Drum roll please…

There you have it, sneak peak of my newest test bike. Have to say I’m really looking forward to this one. The Sojourn is a really striking bicycle. The off-white (technically “sand”) with with no decals, save the top tube protector, and leather bar tape and saddle make for a sharp look.

Shot of the studio.

Nice Badge.

Nice wide WTB bars with Brooks leather tape and Brooks aged saddle.

Rode her home last night for the maiden voyage. Still have some fit work to do, but otherwise the Sojourn feels pretty good right out of the box. Time will tell…

Justin

Usually it’s meant as a joke, but this time there was more than a grain of truth to the old saying: Bike testing is a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. You see, the 2007 edition of the Punk Bike Enduro, was a cold, rainy and muddy affair. But, such is the life of a test pilot—needless to say, I soldiered on.

Did I mention it was muddy? I must admit that the sloppy conditions made my singlespeed quite the attractive arrow in the proverbial quiver. But, damnit, I had a bike to test! Time to suck it up.Fortunately It didn’t take long to rig up some “rider comfort” mods for the Trek Fuel EX9 test bike. In preparation for the quagmire, I attached a quick released fender via the steatpost, added a crud catcher beneath the downtube, and fashioned a front mud flap from a bit of plastic (cut from a blueberry container) and zip-tied it to the fork bridge. That should keep some of the mess off of the pilot. But what about the bike? How would the tires, and all those gears and suspension bits, handle the sloppy conditions?

In the traction department, I was not lacking. The widely spaced, medium-height tread pattern on the Tubeless Ready Bontrager Jones XR tires actually turned out to work quite well in the soup. They did a good job of self-cleaning, except in one particular nasty patch of clay—where any tire would have been overmatched. As I mentioned in a earlier post, I converted these tires/wheels to tubeless, so I was able to run the tires soft enough to give the bike a sure-footed feeling on wet, muddy roots and rocks. This did not surprise me—in the mud I prefer tires with a pattern like the Bontrager Jones XR’s. I’ve never been a fan of those tall-knobbed so-called mud tires—the knobs can squirm over wet roots and send you on your backside in the blink of an eye.

At the end of the day, I was happy to be sporting 27 speeds, and not just one. I resorted to my granny ring on more than one occasion, and kept grinding along—while others pushed. The drivetrain didn’t give me a lick of trouble, despite the harsh conditions. While I normally prefer Gripshift, this was one day that I was happy to be sporting trigger shifters. I went through three different pairs of gloves on Punk day, and my experience is that wet, muddy gloves and Gripshift is not a good combination—when the shifters and/or gloves get a coating of mud, shifting can become difficult to impossible.

Having 110/120mm of front/rear suspension is a definite advantage in technical terrain on a nasty day. Being able to keep my butt in the saddle and put the power to the pedals, while the suspension sucks up the impacts, lets me hammer through some unbelievably bad conditions. It goes without saying that full suspension and disc brakes were the shiznitt on the downhills.

You know what? I’m pretty darned happy that I left the singlespeed hanging on the hook in the basement after all.

After years designing, testing, riding, redesigning, retesting, reriding Surly is just about ready to release their cargo bike, the Big Dummy. It is based around the XtracycleSport Utility Bicycle concept.

We’ve had a pre-production sample in house for a little over a week. Actually it has spent little time here, as I rode it home the day it arrived with my commuter bike strapped to the side. I’ve commuted most days on it since then, and put it to the test on back to back offroad days; a Punk Bike pre-ride and the Punk Bike Enduro itself.

I’ve owned an Xtracycle-converted bike for a few years, but until now I’ve never had a long-tail bike on real off road terrain. It gets around surprisingly well in the woods, but most of my normal instincts are wrong when riding something with the wheelbase of a Mini Cooper. Also, riding off road with a sixth keg of beer is possible, even fun for short distances.

Xtracycle is sending some ads-ons that should further expand the capabilities of this already very functional ride. Stay tuned for more updates.

In my previous post I talked about the fact that Trek offers the Fuel EX lineup two different “medium” sizes, and how I’ve always been a bit of a tweener—able to ride either a medium or a large bike, but often feeling that neither size fit me perfectly. The more I ride this (18.5″) bike, the happier I am that larger Trek offer it in “multiple medium” sizing. The 18.5″ bike fits me like a dream.

