Schwalbe: Radical Tyres

I've been curious about the new (ish) Schwalbe "radial" tyres since they were first released a little while ago now, and I've finally got my hands on one. After a few crashes on loose, slippery, steep corners and a timely press release from Schwalbe about the second generation of radial tyres, I grabbed my credit card, took a deep breath and ordered a Schwalbe Pro Trail Tacky Chan Ultra Soft Radial (27.5 x 2.5). I think that's the whole name anyway, it's really not clear in the new simplified Schwalbe tyre lineup what the tyres are called.

The Schwalbe Pro Trail Tacky Chan Ultra Soft Radial (27.5 x 2.5) (From now on just tire / tyre interchangeably, to make sure all English speakers are equally offended) was the most difficult tyre I've had to install so far. Getting it onto the wheel was straightforward and didn't need any tools. After a quick check that it was mounted the right way round thumbs were enough to get it in place. Getting it to inflate was harder. I don't have a Tire Booster or equivalent, but I did get it to seat in the end after reinstalling it with a tube, seating both sides with the tube in, deinflating, carefully unseating only one side, removing the tube and trying again tubeless. Once seated it sealed perfectly first time with minimal fuss. 

For the first ride I wanted to try a couple of the trails that I crashed on recently and see if I could tackle them with more a bit more confidence and less bloodshed. I started with the tire at 21psi. I've been running 20psi in my front tires for years, and had just recently been experimenting with 19psi to try to get a bit more traction on the steep and loose trails that have been my focus so far this spring. Reviewers have been suggesting to use a bit more pressure than in a bias ply tyre, so 21psi it is. 

On the way to the trail I tried to get a feel for any increased grip by riding up some kerbs at increasingly acute angles and deliberatly finding diagonal roots to ride across. Placebo is a powerful thing, but my feeling was that it was definitely more stable than my previous tires in these situations. I also had the feeling that as the front tyre slurped it's way over obstacles, the rear, bias ply tire was more willing to bounce or slip sideways. This could mean nothing, or everything, depending on how much you want to buy a new tire. A few emergency stops once I hit the woods had me convinced that it wasn't worse than the last tyre, so I was ready to hit the steeps.

The first trail went well. I was able to creep slowly down some loose marbly sections keeping speed in check easily, and instead of crashing and sliding down on my butt like last time, I got away with a couple of panicked foot dabs.  The second section of trail was also an improvement from the last time I rode it. I had the feeling that I could hinge into the bike and really trust the front brake to keep me in check, even round the awkward switchback that sent me over the bars the time before. At this point I was pretty convinced that the new tire was at least part of the answer, although it's also possible that I'd just learned something from the last time I rode there.

After a snack break and a bit of playing around on some drops, it was time to hit the last trail for the day. This is one of my favourites - some flat corners between the trees at the top, and then a dive into a section of off camber straights with a few roots connected by steep flowing corners with extremely small catch berms. It's a trail that I always start with a few butterflies and end up with a big smile on my face. The first run was almost perfect. I deliberately tried to use as much front brake as possible and there was not a hint of loss of traction from the tire. I decided to pedal / push up to the top for a final lap. While pushing I finally had a chance to look at the Tacky Chan with a bit of dust on. Something seemed strange, the new tread pattern almost looked like it was installed the wrong way round. It took a few seconds for the penny to drop. It turns out that the perceived supernatural braking grip had all been experienced with the stupid thing mounted backwards and absolutely no braking edges in contact with the trail at any time.

Despite knowing this, the second lap went just as well as the first, and I pushed the tire even harder on the brakes, just to check that it really was working. Once home, flipping the tire went as well as it could have and it aired up on the first attempt with the valve core still in. Whether that's because of the sealant already in, or the tire stretching a bit, I have no idea. 

So what have I learnt? Was my old tire completely worn out? Is the Tacky Chan so good that even backwards it feels like magic? Were the conditions a bit different for this ride? Perhaps the Radial Carcass was inside me all along. Who knows. In any case I'm looking forward to trying it on another couple of trails I have yet to clean, this time mounted the right way round. Tune in in a couple of days to see if I survive.

 

 

Race Report:Val Di Sole 2025

At the start of the season I said I'd try to write something about every world cup this year, but here we are in the mid-season break and I'm way behind. As I write this report of round 4, round 6 is already over, but I had a few thoughts anyway so here we go!

Gold for Goldstone, again

It's not boring to watch, but it is getting boring to write that Jackson Goldstone won, by a margin, while taking lines nobody else took and bouncing around the track like a hyperactive duracell bunny. If he doesn't crash at some point the rest of the field (OK, probably just Bruni by now) are going to have to step up to stop him running away with the overall.

Alternative drivetrain action

Two riders made the elite podiums without riding a chain over the line. Monika Hrastnik is somewhat of a Val di Sole specialist. Over the last three seasons she averages around 7th place in world cups, and 4th place at this track. This time around she qualified in first and piloted her belt-driven Gamux down to a great third place finish behind Höll and Cabirou. On the men's side, Daprela at least started the run with a chain but it didn't last long. Riding the majority of the track with no chain didn't stop him getting a best result of the season though. I wonder how long it is until someone develops a chain that automatically ejects after pedalling out of the start hut.

