It's Been An Adventure Off The Bike

Blog posts have been few and far between over this past summer.

The neglect I have shown is the result of an all consuming focus on remodeling a home we bought in Butte, Montana in late July. After tacoing my front wheel on the Stumpy 29er during my ride with Cricket I was off the bike for about two weeks while I awaited the rims, hubs, and spokes I ordered in order to build myself a ballistic set of XC wheels. Then it came down to trying to find the time between wrenching at the shop, working on the new house, and family commitments. Riding the bike came to an abrupt halt.

It was hard to break the bike down last week and ship it home to Vegas where we live during most of the year. Well, I'm anxiously watching the progress of my Stumpy in the FedEx pipeline. It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow, but at last check it was logged in at the Salt Lake City FedEx terminal and hasn't moved since last Friday. It better get here tomorrow, because I'm headed to Oregon and Texas for the next few weeks and it might be lost in limbo.

In the coming months I'll have more time to train and get myself back to a fitness state that was pre-Montana summer. Oh, it will happen. I have big plans for the coming year. The top tube boardroom doors are open and the committee in my head has called a meeting. Live strong ride long.

Built to Last

I was bombing down the CDT north of Homestake Pass with my friend, Tour Divide racer Cricket Butler, when I had the misfortune of letting my downhill speed thrill get the best of my tactical sense. I hit a compression between two rocks along the trail a little too hot and the result was a tacoed front wheel. After talking with the Specialized Tech Department I learned that the OEM wheel set for the 2011 Stumpy Expert carbon 29er has proven to be too weak for aggressive riders. There have been numerous reports to Specialized how this wheel sets have difficulty maintaining a true. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have expected such trouble with a DT Swiss wheel set. I've built three of these models in the last few months and all of their wheel sets have required truing right out of the box. Two customers have had similar issues with their wheels since they got delivery. 

So, it seems Specialized has decided to improve their OEM wheel set for the 2012 production models by changing over to a beefier Roval wheel set. Too late for me. To get me back on the trail again, since I only brought one bike back to Montana for the summer, I decided to take the bull by the horns and build myself a tank proof wheel set to take the abuse I'm likely to dish out. 

The result is a rock solid, no pun intended, set of Stan's No Tube ZTR Flow 29ers with DT Swiss 240 hubs, 1.8/2.0 DT Swiss Competition spokes, and WTB 2.1 Nano Raptor tubeless tires. I love the low pressure you can run, the improved climbing traction, and the positive tracking.

This rig has barely been ridden, but now that I'm back in Las Vegas the dirt will fly out in Red Rock Canyon.