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With three children under 5 years old it has become exponentially more difficult to get out of the house for rides. Over the three day Valentine’s Day/Chinese New Year’s three day weekend, I was able to get out for about 40 miles which is quite a bit for me.

The weekend started when my office closed up a little early in celebration of Chinese New Year… the year of the Tiger, by the way. I was able to get in a short 4 mile ride by running a couple of errands my wife asked me to take care of. That half hour of riding was a little blessing as it was totally unexpected.

On Saturday morning, Dan and I met at 7th Avenue in Hacienda Heights to ride 7th Ave and Turnbull. The route I chose was 15 miles long with 3k feet of climbing. I printed out extensive directions (3 pages) for our ride but 4 miles in, I made a wrong turn and couldn’t back to the correct trail (mental note: keep eyes out for a gps system on the used market). Boo. I promptly started guessing how to get to the next section of singletrack, but to no avail.

After a mile or two of that Dan and I rerouted. We climbed up the wide fireroad leading in from the Whittier side of the trail and hit A-line. We then climbed back up that same fireroad to the colorful water tower and then returned back to the car on my favorite trail of 7th/Turnbull. This section consists of a sweet set of switchbacks under a beautiful canopy of trees. Its fast, flowy and a hoot to ride on. It turned out to be Dan’s favorite section as well. 12.5 miles with well nearly 2500 feet of climbing. Not a bad substitute for the original route.

Me and Dan up at the colorful water tower. Niner AIR9 & Giant Trance.

Sunday was a day of rest.

Monday was a bigger mileage ride. 23 total miles leaving from Mr. Scissor’s house to the Mills Loop and Marshall Canyon for about 2200 feet of climbing. My body was killing me on Monday as it usually is the 2nd day after experiencing cramps on a ride. But since the wife had approved of the ride (on Valentine’s Day no less!) I was there.

Me and Tim. Beautiful day of late afternoon riding with the setting sun and snow capped mountains in the background. Tim is rolling on the Trek Fuel EX

This ride lasted about 3 hours with a few much needed stops in between. Dan and I were pretty gassed for much of the ride but it was still a blast to hit Mills and Marshall Canyon especially since we were able to get up to the mid-30′s mph when coming back down Mills. The ride back to the house was an exercise in warding off cramps as we were at the three hour mark.

You can’t see it in either of the pictures but I am riding the Prologo Vertigo Nack. I find the saddle to be pretty comfortable, similar to the Rocket V in padding, and durable. A few days after Monday’s ride I got a chance to clean the bike and the Nack was still in pristine condition after over 100 miles of riding. I will keep you posted.

All pictures from Dan the Man

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Lightly tensioned chain causes major chain slap noise

Are you experiencing chain slap on those downhill sections or sections of trail that you are not having to pedal? Doesn’t that sound get annoying to you after a while?

If you are experiencing a lot of chain slap, try moving your chain into the big ring up front. When you big ring it, you are essentially taking up more slack in the chain. By taking up some of that slack in the chain you reduce the amount of vertical movement of the chain which thereby reduces the amount of chain slap you hear.

Shift the chain to the big ring to reduce chain slap.

Just be careful when the terrain changes on you. If you are suddenly confronted with a little hill to climb don’t start dumping gears via the rear cassette. First, move the chain from the big ring to the middle chain ring up front then quickly change gears in the rear. Find the gear you need and pedal up the hill. If you immediately start dumping gears, while panicking that you won’t make it up the hill, you may reach the bottom of your cassette before you even know it and now you are cross-chaining! Ask me how I know this.

Of course, the best approach would be to plan ahead. If you see the trail heading upwards, start shifting before you reach the hill and get down into the gear you need so that you can attack the hill accordingly. Then, when it flattens out or points down again, big ring it!

Awww… Music to my ears, or is that the sound of silence?

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Suffering on the 45 minute climb… I could see Dan enjoying taking this picture of me… watching me suffer

Went out with AV Dan on Saturday for a bit of a sufferfest at Chino Hills State Park. This one is a pretty common route I’ll ride if I’m short on time, but want to do more than the loop. I can normally get it done in under 2.5 hours which is about the amount of time it took for Dan & me that day.

It starts off with a long-ish 45 minute climb. The climb has very few breaks and is typical of Southern California, all fireroad. The kicker on the climb was that the last section from Sycamore to McDermott was not only steep, as usual, but also extremely sandy. If I had known it was that bad, I would have definitely opted out at Sycamore and rode directly to Four Corners from there.

