Empirical castration

Castrating trail features is really not something I usually believe in, and definitely not something I advocate, well unless it makes a lot of  sense.

That was however the case of a 2m (6ft) drop on a line called Middlemeat. The feature was a 2m drop into a bad transition ("Section B"), it was simply way too harsh. Its a drop that was supposed to boost you into a jump, but the furious bottom out actually did the opposite! Some adjustments where made to the size (reduction to a 1,5m(4ft) size) and that allowed for a way better transition ("Section A"). Now its a feature that's a joy to hit, and actually does boost your speed as initially intended. A successful castration!

Section "A" is where you want to land. Section "B" is where the rider landed. You don't want to land in "B"..

So this is how it was before the "castration". 2m(6ft) drop into "Section B". The impact forces where brutal. You can almost see how I squish..

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This is how it is now. 1,5m (4ft) drop into "Section A" Way more easy and more enjoyable. Just as exciting? No, but its all about finding the right balance.

This is what got removed:

Hitting it now.

17sec. Simple Edit. No sound.

To somewhat compensate for this castration, a new 2m(6ft) drop was finished elsewhere, the transition there is spot on.

Leron's simple front-suspension tip

Leron is a mountainbike guide from France, that I met on my Alps trip, he is a former region and local DH champion, and he had some tips for me regarding front suspension. I thought I would share it with you guys. I'm not keen to tamper with my front settings, I guess i'm a bit conservative in that regard, but I listened to his advice and here is what he told me;

The idea is to make to front work alot more in the middle of its stroke.

So this is what Leron says;

-Set sag at approx 25%-30%
-Keep the low-speed compression on the low side
-Keep the rebound on the fast side
-Lube your inner stanctions as often as possible with a silicon spray, to reduce sticktion.

I understand these terms are somewhat loose, but you get my(his) point. Its simple, but made my front sooo much better and Im still rocking it here on my local trails. Try it out! Its easy to do - You got nothing to loose.

"..next time Gadget"

Ahh, the Tree-gap. Much can be said about it, but people usually shot up before hitting it. Its mindfuck for sure, and not all of that mindfuck is justified - minduck tends to be that way.

 

Anyway, I had Jan with me this day, and he sure eyeballed that kicker...



 

Oh tree-gap, you charmy bastard..

Already looking forward to spring season..

Found this little gem. A little road-gap. The run-in is perfect, the landing is sloped, all it needs is a good takeoff. But there is too much water in the dirt right now to do a solid kicker, so this will be a spring 2015 project. Its big and scary, just like the ladies like it. Cant wait! : )

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Road, Takeoff and Landing outlined. 

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Glass half dull

So we packed our bikes and gear, and revisited a well known place. After a few hours of riding I began to reflect, and thought to myself about this place;

There was be a big rockgarden..

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A "river" crossing..

The weather was good..
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The jumps (to flat) where there..

But in the end, the overall experience was a bit dull.. We have been here before, and allthough this place has seen a huge facelift and an overall revision, it still lacks flow, creativity and an actual challenge..

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Oh well, back to the local lines..

Review: FiveTen VXI elements

So I'm finally concluding my sixth month on the FiveTen VXi Elements shoe. New and improved upon, well that's what FiveTen says anyway. They resemble the classic VXi shoe, and in many ways they do, there is however a big difference; they use a brand new rubber compound; Mi6 rubber, according to FiveTen its their most grippy rubber yet. 

The outer fabric is a DWR treated synthetic upper that repels water. Inside is a PUR foam insulation that wicks sweat but adds warmth.

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The big deal about the VXI Elements is the Mi6 rubber. Supposedly it had the best grip yet. And yes, it really is sticky.

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Weight (Actual, same size):

Original Freerider is 960g

Freerider PRO is 880g

Freerider VXi is 855g

Freerider VXi Element is 795g

The diet obviously continues..

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Comfortable and protective.

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These shoes can take a small shower..but when it really gets wet, the problems become more apparent, water can simply not escape. So that DWR treated upper actually works against the shoe in the end.

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This is after a month of intense use....hmmmmm....

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This is after 4 months, I didn't appreciate that huge open hole.

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So is the FiveTen VXI Elements a good shoe? The short answer is no. The Mi6 rubber is simply too fragile. Before I knew it, I had a big hole beneath the shoe, and at this pricepoint, this simply isn't acceptable. Sure it has loads of grip, and its a great shoe if you are into some protection as well, but otherwise, just stay away, and stick to the FiveTenVXI(classic).

The Good:

-Repels water

-Sub 800g weight

-Rubber is sticky as always

-Stiff bottom

-Great protection

The Bad:

-Very low durability

-Trapped water is just that. Trapped.

-Relatively Expensive

Score: 1/6

Different trips yo

All sorts of pics from different trips we've been on, some fresh of the press, some from end September (?). Anyway, have a look.

Jan hitting the Skull Drop. I was on the verge of being proud, Jan has come a long way in terms of hitting stuff. So to see him hit a drop this size was awesome, great job buddy!

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Karl and Bartek grinding gears on a uphill...

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..When they reached the top it looked liked this, I think I saw some puke : )

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Drea hitting the tree-gap. The airtime is still heartwarming : )

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A newly build hip-double.