I asked Trek why they decided to offer the multiple medium sizes, and if that policy might be extended to other models. Here’s what Michael Browne, Trek’s Mountain Bike Brand Manager, had to say:

We saw a need and filled it. The 17.5and 19.5 are our most popular sizes, but we continued to hear from dealers and consumers that either one was too small or too large for many people. So, we decided to make one that was just right.

It’s been received incredibly well, and riders can expect this new size to expand throughout most parts of our bike lineup as we move forward.

Bonus picture of what my actual test bike looks like in full battle regalia, including a bit of Western Pennsylvania trail splatter:

If you’ve read my first post on the Fuel EX9, then you you already know that it’s my new Dirt Rag test bike. That first post was made on November 3rd, but I’ve actually been riding the EX9 since October 5th, so I reckon it’s high time for an update.

A look at the geometry chart below reveals that Trek offers two different “medium” sizes. That may seem odd to you, but it’s seems like brilliance to me. I’ve always been a bit of a tweener—able to ride either a medium or a large bike, but often feeling that neither size fit me perfectly. The larger of the Fuel EX9’s two medium sizes (18.5″) fit me like a glove! Needless to say that went a long way to making me feel right at home on this bike. I hope this “multiple medium” sizing is a move that is copied by other bike companies.

I’m a big fan of tubeless tires on mountain bikes, and I’ve racked up a many, many miles on UST tires, and regular tires converted to tubeless via sealant (including Stan’s, Bontrager, DT Swiss and Hutchinson flavors of the juice). The Fuel EX9 comes with tubes in the tires, but both the wheels and tires are tubeless compatible (additional purchases required). After getting a flat tire on each of my first two rides, I ended up calling Trek and asking for the goods required to go tubeless (i.e., Bontrager tubeless rim strips, tubeless valve stems and Super Juice sealant). It’s a pretty simple conversion. Ditch the tube, replace plain rim strip with a Bontrager tubeless strip, insert the valve stem in rim, mount one side (bead) of tire, pour in recommended dose of Super Juice, mount the other side of the tire, inflate, and ride away a happy man. Many rides later, I’ve had no more flats. I should note that the Bontrager Race Lite tubeless compatible tires have a bead that is designed to seal tightly with tubeless rims, yet they’ve got lightweight casing, not the heavy UST casing. Yes, they require sealant to hold air, but I always use sealant with tubeless, including UST, because you’d be stupid not to. For my money, the Bontrager tubeless compatible “hybrid” design is a winner.

On my first few rides, the Fuel EX rear suspension was making nasty squeaking and squawking noises—and it didn’t feel as supple as I’d remembered during my test rides during the Trek Press Camp in June. Throw in a healthy dose of ghost shifting, and my Spidey Sense was tingling. I threw the bike on my workstand and double checked the suspension set-up, and made sure the rear derailleur was properly adjusted. Closer inspection revealed that something in the rear suspension didn’t look quite right (see photo below). There was a washer visible between the rocker link and the frame on the right side, but not on the left side. I emailed the photo to Trek and they they guessed that somebody might have forgot to insert the left side washer during assembly, so they sent me a washer. But when I started to unbolt the rocker, so I could put in the washer, I discovered there already was a washer on the left side. It turned out that the cavity in the rocker (that the washer sits inside) was machined too deep on the left side, and this caused the washer to “disappear” completely inside the rocker body. This meant that the rocker and frame were in direct contact and binding, which caused my aforementioned problems. Another call to Trek produced a brand new rocker. With that installed everything was fine and dandy with the rear suspension: smooth as buttah, no squawking, no ghost shifting—All good. Chalk it up to a bit manufacturing variation as Trek gears up production (note that I got one of the first EX9’s to roll off the production line).

