Flats vs Clips

This has been a choice which splits riders since the beginning of time. I've always been a flats man till now. Since I started riding properly in around 2007 I've used flat pedals and have never had any problems with them in general. They suited what I ride which is a great variety of stuff! When people ask what I ride I usually just say 'trails'. Under that umbrella comes downhill, freeride, trials (not trails), all mountain, enduro cross country... I could probably name more. My point is that the flat pedal allows you to ride all of this. Ok, so maybe you don't have the security of your foot being clamped to the pedal through a rooty downhill section like you would on clipless pedals and shoes. Or not having consistent power for those steep loose climbs, but I felt like flats were a good compromise at the time. I'd grown up on them and gained confidence, so why change?

Cleat

The simple answer is that I wanted to experience clipless shoes and pedals properly to see if they could offer me any advantages. Some people would say "don't fix it if it ain't broke" which is a good point but what if it could be better? I opted for a pair of Shimano M647 DXs as I wanted something durable with a big platform. This is exactly what you get with the DXs but at the expense of weight. For shoes I went for the Shimano AM-45s as I have used Shimano's flat pedal equivalent AM40s and AM41s for ages and have had good experiences with them. Lots of people use this combination and rate it highly.

AM45s

Old and New

Unfortunately due to the bad weather and workload at uni, I've not been able to test them out on proper trails. However, I have managed to squeeze in a few street rides where I have also ridden up and down Constitution Hill here in Aberystwyth. I managed to get my PB climbing up Consti on a windy and rainy night. So climbing, tick. Clipless definitely makes a massive difference in that department. On the descent I was a little hesitant to give it full beans just in case I had to dab. I was practicing getting my foot in and out on the switchbacks so that clipping and unclipping would become a natural reaction. I was definitely more hesitant than usual on the descent but I am going to be persistent with till I am as confident with them as I am with flats.

Shimano DX

At this point there is not much more to say. I shall report back once I have done a bit more riding on them!

Introducing the new Theme / Layout!

So dudes, after sticking with the same theme for a long time I decided it was time for a change. I think it's easier to read now and a bit neater. I've added a Strava widget to the left of the page so you guys can see when and where I've been riding. Hopefully navigation is easier too.

It's been a bit of an ongoing project alongside my uni projects and exams so I've been messing with CSS and Javascript rather allot lately! This is partly the reason why I've not been getting out on my bike as much as I'd like to. This will all change soon when my new modules start and I don't have much work on!

Feel free to give me feedback, be it positive or negative!

Cheers

Forest of Dean Mini DH 26/01/14

Hey guys,

I've had a little bit of time to test the bike now and I'm really getting on with it! Over the weekend I raced a Mini DH at the Forest of Dean with the AberMTB crew. Having never been there before, I wasn't really sure what to expect. The track which was used was Sheepskull which was apparently one of the more pedally tracks there. This turned out to be a little bit of an advantage on some sections of the track although overall, the track was still more suited to a 180mm - 200mm downhill bike.

Practicing on Saturday was a good day of riding. It was very hard to learn a full track in a day and half which meant some of my racing lines were questionable to say the least. My main problem was the roots section towards the top of the track. There was a few different ways to go with the high line up and over some slightly off camber roots being much faster. I found this section the most difficult part of the track because I just couldn't seem to remember any markers which would aid me to point myself at the right line.

My mega was pretty faultless over the whole weekend which I was really pleased about. I had put some dual ply Maxxis Minion DHFs on in preparation for the weekend and it was the right choice. The track was really wet but not greasy so luckily I wasn't jealous of all the folk on spikes. Other than changing tyres, tyre pressures and fork/shock pressures, my bike was setup the same as how I ride it everywhere else. I ran the fork a little softer than usual to help cope with the ruts and braking bumps.

So by now you're probably wondering how I did in the rankings? Well, I shall tell you. My first run earned me a 1.43.89 which I was fairly happy with. It was consistent with a good pace all the way and no mistakes. I remember considering not doing a second run when the weather turned worse but after a long wait I pushed back up the hill to do another run. The track was in a similar condition to how it was on the first run. Very wet, but with a surprising amount of grip. On the second run I was a bit more aggressive and on some sections it payed of but I made some minor mistakes which gave me a time of 1.44.70. My placing was 46th out of 93. Overall I was 101st out of 296. Although I was not completely happy with my result, I understand that the Mega TR is a 130mm bike made for trail and all mountain riding. Taking this into account I think I can be happy with my result.

