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This evening Priscilla and I ventured out on this super top secret trail that no one really knows about. I’d tell you but then you’ll ruin it because its such a fun place you’ll want to ride there and invite all your friends, then it wouldn’t be secret anymore…

Tonight’s ride was a bit different. We weren’t training hard or riding super fast, I think I was just too distracted by things that I saw on the trail…I’ve been dieting for quite some time and food is always on my mind.

I call this photo, the “cock pit” shot. Can you find Artie? That guy seems to show up in the weirdest places. One time I was going #2 and I sent him a text message, then next thing you know I hear a message notification from the stall next to me. Ok…weird, so I sent Art another message talking about how it was a weird coincidence that the guy next to me got a text soon after I sent one…then he responds…”that’s weird, as soon as I sent you a message, the guy in the stall next to me got a text too!”

After our ride we headed over to a fish taco place to replenish the nutrients we expended on riding 36.2 miles that evening. Check out my “salad” and behind it is my favorite veggie, onion rings.

This is my carbon fiber wallet. People always seem to geek out when they see it. But you know what’s in it? Debt! Not so cool anymore eh?

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I have been doing battle for many years now, as a matter of fact since 1997 from one coast to the other I  have gone. Way back when  in that time I have been sponsored by few protective companies, but none has matched the fit, feel, and functionality of DAINESE.

Now I won’t compare other gear companies or tell you more history about DAINESE all I will say is they have been in the game longer then most and all others have taken what they have did and capitalized on it, but they will in my opinion never come close in comparison. Now I say this with the utmost confidence and I will get back to that later. I will “ALWAYS” test products on this site as a neutral party for you the consumer because I am one to, I’m not a PRO that get stuff for free all the time and as a expert racer I won’t lie to you we do get our perks , and why shouldn’t we, we paid our dues.

LONG TERM TEST: DAINESE COMMANDER, 3x ELBOW, and 3x KNEE
For about four years now I’ve been using these three products with ZERO, I repeat “ZERO” failure. They have preformed time and time again with no slippage of the knee or elbow. The chest protector has also preformed great to.

Now when I started racing downhill it was just becoming  the premier sport. The bike were starting to get better and so was the gear and DAINESE was first on the market to make their protection with the thought of putting great emphasis on impact which all this trickled down from years of Road Racing experience, these were not just some plastic pads with foam in them, and cooling the rider in the process. I wore all my moto gear that I raced with back in the 80′s. I thought this would give me better protection then anything out there. For the most part it worked.

One thing though, DAINESE gear was pretty much unobtainable early on. Number one, no one distributed it here in the states very good, or two you were a World Cup pro and purchased it when you were in Europe (Rum0r was even  they had to pay full retail for it.), and three it was a lot more expensive the any other gear out at the time, but you could see how good their stuff was. I only purchased some when I worked at a shop that got it on close out.
My first taste was knee guards because they fit like no others. Now by this time I was racing expert and had been sponsored by a few big gear companies and one of them made pads that came the closest to the DAINESE product in fit and function, but in time like all the others I was able to crack elbow, knee, and chest protectors. I never got into the suits due to the fact that I liked the MX style chest protectors.

Now I’m going to brake this up into three parts ELBOW, CHEST, AND KNEE, so lets go shell we.

ONLY A FEW SCRATCHES AND THAT'S ALL?

THE 3X ELBOW NOW CALLED PERFORMANCE ELBOW
Now when it comes to the fit for my arms and knees I have had the hardest time finding pads that would fit. I could never find pads that would stay on my arms, now I’m not a skinny guy and I’m not this muscled out kind of guy either, so when I found a set of pads that fit I would buy two sets just in case they stopped making them.

Three thing I can count on happening with my elbow pads, 1. They WILL slip down my arm. 2. I WILL crack the elbow cup on a HARD impact, and 3. I would have enough strap to run around one and a half times ( “give me a break these are mediums!”)
OK out of the three thing I’ve listed only one came up, to much strap. OK I could live with this, not all body’s will fit the average size ( Whatever that is.). This is something I just deal with, no problem just take off the Velcro and cut down the straps to my size, “PERFECT FIT”.

The fit is top notch, no slippage out of the bag. The strapping system has three of them one on the articulated  plate above the elbow, one at the elbow, and one on the forearm. This gives a great fit on the arm and allows the arm to move as it should.  I have crash tested these as well as the knee and chest and I could say these have never been a bother compared to others.

TOUGH TO THE CORE

Impact test “YES”!!  I have nailed my elbows hard on the 3x and came up thinking “OK their toast!” To my surprise nothing, nothing at all. WOW!! (Cracked others.) The elbow and forearm are made of Polypropylene a soft plastic that in my opinion absorbs some of the the impact, again this comes from their Road Racing tech. The strength also comes from the way its molded on the inside, holes on the shells for breath-ability  along with the foam padding “THAT BREATHS“. I have hit the 3x’s very hard and you can not tell. these pads have come out with only scratches on them.