Did I say buttah? I believe I did. And with good reason—it’s an honest description of how the Fuel EX9’s suspension feels when bombing a technical downhill, or hammering through a rock garden. For a bike sporting 120mmm of rear travel, this should come as no great surprise. What makes this on-demand coosh worthy of comment is that it comes on a bike that feels efficient under pedaling power. By itself, the Fuel EX rear suspension does a decent job of canceling out pedal-induced bob. Flipping the Fox Float RP23 to the Pro Pedal position gives the bike a racer-boy feeling. Match that Pro Pedal rear with a locked-out Fox Talas RL fork up front, and you can hammer the pavement, or crank up those fire road climbs, and not feel like you’re wasting all your energy bobbing along. On a recent excursion to the rocky-as-heaven Laurel Highlands trails (download 912K PDF trail map) I had the opportunity to experiment with suspension set-up on some technical-rocky trails. This place is chock full of sections where you really have to stay on the gas to make it through clean. Under those conditions, I really learned to appreciate the beauty of the Pro Pedal setting—efficient transfer of pedal power to the rear wheel, suspension ready to kick in and absorb blunt force trauma. Had three and a half hours of fun that day.

That ought to do it for this edition. More to come….

With a tip of the helmet (and any required apologies) to The Godfather, may he rest in peace:

Come here sister
Papa’s in the swing
He ain’t too hip now
but I can dig that new breed bike;
He ain’t no drag
He’s got a brand new bag

Please allow me to introduce my current test bike, a brand-spanking-new 2008 Trek Fuel Ex9.

For 2008, Trek has given the Fuel EX line a serious makeover. One key change to the 120mm-travel Fuel EX9 is the Active Braking Pivot (ABP = rear pivot concentric with rear axle). Traditionally, mountain bike suspension designs have located the pivot point either on the seatstays (like the previous Fuel EX) or on the chainstay (i.e. Horst link), and Trek points out that either of those locations cause the the suspension to stiffen under braking. The new Trek EX uses Trek’s ABP technology, which locates the rear pivot concentric with the rear axle. This pivot location is claimed to keep the suspension active and independent of braking, which keeps the rear tire in contact with the ground for reduced skidding and better braking control.

Another key change is the Full Floater rear shock mount. Instead of mounting the bottom of the rear shock to the frame like traditional designs, the new Fuel EX’s Full Floater technology allows the shock to “float” between two independent linkages. Trek says that they tuned the linkages to produce a continuously active suspension with a bottomless feeling—and good pedaling efficiency.

After I log some more miles, I’ll let you know how well Trek’s design philosophy translates to on-dirt performance. For now, you can read my initial ride impressions on the new Fuel EX platform via my prior blog entry from Trek’s press camp held in Idaho back in June, 2007. For a closer look at the Full Floater and ABP, check out my 2008 Trek Fuel EX Sneak Peek blog entry.

Here’s a data dump:

Make: Trek
Model: Fuel EX9
Model year: 2008
Type: Mountain
Country of origin: Taiwan
Wheel size: 26”
Rear travel: 120mm
Frame material: Aluminum alloy
Suspension description: R1i Trail Tuned Suspension, ABP pivot, Full Floater
Rear shock: Fox Float RP23 w/3 position tunable Pro Pedal, custom tuned
Fork: Fox Talas RL (90-130mm)
Handlebar: Bontrager Race Lite, 40mm rise, 31.8mm
Stem: Bontrager Race X Lite, 7 degree, 31.8mm
Headset: Cane Creek S-3 w/cartridge bearings, sealed
Bottom bracket: Shimano Deore XT
Crank: Shimano Deore XT 44/32/22
Pedals: N/A
Chain: SRAM PC971
Saddle: Bontrager Race Lite
Seatpost : Bontrager Race Lite
Front hub: Bontrager Race Lite
Rear hub: Bontrager Race Lite
Front derailleur: Shimano Deore XT
Rear derailleur: SRAM X-0
Shifters: SRAM X-9, 9 speed w/MatchMaker
Cassette: SRAM PG970 11-32, 9 speed
Brakes: Avid Juicy 7, hydraulic disc; 185mm front, 160mm rear rotor
Rims: Bontrager Race LiteTubeless Compatible
Tires: Bontrager Jones XR, 26×2.2/2.25″; folding; Tubeless Ready
Sizes: 15.5, 17.5, 18.5 (tested), 19.5, 21.5″
Colors: White with black highlights
Weight: 27.4lbs. (w/o pedals)
MSRP: $3,409.99
Company website: www.trekbikes.com

That should do it for now. Look for additional blog posts as testing proceeds and miles accumulate.