Category Archives: MTB

bikes, Canada, MTB

29er testing over

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So now that I’m leaving Canada & the house of 29-inch wheels behind I’ll give my final thoughts riding those big wheels.  I don’t think much has changed since my initial impressions.  With the larger diameter wheels & a set-up tending towards the XC side of things – those bikes just climb & climb oh so well.  I’m usually a handy climber, but could get up so many more things than I remember last summer.  It makes it seem easier, but I think you end up going a little faster & therefore don’t save much energy (also the gearing was a little different – larger granny-ring & smaller big-ring.

On the undulating/flat terrain & going downhill I never felt that I was enjoying the trail as much as I should have been. I still think that’s because the bike feels disconnected from the trail & it’s more difficult to move the bike around & get a little bit of air. I never got used to less grip on the downhills – still don’t know why the rear tire never gripped as a Crossmark should; this led to less confidence for me.

So I’m looking forward to getting back on my bike sometime – it may be old & scratched up, but it’s been a lot of places with me & is still a good steed. On that note, I still haven’t got the dogbone for my bike from GT Canada. While they make good bikes, if you’re considering buying a GT bike in Canada or the USA – don’t bother, the service from the distributor is truly awful. I could have had such a simple part shipped from New Zealand in the time it’s taken for my part not to turn up (three weeks for a 10cm strip of steel with a hole in each end – would have got a homemade one if I had have known). Well, it looks like boarding is starting two hours late, so that can be the end of my little rant.

*A big thanks to Megan & Alex for letting me use/try out their bikes while mine was out of action during my brief return to Canmore.

bikes, Canada, friends, MTB, national park

Being Lake touristy

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Exhausted from Sunday’s big ride, we had a late start before I took Brent & Emma up to see Lake Louise & Moraine Lake. We blew past the park gates at the busiest I’ve seen them for a long time (twas Monday too) & of course when we got to the lake it was insanely busy. But never mind, we found a sneaky parking spot & went to gaze at the beautiful lake for a while, feeling wonderfully lazy. There was considerably less ice than early May in the lake – in fact, there was actually water in the liquid phase, brilliant.

If we hadn’t have been so sore & tired, I would have been pushing for the nice little ride to Moraine Lake – you actually earn the view, instead of just driving there. As it was, we drove & there were less people there than at Lake Louise. The lake was a lot higher than last time I visited in the fall – all the logs at the outlet were floating. Brent tried valiantly for quite a while to cross them, but in the end he was too big to not sink. Emma managed to get a very wet foot trapped under a log or two for a while. The frivolity over we wandered up the lookout point.

A cruisy drive back down the parkway home – we saw a couple of huge-antlered elk.

Tuesday morning we were in a fit state to ride, but as Emma & Brent had to hit the road south I opted to show them the rocky & rooty technatality of the Nordic Center. With a bit of the Yellow Loop, a little bit of “Brendan getting slightly lost” & then some of the Orange Loop across the meadows & down we came to the Coal Chutes intersection. Brent persuaded us to go down the black run. I’d forgotten just how much fun it is – a little steep, but on the smooth & non-grippy coal surface I was just on the right side of the edge of control & it was a blast. With the nice Georgetown climb, a bit more of the Orange Loop (Orchid) & a little more toiling up hill we were back at the day-lodge after watching little kids with guns (not something you want to come across on your MTB ride) at the biathlon range. The usual fun down the berms, table-tops & doubles on Soft Yoghurt & then down Devonian Drop & along the loose gravel beside the hydro facility & our nice little jaunt was over. Sad to see my Kiwi accented visitors leave, but I’m sure I’ll hear some Kiwis in whatever is left of London next week.

bikes, Canada, friends, GPS, MTB

Lusk Pass – Jumpingpound – Cox Hill – Lusk Pass epic

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I was surprised to learn earlier in the week that Emma & Brent were going to be up around Canmore so soon in their big American roadtrip (we saw them mid-June in San Luis Obispo, CA) as this weekend just gone. But they managed to get up here just in time before I go back to London next week (which I’m not looking forward to so much after the last few days’ news) & I was very pleased to have my first Kiwi visitors to Canmore. A lot of Saturday evening was spent sharing roadtrip & mountain-biking stories – I hope we didn’t bore Megan & Alex too much. A small period of time was given over to discussing the ride we were to take them on the next day. My favourite ride from last summer was Jumpingpound Ridge & Cox Hill, so I was keen to show off some good backcountry riding in Kananaskis Country. I think Alex has been missing big rides this summer – he wanted to go over Lusk Pass to start & finish the loop (making more of a lasso). We, perhaps naively, were up for this.

Parking at the University of Calgary Barrier Lake Field Station, we were soon climbing up towards the top of Lusk Pass. It was mostly double-track (we followed the Trans-Canada Trail for a while towards Baldy Pass) & steady climbing. However, near the top of the pass it got really quite steep & so loose in parts that we were all walking. I was beginning to think that we were spending a lot of energy that we would want later in the day. Nonetheless, we had a little descent from the pass to the road, Powderface Trail, where we turned south & headed ten kilometres or so to the trailhead. We were fortunate to have a thin layer of cloud keeping the sun off us & not much wind to contend with.

I covered most of the trail last year, but that climb up to Jumpingpound Ridge is still brutal. Looking back on my last trip report, I think I was able to ride the same as last year – but the big wheels made it a bit easier & less energy sapping. We all kept a good pace up – well three of us kept a good pace & Brent was noticeably ahead of us as he cleared everything. That hardtail with a single (30T) chainring obviously works for him. The rocky part along the ridge was definitely easier for me on a 29er; soon we were out of the trees & at the summit as the clouds cleared & we got the views we deserved.

