Trail spotting

Took a small trip to the Tatra Mountains between the Polish and Slovakian border. Ive been here two times previously, and I have to say that this place still leaves me in awe. Bikes are nowhere to be seen here, as conservative rules corrupt the modern way of thinking, and what a shame that is. Untouched, forbidden, and an underdog of a place, if there ever was one. I give you these pictures.

The most beautiful scenery ive seen in Europe. The High Tatras are amazing.

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You can barely see the trail here, its EVIL.

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Some spots where just beyond rideable, well to me at least.

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Find waldo

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Wallpaper-scenery

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RaceFace SIXC warranty update

I got more than a few questions about how my RaceFace SIXC warranty went, I had to reply that it was still something that was being processed by ChainReactionCycles/Raceface. Well the wait is over, and I finally know the outcome. Lets me take you through a quick stroll of how things went down:

It all began with my pedal hitting a rock. Pedal was just fine, but the thread in the crankarm was not. In fact, it got stripped (!)

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I wrote a letter to ChainReactionCycles (CRC) explaining what happened, I even documented to CRC that RaceFace was aware of this issues/weakness of the SIXC crankset, this is what the newest version of the crankset has to offer:

CRC gave me this reply:

I went like this:

Then I sent it in anyway.


3 weeks passed, and now this:

2012 Raceface SIXC crank. WITH CrMo pedal inserts! FAHK YEAH!

Being a guinea pig

Being the first one (ever) to hit a new feature, is allways a bit scary. Is the kicker too long? is it too short? Is it too steep, or too flat? How about the transition? Whats the optimal speed? There is alot of questions, but noone to answer them. This also, admittably, makes things exciting.

First hit on the new Church drop. 18 sec. 240Fps. No sound. 

Review: Specialized Clutch SX 2.3"

The Clutch SX was designed for; "railing high speed turns and plowing over the harshest terrain, with a low knob pattern that provides the best mix of speed, traction, and control in intermediate conditions". Sounds like the perfect DH tire, right? Thing is, this really is a mediocre performing tire.

So I had a chance to test this tire for an entire year, in several different bikeparks, and even on more than a few rocky AM all-day trips as well. I had the Clutch installed on the front, as well as the rear. Lets start with the front;

As a front tire, this tire is a descent performing tire in dry and wet conditions, tracks well in rocky situations. But my complaint has to be that the off-camber grip is somewhat missing. I had my biggest off-camber crash with this tire installed, and Im quite confident that the tire was mostly to blame, it just began to wash away during a high speed descend through this off-camber section. (my friends stayed on the line). Berms and roots are handled just fine.

The best performance I got out of this tire was as a rear tire. It was doing its job just fine, tracking the ground as I wanted it to do, and it is even shedding the mud pretty good as well. But just don't expect mistake swallowing performance. The tire was also quite prone to snakebites, as soon as I got a little bit experimental with lower tire pressures.

There is nothing wrong with a mediocre performing tire, but I think most would agree that choosing an outstanding performing tire, would be the better choice.

Size: 2.3"
Tested on: Front and Rear
Claimed weight: approx 1000 gram
Actual weight: Stay tuned
Score: 3/6

Rear tire installation, this is where you suck the best performance out of the Clutch SX

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Testing was done on the front as well, some of the testing was painful.

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iFound crap

I bet most mountain bikers have a lot of old mtb-stuff laying around. Stuff they no longer use, broken stuff, outdated stuff, you name it.

I have such a bin as well, well its just gotten bigger and bigger, and decided to throw most of it out (yearh, like im going to install old-school green grips on my bike..) A few things caught my attention on its was to the bin, check it out;

Remember when platform pedals looked like this? Man, it sure is a different ball game today.

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The death of the Shiver saddle. Happened without drama, no anal destruction, or nuclear meltdown, just a faint *snap*.

Note the adjuster screw on this SRAM X0 derailleur. I somehow snapped it, so I went to a respectable LBS and called for a replacement screw, he looked at me and went; "Do you know this is the FIRST time ever someone comes up to me with a broken adjuster screw. There is no spare!" We made a ghetto solution, and it worked just fine.

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Remember the days when Carbon bars was THE shit. And remember when 660mm was considered wide? Well I do, and this is what I rode. Now, its just pointless.

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