OUT WITH THE OLD IN WITH THE NEW- W- 3X KNEE NOW PERFORMANCE KNEE

OK the new PERFORMANCE KNEE is a little different from the 3X.  DAINESE changed the straps and the padding a little, but that’s all. The pads are just about the same as fit and performance goes. Which does go to show you “Don’t mess with a good thing.”
The first time I got my 3X’s the first thing I did was to put my 661 pad locker on over the knee pad to prevent slipping of my knee pad. Now this is always a hassle to me, I mean I just hate having to take my shoe off to 1.) slid my pad or pad lock on to hold my pads on and 2.) having to take my shoe off to slid my pad lock and pad off my leg. See where I’m going with this, the basic inconvenience of having to take your shoes off at all!!!! MAJOR PET PEEVE!!!

I went out for some quick DH riding one day and told myself heck with the pad locker and low and behold as I was riding I didn’t experience any “MAJOR” slipping of my 3x pads. This really blew me away I could not think it possible to find a pair of pads that did not do this , again “WOW”!! Not only the fit, but no slipping and the protection, and breath-ability to boot.

FOUR YEARS OF USE AND STILL HANGING

Now as the 3X elbow the knee are put together pretty much the same, same padding, strapping system, and polypropylene. The knee is thought of in the same way as the elbow is, to move in  a natural movement, having the articulated top plate above the knee lets the pad move with the knee as you pedal. This is in my opinion is why the pad does not slip when pedaling.

THEY STILL HAVE FLAVOR!!

THEY TAKE A LICKING AND KEEP ON TICKING
The knee will always be that one part of the body that will be hitting the ground a lot and if you want to go to work put some pads on the knees. I have hit these things countless times and have always come out of it great, but one time. It was the 2009 SRC Cal-State Finals in Mammoth and the pro/ expert course had crazy rock sections, while at practice I went down hard on the rocks to the point that I thought I broke my knee cap. Now at this point the first thing that went threw my mind besides the pain was that my  3X were done and I would be throwing them away, well they were fine just another scratch, oh I didn’t race because my knee was now a softball, but the pads saved me.

Again as I said about the straps on the elbow pads I have to cut down the straps to fit me ( not the fault of the company, but the maker himself.), not a big deal to me. Here is another thing I encountered with the pads. While racing one day it didn’t dawn on me, but I noticed I had a broken buckle snap, again “WOW” ! In four years of use this is all that has happened.

IN FOUR YEARS THAT'S IT? I LIKE!!

COMMANDO CHEST & BACK PROTECTION

I have worn nothing but moto chest/back protectors and have cracked everyone of them, they are not built for impact in mind, but for roost deflection only.

If you have worn any of the DAINESE body suits in the last few years then you know how good these thing are made. The back protector has DAINESE’s WAVE technology which give the protector great lateral strength for impact, but that’s not all on the inside is a aluminum honeycomb to absorb the impact, plus padding. The chest also incorporates the aluminum honeycomb also, you have an articulated shoulder that moves with you. the shoulder wraps around to the back to give your shoulder blade protection also, you have a little padded rib protection to.
This is one well thought out chest/back protector.

Have I  IMPACT tested it well yes and when I have hit the ground I have not felt it. “It WORKS!!” and works well.

CHEST PLATE WITH WAVE TECH AND ARTICULATED SHOULDER

LIKE STRIDER GUM

BACK PROTECTOR WAVE TECHNOLOGY

This is the short of it, the testing, thought, construction, function, fit, and the ability to build something that will last longer then bikes you keep is truly something to be said.
When you Italian you think Ferrari and Ducati, why they are the best, well for all us old guys when it comes to protection we think of the best DAINESE . This is a product that is built to last and it cost more then most which is proof that it is worth it to spend the extra bucks on something that will last.

LAST THING SAID

OK now you know when I said I would get back to something I was about to say earlier, well some of you may know who I work for as my full time job and for those who don’t time to let you in on a little secret. I work for DAINESE/AGV USA as the Warranty Manager and as I said while testing product I will not compare any one product to another ( unless we do a shootout).
The fact that I am the Warranty Manager gives me a great prospective on how things are put together and will help Mtnbikeriders.com to give you the riders the very best on product test.

So go out and buy “SOME SORT” of protection before you go and ride. Your body will thank you in the future, trust me I know.

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I had cycled 80 miles and had 10 hours to think about it and I still couldn’t decide how I wanted to theme this article. A bicycle adventure? Cross training? Accomplishing a goal? How far a bike can take you? Proving that you don’t need the most expensive, high-tec equipment to have fun? A Soma Double Cross review? Here’s a follow up to my adventure from last month and you can catagorize it however you’d like.

