The Second Half

Another weekend that rocketed by like a Josh Beckett fastball…

Saturday up early (see bike geek section below) – followed by raking and bagging 15 loads of fallen pine needles. Sunday was spent at work for 5 hours, followed by Lyza’s last soccer game, and a sweet visit to Target. If we had stopped at Olive Garden and Home Depot it would have been the All American Weekend. Don’t worry – we didn’t. Olive Garden has more saturated oil/fat than the former Exxon Valdez + they feature employees with FLAIR buttons. Home Depot has now officially become Chinese Depot since well over 51% of their products are made over ‘dere. Here’s a thought: Re-use other people’s discards (can you believe how much good sh*t you can find if you ask around…for free!) Also, frequent your local hardware store and pay the extra 8% to keep ‘em in business. OK – off my pulpit.

Bike Geek Section (warning – read only if you are a weight weenie, tech head, 2 wheel obsessed cycle junkie)
The test with the Stan’s ZTR’s paired up with the American Classic hubs was enjoyable – hell, it was the only thing that got me up at 5:50 on a Saturday morning. Let me just start by saying that when I left my house the sun was about 2 minutes from rising in the east and the orange hue was nearly blinding. I look to my left and the Hunter’s Moon was HUGE. It was truly one of those memorable sights where you say to yourself “I’m glad I woke up at the crack of ass for this”.

2 problems – first, I did not remove the 20tooth cog on the Stan’s wheelset. My wheelset features an 18 tooth cog. Second, the 2.3 high volume casing WTB Exiwolf tyres (do you like my Euro-trash spelling there?!) were significantly taller than the 2.1 Bontrager Jones XR tyres I’m shredding currently. SO – I couldn’t compare apples to apples on this test.

Net Result, Bottom Line, The Money Shot…….
Because of the larger rear cog, and the HUGE tires, I could not accurately gauge the impact of lighter rims when climbing technical stuff. What I did learn is this: The tubeless setup let me run a psi of less than 30. Talk about TRACTION. I got up and over everything without spinning out, and I felt like I had another ½ inch of travel on my hardtail RIG.

I believe that with the weight of 29” tires, any superlight rims have the potential of being made a moot point. For me, a middle to upper end line of rims (see Bontrager TLR’s) with a tubeless set up that allows around 27-28psi would be the ticket. This will save me some bread too.

Rest o’ the week…
I’m bailing on the MTB marathon this weekend in Phx. I’d rather ride in the pines up in Flag – and it won’t cost me $1 per mile. ‘Sides – I have a few repairs to handle on the Scalpel before its ready to roll again. We leave for Hawaii in a little over 2 weeks and I could use ever $$ I have for that bank buster. MAHALO baby, mahalo.