Giant Trance & Niner Jet 9 at Four Corners

Ah, but ignorance is bliss, at least for a while. Then the sand hit and although I didn’t get off the bike, I was definitely in granny just keeping up a high cadence to climb through the sand pits. The sand looked to be the remnants from last fall’s fire that really did a number on Chino Hills.

Bovinian Delight’s singletrack is a a welcome change to the miles of fireroad we just finished

After our break at Four Corners we hit Bovinian Delight which is a singletrack treat after so much fireroad. The singletrack track was relatively clear and we stopped off to take a quick photo of Dan looking menacing on the trail.

Dan enjoying the cleared out singletrack

The return ride back to the car of about 7 miles is always fun. It’s rolling hills that can go pretty fast. Dan & I ended up trading bikes for a few minutes to discuss the merits of each other’s bikes. Dan rides a Giant Trance & I was on my Niner Jet 9. The Trance is 5” travel AM bike and my Niner is a 3” travel XC bike.

After trading rides and doing that for a very short stretch of trail, we were both certain that our own bike was the bike we preferred to be on.

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The 2009 Turner Sultan

The longest but least technical ride of the weekend sadly belonged to the Turner Sultan. The “least technical” part was not by choice. Scissors and I started out thinking it would be great to get in a longer ride on Saturday morning before the crowds showed up. After looking around we saw a 10 mile tour ride. Sadly the “tour” part meant all fireroad. It ended up being about 4+ miles of fast downhill fireroad proceeded by a long, tough 5+ mile climb. We were able to, in the end, ride some fun singletrack, but that was short lived as we hit the pavement after less than a mile of singletrack and went back to the Sea Otter exhibition area.

The DW Link is new for the 2009 model year on the Sultan and, correct me if I’m wrong, all Turner bikes

My first thought on the Sultan was: 4.7 inches of travel on a 29er is going to be total overkill for my riding style. I was very concerned about the extra travel robbing me of the pedaling efficiency I experience with hardtails and 3″ full suspension 29ers. Pedaling efficiency was and is key for me because even though I’m more of a XC oriented rider, I’m still a clyde and pedal bob wreaks havoc on my mind.

The Sultan, though, blew me away when it came to climbing. It was extremely efficient even without having to “lock out” or turn on the propedal feature of the shock. I distinctly remember commenting to myself that even though I’m not a fan of long sustained climbs the Sultan’s efficiency made it sort of OK. The 50% more travel than I’m used to (from 3″ to 4.7″) wasn’t noticeable at all when climbing. I expected some bounce and for the shock to be using some travel, but nothing.

The Off Road 10 mile Tour’s saving grace was a rest stop at the bottom of the descent. Cookies, drinks, made to order sandwiches and a bike mechanic, all for free! You rock, Sea Otter!

On the wide fireroad downhill, the Sultan did great. I mean really, what bike would not have done well in that situation? Poor trail choice by the rider. The singletrack we finally did get to do was new to me but I did get a chance to open things up just a smidge when the coast was clear and I could see ahead down the singletrack a bit. The Turner Sultan did really well in those situations but even then the zip tie showed I wasn’t using all of the travel. I really wish I had some more time on more technical trails to get a good feel for this bike.

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Specialized Epic 29, waiting to be ridden

I got a chance to swing a leg over the new Specialized Epic 29er at Sea Otter. Nic of Specialized was great. He spent a good twenty minutes talking about the bike and getting it set up for me. What he did not mention, and what I felt immediately and confirmed later, was that the bike was a size too small for me. I found out later that they had run out of my size.

Specialized’s own shock of course.

The Epic 29 is a full suspension horst link frame that uses the 2009 Reba with a customized Specialized crown and steerer tube. The crown and steerer tube changes make the Reba stiffer, but lighter, a great combination indeed.

Tapered headtube, with an internal headset to keep things down up front

Taking the Epic out on the test loop I immediately noticed it’s racy roots. The Epic 29 was fast bike with good handling. There were a couple of times when the handling may have been a bit too fast for me or I was just not used to it yet, and the smallest movement had me straying off the singletrack. Thankfully the brakes brought me back under control before I hurt myself and I was able to quickly get back on the trail without any issues.

I was also impressed with the out of saddle climbing as I was uanble to feel or see any pedal bob. There were short stretches of trail where I got out of saddle and hammered things out and the Brain did its job and limited bob. When I got a chance to open up the bike and speed along, the shock and Brain did their jobs in taking out some of the terrain’s edges.

In the short time I was on the Epic 29, I could definitely tell it was a race worthy 29er bike. It felt efficient when climbing and yet descended well on the non-technical open trail.

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