Disasters for A. Pierrons

This was not a good weekend if your name was A. Pierron. Amaury had a crash in practice resulting in a broken collarbone, effectively ending his hopes of another overall title this year. Antoine suffered a different fate. Up by miles at the fourth split a flat tyre ripped a first world cup podium out of his hands and put a big dent in what has been by far his best season to date. 

Injury update

At the beginning of the season I was really happy to see loads of healthy riders ready to challenge for the overalls in both male and female elite categories. The inevitable whittling-down was well underway by the time finals rolled round. In the women, new challenger Anna Newkirk joined Amaury Pierron in the broken bones club after breaking a hand during practice. Myriam Nicole is still out after a crash and head injury at Leogang and although Nina Hoffmann was racing, she's still suffering the after-effects of her horror crash on the Leogang wallride. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery for all these riders and any more that I missed. On the other side of the coin, Dakota Norton was back on track at Val di Sole making his first steps back to riding after a horrific accident in the off season. 

What happened to...

... the new wave of British elites? There are a lot of parallels between the world cup histories of Phoebe Gale and Jordan Williams. They both spent 2022 swapping first and second place finishes with strong Canadian rivals, and they both joined the Elite ranks on major teams in 2023, Williams kick-starting his season with a debut elite win and Gale performing well throughout the season with a string of top finishes leaving her in the top ten overall. Since then however, both have been somewhat eclipsed by their afore-mentioned Canadian rivals, with Goldstone and Hemstreet both going on to become Hardline champions, multiple World Cup winners and genuine title contenders. Clearly both Gale and Williams are exceptional riders and I still have hope that there is more to come. 

OK, that's it for this race. The exciting news is that I did manage to make it trackside at La Thuile, so you can look forward to a totally different style of race report at some point, with such details as how much the dust obscures your vision, how slippery the dust is to walk on and how many days afterwards you can expect to be couging up dust for. See you then.

Loud in Loudenvielle

Round 3 of the World Cup is already underway, so it's about time I got this round 2 blog post done. Here's a few things I noticed over the course of the Loudenvielle weekend.

Always the weather

Everyone loves to talk about the weather. At round one, rain and mud were the order of the day for finals. In Loudenvielle it was quite the opposite. A sunbaked track turned to dust and deteriorated rapidly while strong gusty winds caused problems for the riders on the open ridgeline that makes up the first half of the track. Speeds at the top of the track were extremely high and there were several high speed crashes. As far as I know there were no serious injuries but I heard several people voicing concerns that the high speeds at modern tracks are making racing more dangerous than it needs to be. 

Bruni is human

I expected Bruni to do well again at this round. I don't really see him as a wet weather specialist and with a long flat top section playing to his strengths he qualified well in second place. Finals was another story. He expressed frustration after the race at the windy conditions and a near disaster at the infamous stall wall near the top left him nursing his shredded nerves down into 15th place. Having said that, he's still sitting in second place in the overall rankings and I expect him to do well at round 3 (seeing a pattern here?). He's got a great record at Leogang with two wins and a second place in the last five years and he'll be keen to get himself back into the series leader's jersey.

What happened to...

the French? The top three male elite qualifiers and the fastest female qualifier were all French, so the spectators were probably hoping for at least one home winner. It wasn't to be on race day, with Myriam Nicole making good use of one of the many padded trees and Jackson Goldstone ripping the bottom half of the course to shreds to deny a hard-charging Amaury Pierron the win.

Save of the day

I'm not sure if it qualifies as a save but Charlie Hatton did really well to get away without a much worse crash after getting ejected over the back of a berm. He freerided straight down the hill and perfectly greased a rock drop before slamming into the next berm and taking out a Shimano advertising board with his belt-driven Atherton bike. A point for belts in the battle for drivetrain supremacy.

Told you so!

Last time round I said that I would be shocked if Jackson Goldstone didn't improve on his 20th place from round one. That turned out to be one of the understatements of the year. Despite lying in 17th place after the first split, Goldstone turned on the speed and style and absolutely obliterated the rest of the field in the steeper second half of the track. He pulled back over three seconds on Amaury Pierron over the last three splits and set the fastest time of the finals in all three to boot. The only elite performance of the weeknd to outshine that was Goldstone's compatriot Gracey Hemstreet, who made good on her World Cup-winning potential and put in a run that was remarkable from start to finish. Dead last at the first split, she attacked the rest of the course with style and aggression, jumping gaps that nobody else was doing and braking later and less than the rest of the field to make up an astonishing 6 seconds on Vali Höll over the next four splits. The worrying thing for the rest of the field is that there is clearly still potential for her to improve significantly on flatter faster pieces of track. If she can remain healthy I expect her to be one of the top riders for years to come.

The kids are alright

I think this is going to be the year where the next generation of riders seriously challenge for the overall series lead. On the womens side, Gracey Hemstreet and Anna Newkirk are lying in 3rd and 4th place in the table after two races, and in the mens it's Goldstone and Oisin O'Callaghan. It remains to be seen if they can remain consistent enough to challenge the veterans over the course of a whole season, but it's going to be entertaining finding out! See you after the next round in Leogang.

Szczyrk as you mean to go on

With the second downhill world cup of the season fast approaching it's time to get my blog of the first race done. What with a new race format, team changes, crazy weather, belt drives and tonnes of great performances on the track there is a lot to talk about!

