There has not been any new snow (of consequence) in the past couple of weeks here in SW Montana which has meant that the trails we had packed down for snow biking are not optimal. Fortunately we have access to the Pipestone area which is about 20 minutes away.
Pipestone sits about 1,000 ft lower and has more southern exposure which usually means it is in better riding shape for regular mountain biking. I have made a couple of trips out there in the past week and it has been super fun. There are couple of patches of snow and a few sneaky ice patches but most of the dirt out there is frozen which makes for super tacky conditions.
The snow bike has been the bike of choice as of late and despite the good mountain biking conditions in Pipestone, the bike of choice was still the 9zero7 phattie. It is more a curiosity about the capabilities of the big tires on regular dirt than anything....it is fun to test the limits on new bikes and figure out what bike rider are able to do.
I have noticed the bottom bracket sits a little lower and the bike is not as snappy relative to my cross country setup. This is a combo geometry & weight issue. The bike weights about 10 pounds more than my regular cross country bike and almost double the weight of the single speed! It is great training for this time of year but the moral of the story here is that you should not take a heavy snow bike out if you want to throw your bike around on tight, twisty singletrack.
The upside is that the lower pressures in the tire and the tire width do provide for amazing traction.
It was a good day to be out on the bike - I had the trails mostly to myself. I heard moto's but only ran into 1 other person. It was a little chilly but warmed up once a guy started to pedal....all in all, a thumbs up!
2 hours on the bike on a clear day - can't complain....
Pipestone sits about 1,000 ft lower and has more southern exposure which usually means it is in better riding shape for regular mountain biking. I have made a couple of trips out there in the past week and it has been super fun. There are couple of patches of snow and a few sneaky ice patches but most of the dirt out there is frozen which makes for super tacky conditions.
The snow bike has been the bike of choice as of late and despite the good mountain biking conditions in Pipestone, the bike of choice was still the 9zero7 phattie. It is more a curiosity about the capabilities of the big tires on regular dirt than anything....it is fun to test the limits on new bikes and figure out what bike rider are able to do.
I have noticed the bottom bracket sits a little lower and the bike is not as snappy relative to my cross country setup. This is a combo geometry & weight issue. The bike weights about 10 pounds more than my regular cross country bike and almost double the weight of the single speed! It is great training for this time of year but the moral of the story here is that you should not take a heavy snow bike out if you want to throw your bike around on tight, twisty singletrack.
The upside is that the lower pressures in the tire and the tire width do provide for amazing traction.
It was a good day to be out on the bike - I had the trails mostly to myself. I heard moto's but only ran into 1 other person. It was a little chilly but warmed up once a guy started to pedal....all in all, a thumbs up!
2 hours on the bike on a clear day - can't complain....
Dude, the dry track is a sad state of affairs, though I remember riding that very same area...dry...in the dead of winter almost 15 years ago! (slightly more challenging route finding, possibly?) So, you going to Whiskey Off Road, you heard about the Top 10 lottery for South Africa, SSWC 12, eh? (didn't watch the Vid, so apologies if that is in there) But yeah, top 10 SS finishers in Prescott go into a lottery for free trip to Zulu land. I have already sailed this past the decision maker, not much bite :-( Lastly, dude, do you really tape your handlebars? Hard core! After half of Point to Point with no grip at all I am all about cushy handlebars!! -H
ReplyDeleteH-man, Hope you guys had a good holiday season! The route finding is still a big maze although there are great reference points in the Highlands and the Tobacco Roots to figure out where you are relative to where you parked the car. After a few rides it start to make a little more sense but there are definitely a few of those 'I have been here before, but have no idea where I am' moments. I am not sure about the Whiskey yet - I would love to do it but just not sure if it will work schedule wise - it looks like a great course...set up sorta like the Puff - lots of climbing on road and then sweet singletrack descent. I am currently working for a company out of Phoenix so I might try to schedule a work trip around that time frame and do the race. No aspirations of SSWC for me though - too many fast guys like you to contend with - I am firmly rooted in my reality of trying to finish these bad boy events! The tape probably looks more hard core than it is - what it does not reveal is that there are 3 layers of cork! I figured I would try it and see how it felt - def not committed to longer events on that set up yet. How was the P2P?
ReplyDeleteHey, P2P was awesome. I came in under 9 hours which was just one of those arbitrary pre-race goals. There were definitely some fast guys, and I made a tactical error not starting closer to the front. I was in a mega train of geared riders who did not honor the wave start, i.e. positioning by estimated finish time. So all the guys I was chasing started up with the sub-eight crowd...and I was blocked by a bunch of 10-11 hour finishers who started in sub-9. Anyway, I had a blast! I biffed early and totally destroyed an Ergon bar-end grip, so I was running naked carbon on one side for half the race...not fun. It is a really technical course, particularly from the Canyons on, some new trail called mid-mountain was hein (ous). I think I can improve on the finish, though. What's nice is it can be very easily self-supported, and is very family friendly (great pump track for my son in Park City!!) nice places to stay for not much $$ in PC, good eats, and we kicked back at a local reservoir the Sunday after. Highly recommend, especially if you like singletrack and bumps! OH...have you gotten your tape wet yet? I have always found bar tape to be very slippery when wet...otherwise, kick ass on that mega fat bike, very cool indeed!!
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