This is the first in a series of posts leading up to the Dirt Rag Stuff Review of the Jamis Dragon 29. I’ll informally keep you posted not only with my experiences on the bike, but also with my indoctrination into the 29” machine. This ongoing journal is also an exercise for me to get enough written before my review is due, so I can actually get it in on time.

Yes, folks, it’s true. I admit it. Up until yesterday, I have never done a proper ride on a 29” mountain bike. There are a lot of reasons why I’ve stood by my 26”…and 26”…for so long. I’ll spare you the details, but the main reason is that I love my personal bike. It’s a custom rig, and I have a strong bond with it. But I know that after some time on a 29” bike, I would want one for my own. Thus my current beloved bike would fall by the side.

Sure I’ve done a spin or two on a 29”, but nothing long enough, or with enough substance, to truly convert me. Or for me even to appreciate any differences from the 26”. But now I have to ride one for an extended period of time. Karen put a Jamis Dragon 29 under me, and it’s time to go for it.

So I consider yesterday to be my first true ride on a 29” bike. My friend Dave billed it as a ”leisurely four hour ride” at French Creek. And since I like to punish myself, I decided to run a 5k race a few hours before we rode. (I finished 12th overall, thank you very much). Of course, Dave’s promise turned into a fast and hard three-hour ride instead. It was a tough day, but a lot of fun.

Especially once I got semi-comfortable on the bike.

Aside from already being half beaten down before the ride even started, this was the first ride in a long time where I had gears on a bicycle. After not using them for so long, it took some time to get used to. The bike also feels a lot heavier than what I’m used to. I haven’t put in on the scale yet to find out for sure, but I really don’t want to know just yet.

But the fun doesn’t end there. I didn’t bother to look at the Reba fork before my ride…let alone adjust it. It needed some air, and I had no shock pump on me. Thankfully the fork still worked fine, though I wasn’t able to lock it out.

As for the feel of the ride, I immediately noticed that I felt like I had more momentum with my pedal strokes. Kind of an odd, but cool, feeling. I also have to agree with all the people that have told me that 29” wheels roll over and through things much easier. I liked that, and got used to it quickly. The first several log hops…ok, pretty much all of them…proved to be tough. Getting the front wheel up and over obstacles proved to be more of a challenge on this bike.

But the big challenge for me yesterday was that the bike handles differently than I’m used to. It doesn’t seem as nimble as a 26” rig. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it is taking some time for me to get used to.

Overall, yesterday’s ride was great. I had a very rough first hour on the bike. Not only was I getting used to many new variables, I was also dealing with a lot of descents and a lot of climbing. Once I got over that part of the park, the next two hours went much better.

Later this week, I’ll be taking the bike to ride some of the tightest, most technical singletrack in and around Philly. I’ll also get you some of the numbers and measurements for the bike

The news on 650B continues to roll in. New tires, rims, wheels and bikes have all been announced.

In our own news:

The 650B Heckler (code name: Beckler) is built and rolling, and things are starting to dry up finally, so expect a real ride report soon. The White Brothers 130 thru axle fork is installed now and the bike it ready to ride, and the trails are ready to go now too. If my math is correct the rear travel is right at 120, we might be able to eek out 5-10mm of travel. Stay tuned!

Tires

Kenda has announced a 650B version of the ever popular Nevegal, in both 2.35 and 2.1 sizes. A mid-summer release date is planned. Read more about it here.

Rims

Sun Ringle’s Equalizer 27 rim should avaliable in 650B as I write this. See the Hayes Bicycle Group blog for more details.

Wheels

American Classic has wheelsets built up around the No Tubes 650B rim mentioned in this blog post.

Industry Nine has 2 wheelset avaliable, both using their proprietry hubs and spokes. The lightweight version uses the ZTR 355 rim and the Enduro version uses the Velocity Blunt. Nothing on their website yet.

Bikes

Haro has pulled the trigger on TWO 650B Bikes for 2009. See Haro’s product manager Jill Hamilton’s blog (here and here) for more info.

Other stuff

Kirk Pacenti passed on news from the Taipei Bike Show. 2 of the major suspension fork manufactures will have 650B compatible forks in the coming years. It looks like they will be a shared platform with the 26″ wheel size, which is great news for 650B.

If most manufactures start designing forks to use either 26″ or 650B wheels the fork selection will skyrocket quickly.

I’m sure most of you saw my World Tour report from the 24 Hours of the Old Pueblo (OP), but if not check it out here. As I mentioned in the report, Kona hooked both Shannon and myself up with bikes for the race. Shannon rode Kona’s newest addition to their Kula 2-9 lineup––the Kula Deluxe 2-9. Meanwhile, I had the opportunity to sample Kona’s new-for-2008 Hei Hei 2-9.