Before long we were snaking along the ridge – the lack of wind compared to last year was great.

After the ridge-riding, the trail drops nicely through a couple of hundred vertical metres & is great fun. There’s a few rocky bits & small periods of unobstructed panoramas.

Can you tell I was enjoying myself?

It’s more steep climbing to regain most of the altitude just lost to summit Cox Hill. That first Lusk Pass bit must have had me tired, because I feel that I didn’t ride quite as much as I did last year & this time there were no insane gusts to contend with. We all rejoiced (well, three of us) when Brent’s climbing ability was finally defeated by a lack of traction less than fifty metres from the end – he is human after all.

Once again, the huge downhill off Cox Hill made the 1800m of climbing we did in the day worthwhile. Starting with those big open traversing switchbacks on loose rock before diving in to the trees & the trail changing to roots, to rocks & frequently back again it was a blast all the way down. I was pleased to mostly be keeping pace with Brent – I’m still not completely used to having the brake levers on the opposite side, so I’ll stick to that as some sort of lame excuse.

We had a steady climb along the road for seven or eight kilometres & after being out for six hours & climbing so much, we were all starting to feel rather exhausted. But we kept a good pace along the road & were eventually back at the Lusk Pass trail – which, naturally, had more of a climb to the top than we remembered going down earlier in the day. But those steep bits we had to walk up were a complete blast on the way down as we blew through many loose rocks. Brent & I got a nice little surprise to come around a corner at speed & see a bear cub running off down the trail – we started making a lot more noise after that. The last part of the old fireroad had a lot of logged trees across it, which was a bit of drag.

We persevered & were back at the car 56 km & almost seven and a half hours after leaving it. Truly the longest, most epic & best ride that I’ve done all summer – which is great, as I’ve been looking forward to it for many months. We all hurt, but were pretty happy with the riding & that we’d achieved it. Joel & Kristy had us all (Megan & Finn included) around for barbecued beer-can chicken dinner, all that meat was much needed & deserved!

– Some photos taken shamelessly from Alex & Emma.

around home, bikes, event, friends, MTB, snow

Trying out a 29er

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29ers have been around for a while now, but until this week I’ve never ridden one on a trail before. If you don’t know, a 29er has 29 inch wheels as opposed to a normal mountain-bike which has 26 inch wheels; also, that maybe a sign that this post will be of little interest to you. With larger wheels, they are supposed to be easier to roll over bumps &, once you get those big wheels rolling, easier to keep moving with the extra rotational inertia. With my bike still waiting for a part to turn up to get it back to a rideable state, Megan has generously let me use her bike a bit to enable a little riding during the start of my final three weeks in Canmore. She & Alex have both now got shiny new 29ers recently – I have in fact ridden Megan’s a couple of times, but as there was this much snow in the Canmore Winter Meltdown Triathlon it hardly counts as trail-riding.

The first thing I noticed riding through town to the G8 was that the tires were hard & fast – pumped up for the recent 24 Hours of Adrenalin event in town. Tire choice & pressure make a big difference to a ride & while I love the Crossmark on the rear, it never gives me much confidence on the front. I prefer something a bit chunkier with enough tread on the side to save me from washing the front wheel out too often. Near the start of the G8 is a decent climb that I only conquered a few times last year on my bike – it’s steep enough that the biggest flaw in my bike’s geometry tends to show itself & the front wheel becomes very difficult to keep on the ground. The 29er got up this easily, although with the bigger wheels I was spinning the granny-ring a bit earlier than normal to keep them turning at slow speed. This was a pleasing climb, but pretty much what I expected. With the big wheels requiring an easier gear, it was nice to make my way up the rest of the climb feeling that I wasn’t spinning excessively (the reason I prefer the middle-ring on 26″).

So having shown that the larger wheels made the more difficult climbs easier, it was time to see how they would go on faster undulating & then downhill terrain. Generally, the roots & rocks were absorbed better – but perhaps due to the setup, not markedly so. I did also notice that I would repeatedly have the rear tire skidding a little in the strangest places – perhaps better brakes & the hard tire a bit, but not completely. It was hard to keep the control I wanted with that wheel not gripping. Also, through the twisty parts of the trail the large wheel is not nearly as nimble & agile – but when you can just hit things & roll over them, it doesn’t matter so much. As suspected, I didn’t have much confidence in the grip of the tires to rail the corners as I normally would.

On the downhill, there was a strange disconnect from the trail – a little hard to describe, but I just didn’t feel the trail as much. It’s noticeably less work, less rewarding & less fun. The bike would also pretty much stay planted on the trail – which can be good & bad, but in this instance I was really missing not popping off the odd root or rock. So after that first ride, the least enjoyable part (uphill) was easier – but the most enjoyable part of the ride was less fun. Not completely sold yet, but it sure was nice having a shiny new bike to ride.

I let a bit of air out of the tires yesterday for a little spin around the Nordic Center. This improved things a bit, but I still had that same problem of the rear wheel not gripping the surface properly. Consequently, on a couple of chutes that I usually ride at speed & with ease I was just past the edge of control & mildly alarmed. Good to be out on the bike on another glorious Canmore day, so I can’t be too picky – especially as I won’t be buying another bike for a while yet.