Triple D 2014: New Bits

In the quest to do Triple D this coming January 19th in Dubuque Iowa, I have had to get on the stick to update the drive train on By-Tor the Titanium Mukluk. So, I ordered in a chain ring and cassette and along with a SRAM chain we had at the shop where I work, I have everything now to get the bike in better working order.

I had been running a 34T big ring, but I am going to drop that to a 32T ring instead. It will adjust where I have to dump out into the granny ring and cause less correction in the back to get to a comfortable cadence. I'll hopefully stay in the big ring longer as well. The cassette is a 12-36T obviously, so that gets me a lower gear without bailing out to that 22T up front.

This will be the 4th different brand of chain I've used on a fat bike. None of them so far have been particularly outstanding, with the possible exception of the Wipperman Connex chain which did last a long time. (One of their claims to fame.) The last chain, an FSA, was probably the least favorite of the three so far, with the Shimano 105 10 speed chain being merely just decent. But I am splitting hairs here.

The SRAM chain should prove to be interesting. It is cheaper to buy, so going in I expect less, but hopefully I will be surprised. The bonus is that I can carry a couple of quick links and a bit or two of chain to repair any issues I may have during the 65-ish miles of Triple D.

By the way, you can still register for this event yet, so if you have a mind to hang out with some nice folks that are into fat bikes, sign up. There is a shorter, "poker run" course as well, if you aren't up to the marathon length of the full course for the bikes.

And the course itself will get the full run out on trail, (weather permitting), that did not happen last year due to the weird weather leading up to the event. That should be pretty cool. The course was new last year and by the sounds of it, (sans the alternative street lead out), it will be the same this year. That means there will be this totally sweet down hill and run through the woods leading up to a very narrow, very steep climb up to an open field that is really nice. The kind of stuff you don't get to ride in Iowa very often, but dream about.

With all of that reminding me that I need to get out and ride more, I will have to be spending more time riding at night in the coming weeks to get ready for this event which is right around the corner now. Plus I have a few items to sort out for carrying liquids and what food I need and all of the clothing stuff I will be geeking out over in the coming weeks as well. This is always fun. No........really! 

So look for my training updates and gear geeking out posts in the coming weeks. Some things I have sorted, but will share soon. The tubeless project was one of those things. It has been a very successful, so far, experiment. I am really stoked on how that has gone so far. 

Stay tuned: More coming soon.....