Spy shots: Shimanos answer to XX1?

Most recently in the wide drivetrain news was the fact that SRAM had released X01, a trickle down group from their top tier elevel speed drive train. What was puzzling about this new groupset was the fact that it weighed just 40-60g more than XX1 and retained both similar features and the blindingly high pricetag! SRAMs argument was at the original equipment level X01 worked out far cheaper meaning complete bikes would be both eleven speed and fairly affordable. Where however does that leave the riders who, like me, buy a frame and either build it up with a custom specification or alternatively use many parts from their old bike to keep the cost down. The rumours are still circulating about XX9 and how soon we will see it being released however on Jared Graves' winning Yeti from the EWS at Crankworx Whistler something exciting was being tested. Although Graves appears to be using a standard 10 speed XTR mech (likely long cage) it's coupled up to what appears to be a 11-40/42 cassette (standard freehub compatible), providing similar ratios to XX1 but without having to replace the rest of the drivetrain! Even if cassette prices were similar to the prices SRAM are charging merely by making the system compatible with the existing shifting gear brings the price down massively. RRP for the existing XTR cassette is £209.99 (cheapest XX1 ~ £245 (Bike-discount.de) so even if it went up by another £50 it would still be undercutting SRAM massively! Some healthy competition can only be a good thing for the wide range cassette market although it'll be some time yet before we can purchase the Shimano offering. Although the lower 7 cogs appear to be of the standard XTR variety the upper 3 seem a very rough prototype - no doubt Shimano will wish to refine these further prior to releasing more information.

Graves' custom set up - credit GeeBeeBee Media

Back to basics

A note: I have had revision/exams at college these past couple of months and now they are finished plan to update my blog more regularly. I am heading to Megavalanche in 2 weeks so I will post a full blog post about that soon after the event!

When I first took mountain bikes off road it was a good friend who convinced me into it. We went down to the local hill and rode down it as fast as possible, pedalling like mad men before coming to a halt at the bottom. It was amazing. Nowadays there seems to be so many different disciplines; downhill, four cross, all mountain, cross country, trail, enduro, freeride and dirt jump. Each rider is pigeonholed into a certain category, each ride a certain type. Recently this has begun to grind my gears as we see trail riders calling cross country lads the lycra brigade and freeriders berating enduro riders for enjoying climbing! This kind of an attitude is why I've started just riding in the woods. I'll pull on my knee pads, stick an open face helmet and a pair of gloves on, then pull my 150mm travel full sus out the garage and go for a hoon. I don't need to ride a certain set of trails on this ride. After a steady climb to the top of the hill I crank hard and begin to plough my way down Almost Cut My Hair, a flat-out, rooty set of steep(ish) chutes, grinning like someone from the funny farm! I'll then steadily climb back up before picking up the pace down Rad Lane, a long trail full of smooth corners, smaller roots and a few small jumps to keep things interesting! After that I'll feel like something with a really natural feel - a more worn out trail - so I'll ride Evian! After I can climb over to Fly Tipper and Northern Monkey, one a jump fest with the other steep corners into a flat out berm-filled wonder land! As you may have gathered on these rides I ride everything from trails firmly parked in the cross country category, all the way up to proper freeride style trail with 10ft gaps and serious potential for carnage!

But hold on a minute. Did I just ride all of that with the same bike and kit?! Many mountain bike magazines would argue that you couldn't possibly ride all those trails on one bike, surely you would need a whole garage worth of steeds?! The point of this post is essentially to try and blow away the myth that you need a different bike for each type of ride! Sure it's nice, but for the most part, completely unnecessary! To summarize I basically hope for mountain biking to go back to its roots, where one bike did it all and people just having fun on bikes!

Tech news: SRAM Roam and Rail wheelsets

Two years after the release of their Rise cross country hoops, SRAM have given news of two new wheelsets aimed at the trail and enduro market. Aptly named Roam and Rail these come with two alloy options and one carbon, in 26", 27.5" and even 29"!

With both products SRAM started from scratch, the first product being the Roam trail hoops. All budgets are catered for with both a carbon (Roam 60) and aluminuim option (Roam 50), using hub internals from the DT 240s. The 60s weigh a claimed 1495g for the 26", 1550g for the 27.5" and 1625g for the 29" which is actually heavier than their aluminium alternatives - the 60 aimed at more of a range of hardcore riding than the 50. The 60s are slated to arrive in July for the 26" and August for the other sizes. Pricing is expected to be around the £1700 mark.

Both the 50s and the 60s have an internal rim width of 21mm, the 50s using an aluminium rim to keep costs down and weight low, in fact coming in 20-24g less than the carbon option, being aimed at lighter riding. The set of both wheels comes in at 1475g for the 26", 1530g for the 27.5" and a sprightly 1611g for the 29". An RRP of £840 is what SRAM are currently planning however this could change closer to the time.

The Rail wheelset is designed to be a wider, burlier version of the roam, aimed at all mountain riding over trail. It only comes in aluminium, with a 23mm internal width and extra material in high stress areas! The 26" rim weighs 500g, just 90g more than the Rise 50 equivalent. The 26" weighs 1690g, the 27.5" 1750g and the 29" 1830g. They are expected to cost the same as the Roam 50 (£840), aiming for the mid to high end target market.