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3 short GoPro vids from the Alps

3 short vids approx 1 minute each. All 3 clips are recorded the same day, so it also shows the diversity we had this day. These lines where friggin amazing - so sit back and enjoy : )

Remember HD is available!

The French Alps Part 5/5

Last photo series of our Alps trip.

A small bikepark-ish area near Chamonix. It was a very trail-bike friendly place with some smooth and nicely sculptures lines, we pretty much just passed by, but rode the lines a few times tho'. Here I hit a "natural" drop.

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The scenery was often mindblowing. Just keep on track, 

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Lifts, lifts! LIFTS!! The alps are packed with lifts!

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I'm in France, but the mountains you see here in the background belong to Switzerland. Some of the trails actually took us inside Switzerland, only to loop out and into France again.

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Locals?

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Thats it. Sore, tired and one hell of a experience richer.

 Packed and ready to go back. What a cool trip this was : )

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Hope you guys enjoyed.

The French Alps Part 4/5

The Bikes.

I could easily tell you guys what bikes worked well in the high alps on this all-mountain trip, and which bikes didn't, but decided against it.

So, just enjoy the bikes. Expect carbon frames, big carbon wheels and 11-speed drivetrains.

Santa Cruz 5010

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 Cannondale Scalpel.

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Specialized Stumpjumper? or was it a Camber? I actually don't remember. It was black and red, mkay.

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Santa Cruz Tall Boy.

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Banshee Spitfire.

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The slackest, longest, lowest and heaviest bike among the group. Should I do the trip once again, I would bring the same bike - well except perhaps with a 11 speed drivetrain. Mont Blanc in the background btw.

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The French Alps Part 3/5

More alps! 

Peter ate some dirt on a descend..or rather...he ate a small tree. There where some crashes here and there, and we had two guys with sore ribs, they actually had to skip the last day of riding, but overall I think we got away pretty lucky. 

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What did hurt, was the sore muscles after 6-8 hours of riding each day. Arms, shoulders, hands where burning, Ive reached an age where I have to swallow some painkillers to keep smiling.

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Not every section was ridebale. Sometimes the fastest line to a section was via bushes and trenches. We quickly named this praxis "hike-a-bike" - the longest was 40minutes...by accident tho'.

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Chilling on a hill in the Jura Mountains upper Alps, next to Geneva.

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The Jura Mountains was the single biggest surprise for me on this trip. Its just to the west of Geneva, and on the very end of the Apls. Its not particularly impressive visually (compared to the high alps), so I didnt expect much. But this place had some of the best, if not THE best mountain bike riding I have ever tried (I'm sorry whistler). Our guide showed us some local lines, and they where simply rediculously good. Truly technical, flowy, steep, rocky - well you name it. I could be riding here all week as this place was packed with trails. 

Here Nico hits a rockgarden. Man I wish I had more footage from this area.

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More to come.

The French Alps Part 2/5

Some more about my enduro-specific (oh no I didn't!) trip.

Lifts... mans best friend. We did our share of climbing each day, crank-grinding between 800 and 1200 positive meters. But the lifts took us higher and further, it was such a cool combination.

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Literally the view from our cabin. We lived in a small town called Les Carroz, 1140m above sea level. This was our base, and 5 out of 6 days we left the area by shuttle to go ride the most interesting lines.

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While 95% of the time we had dry conditions, we had our share of mud riding as well, some of it was hilariously fun tho', so I didn't mind it that much. I think this is my lower leg : )

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Most of it was crispy dry tho'

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My poor Predator pedals. The alu-pins had a tough time. I'm glad they are easy to replace, because I did so 14 times during the 6 days. Speaking of platform pedals, I had my doubts that this was the right choice for a trip like this, you know, with all the crank-grinding, but it really was the right choice for all the DH and tech stuff...and there was a lot of that. Sure click pedals would be better on the climbs, but at the end of the day, after 6 days of riding, the benefit was bigger on flats I would say.
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I visted Les Gets bikepark twice, propably one of the best known bikepars in the world, sits right next to Morzine bikepark, and some 30 minutes from Chatel Bikepark. The park is huge with three lifts and spread out on to two mountains (!) Here I stand on top of one end, and in the background you see the other part of the park. I had the naive vision of riding the famous Airline-trail, but after seeing the 10m doubles and 7 meter drops..I hesitated a bit.. Its absolutely unforgiving, the French mean business.. Check a skilled rider tackle it HERE.

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I decided to get a single day of bikepark-only riding. And our guide hooked me up with a friend of his that could give me a lift to Les Gets, little did I know that this guy wanted to join me in on a day of bikepark riding. A local guy in a huge bikepark? FUCK YEARH! I knew from the beginning that this meant exploring every interesting inch of the bikepark, as well as the best combination of lines, and other do's and dont's.

Meet Leron, 40 yrs old, former local downhill champion, now works part-time as a mtb guide for kids. At first glance, his casual look didn't impress - oh boy was I wrong to judge. Leron was a ripper! I'm talking about speed, I'm talking about whips (both sides yo!), and guts. Respect. I just tried to feed of him as much as possible.

Btw. If you enlarge this pic, do notice the inverted (!) BOS dual crown fork with the entire upper made out of titanium. There are only 3 in existence, and this is the only one functioning. He bought it from Nico Vouilloz (yes that Nico Vouilloz). 

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Here Leron gaps a double in upper part of Les Gets bikepark. Landing to the far left.

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More to come.