Monday night riding
home from the shop I got a picture of some cows doing whatever cows do.
On Sunday We made a trip down to Zanesville for a OMBC race. The race was at Chris Skinners home course(on his own property) which is one of my favorite courses. It was a four lap race with laps being 4 to five miles long. The race was muddy but not as muddy as it could of been. On one section of the course we rode along side a corn field where the ground was Very soft and smelled like shit. Farmer John must of spread Manure some time in the week prior to the race.
The race started LeMans style and I was second to my bike and second into the single track. The trail was pretty muddy and I was unfamiliar with a new section and stuffed my wheel into a hole. This allowed Ben and Steve to get a jump on me. by the end of the first lap I had gone from 2nd to 3rd. I had no pop on the climbs and lost a lot of time. On the other end of the spectrum Brad who at the time was in first was having the opposite feeling... He was flying. At the end of the final lap I suffered a double leg cramp and lost a tone of time, I finished overall in 5th and 4th in the Expert category. Brad finished 1st, Justin got 2nd and Steve finished 3rd in the expert category and Travis finished 1st in the Vet open.
The day before there was a Groovy series race at Vultures Knob that I decided to not take part in as not to totally piss off my saddle sore which is now gone. Though I did decide to make an appearance to see what the turnout was like. There were not many racers at all! Brad Wilhelm was the only expert and there were only a few vet open riders. None the less Brad still received a $50 pay. I should of raced but I didn't want to pester my sore or tire my legs before my race on Sunday or trash my bike.
Bob dropped by the shop yesterday for our monthly updates and along with those updates he brought me a pair of Bontrager Dry X tires and a pair of Bontrager ACX tires.
Today I spent some time working on the bikes. The single speed got new tires, Bontrager Dry X`s and the race bike got it cables, and chain lubed. The Dry X tires came in at there claimed weight of 710g but were way wider than the 2.1 on the label. They looked around 2.3 or 2.35 and are very round.. I was very excited to try these tires out. Later on in the day me and Grant went out and rode the knob, I took the single speed to get a feel for the new tires. My first impression was they were not a good loose over hard pack tire but the more I rode them the more I started to get a feel for them. They roll super fast, faster than my Crows. They offer a very nice ride quality with the huge volume and climbed great. When descending the rear was stable but the front lost traction on a loose twisty section and almost caused a crash. I still need to find a good pressure range for these tires to get the most out of them. For a first ride I give them a 8/10 . They roll super fast, all around grip is good and have huge volume. On the down side they weigh 710g and have a learning curve and were a little unpredictable. 
Just enough room
The new wheels hit the scales at 1496.4g for the set. Not to shabby for a 29er wheel.
Soldering and Tying spokes is a old way to stiffen up a flimsy wheel or a new way to stiffen up a wheel built with a light rim and spoke selection. It was used on bikes back in the day when materials and manufacturing techniques were not what they are today. I had heard of the technique before I got serious about bikes and thought it was a good idea and when I did some research on the topic I found that tests have been carried out. With modern materials and measuring equipment guys in lab coats found that the soldering and tying of spokes had NO INCREASE in stiffness. Though I did find some folks who actually ride bikes and they all seemed to notice a Increase in stiffens.
I decided to try some tying on a old junker wheel with some old electrical wire I had around the house, just for wrapping practice and then I tied the drive spokes on my slightly heavier and more durable 29er wheelset with some .7mm steel wire to see if it would actually work and it did. There was a noticeable increase in stiffness when climbing out of the saddle. I decided to buy the real stuff, DT Swiss Proline tying wire. This stuff was pricey, $40 for a 100 meter role. It is pretty much high quality Copper wire coated in Nickel which turns color so you know when you are over heating your wire. I wrapped my new wheels after riding the wheels around to fully seat in the spokes. The total gained weight of wrapping 24 crosses was 3.1g. I have a good feeling I will be doing this to my other wheels.
Something that I also thought was note worthy was in the event of a broken spoke the tying will hold the spoke in place and keep it from causing more damage.
Some tire profiles. On the left a Bontrager XR 1.8 with the sausage shaped casing and a Bontrager Dry X 1.75 on the right with a Round shaped casing. I have always been more fond of a sausage shaped casing on the front and a round shaped casing on the rear.