The new hoops from SRAM look set to make an impact on the wheelsets, offering a lightweight, full UST rim system, with top quality hubs at a mid range price-point. Only the future will tell how reliable and strong they are and if durability has been sacrificed for the sake of lightweight.

Perspective

Over the last few weeks I've been taking a long look at mountain biking. I've evaluated what I wish to gain or get out of the sport, and what I am currently getting. Sadly, at the moment these are two different things. I currently ride mostly downhill and all mountain, good for technique but poor with regard to fitness and stamina. I have spent the majority of weekends over the last couple of years racing downhill also, going and practicing one line for a day, before 2 or 3 race runs, resulting in less than half an hours actual riding for the whole day. For me, those races were a laugh, the riding was top quality however there just wasn't enough of it!

As a direct result of this, I plan to still race downhill but to focus on enduro, as this is a way to encompass the competitive element into my riding, whilst still getting an entire day on the trail. For those less au fait with enduro racing, it essentially comprises of multiple (usually five) timed stages on flat or downhill trails roughly 5 minutes long. Much like a rally these stages are linked by longer, climbing stages which although not timed, do have a time limit. This means that you get multiple hours on the bike, rather than short minute long bursts! Compounding this is you can ride accompanied by other riders, giving a social element that just isn't present in downhill.

As you may have read (or seen on my Twitter feed) I have signed up to compete in the Megavalanche this year, in Alp d'Huez, which is one of the widest-recognised enduro races. It differs in format slightly to the UK enduros comprising of one long stage roughly an hour to an hour and a half and 30km in distance. This event is predominantly downhill however is interspersed with climbs to prevent it being one long downhill race. I am incredibly excited about this as the event gives a chance to ride incredible terrain, whilst rubbing shoulders with seasoned professionals such as Jerome Clementz and Dan Atherton. I expect this to be somewhat of a baptism of fire however ultimately rewarding (assuming I exit the race unscathed).

So, is downhill dead? Enduro the phoenix rising from the ashes? By no means, the UK downhill scene is flourishing more than ever with the recent crop of enduro events just adding to the vista of competitive mountain biking available in the country. Will I stop racing downhill in lieu of enduro? No, however I will be racing less of the former and just getting out and riding, to paraphrase a well known mountain biking publication.

One of those days...

Occasionally every cyclist will have "one of those days" where you should have left the bike in the shed and just watched a bit of telly with a nice warm drink. Sunday's ride was one of those days. The ride had serious potential to go wrong from the moment I opened the front door with pouring rain and an evil wind greeting me in conditions of 2 degree above 0.

Half an hours drive later we parked close to the trails and got the bikes out, gearing up ready to go. As we began to climb towards the trails the ominous sight of a river running through the uplift path should have been a large warning sign! Regardless we pushed on and soon arrived at the trailhead after eyeing up some rather large (read 20ft+) drops and deciding to "hit them next time". We began to pedal down the trail which although chalky and wet was running surprisingly well however we soon had to stop to remove our goggles that had become overwhelmed in the appalling conditions rather quickly! The rest of the trail passed without incident and we got to the bottom coated in mud and feeling like Danny Hart after his race run at Champery (google it!) having ridden at a fair pace over wet and new terrain.

Soon after things began going downhill quickly as we got soaked to the skin and began to cool down. Despite out best efforts our temperatures continued to plummet and after a couple more runs we called it a day. The final descent was by far the best as we plastered down the footpath we had climbed earlier that now resembled a river, grinning from ear to ear and smashing it flat out! We reached the bottom to find out the road we'd ridden was also rather lake-like and so we plastered down that doing our best to soak each other in the process!

We grabbed lunch from Truffles in Steyning (who deserve a big thanks for not minding 2 muddy mtb'ers coating their shop in gunk) which was completely delicious and much needed but we were still freezing and not really enjoying ourselves. At this point we called it a day as a legendary, memorable ride but one that would have got dangerous had we continued it!

Overall, Steyning downhill was great fun to ride and I can't wait to go again once the weather improves: there are some big jumps there I want to perfect but in the freezing rain it's less than fun!

Going tubeless

As far as changes to my bike go, it's all been rather manic! After writing off my previous 6 year old rim I decided to update my wheel/tyre system to something far lighter and a bit more up to date. Some online research and a few phone calls later and a lovely set of Hope Hoops were on their way to me: their uber-reliable Pro2 Evo hubs laced up to Stans No Tubes Flow Ex rims. I chose this wheelset as I wanted reliability and strength matched with relatively light weight (1880g), something this wheelset gave in spades. Whilst I was at it, I decided to refresh my tyre choice as well moving away from my trusty high rollers, instead fitting a set of Schwalbe Hans Dampfs. This is Schwalbes brand new all condition tyre, something I was excited to try out.

