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Archive for November, 2011
Family fun at The Fullerton Loop
On November - 28 - 2011
Now that “The Moe” has retired from racing, what is he up to now??? I’m back to my roots, per se. See, I was never much of a real racer, I’m more of a “relax vibe” type of rider, the type of riders that enjoys nature (yeah, sounds corny, so what) and hanging around a bunch of swell guys and girls.
Instead of battling pepper spraying “competitive shoppers” I decided to take my two girls to the The Fullerton Loop and ride along with our mountain biking buddies. What made this trip really fun was the type of riders that joined the group; from a SS (Super Stud) racer like Dan to a pair of pre-teens on their first full loop ride and a 8 year old “hanging for her dear life” on the back of my Xtracycle.
We all had a blast that day, yeah, it took us quite a bit of time to do the entire loop. In fact, while we did one lap, one of the leading racers of the Tour de Tryptophan did 3 laps! It was all good, we were not in a hurry and we were all having fun.
We had a couple of “firsts” on this ride, it was my daughter Lizzy and RL and Priscilla’s daugther Aleah’s first time doing the entire loop. For those not familiar with the Fullerton Loop, it is a mild 11 mile trail in the heart of the city of Fullerton. It was also my first time doing the entire loop on the Xtracycle with my youngest daughter in the back.
Although the ride took a bit longer than we are used to, we all took the time to coach and cheer on the first timers and the young girls. Most of us were exhausted at the end of the ride, even the one that didn’t do any pedaling!
I hope to do this more often, sharing the sport I love with my family and friends just makes it more enjoyable.
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Ibex Maroc 26
On November - 26 - 2011
This week MtnBikeRiders received a new carbon hardtail from Ibex Bikes, their Maroc 26, for testing and review. The frame is a stealth black/grey with the carbon weaving visibly bleeding through in a few places for a nice visual affect. Here is the build spec and geometry from Ibex.
Ibex Headbadge
2011 – Maroc 26 Specifications
Frame: Carbon Fiber 3K Internal Cabling for Shifters
Fork: Rock Shox Reba RLT Tapered 100mm Travel
Shifters: SRAM X-9
Front Derailleur: SRAM X-9
Rear Derailleur: SRAM X-9 Carbon
Crankset: SRAM X-9 2spd (28/42T) BB30 175mm
Cassette: SRAM 10-Speed (12-36T)
Chain: SRAM PC1051
Brakes: Avid Elixer CR Rotors F185/R160
Rims: WTB Speed Disc Cross Country
Hubs: WTB Laser Disc Lite
Tires: WTB Wolverine 2.1 Team, XC 120tpi
Headset: FSA #42/ACB
Cockpit Set: RaceFace
Saddle: WTB Rocket V
Pedals: None
Ibex Maroc 26
2011 – Maroc 26 Geometry
Frame Size: 20.9″
Head Angle:69.5°
Seat-Tube Angle: 73°
Effective Top-Tube Length: 24.2″
Chain-Stay Length: 16.7″
BB Height: 11.73″
Offset (mm): 40mm
Wheelbase: 43.6″
Stand over: 30.9″
Crankarm Length: 175mm
Stem Size: 6°x110mm
Bottom bracket and clean carbon goodness.
I want to start by pointing out the things that Ibex does not list in their spec. It also include Raceface carbon bars (appox 670-680mm – a little narrow by my tastes, but still effective), Raceface carbon seatpost, and internal derailleur routing, which you can see in the first pic. Out of the box the bike weighted in at 23lb 5oz. I put on pedals, bottle cage, and Ergon grips which are in the photos.
Elixir Brakes
The Maroc came with the Elixir brakes with dual mount for the brake levers and shifters. Also on the bars is a remote for the fork lock-out. This will be my first time with the shifter/brake lever dual mount system. It didn’t lend itself to my more esoteric positioning I normally run in my cockpit, but I don’t foresee it being a big problem either.
Full X-9 2x10 build on the drive train all around.
With SRAM X-9 drivetrain the Maroc won’t be a slacker with it comes to shifting on the trail. The all around component build is absolutely solid.
X-9 Cranks. Love the 2x10.
A fork with a lockout is a must for me, and the Maroc also includes a fork remote on the bars.
Rebca RLT with Remote.
WTB Wheels, Hubs & Rubber
There are a couple geometry things that caught my attention right away before looking at the specs. First the head angle is a bit slack for a hardtail at 69.5°. I’ll definitely make use of that on the downhill. And the second was that the top tube was on the shorter end from what I’m used to (ETT 24.2″). This just seems to tell me that this is a more all-a-round geometry rather than race oriented. The frame looks solid with a down-tube that is a nice thick, almost octagonal shape. I look forward to putting the it through its paces in the upcoming weeks.
Ibex Maroc 26
If anyone has any questions about the Maroc, just leave a comment.
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Fun is Fun!
On November - 22 - 2011
This past weekend Priscilla and I called up the troops to see if they’d like to join us at Aliso Woods for a super fun, easy paced ride. This venue has to be one of our favorite places to ride. It offers so much as far as variety in the type of trails out there. One can chose to go DH while another can do XC. But on our ride, we stuck with XC riding.
Our planned route was to hit some of our favorite trails. For Nick and Mark, Lynx was something they’ve never tried. So we made sure we hit it as our first descent.
Priscilla was celebrating her birthday that weekend. She took some great photos of the trip. Here’s one where I’m looking for a snack in her hydration pack.
Here’s some of the pictures she took. I love my EVEL jersey.
Doc Thunda showing that he has 5 fingers on his hand. Mind you, one of them is fake. He lost a finger during the great war in Romania.
Did you know the new iPhone 4s takes some amazing photos?
In this shot I was showing Mark where babies come from.
Nick is my new stalking buddy. Ever since he signed up for Latitude, I’ve been stalking him. Sometimes if I see that he’s only a few miles from me, I’ll drive over to where he’s at and just watch him.
I love this photo because it shows of our jerseys being worn by 2 of the manilest men I know! Don’t they look hot!
I busted out the Drift helmet cam and captured what you’ll see below.
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Performance Bicycle-My Experience
On November - 20 - 2011
So I was contacted by Performance Bicycle and they said, “Hey RL, you’re a cool guy, can we give you a $25 gift card to use at any one of our stores and tell us what you think?” I said, “Um…sure!”
After one of our weekend rides, Priscilla and I drove down to the Performance in the Tustin Market Place.
Upon walking in, we were greeted by a friendly sales rep who offered to help us. Since we were just looking around, we declined his help and moseyed around the shop and eventually I found the tubes. Priscilla has habit of going through a tube on almost every ride.
If you didn’t know Performance is a full fledged bike shop that carries a ton of inventory. From socks to carbon bikes, they’ve got a great selection. One of the things I like at Performance is their in-house product line called Forte. This is an affordable alternative to name brand parts and accessories.
My favorite part of the store was the clearance area. I found these Fox shirts for $5 each! So I bought 2 of them!
After picking up a few tubes, 2 shirts, Power Bar Protein Bites, it was time to pay. The helpful clerk was cheerful and courteous. While I was standing in line, the guy next to me started asking me about my bike, the KHS XCT 556. We chatted a bit about the bike.
I spent less than 30 minutes in the store and my experiences was very pleasant. The staff was great, large inventory of products and the prices of the items I bought were pretty good! So if you’ve got a Performance Bicycles near you, make sure you check them out. If not, you can go to their website and order your goods there.
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