Going the Distance
This isn't the first time I've mentioned that Northern California has been wet and muddy. I'll try not to dwell on it too much, because I don't want to sound like as much of a big fat whiner as Patrick O'Grady of Velo News did in a recent "At The Back" column. Instead, i'll share some of the knowledge and experience that I have gained racing in the wet weather.
Tires are pretty subjective. I'm sometimes prone to making irrational connections between tires and performance based on other factors, such as how I felt that day, or how hard I crashed. I'll never use Primal Raptors again due to a nasty fall at the Lemurian 2 years ago, but there have been some mighty fast guys who've raced on them without difficulty.
I'm a weakling, and I'm no throttle-twister, so i like tires with the lowest rolling resistance and lightest weight which still maintain adequate traction. Last year, in dry conditions, I mostly raced a double fighter in the rear, mated with a bontrager revolt ss in front. Obviously that combo would be pretty inadequate for the weather we've been having out here this winter. So i figured I'd try to find something light, with short knobs, with plenty of space between knobs. What I came up with is the bontrager revolt st-2.
Actually, I only used the st-2 in the rear. I got a couple of kevlar bead Psychos very cheap that I've been using in the front. I think the psycho is probably pretty comparable to the ST2 in the front, but that's only judging from appearance. Once I wear out my psychos i'm going to buy a front ST2, so I'll write more then.
Anyway, The ST2 rear is light (under 550 gm), smooth rolling (due to short and carefully spaced 3 mm knobs), and fairly narrowish (1.9"). I've been totally stoked at the all-around performance of this tire. Rolling-wise, it doesn't feel too much different from a real semi-slick, but traction wise it rides like a full knobby. The spacing of the knobs is such that mud doesn't pack onto the tire, and it's narrow enough to cut through the goop a little better than a full 2.1". Cornering is very secure and predictable, since the short knobs are well-supported and don't flex. I've been totally stoked with this tire since the day i put it on.
I raced the revolt ST2 at the Lemurian (mud, rain, snow), Angel's camp Knobular (egregious mud), Pine Nut Cracker (dry, sandy, desert soil), and the Big Bear NCS race (mud, snow, ice). At all 4 races the tire went the distance for me. Especially at big bear I found myself riding sections that everyone around me was pushing. That was a little bit of a surprise considering the ST2 is sold as a low-rolling-resistance racing tire. You might be able to get slightly better traction with knobbier tires, you might also be able to get slightly lighter or faster-rolling tires, but usually these choices come with severe penalties in other areas. i.e., light and fast equals slippery, super traction equals slow and heavy, etc... I've certainly never tried a tire that put it all together like the Revolt ST2. The only shortcoming it might have is being a little too narrow to run extra-low pressures in extremely rocky terrain. On the other hand, keith rode these at moab and had no problems. Bottom line: if you race, buy this tire.
I admit to being biased. I like twist shifters, and I'll do whatever it takes to make mine work. With '97 ESP units, there was a tendency for the derailleur to shift sluggishly (or not at all) off of the largest rear cog after much use and abuse. I kept mine working pretty well by using gore-tex cables and optimizing the cable routing (not easy to do on a proflex), but I still had to work on it from time to time.
This year I put '98 Grip Shifters on my Fisher Hardtail. The first thing I noticed was the big ol' paddles on the twisty part of the shifter. These make for plenty of gripping power, even in the wet and mud. The 98 ESP derailleur has an additional spring to provide a little extra push off of the big cog. Grip shift also packaged the set with a nightcrawler cable sealing device. The Nightcrawler effectively seals off the upper end of the last chunk of cable housing on the seatstay, otherwise a problem dirt area. I also used a rollamajig, allowing a totally straight run on that last section of cable housing before the derailleur. I initially installed the stock cables, figuring I could upgrade to gore cables later on.
So far I've been astonished at the reliability of my shifting. I've raced in pretty unbelievable mud several times, and the bike keeps on working. I replaced the last section of cable housing once (cost, .75) and I've lubed the cable and cleaned the grit from around the rollamajig, but that's about all I've done in 3 months of hard use. I attribute this to 3 things: 1) the rollamajig reduces friction dramatically by allowing a straight cable run at the end. SRAM says the bend that normally exists in this section of housing is where they found most of the friction in their tests. Even if a little dirt gets in their, the cable pulls straight through it instead of being forced against the side of the housing. 2) the nightcrawler keeps the dirt out of the cable housing. No dirt = less friction. 3) The extra return spring makes everything keep working even when it starts to get a little bit icky. Minor maintenance has so far kept it from getting really heavily icky.
The bottom line is that now I can have my preferred method of shifting and not have to screw with it to keep it functioning at race readiness. Kick Ass!
Laugh all you want. I hate having a soaking wet cold butt. Adding a couple ounces (temporarily) to your bike via a clip-on rear fender and downtube mounted crud guard goes along way towards keeping you warm and comfy. I've put these on for several races, including the lemurian and big bear. As a result, I never got soaked above knee level. This can be important when it's 40 degrees or so and there's a foot of snow on the ground. I use a front one that velcros onto the down tube, and a rear one that uses a quick release seatpost clamp. The qr on the rear fender occasionally hooks on my shorts or something and comes undone, maybe i'll duct tape over it next time. Since I got 2nd at Cool (Pro/expert), 2nd at the lemurian(expert vet) and 5th at big bear(expert 35-39), people aren't laughing so much now.
I've actually had pretty dang good luck this year. The only really bad problem I had was with chain lube at the Pine Nut Cracker. I tried Pedro's ice wax in Moab, and was pretty impressed, so i figured I'd keep using it. Unfortunately it seemed to all wash off in the big creek crossing at the pine nut (the only wet spot on the course). By the 3rd lap my chain was making pretty awful noises and it started to suck in the granny gear. Fortunately the granny is only needed for about 100 yards on that course. For a race that long I probably should've brought my little emergency lube container. Going from wet to dry and back is always hard on lubricants.
The other problem was just my own stupidity and laziness. I didn't want to get my supercaliber all muddy and jacked up for the 3rd straight race, so I rode my old MB1 at the oroville knobular. My mb1 has no suspension (the softride stem got pretty thrashed at cool) and had a 1.5" conti cross country tire. The whole race totally sucked for me. I wrapped the chain around the bb on the first descent and just sucked more and more after that. I was bouncing all over the place and hating life. I even got beat by a magazine writer (scott martin). I hate that! And to top it off, it wasn't really all that gruesomely muddy there. I woulda been fine on my good bike. Oh well, live and learn