 Health and Safety

Last time I blogged about racing I wished for all of the top women to be healthy, and for once I actually got my wish! The first round of the year had the big six of Vali Höll, Tahnée Seagrave, Myriam Nicole, Camille Balanche, Marine Cabirou and Nina Hoffman all present and correct in the top ten. They are not going to have it all their own way this year however. Anna Newkirk lead the charge for the young guns. Making the most of the new qualification system she made it through to finals in twelth place and laid down a scorching run that for a long time looked like it would be enough for the win. It took a wild run from Seagrave to knock her out of the hot seat. I'm generally of the opinion that it is the rider and not the bike that wins races, but the brand new downhill bike from Orbea certainly isn't holding Seagrave back.

Save of the day

I'm awarding save of the day to young French ripper Nathan Pontvianne. As usual, the winning move was an unintentional nose wheelie. This time the award wasn't so much for the length of said incident as for the timing. Something bumped his rear wheel into the air just before the super-steep dive into the catch berm that took out a number of top riders including Andreas Kolb and second-place qualifier Oliver Davis. Luckily for Pontvianne he managed to get the bike back on the floor just in time and ride it out into twenty first place - a joint career best for elite world cups. I predict even better things to come at some point this year.

Last chance saloon

There were some big changes to the format of the racing this year, and I think they have been a great success so far. One of these is the move to a final of fifteen elite women, and when you see riders of the calibre of Monika Hrastnik and Eleonora Farina not make it through to finals, it seems insane that last year was limited to ten women only. The other major change was the removal of the protected rider system and the addition of Q2. The Q2 session itself was really exciting as a mixture of big names who had problems in Q1 and riders on the cusp of qualifying directly battled to get into the limited number of final spots remaining. One nice surprise was the release of an hour-long video with highlights of Q2, although nobody seemed to know that this would be happening. It would be great if they can manage to put this out live at some point in the near future. Exciting as watching the live timing screens is, a live broadcast of Q2 has the potential to be as exciting as the race itself.

What happened to...

There were a few big names that didn't quite live up to the hype from the off season in Poland. Vali Höll has clearly been the best of the women for the last couple of years, and after she qualified in first place it was a bit of a surprise to see her come down into fifth in the finals. There were no obvious problems in her run, she just went a little bit slower than the fastest women. Jenna Hastings hasn't really found her feet yet in the elite ranks. After a string of podium finishes in juniors in 2022 her best result in elites was a sixth place in 2023. A lot of people, myself included, thought this could be the year she finds some pace, thanks to a succession of outstanding results in the off season. It could still happen at some point this year, but the mud and snow of Poland proved to be half a world away from the dust and sun of New Zealand winter races for Hastings. Another rider that I thought would drop straight back into the pointy end of the world cup series is Jackson Goldstone. His awesome 2023 season showed everyone that he has the pace required, and a win at Hardline in New Zealand suggested that he was back up to full speed. Again though, the muddy conditions in Poland probably were a step too far for a first real race back. He struggled into finals with an eighth place finish in Q2 and ended up rounding out the top twenty. I'll be shocked if he doesn't improve on that at round 2.

Transmission failure

There's been a lot of talk about gearboxes over the last few months, largely thanks to the marketing efforts of Gates Industrial Corporation plc. However the only interesting drivetrain incident in Poland was a bog-standard 20th century dropped chain for Benoit Coulanges. Coulanges had already done what was to be the fastest sector two of the race, and somehow despite losing the chain before a crucial pedalling section of the track managed to bring his new bike home in tenth place. Look out for him later in the season if he can manage to keep the Scott in one piece for a whole lap.

Pierron Power

Amaury Pierron probably did not have the weekend he wanted, with a massive crash in Q1 leaving him limping into the finals courtest of a fifth place in Q2. He also didn't have the best start to his race run with several of the top men beating his first sector time by well over a second. However he kept it together in the treacherous conditions, and unleashed a split four time that had the commentators scratching their heads every time yet another promising run turned out to be way off the pace by the end of that sector. Some commentors wondered if changing track conditions gave Pierron some advantage, but what they didn't notice is that he was fastest in sector four in Q1 and Q2 as well as in the final. Call me crazy, but I think he might have just ridden that part of the track better than everyone else.

Going full downhill

Several enduro riders from last season have made the switch to downhill for 2025, and it turns out that if you are good at riding a bike fast downhill, you are also good at riding a bike fast downhill. Richie Rude and Martin Maes both made an impact in the mens category, finishing in fourth and ninth place respectively. For the women, Harriet Harnden had a great qualifying run but was outfoxed in the final by the tricky conditions and an unknown man with an official-looking lanyard running down the track in front of her. As an only-slightly-biased Brit I'm looking forward to seeing what Hattie can do this season, as it certainly looks like she has the pace for some podium finishes or possibly even better. Adding in the fact that one week before she won the first Enduro world cup of the season, on a belt driven bike of all things, shows what a great athlete she is.

Coverage half full

It is of course sad that we can't have free coverage of the finals for everyone on top of a truly worldwide series that pays out F1 prize money to all the athletes. Having said that, I thought that the amount of content appearing on the official UCI Whoop channel was pretty impressive, with course previews, press conferences, Q2, post-race wrap-ups, full junior races, highlights shows and probably more that I didn't notice. Nice work whoever is responsible, and can we have the Q2 broadcast live next time please??

