Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Whiteout

I attended yet another snow bike race and this time w/ the Family in tow.  The kids and Jen were looking for a getaway weekend so we headed up to the Cayuna Whiteout.  The weekend was fun and the only mistake I made was not bringing my ice racing studs...next year!
The fatbike race was not a technical challenge for the most part, but I still got some good intensity in.  Yes, I got caught on camera trying to cheat the wind by getting in the fat bike TT position. 

Next year I hear they will have more than one short stretch of singletrack.  If so, I will be back.

In Tech news, I have been running a super secret drive train.  It is a standard 10 speed rear, but with my beloved XTR Shadow Plus  rear derailleur (clutch type...I will never run a non-clutch rear der again) and a chain ring from a new company called Wolf Tooth Components.  The super secret part is that w/ this combo, no chain guide is needed because of the wide and narrow teeth on the chain ring which keep the chain more aligned on the chain ring (a  la XX1 but can  be run much cheaper  with XT, XO or X9 clutch type rear der).  There are a handful of us testing these chain rings including some guys aggressively riding dirt in CA and Mike Curiak who currently crossing the AK wilderness with a middleburn direct mount version.   The summary of the testing is that the performance has been flawless with no chain dropping, so go order yourself one!  Check out the sram direct spline mount option that is in development (product page), and recall that SRAM just announce X9 and X5 fat bike cranks.

I hear a carbon fat bike is still coming my way... soon.  Look for the all the details in the next couple weeks.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just curious, what tires and PSI did you run at Cuyuna Iron Yeti?

Custom Precision Manufacturer said...

This is the good blog with good images and good details. Please keep on posting the more stuff. I will like to hear more from you.

Brendan said...

I think I was running ~10-11 PSI at Cayuna because it was soooo groomed. I would call that an atypical snow bike race and typically I run a little lower for snow XC (singletrack) races

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine a Snow Ride, I recently purchased a road bikes and can't wait to try things like this out. Good luck with further rides!