The rainy/snowy conditions on the Friday before the race had us behind schedule (shocking, I know) so Shannon and I picked up our bikes from Kona’s Kevin Hall only a few hours before the noon race start time. Fortunately, Kevin had our bikes ready to rock. After a quick scramble to get saddle position set, controls dialed, and suspension setup we were ready to “race.” I say “race” simply because we were there to “work” after-all. We can’t spend all of our time focusing on our personal race, eh Maurice?

I asked Shannon to weigh in on his experience aboard the Kula Deluxe 2-9:

CJ Vincent Photo.

The Scandium frame seemed remarkably solid, stiffer than my personal bike. I noticed the stiffness most when locking out the Reba SL to stand and hammer up the Seven Bitches. It felt like all the energy I expended was put to use and not wasted in flex while climbing the rolling hill with seven distinct steeper sections. Handling was super smooth, I pretended like I was going Jedi Knight style on an Imperial Speeder Bike as I weaved through cactuses that popped into my headlight during a night lap. I could really lean into the turns and whip the bike straight up again to make passes in areas that left little room for mistakes. The 17.3” chainstays precision tracked the front wheel in sections where I could pump, flow through turns, and climb all without turning the pedals.

There was only one notable downhill section on the course, a rock face descent with a small drop back to the trail, but the bike handled this fine at speed. Pulling up the front wheel and popping over pieces of cacti that became scattered along the trail was done with a quick action and usually followed by a turn in the trail. The bike responded fast enough to stay on the trail and not over shoot me into the waiting thorns or the three black cows standing trail side.

The parts package gave me no trouble, minus some shifting issues and a few loose spokes. But hey, the bike was taken out of the box and raced with very little setup. The Slime filled tires rolled a little heavy, but were worth not getting more flats than I had. The color scheme’s cool, although some Brit’s said I was cheeky, because my Dirt Rag Elements jersey matched it. I would have liked to spend more time aboard the Kula Deluxe, this bike was race worthy and was asking for a beating. –Shannon Mominee

Singlespeeders take note; the Kula Deluxe 2-9 and Kula 2-9 both feature sliding dropouts for one-gear use. Retail price for a Kula Deluxe 2-9 is $2,199.

2008 Hei Hei 2-9:

CJ Vincent Photo.

Have to say, I was more than a little nervous about “racing” for 24 hours on a bike that I’ve never ridden as I’m notoriously anal about my bike setup. For me to be happy on a bike everything has to be dialed exactly to my liking. Fortunately for me, the Hei Hei worked right out of the box.

Out of the gate on my first lap I was amazed at how well the Hei Hei rode. The faster I went, the better things felt, so I had to consciously pace myself. Having ridden loads of bikes over the years, I can develop a feel for a bike pretty quickly, but was truly impressed with how quickly and easily I was able to connect with the Hei Hei. The OP course is best described as mostly smooth, fast, and swoopy; not necessarily a course that caters to a 29” dually. Having said that, I was impressed with the efficiency of the Hei Hei. As for suspension setup, I have an 80mm Reba in my personal stable so setting it up was cake. As for the Fox RP2 out back, I set it up with roughly 15% sag initially, and later experimented with 20% sag. I ran the RP2 on the open (non-Pro Pedal) setting for the entire race, never feeling the need to stiffen things up by flipping over to Pro Pedal mode. Lateral stiffness of the rear suspension felt great throughout the many g-out washes on the course. On the other hand, the Reba is feeling a little less stiff than some of the other 29” forks on the market today, though certainly acceptable. Cornering was awesome on the tacky desert soil. The Maxxis Ignitors hooked up beautifully and the bike did a great job of communicating just what was happening where rubber met ground.

Climbing on the Hei Hei was a pleasant experience, though the slime tubes––installed to combat the prickly Cacti pieces that had been knocked onto the trail––added a noticeable bit of rotational mass. Though the OP course doesn’t gain or loose a great deal of elevation, there was a nice fast––if a bit short––downhill back to the start tent where one could really let things roll. Line selection didn’t really matter through the roughest sections of this downhill, just ease back and let those big wheels and suspension do their job. Overall, the Hei Hei seems to be all about momentum conservation. Asking one not to bother with the brakes, just keep your speed up and let the bike roll. Though when it was time to scrub some speed the Hayes Stroker Carbon brakes put their 160mm rotors to good use, biting hard and consistently. This was my first ride on Shimano’s new generation XT components, and I was dually impressed with the group. Shimano’s dual release trigger shifters are a vast improvement over single release versions of the past. I like being able to keep my index finger on the brakes and shift simultaneously.

All things considered, this first ride was better than I could have hoped. As I write this the Hei Hei I rode in the OP is being shipped to me for a more deserving review. I’m certainly looking forward to a long-term test of this bike. Keep your eyes peeled for the full review in print later this year. MSRP for the Hei Hei 2-9 is $2,499. – Justin Steiner

I remembered I needed to post on the blog today as the in-house schedule has rotated back to me. Most times my rides to and from work are full of interesting thoughts (at least to me), but of course my mind was pretty blank today, except I needed to hurry to work with the coffee in my bag, the office was fresh out. So rather than force some topic maybe a bit of an update about a few things are in order.