I really enjoyed the event but I'm not too sure whether I'll enter another. I want to concentrate more on Gravity Enduro as it is more suited to my bike and it doesn't involve as much standing around which is something that niggled me at this Mini DH event. Cheers to the event organisers for putting on a good show and the AberMTB crew for helping with lifts, accommodation a food!

New Bike! Nukeproof Mega TR 2013

Back again!


After monitoring eBay, Singletrack Classifieds and Dirt Classifieds for just too long, I finally found a new frame which I was happy with to replace the Reign. The decision to start saving and looking for something new came when I tried a variety of bikes at a demo day at Stainburn, Yorkshire which was put on by Stif Cycles. Before I rode any of the sparkly bikes (which were way out of my price range) I was relatively happy with my Reign. I thought, apart from many scratches and scuffs, it was still a great bike!

The first bike I swung a leg over was an Orange Five Pro. My dream bike. It rode very well. The geometry was spot on for me. It felt like I was in the bike rather than on it. This gives you much more confidence when railing corners because you don't feel like you're having to put effort into staying on the bike! I also like the fact that it has a little bit of lateral flex which helped me grip in corners. I'm not a heavy rider so this didn't become a problem but I can imagine if you've had a few too many pork pies your not going to get on with the flex. I could really feel the 650b wheels when it came to the rocky bits they sail over things much more easily. Some people say by using bigger wheels you are just dumbing down the trails for yourself. This is sort of true but you just need to ride and build gnarlier trails!

The second bike I rode was a Santa Cruz Blur TR which is a short-ish travel 26" trail bike. This was probably the most fun bike I rode that day. It was maybe not as fast as some of the other bikes over jagged rocks but in corners it was very flickable. On the demo day I scored a Strava KOM on one of the popular segments (500 people on the leader board) and I think it was on the Blur TR. I tried a frame size: Medium but I think I think I'd need a Large if I was to buy one.

I also rode a Santa Cruz Bronson and 5010 (Solo). The Bronson was alloy and felt very stiff. To me it felt like a pure enduro race bike. It wasn't as fun as the Blur but it was very fast. Cornering on loam was difficult because it was so stiff that you couldn't tell how much grip you had left. Maybe this was just something to get used to. The 5010 felt like a cross between a Blur TR and a Bronson. It was a little longer in the top tube than the Blur and as a result didn't feel quite as nimble but it was still a very flickable bike.

My conclusion was that the shorter travel bikes were more the sort of thing I was looking for. They seem to be able to handle rocky stuff almost as well as a 150/160 bike you just have to hold on tighter. It's the cornering that makes me really love shorter travel bikes. They just seem to control their travel much nicer and don't wallow in corners meaning you can really rip out of them!

When a 2013 Nukeproof Mega TR came up on the Dirt Classifieds within budget I went for it! I knew I could take the majority of the parts from my Reign and bolt them straight on. I only needed a new headset, wheel adaptors and a seatpost shim. I've only ridden her twice and on the first ride she shed her mech and a few spokes out of the wheel :( Luckily I had an old wheel with the same length spokes so I used them to build the wheel back up. I also bought a new Shimano XT Shadow + rear mech from the great folk at Westbrook Cycles. The second ride was ace! It was very windy and muddy, a few trees had come down that night which prevented me from going full pelt but it was great fun. The main issues I had with the reign are no more. The seat tube angle was too slack which made climbing difficult, the head tube angle was too slack which made it difficult in tight turns, but worst of all, the bottom bracket was too high! This made cornering and balancing on slow trialsy stuff very hard.

The mega has fixed all of this, I just need to be more careful not to bash my cranks/pedals on trail features now. I shall report back when I get some more riding on the bike done.

Here are some pics of her!

 

Cheers!

Any questions about the build or how it rides, please ask!