Today's Ride

raisingarizona wrote

Cunningstunts wrote

raisingarizona wrote

I was born in Nyack NY, I live in Flagstaff Az.

Cool.  Lucky you.

I doesn’t always snow here but we have year round riding with Sedona 45 minutes to the south.

Haha - yeah, it doesn't always snow here and when it doesn't, the riding sucks.  So yeah, I would enjoy that.

When it does snow it can actually be pretty good.

Beautiful, and scary.

I'd definitely have to up my ski skills there.

Needed to burn off some curry and IPA from last night so I took a ride at one of my top 5 favorite places in the world.  

Actually, it was quite wet, which I wasn't expecting because everything else is really dry right now, but this hill is known for having its own weather systems.  'Twas nice and cool but humid af so I took it pretty easy - still sweat my ass off though.



Typical western finger lakes loam and Hemlocks.  This is not rule, most of the trail is gnarly roots and busted up shale - we even have berms of shale!



I managed NOT to kill these two.  Tons of mushrooms sprouting up now.  I took more mushroom pics but none of them really came out well.

Nice 7.5 mile loop with 800' of climbing.  Mostly old school XC-like, no real drops, berms or jumps.

Rode Pine Hills MA..30 mins from my inlaws house on Cape Cod..
Youtube it ..Some crazy riding

Decided to take a few pics today on my ride.  One of my top 10 favorite areas and the longest descent (that I know of) in western to central NY.  That, of course, comes with a long, painful climb - but it's not that bad.



This isn't the highest point on the hill, but it's where the black trail starts.  From here you drop from around 2100' down to around 1600' over about 1.5 miles.  There are a number different ways to ride the descent and I like to mix it up a bit.  All of them have flat spots or small climbs in between steeper pitches.



This is what I meant by "shale berm".  There are a number of very loose, rocky sections on this trail.  There's also a fair deal of larger flat shale rocks and smaller, round erratics.  Overall, moderately technical.



The club that built and maintains this trails does some of the nicest work around.  The whole trail is like this with reinforced berms, armored sections over wet spots and well thought out contouring.



Once you see that little cairn there as you come around this 180 degree corner, you know you've reached the bottom.  Be prepared to settle into the hurt locker for a little while.  Actually, this trail can be ridden both ways quite easily and the climb back up is broken up with flats and short descents.  The climbing sections are steep, but there are good switchbacks built.  The whole way up is as technical as it is down.  Be prepared for a little tech challenge as you crest the steep sections to either piss you off or test your fitness.

Bristol mountain is very near here, actually in the first picture it is directly to the right, although facing east - the photo faces west.



I don't know what they are doing here but there used to be trees and a steep black trail where that worked area is.



Zoomed.  ???

Anyway, the ride I did today was just under 7 miles and 1300' of vert.  You can definitely rack up more here if you have the time and endurance.

Winning!

Someone whose opinion I value convinced me this was a better setup than the Rekons.  

Can't go wrong..

I also know people that run the DHF up front and Aggressor on the rear..

JasonWx wrote

Can't go wrong..

I also know people that run the DHF up front and Aggressor on the rear..

Yup - got that opinion as well.  But I fondled the Aggressor and I thought it far too soft for my XC type riding.

This is what Transition sells the bike with.  They seem to know a thing or two.

Wasn't convinced they would be great around here though because it's usually pretty hard but a tech at the bike shop who's ridden all these tires and has a similar bike said they work awesome even on hardpack.

Mounted those meats up.  Man they are beasts!

They are noticeably heavier though - a pound or so more than what I had.  They are actually wider than any tire I've used even being a 2.3.  They measure 2.25 inches on my 22mm internal width rims.  I checked my other tires and my 2.4 measured 2.25 and my 2.2 measured 2.1 - this is both Maxxis Ikons and Conti Mtn King, same rim width.

The sidewall is significantly stiffer than any other tire I've used too.  I started them with 20/22, but I think that's a shade too low.  I think I'll try 22/24 tomorrow and see how they do on some trail.

BRLKED!!

Minions are the sheet mang. An old roommate of mine that raced pro dh in the mid 2000's turned me on to the Minion for front and rear back then. I've never experienced a better tire for aggressive cornering but then again, I haven't changed the tires I use since then. I'm using butchers now since it's what I can get a deal on but they are pretty much the same thing. Their rolling speed is a little less and they add a good bit of rolling weight but that's ok with me.

Great action shot tBatt!  Wish I could get more of those.

Yeah RA, these tires are rad.  I leaned them over a couple times and it's a huge difference than what I was on.

As of now we have a group of guys riding Sterling Forrest this coming Saturday. Everyone is welcome to come along..

First ride on the Minions.  Whoa.  Major step up from Conti Mtn Kings.

