Necessary Upgrades

Mountain biking, much like many other things in life, is a journey. On any journey one must brave and overcome new and increasingly challenging obstacles. On this most recent ride, I too braved and overcame a new obstacle. I shall elaborate shortly because first I would like to comment upon a few changes I made.

To start off, I went tubeless. The forums and magazines are littered with praises for this seemingly innocuous upgrade, but I, devil's advocate that I am, will say that this process might be a touch overrated. The weight savings were minimal at best, I am not too heavy so my tire pressure was always comfortably low, and the trails I run do not have jumps and drops where a pinch flat could be an issue. However, due to the habit of Phoenician wildlife being extremely pointy, I see no reason to avoid tubeless simply because of the added puncture resistance. The first time I have to wrangle a Cholla ball from my tire I will undoubtedly be grateful.

I had mentioned previously that I had been having difficulty maneuvering my bike. Naturally I started researching into smaller 29" frames and into the relatively recent trade of 650b (27.5") bikes. They all looked and sounded perfectly appropriate for me. Fellow cyclists commented to me that 29" bikes have never been entirely appropriate for shorter riders and that a 650b frame should help me greatly. I pondered this for a while, after all it made a good amount of sense. But then I remembered the old saying "It's the poor craftsman who blames his tools". As a cyclist, my bike is my tool, and I feel confident in my own abilities to treat this as a no more of a challenge than a rock garden.

To address this issue I really put some thought into why exactly I was having such issue. Aside from the tight hairpin curves (which 29ers in general are not equipped for), it seemed the problem was stemming from my bars being so long that even on mild turns my outside arm was just so far out that I couldn't complete the turn and would end up off the trail. Well, that is certainly an easy and cheap fix. One introduction to pipe cutters later and I trimmed an inch off of each end. A quick test run around my buddy's yard appeared promising.

Now onto the great challenge I employed upon myself: clipless. This was not an easy decision to make. I had shown myself more than capable of falling while not attached to the bike. How was I ever going to manage with my feet clipped into the pedals? Unlike tubeless, I definitely see the benefits of going clipless and I understood that even though it posed as a threat to my overall well-being, I knew that this was a step I needed to take. Fortunately, I have some Chrome shoes that would work well on the trail and I already had a pair of mountain bike pedals. If it didn't work out, I would not have invested anything other than perhaps some blood.

Of course there was still a matter of actually testing out my new upgrades. This test came in the form of Usery Mountain Park. I had already made a venture out here before summer started and it seemed like a decent place and would suit my needs well. I had actually been looking forward to this ride for some time because I had purchased a new mount for my Go Pro and was anxious to try out the new angle.

The map below shows where we rode. We actually rode on Blevins (blue trail) twice. We could have jumped right on Moon Rock but my friend said it is more fun riding North to South. So we rode up to Moon Rock and then jumped on Blevins again and took it all the way over to the County Line trail. Fun fact, it's called that because the rode that runs by it is the dividing line between Maricopa and Pinal counties. It is also very loose and rocky. I didn't care for it much.

All total it was probably a good 8 or 10 miles. I felt much more confident and capable this time around. The narrower bars helped me maneuver and stay on the trail and being clipped in encouraged me to take better lines and areas that I normally would have hesitated at namely because it is much harder to get going again uphill if you have unclipped. I really felt like I knew what I was doing and can certainly say that these upgrades are here to stay.

So, what about that amazing footage of the trails I made? Turns out I was still in the menu when I pressed record so there isn't a lick of video. I was quite discouraged but I figure the weather will only get cooler and the trails aren't going anywhere so there will be ample opportunity to make some great videos. In the mean time, here is my friends dog playing frisbee.