OK, that's more than enough text for now. I'm going to try to write at least something about every race this season, and I might even be able to visit one of the races live if everything works out so there could even be a blog with pictures. Let's see if I can make that happen. Until next time!

Torque is Cheap

Torque is easy on a BMX. Get the right tool, tighten the bolt as much as you comfortably can and go ride. This doesn't seem to work so well on an MTB. More of an emphasis on weight saving means it's much easier to damage things by overtightening them, and I've found that neither of my dropper posts works smoothly if the seat clamp is done up too tight. I caved in early on in my MTB renaissance and bought a cheap torque wrench that is supposed to be good for 2 - 12 Nm, but I have had some trouble with loosening and over-tightened cassettes. When it came to swapping in a new wheel recently I decided to have a go at getting the correct torque for cassettes and brake rotors without buying a second wrench for the higher torque required. Here's what I came up with.

Hands equidistant from the hub, tool parallel to the floor for best results!

 

 

 

 

In case you need to do the same, here's how it works. The required torque is 40Nm, i.e. a force of 40N applied at a (perpendicular) distance of 1m from the pivot point (hub). My tool is 20cm, or one fifth of a metre, long, so I need to apply five times that force to the end of it: 200N. Since I also need to push down the same amount with the other hand to stop the wheel rotating, the total force I'm pushing down with needs to be 400N. Assuming you have scales calibrated for use on the earth's surface divide that by 10 to get what you need to see in Kg on the scales. So here I just push down (rotating the wheel to keep the wrench horizontal horizontal) until the scales show 40Kg (or about 90lb).

That's it! Feel free to tell me in the comments how this has saved you money, ruined your back, trashed your bike or that I've made critical mistakes in my reasoning..

Tube or Not Tube - Part 2a

One of my earliest posts on this blog (and one of the most popular, after at least one colleague read it once) was an explanation of why I hadn't yet set up my tyres tubeless. To summarise: more cost, more faff and few benefits. I had always intended to try it out though, and last month I finally found the time and energy to do so. This is intended to be the first of two posts, the second of which will cover more detailed ride impressions (if my knee ever gets better) and long-term maintenance effort. In this one we are talking about the installation process and first ride experience.

One of the things that put me off going tubeless was the endless supply of online articles explaining why you must go tubeless, how to do so, and all the problems that you will probably encounter in the process. Having run tubes in all my bikes for ever, and in my mountain bike for four years without any punctures, I was wary of taking out the tubes and taking a leap into the unknown. Many of the instructional articles make it sound like a lot of luck is required to get a tubeless setup working, and the thought of missing a ride due to a non-sealing tire when I am lucky to fit in one ride per week at the moment is not one I'm keen on.

So why now? Well, my bike was out of commission anyway due to user error and a long wait for a new rocker link, my tyres were getting a bit long in the tooth (or short in the knob?) and I discovered a box somewhere with some tubeless valves in. Perfect time for a tyre shuffle and tubeless experiment, safe in the knowledge that I had plenty of time to swap back again if it didn't go smoothly.

The front wheel was first, with a brand new shiny Specialized Hillbilly tyre to be installed on my Veltec ETR Extradrei wheel. I'd already installed tubeless tape and it looked in good condition, so nothing to do there. The plan was to try to get the tyre seated without any sealant in, then inject sealant through the valve stem. Amazingly the process was incredibly smooth and easy. The tyre didn't even pop into place, just sort of slid in without any noise using just my normal track pump. I then let the air out and added sealant, gave it a thorough slosh around, pumped up to 20psi and left it alone, expecting it to be flat in half an hour's time.

And that was it. Apart from the slightly unnerving feeling that I'd build something with a critical part missing, everything was totally fine. Buoyed by my success I decided to do the rear wheel as well the next day.

The rear wheel did not go as smoothly. Pumping frantically got me to around 30psi at which point the tyre bead was clearly not in the right place and air was coming out as fast as it was going in. Having a second go didn't help, although some careful listening suggested that a lot of the escaping air was coming from the valve region. Plan B was to add some sealant, resume frantic pumping and try to slosh the sealant around near the valve in the hope it would stem the leak. It took a few tries, but this process did work in the end. The sealant did its job at the valve hole and I was able to get the pressure high enough to get the tyre (Magic Mary in super trail casing) to seat correctly. A few more rounds of sloshing and repumping and it was holding enough air that I was happy to take it for a ride.

Initial ride impressions are pretty good. I've been out twice on it since and I'm pretty sure I can feel a difference riding over small roots and the like, and the sensation that I have a bit more grip in bumpy corners. The wheels definitely do lose enough air between rides to need pumping up every time, but since I used to check my pressures every ride anyway this isn't a huge additional effort. I grudgingly admit that I probably should have done this sooner, and it wasn't as bad as all the helpful online tutorials made it sound. Come back in 6 months or so to see if anything happened in the meantime to make me change my mind again.

Better late than never

Take a deep breath. With seven of eight races of the 2023 downhill season completed, we've seen plenty of drama already and there is still a bit to come next week in Mont-Sainte-Anne. I meant to start writing a few blogs about downhill racing throughout the season, but as usual got distracted by other things, so I'm making a somewhat late start now. Here's some of the themes and moments of the season so far.