I decided to go tubeless at the same time, using the Hope/NoTubes conversion kit for the Flow rims. This is a fantastic piece of kit and proved laughably easy to set up. It was a case of sticking the tape firmly down in the rim bed (I left the original cloth rim tape on), fitting the valve stem and seating the tyre sans sealant and finally adding sealant and inflating. The whole procedure was trouble free and simple but that could well have been down to both the tyres and rims being brand new.

I am running the Hans Dampf tyres at roughly 30psi at the moment however I expect I will drop them down further but my initial impressions were very good! The first proper ride was at some local (ish) downhill trails where the conditions were muddy, chalky, wet and horrible! The tyres gripped well and slid predictably whilst staying composed on roots, everything I wanted from a tyre! I dropped pressures steadily throughout the day yet never experience burping. Having said that we stayed clear of the big jumps due to the conditions.

Overall both the wheels and the tyres are very good: they're reliable, strong, light and easy to set up tubeless.  If you're looking for a reliable and relatively lightweight wheelset for less than £350 then you can't go far wrong with the Hope Hoops for all mountain riding, but more XC orientated riders could get lighter if they are willing to sacrifice strength! A few months down the line I'll post up a long term review, to see what shape the components are in after some serious hammering!

Long term product review: Shimano Zee mech/shifter

Shimano's latest groupset, Zee, is aimed at the gravity/enduro market bringing an affordable, efficient and hard wearing 1x10speed drivetrain to the masses. Having written off both mechs and mech hangers using a widespread cassette with a long arm derailleur I jumped at the chance to do a long term test of the new shifting equipment.

There are two key qualities I look for when purchasing drivetrain components, namely functionality and long life. If a mech has incredible shifting action that means nothing to me if the first time it collides with a rock I have a long walk back to the car! In that respect the Zee parts have been faultless. Running a complete outer cable to prevent grime ruining the shifter seems to be working so far. I've been using the same cable (both inner and outer) since fitting way back in August of last year, meaning it's survived 7 months of riding including most of winter, not a regular occurrence! 

Still running sweet after a hammering at PORC

Since the setting up the gears with the wide range 11-36 cassette (Deore grade) they've remained maintenance free, somewhat of a rarity and a key reason why I love this set-up. A combination of work, studies and college mean what free time I have I want to enjoy riding my bike not fixing it. As a result the reliable and solid nature of the Zee gear more than makes up for the minimal weight increase over XT (12 grams for the derailleur) which can be saved elsewhere by having a smaller breakfast prior to riding!

The most anticipated feature for me was without doubt the Shadow+ rear mech essentially a clutch system designed to stiffen the cage to quieten down the bike. Although something you don't initially notice when riding the bike, the moment you hop aboard one without a clutch-mech fitted the difference is noticeable. It sounds as if you are riding with a bag of spanners dragging behind! 

Moving on to the shifter it is a well thought out desig, with comfortable ergonomics and a dimpled thumb release for extra grip with gloved hands. Although perhaps lacking the "snap" of a SRAM shifter, the gear change is both definite and smooth, with the multiple downshift being a handy feature when a climb sneaks up on you! 

Overall the both the mech and the shifter are well thought out and neatly executed however very much aimed at the gravity market and those wanting more than a double and bash at the front would want to look elsewhere. Shimano Zee is a bombproof, value for money alternative for those not wanting to shell out for Saint, keeping most of the features but not the hefty pricetag!

Film Review: Where The Trail Ends (original version)

Original version of review

The latest mountain bike film from Freeride Entertainment and Red Bull Media has landed: Where The Trail Ends. Spread across a variety of locations across the globe ranging from Canada to China, this movie certainly has the locations, but does it meet the hype?

Kurt Sorge sending a huge superman, credit Where The Trail Ends

Where The Trail Ends is very well shot, with stunning cinematography at all times, featuring some incredible riding. There are breathtaking and bone crunching moments in equal measure throughout, keeping the viewer entertained and involved, however some of the features on the culture of the country being filmed in can disenchant the watcher, if these segments were cut down upon I don't feel it would detract from the film as a whole, though these scenes played a key  part in the atmosphere of the film and should by no means be cut out completely.

Darren Berrecloth smashing a huge road gap, credit Where The Trail Ends

Overall if you love stunning scenery and incredible riding then Where The Trail Ends is definitely a film you should be putting on your watch list, however if you prefer tricks and slopestyle then give this one a miss, as it's pure, unadulterated freeride through and through, an absolute cracker!

Film review: Where The Trail Ends (re-edit)

Edited version based upon feedback from readers

Where The Trail Ends; a stunning mountain bike flick from Freeride Entertainment has landed, with locations across the world, from Canada to China, featuring mind-boggling riding coupled with breathtaking cinematography. With riders such as Berrecloth, Doerfling and Lacondeguy this movie is going to go off with a bang!

Kurt Sorge sending a superman, credit Where The Trail Ends

The riding is both breathtaking and bone crunching, keeping the audience captivated throughout, as stomach-flipping head cam shots are coupled with cinematic vistas shot by helicopter of incredible lines. At times the background of the culture can intrude upon the flow of the footage, however it breaks up the non-stop freeriding, a big plus for the less fervent viewer, acting as both a positive and a negative factor.

Darren Berrecloth smashing a huge road gap, credit Where The Trail Ends