of course- fork and damper technologies all stand to be altered by these DH experimenters. It'll be interesting to watch, at the very least.