Maiden Voyage.

[Wahine]

The Moots had the finishing touches on it's build last week and I've been waiting patiently to go out on it's first ride. The weather has not been cooperating. Here it is, before and close to the end of nearly 40 miles. We rode a rails to trails route. Pretty easy riding as far as mountain biking goes.

[Owlie]

Lovely bike!

[hebe]

That's a very pretty bike :) I like the frame curves. Gorgeous scenery too!

[OakLeaf]

Yummy!

[7rider]

Beautious.
But wait.
26" or 29"?
What's the deal with the bolt above the chain stays? Is that a bushing for travel?
Did you go with a double in the front? 10-speed?
So, even though it was "just" a RTC route, how'd it ride? How'd it handle? Smooth like butt-ah?

[Wahine]

I went for the 26. I've ridden 29ers and I'm not willing to give up the tighter cornering of the 26. I guess I'm old school that way.

It is a 10 speed double.

The bushing is a pivotless suspension. It functionally has a little less than an inch of travel but it's enough to take the edge off of the rough stuff.

It weighs in at only 23.5 lbs with everything on it. :D

As for the ride, so far it seems great. I was very conservative on where I put my stem on this bike and I decided very quickly I wanted to drop it, so we did that on the trail and immediately the bike felt like "home". Shifters are very smooth, I can't really comment on the braking as I did almost none on this ride. The few very minimal technical bits of this ride went really well and I seem to be able to place the bike on the trail really well.

This bike is going to be perfect for what it's been built for. TBC...

[solobiker]

Very nice!!!

[Artista]

This bike is going to be perfect for what it's been built for. TBC...
So exactly what was it built for? Awesome bike!

[Wahine]

A long endurance race with a lot of very roughly cobbled paths, dirt double track and some technical single track. I have not fully committed to doing the race yet and it wouldn't be until late spring 2013. So I have this season to ride and race before I decide to commit myself to something big. :eek:

[Artista]

Endurance mtb'ing is a mind boggling concept for me. How long is the race?

[Wahine]

It's a 9 day stage race with anywhere from 60 to 100 miles per stage!! Just over 700 miles total distance I believe. The nice thing is that there is a nice hotel at the end of every stage and amazing food. I've worked as a PT at this race twice now, so I think I know what I'm in for. :eek::eek:

[Catrin]

It's a 9 day stage race with anywhere from 60 to 100 miles per stage!! Just over 700 miles total distance I believe. The nice thing is that there is a nice hotel at the end of every stage and amazing food. I've worked as a PT at this race twice now, so I think I know what I'm in for. :eek::eek:

Sounds awesome! How technical does the single-track get? This sounds like some serious painful fun! Where is this race? Is it an annual event?

[Artista]

It's a 9 day stage race with anywhere from 60 to 100 miles per stage!! Just over 700 miles total distance I believe. The nice thing is that there is a nice hotel at the end of every stage and amazing food. I've worked as a PT at this race twice now, so I think I know what I'm in for. :eek::eek:
:eek::eek::eek:That's unimaginable for me! You'll keep us posted on your training and thoughts on actually doing the race? I'd love to live vicariously on your journey.

[Anelia]

It's a 9 day stage race with anywhere from 60 to 100 miles per stage!! Just over 700 miles total distance I believe. The nice thing is that there is a nice hotel at the end of every stage and amazing food. I've worked as a PT at this race twice now, so I think I know what I'm in for. :eek::eek:

First of all, congrats on your new bike. Aaaand, this is a great race I believe. I would encourage you to go for it, especially the hotel part, etc.
There will be a similar race in fall in Bulgaria but the only thing that stops me is that at the end of every stage, my TENT expects me. I would not rest sleeping on the ground and not having a nice shower after each day.

[Wahine]

Sounds awesome! How technical does the single-track get? This sounds like some serious painful fun! Where is this race? Is it an annual event?

The race is an annual event in Portugal.

I love all the enthusiasm ladies, but I have not totally committed to this yet. We'll see how the summer goes. I have to decide by Oct 1.

[Artista]

Hey, I'm impressed that you are even considering doing a race like this!

[Wahine]

I'm curious about something. You mentioned that you are changing mountain bikes along with the type of riding you are doing. What did you do before vs now? Race?

What I was riding was this (http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=46588) and/or my single speed mud bike. I did race on the full suspension bike last season and the season before. It is a great racing bike. Especially for trails with a lot of rocks and roots to roll over, technical trail where you don't want to have to be very precise about the line you pick (if you hit a rock on that bike, it doesn't really matter, you'll just roll over it), and for learning to like some speed downhill. It is still VERY light for a full suspension bike and has some suspension dampening, so climbs better than most.