I stuck with 22/24 for the whole ride and hit a few medium sized drops with authority, felt solid, no rim hit.  Blasted through some rooty sections, nada.  Didn't test on rocks, but I think this pressure is good for me.  I could probably go lower, but the cornering support felt good (no squirm or roll) and the ride quality was the best I've ridden.

Right off the bat, in the first mile of flowy bench cut I set a PR by over 6 seconds.  I left a lot on the table too.  This section was hardpack and loose over hardpack and the grip was phenomenal.  Lots of off camber due to the bench cut being on a steep slope.

I went seeking some steeps and loose corners to test them out.  Down the fall line and hard into a loose corner at over 20 mph, they set into a minor drift, but totally controllable.  This section then transitions into a steep slalom between trees with very loose over very hard.  Usually puckering a bit here.  I still did, but held my speed and snaked through.

Then I hit some really janky tech flattish section.  I was able to roll and pump the first section of this, which I've never done before and held some incredible speed.  Tough lines seemed to be super easy to negotiate.  Some more flat, loose corners and I railed right into them and could feel the roost off my front tire hitting my shins.  They carved it.

Then onto a really janky, tech climb - the grip, OMG the grip of that rear tire.  Stuff that I used to have to fight to not spin on I could just cruise right up.

Finished on a short, easy non-tech climb.  Felt a little slow here but strava said it wasn't that bad.  Definitely any penalty in weight for climbing is easily made up in the grip factor for tech.  I like a few tech climbs here and there but I got to say I never wish they were harder or want to set up my bike to make them harder.  This rear tire definitely did not do that.  I actually want to go out and look for some bad lines.

First impressions:

Grip: 10/10 - the best whether climbing, cornering or braking.  Never ridden anything like it.

Comfort:  10/10 - amazingly enough they are super supple through the rough stuff without feeling bouncy

Speed:  9/10 - although they felt a little slow at times, the clock said otherwise, and the amount I can push through corners, and especially off-camber stuff offsets any detriment by a great margin.  I'm not a rider that seeks record times on climbs, so the weight and resistance of these tires is not a big detriment.  I'll see how it goes on longer rides with more vert though.

Weight: 7/10 - you definitely feel it.  They don't feel like a light XC tire like the Ikon.  But in some ways, that is a good thing because I think they damp out some of the nervousness of those tires and make you feel as though you are going a little slower even though you are keeping the same, or even higher pace.

Support: 10/10 - Wanted to pop more jumps and drops with these because they just felt so planted and solid when landing.

Setup 10/10:  By far Maxxis is the best and easiest tubeless setup.  After prepping my rims, took all of 5 min each to put on and seat the bead.  No leaks.  Lost maybe a psi overnight, if that.

As you might be able to infer, these far exceeded my expectations.  I can't wait to ride them on more types of terrain.

any comparisons to a an ardent (R) /highroller (F) setup? Ardent is showing some wear and considering replacements. still running tubes

gorgonzola wrote

any comparisons to a an ardent (R) /highroller (F) setup? Ardent is showing some wear and considering replacements. still running tubes

Not personally, but the guy that talked me into the Minions said the Ardent is the worst.  It's not as horrible as a rear as it is a front, but the DHR II will have significantly more grip all around.

I think the High Roller is pretty similar in grip to the Minions.  What I was told, but cannot confirm is that it's not as good a roller.  Probably not an issue for the front end as much as the rear.

If your rims have a tubeless clincher, tape dem suckhas up.  You won't regret it.  The taping part is easy if they aren't done already.  Just get the proper stuff for your rim width (you want a few mm wider than the internal rim width) and make sure you clean the rim really, really well with isopropyl alcohol and stretch the tape really tight when applying.  I've only ever used the Stan's green tape.  Then buy a couple tubeless valve stems, a core removal tool and some Stan's sealant.  Buy a quart and the small 2oz bottle, because you can use the small bottle to fill the tires and carry some as spare.  Once you have the rim taped and the tire on the rim, remove the valve core and squeeze 1 or 2 little 2oz bottles of the Stan's in.  Then reinstall the valve core and air up.  About 30-40psi should seat the bead.  Install the tire on the bike and spin it to work the sealant around.  If all goes well it should be ready to roll.  If you have trouble seating the bead or have leaks that aren't sealing up you may have to mess around a bit, but unlikely with Maxxis tires.

Also, when you tape, start a few inches before the seam in rim and overlap that area by a few inches.  You'll piss out less sealant when it tries to seal that area up.

I would say go for the DHF/DHR II combo, you won't be disappointed.

Also Mr. Cheese,

I'm gonna put this right here:

https://www.jensonusa.com/Maxxis-Minion-DHF-Exo-29-Tire

https://www.jensonusa.com/Maxxis-Minion-DHR-II-29-Tire

$105 or so shipped tyd.

That looks cool. Would it be smoother if the landing transition was longer?