 

Bruni is back, and then he nearly wasn't

Loic Bruni is so good, nobody was surprised to see him finish 3rd and 2nd in the first two races and find himself sitting at the top of the leaderboard, despite having to come back from an injury-ravaged 2022. After qualifying first and winning the semi final in Snowshoe, a result anywhere near the sharp end would have given him a healthy lead heading into the last round. It was a genuine shock to see him bin it into an uncomfortably sharp-looking pile of rocks on his race run after leading at the previous split. I hope he's not too badly hurt and is able to come out fighting next weekend.

Mind games from the French

Apparently Bruni singled out Loris Vergier as his main championship threat earlier in the race weekend. The view from the commentary booth was that this was classic Bruni mind games, but if that was the case then they backfired badly. Vergier put down a solid run to end up in fourth place on the day and close the gap to Bruni to only 60 points going into the final race. Despite this, Vergier decided to tempt fate by pointedly saying in his TV interview that he was happy to be going into Mont Sainte Anne with no injuries. Let's see what happens.

Pain is temporary, class is permanent

The women's field has been sadly decimated by head injuries over the last couple of years. I've really missed Myriam Nicole's presence during the season, as when she's on form I think she's a rider at who can match Vali Höll's raw pace. The second half of the season has also been missing Camille Balanche after a horrible crash in Andorra while leading the championship. Best wishes to both and hopefully they will be back and firing in 2024. The other, happier half of this story is the re-emergence of both Tahnée Seagrave and Marine Cabirou after long periods of injury. Seagrave had, by her standards, a mediocre start to the season, but it seemed like a trip to Hardline rekindled the fire a bit, and after narrowly missing out on a podium at the world championships in Fort William she is finishing the season strong with two world cup podiums and two seventh places. Cabirou has also had a great season, and after a steady start has lit up the last few rounds with a medal at worlds and back to back wins at the last two world cups. I can't wait to see all four of these women at full strength next season bringing the fight to Höll and Hoffman.

Save of the day

Almost every world cup has one of those moments where you are sure someone is going to crash horribly, but somehow they ride it out without even losing any speed. Snowshoe 23 was no exception, with the save of the day award going to Max Hartenstern for his full speed nose wheelie through one of the chunkier rock gardens. His back wheel was in the air for less than a second but it was long enough for him to pump down two or three big rock steps just on the front wheel and must have felt like a lifetime.

New kids on the block

A lot of the talk at the start of the season, and rightly so, was about the arrival of Williams and Goldstone to the elite category. They haven't disappointed. Jackson Goldstone has slotted into elites without skipping a beat and is currently lying third in the overall despite a puncture in the final at Snowshoe. Jordan Williams has been unable to match that consistency, but winning the first race of his elite career is the sort of thing that might never happen again. There are lots of other new elite racers this year too. Phoebe Gale and Gracey Hemstreet are the Goldiams (or Willistone?) of the elite women, and both are in the top ten of the overall standings after round seven. A couple of podiums for Gale were enough to put her into tenth despite some mishaps. Hemstreet has combined impressive consistency with a couple of stand-out moments, including an awesome run in Val di Sole that left her 7th despite a full on front-wheel-wash-over-the-bars incident. Without the crash her run would have been fast enough to separate Höll and Balanche in second place.

Crystal ball time

For the woman this is easy: Höll has already done enough to wrap up the overall and the main interest for the final round is the battle between Hoffman and the resurgent Cabirou for second place. The winner in the men's is a bit harder to pick. Normally with Loic Bruni leading into the final round you'd expect him to close it out, but I still don't know if he picked up an injury in his crash in finals, and Vergier now has a bit of momentum going into the final weekend. I'm expecting an all-French fight for the title but there are another three riders in Goldstone, Iles and Kolb who could mathematically still win if the top two slip up.

Well, I've run out of weekend so that's it for now. Maybe see you again after the final round for some more mind-expanding revelations.

A Pressing Issue

 In 1885, John Kemp Starley completed his design of the "safety bicycle" - a bike with two equal-sized wheels and a chain drive - and about a week later the first official complaint about a creaking bottom bracket was recorded. Since then the situation does not seem to have improved much. Persistent BB creaks that resist attempts from bike mechanics, manufacturers and exorcists to cure them are the bane of many an otherwise happy cyclist.

Part of the reason these shudder-inducing groans can be so tricky to get rid of is the challenge of accurately diagnosing them in the first place: there are simply so many possible causes. It's easy to immediately suspect the BB itself, but it could just as easily be an over-tight or under-greased pedal bearing, a worn or innacurately torqued crank / axle interface or even something completely different. (Hint: if the mysterious noise stops when you stand up then give your saddle a good wobble and see what happens.)

But let's assume for the moment that the pedals don't creak when you swap them onto another bike, that you've stripped, cleaned and properly tightened your cranks, and that you are now as sure as sure can be that it's definitely the BB. Before you hurl your bike off a cliff in a fit of rage, it's worth sparing a thought for your poor bottom bracket, and what it has to put up with. 

Landing heavily off drops, "schralping" berms, battering through fields of loose rocks and even pedalling back up to the top again all put a lot of stress on the bottom bracket area. Just standing up on the cranks puts your whole body weight through two pretty small bearings, as well as applying a massive amount of torque to the axle itself. The poor thing is suspended a few inches off the floor, right behind your front tyre, as you plough your way through water, mud and sand. And to top it all off nobody will buy it if it weighs more than 95g, even if pro DH riders nowadays are stuffing their crank axles with lead to make their bikes more stable. No wonder it complains occasionally.

