WeTYC... profile

I'll just leave this here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCgYMFtxUUw

An older pic of descending LotS after an overnight trail-maintenance session (also rode/pushed up Lots as OtR was snowed in at that point)  Sleeping bag is on bar, tarp/sleeping pad on right fork leg, bivvy sack on left.  Gear stored vertically on the legs has a much lower moment of inertia and will impact steering less than across the bars.  It also has a lower CoG.  With this setup, I was almost able to keep pace with the rest of the crew who were handicapped by having their trail tools strapped to their packs.

(photo courtesy of Glamour Shots by Dan)

There is an egregious editorial error in this article that cannot be allowed to pass without comment.  The spirited man's dream job is NOT Land Rover mechanic, it is Land Cruiser mechanic.  The difference is night and day.  The Australians (examples of which were featured as recently as Weekend Warmup 112) have a saying:

If you want to go out in the bush, take a Land Rover.  If you want to come back, take a Land Cruiser.

Nobody dreams of being a Land Rover mechanic, they're forced into it after making poor life choices because it's the only alternative to remaining stuck in the desert drinking your own urine in a futile effort to survive. 

Because Lucas.

Did anyone else see the title image and wonder if the person with their back to the camera was actually Manservant Hecubus?

I'd much rather use goatskin gloves like these ones (also Wells Lamont) than cowhide for trail work. 

The closed grain of goatskin and lanolin makes them naturally water resistant (not waterproof by any stretch though) and they're tougher and more flexible for a given hide thickness.  Better than deer/buckskin in my books too.

Plus they are WAY more Himalayan blackberry (and thistle and...) thorn resistant if you encounter that sort of thing while building.

I for one still love my Hammershizzle.  Looking forward to a little snowfall to use the semi-fat Six-Pack to its full entertainment potential.  This bike was my primary for 5 years or so and I disassembled and re-greased the Hammer after around 3 years of all-season use.  Innards/grease still looked pristine.  Oh, and I probably shouldn't jinx myself, but I'm on my original BB.

With the combination of the HS up front and 6 cogs on a single speed hub in the rear my driveline lifespan is at least triple what I get out of XTR 1x11 with its cross-chaining BS* on another bike.  ...and the XTR has never seen conditions as nasty as what the Hammer routinely saw.

(*And that's with my BB offset non-drive and my 1x front chainring spaced way inboards to give the chain a straighter shot at the low cogs)

I saw a note on another site that Blackspire had shut down.  Their website just says it's now closed and thank-you for your support.  Has anybody heard anything?

Sad to see a company that has seemingly been around forever quietly cranking out a ludicrously large catalog of products go down.

Possibly an archival picture of their first product?

I'll pour one out for an OG and search for some spare Beaver Tails before stock is depleted.

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Sweet ride, but, but... Tell us about the toe clips!

Not toe clips, HALF clips!  Best of both worlds between flats and clipless.  ;)

Gives me almost as much pull-up and push forward ability as clipless, but instant lateral and rearwards release ...and they work well with [trail] work boots.

Biggest drawback is they are a consumable.  If I drop into something and don't have time to kick in (so the clip is on the bottom) it will shear off if struck.  Can also be snapped off if I kick something (but does provide a little toe impact protection)

It's been a long time since I had something "new" to lean. Last time I built up a new bike was in 2017!

I'd sworn I wouldn't move up from 26" wheels until I had a clean ride in Emerald, but then Conti started discontinuing their good 26" tires and I broke my 2011 Slayer, so I caved and got something a little more "modern"

Behold my new (to me) Triton!

It's a bit of a one-off that is pretty close to 2020 Chromag Surface geometry except rendered in Titanium. On key difference is instead of having Chromag's yokel for the chainstays, it's got this little piece of madness:

That's two pieces of billet Titanium that were machined out and then perimeter welded together (so the center is actually hollow)

Weight is just under 29lbs. (It was 29 before I started changing wheels/bars/...)

The bike came with E13 wheels. I found the noisy hub incredibly annoying. At one point, I came buzzing down a road and pulled to a stop, only to have a cinnamon bear wander out of a blueberry patch, get within a bike length of me, and give me a thorough sniffing as if to say, "I hears the bees--where the honey at?" before wandering away.

After a half-dozen rides, a rock put the derailleur into the spokes, so I needed to build a new wheel. I really wanted to try an Onyx hub for the silence, but the tales of Vesper reliability made me nervous and the classic is too damn heavy. I went on this huge vision quest trying to find other quiet but light hub options and in the end arrived back at the same hub I've used on my last 4 bikes: The DT Swiss 240s (non-EXP). With the non-boost hub (frame is 12x142) and the offset-spoke Stan's Flow MK4, I get the same spoke length and pretty equal spoke tension. After a couple of rides on the new wheel, I'm pleasantly surprised how quiet the new factory-lubed 18t setup is compared to my mix of old 18t and 36t hubs that are probably due for a clean/lube.

The bike also came with an 35mm/800mm Renthal Fatbar and it didn't take me long to realize I can't go back to riding a low-sweep bar and that I've got absolutely no use for wide or 35mm bars. They've been replaced with a 31.8mm/730mm/12deg Thomson Ti flat bar. Much better in terms of hand/wrist position and vibration damping.

