My Bikes Section – UPDATED

I’ve sold off my Dawes road bike to a buddy of mine who has been looking for one since spring. I haven’t ridden it very much since the addition of the cyclocross bike, and I can understand where the cross bike has filled in the place of a true multipurpose drop-barred bike. It will have a good home, and I got some more space to pile more useless stuff in it’s place~

I have also reviewed and added my GF Cobia to the My Bikes section.

2009 Gary Fisher Cobia

• Frame – Platinum Series 6066 butted & hydroformed aluminum, cold-forged dropouts, G2 29″ Geometry
• Fork – Fox F80RL 29, 80mm travel, custom G2 Geometry 51mm offset crown, air spring, external rebound & lockout
• Bottle Cages – 1x Bontrager Race Lite Cage, White
• Headset – Cane Creek 1-1/8″ threadless, semi-integrated, semi-cartridge bearings
• Stem – Selcof 80mm 10 degree
• Handlebar – Selcof Flat Bar 580mm 3 degree bend
• Brake Levers – Avid FR-5 Brake Levers
• Shifters – SRAM X5 Trigger Front/Rear
• Bar Grips – All City BMX Star Grips
• Cables/Housing – Clarks Pre-Lubricated Cables / White Housing
• Brakes – Avid BB7 Mechanical Disc Brakes – 180 Front / 160 Rear
• Wheels – Shimano M475 hubs, Bontrager Ranger disc 29″ rims, 32h
• Skewers – Random Skewers
• Tires – Bontrager XDX 29×2.1 Front / Intense System 29’er 29×2.25 Rear
• Bottom Bracket – Shimano Octalink (Generic)
• Cranks – Shimano FC-M442-8-S, 44s/32s/22s, Octalink
• Front Derailleur – SRAM X9 FD
• Chain – Wipperman x9 Stainless
• Saddle – Bontrager Race MTN – White
• Seatpost – Control Tech One – 400mm x 27.2mm
• Seatpost Clamp – Generic Bontrager
• Pedals – Shimano PD-M520 White
• Cassette SRAM PG950 11-34T
• Rear Derailleur – SRAM x5 Long Cage

The Gary Fisher Cobia is a wonderfully complicated and sweet bike. The pricepoint of it in 2009 was just a hair over $1000, and came with parts that were fairly matched to that price. Subsequently, I have upgraded the entire cockpit, the brakeset, and suspension fork. These changes were mostly for aesthetics or on a whim, but I believe they were for the best. My bike now has a near complete Silver and White aesthetic to it, all the way down the the pedals and stem. The Avid BB7 upgrade from the BB5’s were influenced by a deal from a friend on a brand new set, and the front fork was an offer that I could not resist; well… that and it was white.

I’m 167cm tall, with a 76cm inseam, and this is a 15.5″ frame. I chose this size, due to the fact that everything I read was that a smaller wheelbase was better for a 29″ bike. I was right; I still have issues on sharp switchbacks or turns, and SUDDEN changes in elevation; whether it be up or down. These issues are things that over the year of ownership, I have learned to find little ways to make up for the size of the bike, and geometry. Rarely ever does it slow me down enough to where I think about it.

What does bother me about this bike is the chainsuck. I have read and heard from other 29″ GF hardtail owners that they get unavoidable chainsuck issues just like me. Heck, I even clean my entire drivetrain after every single ride, and I still have issues. Whether it be from middle ring to granny ring, or vice-versa, I get the chain stuck between the chainstay and the middle chainring…. maybe…. one out of every seven times. It has eaten into the driveside chainstay, and I’m sure as hell that Trek will say it is just human/operator error. When they design a bike with less than 4mm of clearance from the chainstay to chainring, something is wrong. I know they needed lots of clearance very close to the crankset due to the larger wheel, and the opportunity and availability to use a big tire, but this is ridiculous. Seriously.

This bike has been a great beginner’s foray into mountain biking. It can handle just about anything you throw at it, except drops/jumps. If you have the nerves, you can keep up with your 26″ dual suspension friends, or even the 29″ DS’ers; that is if you have the legs…  The Cobia has taken me places that I have never expected to go on any kind of bike, and I like that.

Final Words? GO TUBELESS.

Read Full Post »

Great Weekend w/ The Crew™

This weekend was a blast; it consisted of some mountain biking, cyclocamping, and going out to Philippi to ride Thad’s Singletrack again. (You know, the WVMBA #6 race I covered)

Laura’s roomate, Amanda, bought a mountain bike over the summer; (probably peer pressure from Laura) and is riding occasionally now. We also had a few other pals come along who rarely ever ride or haven’t ridden in a long time. This has taught me that going fast is easy, but staying back with the pack, and reassuring them on how to control their bikes is difficult, or at least taxing. It is sometimes easy to forget what parts of a trail you had issues with, or how you learned all of those little techniques that allow you to bomb through the singletrack.