But...

I bought the full suspension bike when I was first getting back into mountain biking and I didn't really know where it was going to take me, so I got a bike that was reported to be a cross country bike but with enough of a slope to the head tube and enough suspension to handle technical, fast downhill riding. The blue bike did that. It allowed me to ride much more technical terraine than I would have been able to without the suspension and it really helped me learn how to pick lines around corners etc. And of course, everyone that was "serious" that I knew, had a full suspension bike so I got one too.

But full suspension is a PITA if it's muddy. It requires maintenance and takes a lot longer to clean up. Also, I have a tendency to avoid the pain of pushing a bigger gear and that was limiting my progress riding, especially hill climbing. So, the following winter, I took an old hard tail mountain bike and turned it into a single speed with a rigid fork for winter training. I discovered that my skills had progressed to the point that I could go downhill on the type of trails that I liked best (no big drops but some rocks and roots etc) without any significant loss of speed even though I didn't have any suspension. The bike was noticeably lighter when climbing and I liked that I didn't seem to be losing any of my effort going into the climb by the squishing of the suspension. As far as clean-up went, no problem, let the mud dry and brush it off easily in a few minutes, lube the chain and away you go again.

If I hadn't gotten the inkling to do this Portugal race, I would likely have just continued riding these two bikes and just picking the right days for them.

But my full suspension bike just is not appropriate for the Portugal race. It would not gain me anything on the descents with exception of a couple of Roman Road cobble descents which were very technical but are a miniscule part of the total mileage. The full suspension would be a disadvantage in terms of energy loss through the suspension on long flatter days and I would be doing my own maitenance in the evening and didn't want to have to worry about the suspension. The climbing that there is in this race can be very steep if not long, so any weight loss on the bike or me would also be helpful.

So this new bike is born for that race and is much better suited for the type of riding I am doing in general, which is tight twisty single track with lots of steep climbing but pretty buffed out trail for the most part. I had seriously contemplated building a hardtail, but I heard a lot of feedback from the racers (apart from my boyfriend who rides nothing but a fully rigid bike!:eek::eek:) that having some rear suspension is really helpful in taking the edge off your butt, especially, over cobbles on long days. So I went with the pivotless rear suspension.

That's a really long answer to your question. But I didn't know how else to answer it without sounding vague. But really, I think that the bike you start riding on, is not the bike that you're likely to continue riding for a long time. Until you have some mountain biking experience, figure out what kind of riding you like and what your strengths and weaknesses are... you won't know what direction to go in. A good entry level full suspension bike is a good place to start. Then, maybe like me, you'll decide that you like the climbing and the challenge of long days in the saddle and you'll want a really light bike. Or, maybe you'll love ripping down hills, doing gap jumps or who knows what and you'll want a bike with HUGE suspension where weight is not a bad thing. Or maybe you'll just love all around riding and the jack of all trades bike will continue to be the right bike. Who knows where you'll end up, but enjoy the journey!!

[Aggie_Ama]

Ohhh that sounds like an amazing race! I found my niche is longer races, it is mental and physical. You can't just be the best athlete, you have to be mentally conditioned. I cannot wait to hear about your event!

[Wahine]

Ohhh that sounds like an amazing race! I found my niche is longer races, it is mental and physical. You can't just be the best athlete, you have to be mentally conditioned. I cannot wait to hear about your event!

Exactly. I am not naturally gifted when it comes to power or speed. I am however naturally very good at pacing myself and hanging out in that long endurance zone for a really long time. The longer the race is, the better I place usually. And I always end up passing people in the last 1/4 of a race.

The mental part is to my advantage as well. I seem to usually be able to put my brain in a different place where the hurt isn't such an issue and I can do it for hours at a time. I'm also really good at minimizing time off the bike, I think that comes from training for fast transitions in triathlon. While other people hang out in aid stations, get off the bike, stretch etc. I get what I need and get out. You can easily make up 5 to 10 min on a competitor that way.

The big question is recovery. Can I do long days like that for 9 days straight? This is an aspect of my physiology that I haven't explored yet. It's what I plan to test in the coming months. This race is super expensive so I don't want to enter unless I'm fairly confident that I have the capacity to finish. Things can always happen that mess up your race, but I want to go into it knowing it's possible.

[Wahine]

I was thinking about the Jamis 26'' wheeled entry-level bike. I forget the name. The 18 inch women's model might fit. So you're thinking hardtail then?

That's a good choice in terms of cost, and it doesn't sound like you have the kind of riding that would warrant the extra expense or weight of a FS bike.