Less about the bike (which hasn't changed since the last time it was posted) than the lean location:

Last minute decision to take advantage of an extra weekend of WA-20 auto closure resulted in me road riding on 26x2.35 Kenda Happy Mediums (the smoothest/skinniest tires I've got).  26 ain't dead, but I nearly was.  140km distance and 2585m of climbing over a weekend.  Rolling/aero resistance was high enough that I didn't touch my brakes on the 21km western descent, terminal velocity was 45km/h on the steepest (6%) grades, and on some of the lesser grades, I had to pedal to keep speed above 25km/h.

If the 12mm of snow the weather report was threatening had materialized, I would have looked like a genius.  It didn't so I didn't.

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That the Gords sang, and it pleased the Lord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ig2EL6WBEs&t=4190s

ps. Music starts after the donneybrook at 1:09:50.  For some reason Youtube auto-queue is insisting that you must watch the movie in its entirety.

pps. You've got to get up way too damn early in the morning to beat Syncro to the punch.

Posted by: TristanC

I'm living in Germany at the moment and I just picked up a pair of these, first ride this morning. They are a little shorter inseam than I'd like for my waist size, but they're otherwise comfy. No word on the waterproofness yet, but they were warm enough for a 28°F commute. The thighs have some vents, should be good for higher temps, and the knees have a weird overlapping vent as well. Like a pocket but upside down.

Looking forward to more updates so I can live vicariously through you!

My own updates:

I've had one ride on each of the Foehn Brise and IXS Carve AW but neither was in wet enough conditions to draw any final conclusions on waterproofness. 

The IXS have a feel more like a stretchy hard shell than soft shell with an intermediate level of crinkle.  They are pretty comfy--if they are as waterproof as they initially appear to be it's a tragedy they're so damn short.

The Brise are lighter-weight Schoeller and I'm not as confident in their water-resistance as I am with my heavier Schoeller jackets.

Posted by: Sethimus

if only there were some train tracks there on which a huge people mover could operate and carry those pesky city dwellers to the mountain…

*hugshisswisstrainnetworkflatratecard*

BRING BACK B.C. BUDD!

- a many time NVMons Budd rider

The DP3s definitely aren't for me.  If it's warm/dry enough that DP3s would be adequate, I'm wearing shants, not pants. 

I basically started this thread ruling out other options and narrowing down to the NF Berzerker looking like the best option.

The main thing that's kept me away from Berzekers is that I haven't seen them in a long inseam.  I'm actually hoping that the reason for NF's big sale is an impending revised version of the Berzerker (ideally with a longer inseam)

I also have to confess that I'm half-way hoping that someone with one of the local clothing producers (NF / 7Mesh / RF / Sugoi /...?) sees my rantings and incorporates some of the ideas to build "my perfect pants."

Bringing back this thread because I've got information, man! New shit has come to light!

I was hoping to get some rides in and get some pictures before posting a full report, but my hand has been forced by certain developments.  Foehn is having a sale and Brise pants are currently CA$99.97.  I thought I should get certain facts out there so those that are interested can score a deal while it's still available.

First off, I was worried that the Brise would be too aggressively tapered and wouldn't play well with knee pads.  I was wrong.  They fit over my large Chromag Rifts with zero stretching in a standing position and even fit over fairly bulky size-L first-gen RF Flank Knees (the slip-on ones) with mild stretching.  Actually significantly less stretching than whatever super-bulky monster pads than the model is wearing with the Tobin bike-focused pants in this picture.

Even though the cuffs have zippered openings, I can't hike them up enough to be able to slide on the knee pads while wearing the pants.  It's definitely a case of put on the pads then pull the pants up over them.

They are exactly a 32" inseam, as advertised.

It's not obvious even from Foehn's close-up pics of the pants, but they use 2" elastic for both the cuffs and waist.  The cuffs fit snugly over the uppers of my Shimano XM9 boots, but I think they will probably work their way loose over time while pedalling.   I'm tempted to rivet in a lace hook to make sure they stay in place, especially since the elastic should be better suited to that kind of abuse than poking holes in the Shoeller.

With a lace hook, I think that the 32" inseam will actually be enough for me.  If they were at least a 33" inseam, there would probably be enough material that they wouldn't stretch as much while pedalling and tend to work themselves off the boot.  Keep in mind that I normally would wear a 34" jean with shoes.

Before I scored the cheap lightly-used Brises (cheap enough that I was willing to gamble they wouldn't work with knee pads) I got a deal on some IXS Carve AWs.  The IXS's are only a 28" inseam, so they're kind of goofy water-proof man-pris on me, but I'm working on a cunning plan to avoid saucilly flashing my ankles at he elements.  The IXS's do have a few interesting features that I need to document for postarity wih pictures in case there are any clothing designers reading this that actually create pants for average mountain bikers.

So watch this space for updates with pictures and reports of the actual real-world waterproofness of both types of pants.

Posted by: TonyJ

The AM5.0 are actually a hard panel in the butt (wear zone), they are stretch in the other areas, but not as much stretch as the non-waterproof Enduro pant because of the membrane. The Enduro has a waterproof panel in the butt and has much more stretch overall.

The "hard-shell rustling" has never bothered me, but that could be because it just doesn't bother me.

The AM5.0s seem pretty promising.  What size to you wear, and any chance you could throw a tape measure on the inseam to confirm actual length?