Some big hills in the background

One of my goals for the summer was to ride a bicycle from the base of Big Bear to my grandparents house on Big Bear Lake. RL was generous to lend me a Soma Double Cross for the trip since I didn’t have a road bike. Why roadie talk on an MTB site? Road biking is a great way to target your cycling muscles while performing in an aerobic heart rate zone for an extended period of time. The result is strong legs and stronger cardio. Mountain biking still offers good cardio but tends to be a more anaerobic workout meaning you will build more muscle and not push your cardio level as much. I feel I could perform much better in DH racing if my cardio was higher both in terms of stamina and keeping a cool head. Exhaustion leads to dumb mistakes and those small slip-ups are the biggest things people beat themselves up over on a bad race run.

I was having trouble getting a pickup car at the top or bottom of the mountain so I decided that parking at the bottom and riding up and down all in the same day was the way to do it. In my head it made a lot of sense because I only saw it as riding 40 miles up the mountain and coming back I was going to let gravity do all the work. Highway 38 was a bit longer than the 18 but it made the most sense since it was much less traveled and was a wider road in general. I did some research on where to park my truck and found a little picnic area called Thurman Flats at the base of the 38 in Yucaipa. They require an Adventure Pass for your car and they have clean restrooms and trash service. From there it was a straight shot up the 38 right up to Big Bear Lake clocking in at 40 miles one way. I felt prepared enough for the trip so off I went.

I got to Thurman Flats ready to ride at about 7 at a starting elevation of just over 3,000ft. The highest point was 8,500 so I knew there would be a lot of pain involved. Cars were a major concern for me on a twisty mountain road but I was surprised to find a decent size bike lane for almost the entire ride which made things a lot less nerve racking. The other things that put me at ease was that it was a Monday morning and that the 18 had just reopened weeks earlier, alieviating traffic down to a trickle.

Plenty of room for cars and bikes

I’m not going to lie; I seriously considered turning around a couple times because this ride was intense. The road was lonely, my hands and butt were killing me, my legs were sore and, without a bike computer, I never knew how much further I had to go.

I finally reached Onyx summit, the highest point of the ride, by about 11am. From there it was a 12 mile, 2,000ft, decent into Big Bear to my grandparents house where lunch was waiting. Now to figure out how to not feel akward when hugging Grandma and Grandpa while wearing skin-tight lycra.

The destination

A couple hours later I was back on the road now feeling more sore than ever with 2,000ft to climb back up before I really got to enjoy the easy part of my day. I must have taken about 5 breaks going back to the summit because of how much pain I was in. Turning around wasn’t an option at this point because my truck was at the base of the mountain and I wanted to go home. When I got to Onyx summit I ran into the only road bikers I saw all day and we stopped and chatted for a while before descending the mountain together.

It definitely wasn’t all a party from the top as the road bobbed up and down a handfull of times in the middle really testing my stamina. Regardless, I suffered through the uphills and sped through downhills making quick work of the remaining descent. The fast winding road down was incredibly fun and I could take up the middle of the road for most the way down as there were very few cars. I was back at my truck by about 5pm and more than ready to let an engine do the rest of the work from there.

The ride was fulfulling. The road was amazing. The drivers were courteous. The mountain view was unbeatable. As for the bike? No $5k, carbon fiber clad steed with helium-filled tires here. The Soma is a 25 pound CrMo street missle. A little heavy for a pure road bike from what I’m told, but hey, obviously it worked just fine here. It’s crazy to think that every time I consider buying a road bike I feel the need to spend at least $2k just to get something I’d deem competent. I don’t know how the line between wants and needs always gets so blurred but some savvy shopping and $500 should be able to get the average joe enough bike to tackle any road.

My mountainous steed

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Loyal reader, Cat McKinnon submitted a product review of a set of Wellgo pedals. Scroll down to read a great review.

I’ve been needing a new set of pedals for a while now, so I fired up my web browser, checked out a couple online dealers’ websites and looked at dozens of platform-style pedals (I mainly ride XC/Trail stuff, and no, I don’t like clipless pedals). I needed something grippy and durable, yet affordable.

Although I looked at a lot of different pedals, I kept going back to Wellgo’s. Many of their models bore more than a passing resemblance to a lot of the “brand name” pedals, but were far less expensive. Being the smart consumer (ie, I hate wasting money), I checked out every user-review of Wellgo’s that I could possibly find online…What I discovered is that Wellgo is actually an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) for a lot of well-known pedal manufacturers. So I decided to give it a shot and ordered a set of Wellgo B67′s from PricePoint, because they fit my criteria: sealed bearings, CNC-machined (not cast) aluminum platform, CNC’d CroMo spindle, and set-screw type pins. And at $39.98 for the pair, the price was definitely right!