650B
This project is still going. The wheels have been built, with Hope hubs, Velocity rims. Tires came from Kirk Pacenti. Kirk worked with Rock Shox to get us a Pearl 3.3 rear shock which should reduce the travel on a Santa Cruz Heckler enough to keep the larger 650B tire from contacting the seat tube under full compression. We should also see a 650B fork from White Brothers soon. I can’t wait.

For more 650B news: http://650bpalace.blogspot.com/

New Job

I’m climbing the corporate ladder here at Dirt Rag. New Title: Partnerships. What does that mean? Ad sales, sponsorships, partnerships(duh), a bit of marketing, product testing and writing for the magazine. Lotsa new hats to wear, right now it is a black knit cap, as the office is freaking cold, temperature never got above 25 or so today, outside that is.

Custom Frame

I just started working with Todd Ingermanson who is Black Cat Bicycles. I saw his work at NAHBS. He has some very cool ideas, and we plan on a 29er hardtail with his pivoting drop outs. Looks like I should be getting some pretty sweet parts from DT to complete the build, more on that later.

Lance’s Shop

I’ve never been a huge fan of Lance, but this news has me rethinking things.

Stage two of Maurice’s whirlwind tour.

After cold, rainy Macon Georgia, I headed west to cold, rainy San Luis Obispo, California for a combined Rocky Mountain/WTB press camp. The agenda? Face time with WTB and Rocky staff to learn more about the latest tires from WTB and the 2008 Slayer SXC bike from Rocky Mountain. The drill? Presentation of the goods, lunch, then ride.

WTB’s Wolverine is a general-purpose tire for what they call cross-country to all mountain terrain. Whatever, It’s 26 x 2.2 and has a light 60tpi casing for a weight under 600 grams. The tread pattern states its function with short knobs, fairly closely spaced for the widest variety of conditions and styles.

After the presentation, we walked in the rain to chow on BBQ and discussed the option of a nap followed by spending the rest of the day at the bowling alley. Bleak.

Miraculously, a window of opportunity opened up at 3pm. We hopped on some Slayers and rode some sandy, well-draining trails at Montana de Oro State Park, stopping for a photo shoot with shooter Forrest Arakawa. It had actually turned into a fine day and Forrest was able to get some killer shots of us riding as the sun went down.

On day two we spent a good bit of the day changing tires and watching the weather. The What? trail was the order of the day, starting with a major shuttle to some radio towers high up. This time Prowler tires were on tap, bigger, more voluminous, they sure came in handy on the rocks.

As for the bike, the Rocky Mountain Slayer is a 150mm, all-mountain trail bike. What’s that mean? It’s all about balance. Up vs. down. Pedal up hills. Bomb down. A slacker head angle and the long travel kept me on course through baby-head shaggy followed by mud from hell. This is the kind of bike I like to ride. Tech feature is the interrupted seat tube, which keeps all the moving parts down low on the frame to improve maneuverability and quicken handling.

For the Dirt Rag photo gallery from the Rocky Mountain/WTB press camp click here.

We recently scored a bunch of studded tires from Schwalbe, Nokian and Kenda.

Good thing, too, as we’ve just had one of our typical winter ice storms here in the Northeast:

Shorty after their arrival I put on a set of Nokian Gazza Extreme 294 tires in 29er flavor and have had a couple rides on them, one staff ride last week and again this past weekend in my local Frick Park, both with beautiful snowy weather. Unfortunately I neglected to bring a camera. The tires were awesome, though—definitely confidence-inspiring. It’s pretty cool to realize you’re going across some snow-covered ice but not sliding. There were a couple moments of unexpected slippage on rocks, but not much at all, and they seem to dig into frozen tree roots quite well.

Unfortunately I didn’t heed the label’s instructions to break them in by riding 30 miles on pavement, and each tire has lost a couple studs. I mean, come on, you want me to put on some sweet new studded tires while it’s snowing and go ride on the road? At least I’ve got 292 more studs on each tire.

I also grabbed a pair of Nokian Hakkapelittas in 700×35c size for use on my ‘cross commuting bike. They will most likely be getting some use very soon, like tomorrow perhaps. I’d gladly ride all 12 miles of my commute with the slower studs on just to survive the patches like this:

One strange thing about all these tires—they smell really bad!

Look for some more postings about the tires and how they perform for us. Here’s the full list of what we’ve got:

Kenda:
Klondike 26”x1.95”
Klondike XT 26”x1.95”
Klondike 700×35c
Klondike 700×40c

Schwalbe:
Ice Spiker 26”x2.1”

Nokian:
Extreme 294 29”x2.1”
Extreme 294 26”x2.1”
Hakkapelitta W106 700×35c