Fast Tires

A short update on the Bontrager XR1 tires.


These are the FASTEST tires I have ever ridden..... by a good bit. They roll sooo fast and have good cornering grip. I am running them tubeless on my 355, American classic, Revolution wheel set with yellow tape. They are a non-tubeless tire with a high tpi count and very soft rubber.
They weigh 488.4g, the lightest crow I ever had was 465.5g but I could not run crows in the front and rear so the XR1 works out to be lighter than the Crow and Karma combo. Though its not the weight that makes these tires fast. The tread pattern is very fast, faster than the Crow`s by a bit. The rubber compound is a little softer on the XR1 giving it good cornering grip. I am really looking forward to see how they will wear in.

My bike with a few new items some of which have not been seen will lower my bike to 19lbs with gears.

Races start

this weekend. We will be hitting up Colorado Springs and Fort Collins for some crit racing. Not looking forward to the eight hour drive form Durango to Fort Collins. Hopefully I can get a chance to get some riding in at Fort Collins. Whoopeee.

Not impressed yet

The new Sram XX group set was officially released today. No specs have been released to the public and there will most likely be changes to what you see here.

Upon first seeing the press release I was excited but soon let down to see that the brakes are only slimmed down Elixers with a one piece bar clamp, the front derailleur is a slightly lighter version of the current X.9, the rear derailleur is a mix between Red and X.0 and grip shift is not being offered yet.

The highlight of the groupo is the crankset. The spindle looks to be a BB30 in the picture and the rings are bolted to two different mounts, hopefully meaning it is a low chainline setup. The down side to the crank though is you will most likely be limited to a narrow chainring selection.

At least the brakes should be light.

Parts and stuff

All the parts are Bontrager, and thats fine. I picked out a bar, stem and seatpost combo that would all lean towards efficiency. The bar I chose was the XXX riser. It weighs a heafty 50g g more than my EC70 but is wider, 580 to 630, stiffer and has more sweep, 5deg to 7deg.

For the stem I chose a XXX stem. This was the hardest decision to make due to my fit. The XXX stem comes in one angle, 17deg, where the model down the X Lite comes in two, 7deg and 17deg. The XXX stem would give me the best fit bewteen my Race Lite Big Sweep and the XXX Rizer, but was 157g vs 114g for the same effectice length. I went with the XXX based on fit and the hopes of superb stiffness and I feel that it has delivered.

For seatpost and saddle I went for the XXX post and the RXL saddle. The post was an easy choice due to its light weight compated to my Thomson, 297g vs. 170g, and its simple design.

The saddle was my only iffy choice. I really didnt want to end up switching all my saddles out and buying new ones but I bought in to try for the spring on the 29er. So far so good, I got my ass sized at the local trek store and ordered up. It has a narrower fit than my custom SLR saddles and was quite comfortable. The bikes new weight as is, is 19.15lbs
More later....

Bontrager XR1 Team Issue

I just received a pair on Team Issue XR1 tires and I thought that I should share. The tires are intended for fast courses and tubes. There are two versions of the tire, a Team Issue and a Expert issue. The both have the same tread pattern but the Team issue has a softer rubber and thinner rubber. They have a claimed weight of 565g for the expert and 510g for the Team Issue.

My tires came in at 488g and 506g which made me very happy. There is now a tire option as light as a crow but with taller knobs.

Tubeless inflation on my 355 with yellow tape was not easy. It took 80psi form my portable 10 gal air tank, removal of the valve core and a lot of time. My difficulty was based on my past experience with Bontrager tires. Normally I can get Bontrager Tubeless and non-tubless tires to inflate with a floor pump. Any one with quality air compressor should have no problems.


They are labeled as 1.9" or 48/48 but are more like a 2.0 and take on a round profile when inflated. The look small when compared to my Karmas and ACX tires.

More to come once my flu bug goes away and I get a chance to rally them.

Team Mech

Yay.

Uphill Struggle

The trails are still to snowy to ride especially with the warm weather. So (as much as I don`t like to admit it) I've been riding the cross bike on the road lately. I put a pair of 25c tires on along with a 53x16 gearing and its been pretty fun. The team has organized rides leaving from Bread at 1:00 on weekdays and at 10:00 on the weekends. The group rides are great for learning new rides and faces. While speaking of the team Crawford is no longer with us but we have two new "coaches" Rutie and Mike. We are now also classified as a "varsity" sport which hopefully will lead to better funding and maybe some scholarships.

I've been working on my cadence and low end power in prep for SSWC which by the way will be super sweet by the sounds of it. Some time here I will be making my bike in to a power transfer machine through new cranks, bars and stem. My hopes are the extra weight gained will be well worth the extra stiffness gained.

Schmidty has been brewing his own beer and it has alot of head.