Four days after ordering, I received my pedals, along with a Sette pedal wrench* that I ordered at the same time. The pedals came in a nice black box, with their specs clearly marked on the back edge of the package.

The first thing I noticed when I removed the pedals from the box was how nice the machining and powder-coating was. The axles spun super-smooth, but not too freely, and there was no side-to-side play that would indicate a loose axle (or craptastic manufacturing). The pins were all installed snugly (and had thread locking adhesive applied, as I discovered after unscrewing a couple of them to check). Honestly, I couldn’t find anything wrong with the pedals and they just screamed “quality”.

While they seem big in the photos, they’re actually a pretty “normal” size, a least for a pedal like this. Comparing them to a set of ultra-cheap nylon pedals that I keep around for emergency or loaner purposes, they’re not a whole lot bigger and actually seem to weigh a hair less than the plastic cheapies! I measured them at 20mm thick along the axle (and 88mm front-to-back, and 100mm wide, for those that want the size specs). Total listed weight for the pair (according to Wellgo’s website) is 540g, which about 1.2 pounds for the pair…not super-light, but certainly not bricks either. I don’t have a scale to weigh them, but the weight feels about right.

After scrutinizing the B67′s for a few minutes (for flaws I never found), I installed them on my bike using the Sette pedal wrench. The Wellgo’s have standard 15mm wrench flats, but they also accommodate an 8mm hex wrench on the crank-end of the axle as well, which is often only found in more expensive pedals. It definitely makes installing them much easier!

Once I took the pedals out on a local trail (mostly non-technical singletrack, with the occasional obstacle), I really got a good impression of how they worked and felt. With a pair of DC shoes, as well as more traditional “lugged” mountain bike shoes, they gripped like super glue…in fact, they were so grippy that it took me a little while getting used to the fact that I had to almost lift my foot off the pedal to shift it around. You definitely can’t slide your foot around on these like you can on the smooth chrome type pins. I liked the feeling of control and connection I got with the pedals, without that nervousness I get when clipped in. The pins are spaced just right, providing grip everywhere without causing any weird pressure points on the bottom of my feet, and the platform is slightly concaved for a more comfortable foot position.

While I didn’t have any major crashes, I did lay down my bike once or twice…the pedals held up fine, with no scratching and no bent or lost pins. I know some people don’t like the set-screw type pins, but I prefer them because I can get replacements at the local home improvement store for just a couple dollars.

Final Verdict:
After riding them on several trail rides (in some unusually dry and dusty conditions, I might add), they still feel brand new even after being beat up a little bit. Granted, I didn’t have any big crashes, but they have hit the ground a few times, as well as scraped on rocks and logs, and don’t look any worse for wear. The bearings are smooth and noise-free, the aluminum platform and black powder-coating should hold up for a long time, and there are plenty of pins to provide more traction than you’ll probably ever need. I can’t imagine these needing service very often, and I think they’d be just about ideal for downhill or freeriders. And let’s face it, it’s hard to find any other pedal with this level of quality for under $40!

So what’s not to like? Well, not a whole lot. If you are concerned about size and weight, there are certainly thinner and lighter options, but they’re probably going to cost a lot more. The B67′s really aren’t aimed at riders that need the “raciest” pedals out there, but they have all of the quality that pedals two or three times more expensive have. They also have a type of pin that some people don’t like, although Wellgo does make other pedals with different pin types, so that’s something else to think about. But overall, I have a feeling these pedals will outlast the bike I have them on now, and while they don’t have a big name-brand stamped on them, it’s easy to forget about that when you realize they only cost $40!

*Sette Torx pedal wrench quick review: When I ordered my Wellgo B67 pedals, I also took a chance and ordered the Sette Torx Pedal Wrench. It’s a double-ended wrench that can handle the standard 15mm pedal wrench flats, as well as older 16mm and 17mm pedals. For about $8, I was highly impressed. The wrench is hefty chrome-vanadium hardened steel, with an 11” padded handle area. At about half the price of the cheapest Park Tool pedal wrench, it’s a GREAT investment and should serve almost everyone. The only downside is that, since it’s double-ended, you can’t use a cheater bar for those insanely old, rusted-on pedals. But for the vast majority of riders, it should serve very well for years.

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Big thanks to the folks who placed an order earlier last month, if you were part of the first batch of tuxedos, you would have received an email stating your jersey is ready. For those who are still on the fence about getting one, here are some convincing photos that you NEED to get a Pink Tuxedo!

Pictured is The Moe and yours truly. When you wear a tuxedo, you have to drink things with your pinky out…

This is the proper way to pose with your pink tux, you gotta make it look like you’re adjusting your bow tie.

Pink tuxedo jerseys are perfect attire for work, mountain biking, weddings and for chillaxin’.

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