The several different bottom bracket standards currently available fall into two camps based on how they fit into the frame: threaded and press fit. There are certainly people out there who are believers in the one true bottom bracket standard, whichever side of the divide they are on, but as usual the truth is that both of these approaches have pluses and minuses. 

Threaded bottom brackets are less likely to creak. The press-fit interface between the bearing and BB cup can be permanently installed by the manufacturer, and the threaded interface between BB and frame should keep itself tight as you pedal. It is also normally easier for a home mechanic to remove and reinstall threaded BBs, as long as they have the correct BB-specific spanner on hand. Press fit BBs on the other hand can be a bit lighter, and allow for a stiffer and stronger frame design in the BB area, all while being cheaper to manufacture and simpler to build into a carbon frame. You can also install them with a hammer in an emergency, or if you have a BMX.

So is one better? That of course depends on your perspective and requirements. I can only tell you that I haven't had any problems with press fit or threaded BBs in the last 20 years, and yes that includes several well-used and never maintained BMX BBs that were installed with a hammer. Square tapered axles on the other hand are a different story, and the quicker they are consigned to the bin of history the better.

You don't know what you haven't got until it's there

There aren't many pluses to being stuck inside in winter too injured to go riding, but at least it's given me some time to do other things, like sleeping too much, watching too much youtube, eating too much unhealthy food, etc. etc. I've also been making an effort to get my bike running smoothly so that when I am fit to ride I can just go without worrying about that.

Regular readers will know that I got pretty frustrated with the stock drivetrain on the 2019 Marin San Quentin 1 - mainly because of it's annoying habit of dropping the chain just as I was definitely about to beat a Strava record. I finally bit the bullet over Christmas and splurged for a shiny new Shimano 11spd setup with a (gasp) 42 tooth big cog on the back. Given that I'd been running a 32 / 36 ratio as my lowest gear for the last year without any real problems going straight to fifty-something teeth seemed a bit overkill. 

I like to do all the work on my bikes as much as possible, but the installation process highlighted once again how important a good local bike shop is. Despite having the right tools, googling for all the answers, heating it with a hair dryer, whacking it with a hammer, trying every possible alignment of tools including trying to balance standing up on each end of the cassette tool / chain whip combo (don't do this, it is stupid and dangerous and doesn't work. At least wear a helmet if you do) I could not get the old cassette locknut to shift. Five minutes and €4.50 later it was off thanks to a nice big bench-mounted vice in my local shop.

Anyway, back to the point of this post, which is that I found out about a tool I never knew existed, namely the Derailleur Hanger Alignment Tool. The way I found out was, of course, that I installed everything, adjusted limit screws and indexing and it still made a load of noises in first gear. I already had a suspicion that I'd bent the hanger before starting on the job, but thought that one simply bought a new hanger and that was the end of it. However, it turned out to be tricky to get hold of the right hanger, and even if I did it's best practice to check alighnment anyway, and I love bike tools, so I ended up with a shiny new toy.

New tools!

The tool was sold as a "Radon", but it was completely unbranded and looks remarkably similar to the SuperB TB-1946 which is available under a few different names. It was the cheapest I could find in stock anywhere but seems decent enough, and the small amount of play at the pivot doesn't seem to matter in practice. My only concern is how robust the gauge rod and clamp (middle of picture) are, but moderately careful handling should make that a non-issue.

Long story short (well, shorter anyway, I seem to have rambled quite a bit already) - the tool revealed that my hanger was, as suspected, bent, and quite a lot. The straightenening process was pretty straightforward (fnar fnar) and fixed everything so all 11 of the gears now run beautifully. As for cost effectiveness, I hope this one will be OK. I've bent the hanger on every mountain bike I've ever owned (yes, all two of them). As a kid I happily ran with only 12 of my theoretical 21 gears working (the front mech wouldn't go into the small cog and you couldn't get at the limit screws without unscrewing it from the bike, and I just couldn't be bothered) for a couple of years, but I'm a bit pickier now. I also get the feeling that modern drivetrains are a bit fussier about alignment. Hopefully it will be just as useful as the bottom bracket puller I bought in 1998 and used to remove my old cranks about 15 times last year.

Not A Review of the Marin San Quentin

Hello again dear Reader. The blog has been a bit short on posts recently, partly due to Christmas but mainly to do with me being a bit injured. I've been planning to write posts about why manual machines are silly, the many ways to ride off a cliff, what separates a great bunnyhop from an OK one, night riding experiences, what do do when it's raining and more, but they all require me to go out and ride, which I can't. Harrumph.

So instead, it's time to do a not-a-proper-review of the bike I've been riding this year - the Marin San Quentin 1. Why is it not a proper review? Basically because I'm not qualified to do that. As the total number of mountain bikes I've ever ridden is about 6, and only two of those for more than a few hours, and only one of those in the last decade, I can't possibly tell you where the Marin lies in the overall  mountain bike pantheon. All I can do is tell you how I've found it, what I liked and didn't and whether I'd do it all again given the chance.

February, ready for a first proper ride.