Being able to convey those things to other people in layman’s terms without scaring them by saying something like “But don’t go into a really deep, dry rut, since if you oversteer you will crash” will have your bordering on a very thin line… You just can’t say those kinds of things. Yes, they are going to happen, but you don’t want to scare them, yet you want them to develop the skills to still ride with you, and keep the collegiate cycling lineage going. We ended up doing six miles in like an hour and a half. I kept telling myself:

“Stay calm and friendly, don’t scare off the newbs.”

Later that evening, after gathering some supplies and camping gear, Jeff, Laura, and I went back of the woods for a nice little cyclocamping trip. Grant Peterson would have been proud of me, since I came in normal clothes, didn’t wear my cleated-shoes; just my boat shoes, and brought a wool sweater to sleep in. I’m sure his heart would feel warm if he ever read this. Oh, I also decided to bring my cyclocross bike, since I knew I could do all the trails on it, and I could latch on my rear rack to strap all of my camping gear to it. It rocked. I felt like a BA being on a cross bike, going over roots, and hills, and being able to hang with the MTB’s 90% of the time. Good stuff.

We set up camp pretty quickly, and right after that, it became cold. Really cold. Colder than that one ex that cheated on you, then told you about it straight to your-face-cold. What else did you expect us to do other than to sit around a fire, and throw stuff into it while hanging out and talking for a few hours? Check the footage to see the rip-roaring fire~ 😀

Once again, the Wenzel tent used was comfy cozy warm, and did its job well. When I woke up in the morning, I tried to make instant pancakes, but the little optimus pan kept sticking so bad it wasn’t funny. I gave up and ate the rest of the trail mix I had brought. I was really missing the conveinances of a teflon pan right about then. Later that morning, we all hopped out of the woods, went on our way and planned on meeting back on Sunday.

After church, we all met up at Gene’s shop to load our bikes and gear. I brought an icebox full of water bottles, and towels; planning to jump in the Tygart River after the ride. I knew the course was going to be intense with Gene coming with us, but I never expected a pentagenarian, let alone someone a little older than that to slay us… without noticing it! His Gary Fisher HiFi Full suspension devoured the terrain, and left us in his dust.

Almost makes me want to get a full suspension… *suppress such thoughts, be a man!* Maybe I should just HTFU and learn how to ride and control my bike.

See how the tables turn? Friday, Kicking ass. Sunday, Ass = kicked.

Gene did help us out a ton on descents, switchbacks, and the rock gardens that I call Indian burial grounds; they’re mounds and piles of rocks built up in order to ruin your pedals when you climb up them. Video below.

Wonderful Scenery

Our trip was a success, and we ended up reinforcing our tradition of jumping in the river. It was much colder than it was

on Thursday (Did a reconnaissance ride with Laura), and I can only imagine it will get colder and colder until it is unbearably frigid, and we all get hypothermia walking back to the vehicle. Jeff on the other hand is a competitive swimmer holding records for the state of WV, and whatnot decided to swim across the river, back, and then all the way out again. He is not human; must investigate further.

All in all, this was a jam-packed weekend that really shows that WV is the place to be to have tons of outdoor activities in your backyard. While the scenery and environment was great, going out and doing things with your friends is better. Building camaraderie, and testing each other’s legs through little camping trips or race courses is a blast.

I hope all of you readers get a jeep full of people out this next weekend and plan something great. I’m sure you deserve it!

Read Full Post »

Bike Hierarchy

Think about how many bikes you own. What made you purchase each and every one of them?

Was it finding a deal?

Was it need?

Was it bike lust?

Now think about what bikes out of your stable you ride the most. Which one do you pedal the most and why?

I own three bikes. ’09 GF Cobia, Full Carbon HASA eBay special w/ SRAM Rival @ 15.25 lbs, and an ’06 Dawes Lightning Sport which is a friction shifting seven-speed, steel eBay bike. When thinking through all the time I have spent with these three bikes last year, it came down to me riding my eBay bike the most.

Read Full Post »

Local Bike Shop Interview: Fat Tire Cycle

Today’s post is an interview with a LBS in Buckhannon, WV: Fat Tire Cycle with owner Gene Wells.

Gene Wells is well… a swell guy (see what I did there?) He is active in many aspects of his community as a business person should, but you can also tell he cares about everything he does. He can also kick most of the people in town’s butt in speed and distance on a bike, yet he chooses not to. (sometimes!)

(I’ll let you know before this interview gets through that he is my main mechanic, I was sponsored by him during my tenure as President of the Cycling Club/Team at West Virginia Wesleyan College with the standard collegiate store discount. I have also purchased a pretty sweet rig from him, my ’09 Gary Fisher Cobia. All in all, we have a pretty good relationship by means of business and also friendship.)

With that out-of-the-way, let’s get to the Q&A!

1.) First of all, tell us about your history, how did you get into cycling?

Well, I got into cycling in 1972. I was doing a lot of cross-country racing, and touring in the area around Pleasantville, Pennsylvania. I remember getting my first road bike in that town in 1973.

Read Full Post »