My criteria when deciding on a bike in the first place were it had to be fun to ride downhill and do a few jumps on, it should preferably be from a nearby shop, and it must be cheap. As it is the first MTB I've owned for a long time I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy it and use it, hence my reluctance to get something really expensive. I trawled a few of the local shops and didn't find anything amazing looking in my price range but happened across a couple of likely candidates on a weekend away: a good deal on the 2019 model of the Marin and a Trek Roscoe at a similar price point. After reading all the online reviews on both and a bit of car park testing I settled on the San Quentin (longer and lower and slacker and all that) and went and bought it that afternoon.

The overwhelming first impression was the weight. The full suspension bike I had in 1997 weighed 14.5 kg (32lbs). 22 years later, and I almost couldn't believe that a hardtail that cost me the same amount (yes, the last bike was second hand, and inflation exists, but still..) could weigh a whole kg (2lbs) more. Not only that, but it felt very front heavy, making it hard to manual, hard to bunnyhop and hard to get out of the cellar. Still, apparently weight isn't everything, and I didn't have much choice anyway so I stuck with it for a while. 

The first couple of rides were of course amazingly fun, and pretty wet, but things all started to make sense the third time out, when I finally managed to find the top end of one of the local downhill trails. The slack (for me) head angle which seemed to have a mind of it's own on technical climbs really does make a difference from a 90s XC bike, and I had never felt so secure at speed. The weight also didn't matter so much until I got to the bottom and wanted to have another go. 

The San Quentin 1 is the bottom of the range model, and to hit that price point while still having something that is robust enough to ride hard, Marin had to cut so many component corners that the thing is practically round. The fork, while feeling robust enough, was really really heavy, and I never got more than half of the travel out of it, despite a full strip and grease after the first few rides. The preload adjuster also jammed but that was a cheap and easy fix once I worked out what part I needed. It was a no-brainer to update it once I realised I was going to be riding quite a bit and found something better with a decent discount. That one upgrade completely changed the feel of the bike, making it way more comfortable and controllable at speed, as well as feeling much lighter and more balanced.

It's amazing what a difference a fork that moves makes.

The drivetrain was also a bit of a letdown. It shifts fine and I could happily ride with 9 speeds and a lowest gear of 32/36 as there aren't any long steep hills where I ride, but the chain just would not stay on despite the chain guide supplied. The problem was that the crank spider was too big to allow the chain guard to sit as close to the chain as it should, meaning that there is plenty of room for it to fall off between the chainring and chain guide. There are also no ISCG tabs on the frame (the higher models get a slightly different frame that does have them) so the chain guide sandwiches on between the bottom bracket and the frame. That means that when the chain inevitably comes off it gets jammed in the chain guide, yanking it forward which then gradually unscrews the bottom bracket shell. Nice. I tried running without it but the budget clutchless rear mech and plain chainring (no narrow-wide here) just couldn't keep the chain on. All this chain dropping has also made a complete mess of the driveside chainstay, but hey, it's made of metal and has no resale value anyway, so no problem. 

One thing that is great to see (well, for future buyers, not so much for me) is that Marin have changed the spec for the 2021 model, upping the price slightly and adding a narrow-wide chainring and clutch rear mech, so it looks like they have been listening to some customer feedback.

The brakes, although being low end Tektro models, I actually found to be pretty good once I'd worked out how to bed them in properly, cleaned the rotors and changed the pads in one of them. At least until one of the levers took the full impact of being ridden into a tree hard enough to tweak my shoulder pretty badly. The other brake is still running great, with a solid lever feel and enough power for short 2 minute downhills. 

It is definitely not the unbranded cockpit holding me back from jumping this..

The other spec point of note is that there is no dropper post - inevitable at that price. I tried to go without for a while, but finally caved and bought one, and boy am I glad I did. I really wasn't expecting it to make so much difference to my riding, but being able to quickly change seat height for short sections of trail, as well as transitioning between climbs and descents without an off-bike pause really is a game-changer.

So, what have I changed, and did I get the right bike? In hindsight, if I'd known I was going to spend so much time this year riding bikes, I would have gone for a more expensive model, but I think I would have been very happy with a more expensive model of the San Quentin. The SQ2 looks like a much more solid spec, and I get on well with the sizing and feel of the bike.

Here's the current San Quentin lineup:

SQ1 - 899.00 € / £725 - Suntour XCM32, 9spd Microshift / Sunrace drivetrain, Tektro M275 brakes, own-brand finishing kit and wheels (which are "Boost QR 141"), Vee Tire Co Flow Snap tyres(27.5 x 2.6")

SQ2 - 1,399.00 € / £1,245 - Rockshox Recon RL, 11spd Deore / Sunrace drivetrain, Shimano MT201 brakes, Shimano boost hubs, TransX dropper,

SQ3 - 1,999 € / £1,695 - Rockshox Revelation RC, 12spd Deore drivetrain, Shimano MT420 brakes, X-Fusion Manic dropper, Maxxis Assegai tyres (27.5 x 2.5, Maxx Terra, Exo)

As for upgrades, I really don't like buying stuff unless I have to, but I've already upgraded the fork (useless), tyres, seatpost (for a dropper), chainring (didn't keep the chain on and then irreparably bent), chain guide and one brake (OK, that one was my fault). I haven't done the maths, but I guess that I've bought enough parts to take it past the price of the San Quentin 2, and although I'm happy with the bike I have now I'm still stuck with the lower grade frame without ISCG tabs. 

Love at fourth upgrade.

Got any questions about the bike? Fire away in the comments and I'll do my best to answer.

Tu-be or not tu-be

Coming back to mountain biking after nearly 20 years off meant I had to get up to speed with a few changes. First was the sheer number of types of bike available! Once you've been riding, reading and learning about it for a few months it's not so bad, but wanting to buy a brand new bike with no run-up was pretty overwhelming. Of course nobody agrees on what sort of bike you should get, and working it out from your riding style or local terrain is tricky when you really don't know what either of those things are yet.

Tyre pressures have also become much more important than they once were. Knowing your "ideal" type pressure, and checking it every ride is now essential. There are plenty of online sources that will tell you how to find a good starting point from which to experiment, and the right experiments to run from that point.

This trail is great fun and easy to ride as long as you don't look down

Coupled to that is the introduction of tubeless tyres, and at least here almost everyone seems to be in agreement: tubeless good, tubes bad. So being the curmudgeon I am I naturally decided to run tubes until I found them unbearable. Why? Well, tubeless costs money to set up (tape, sealant, valves, new pump), money to maintain (new sealant every now and then), requires maintenance and seems to in some cases be pretty awkward to get to work. You still have to carry a tube with you in case of tyre failure, and I don't like the idea of spraying sealant all over the woods either. Also most of the commonly mentioned advantages don't (yet?) apply to me. 

I've settled on 22psi in the front tyre and 24psi in the back which has given me more grip than I believed possible. I've been riding a tubed setup since February and am yet to have a puncture. Some of you are probably thinking that I need to ride faster, and I can only say that I'm trying - I'm a lot faster now than I was 6 months ago and still getting better. So although I probably will experiment with a tubeless setup in the future, for the moment I'm sticking with my tubes and I don't think they are holding me back.

Baby it's cold outside

I've been for a couple of rides this week and, unsurprisingly, it's starting to get a bit colder. That has some positives and negatives! You obviously need to dress a bit warmer and be more careful about riding in remote places, but I also find  the trails are less crowded and often more beautiful, and I need to carry much less water!

Plenty of frost around as I arrived at the first off-road section at 11:30

My first ride of the week ended up being quite a long one for me. The forecast was for 1 - 3ºC, and as it was my first cold-ish ride of the year I played it safe with the clothing. That means wearing a pertex / pile smock / jacket thing and packing an extra base layer in my small rucksack, just in case. That was definitely not needed though - I was cosy from the start and ended up with all the vents on the jacket fully open and still being towards the warm end of comfortable for most of the ride.

Still plenty of ice around right into the mid-afternoon

I wanted to explore some trails I'd seen on trailforks which were a bit further away from home than usual. I planned a route with plenty of opportunities to shorten or lengthen it depending on how I was feeling, and in the end ended up taking all the extra bits. That was completely fine until it came to ride home. The easiest way from my start point to the trails is along the side of the river, which on the way was a lovely warm-up with the wind behind me. Not so on the way home, a strengthening headwind plus being tired from the ride and not packing nearly enough snacks made the last hour pretty uncomfortable. Lessons learnt: pack more snacks, check the wind direction and consider heading home before the tiredness kicks in.

Nice scenery and several stream crossings made for a fun trail

Wool makes for a good base layer on a cold day.

For the second ride I wanted to start out feeling a bit colder and see how little clothing I could get away with. I wore a thin long-sleeved base layer under a lightweight "windproof" jacket and expected the first few minutes to be a bit uncomfortable. The forecast for the the day was about the same temperature, but the lack of wind coupled with a shorter ride made everything much easier. Despite 15 minutes of drizzle at the start of the ride I was toasty warm throughout (even my hands warmed up after 15 minutes) and didn't have any need for my emergency midlayer. This was a much more normal ride for me, with a 5km road ride to the woods and then a few laps up and down the hill, with a bit of exploration mixed in as well.

Autumn leaves almost completely hid some of the trails

So, what have I learnt about cold weather riding?

• It's really not that bad, especially if it's not too windy or wet
• I don't need to wear as many clothes as I think
• I should always bring extra snacks
• MTB is definitely an all-year sport

So, any questions? Do you ride in cold weather and have any killer tips for me, especially if they involve motivation to actually get started? Let me know in the comments (optimistic, I know). Otherwise see you soon for some more waffle about something MTB related.

Bleeding hell

I've always done as much of my own bike maintenance as I can and as a result have learned how to fix, build, repair or maintain most parts of a bike. I find it fun to work out how stuff works, and it's also useful to be able to fix your bike, or someone else's, when you're out riding. However, after a kid came up to me with a separated brake hose last year and asked for help, I realised that I have a significant blind spot when it comes to hydraulic brakes. Having run cable rim brakes for my entire life until this year, I guess that is to be expected.

I've been slightly unhappy with the brakes on my MTB since I bought it and have tried a few things to improve them. "Bedding in" pads and discs was a new concept to me, so I did a quick internet search and gave it a go. Initially I just tried to bed in the rear brake, and it seemed to work. But after a couple of rides the front brake got better and better and eventually was much stronger than the rear. In hindsight I think I overdid the bedding in of the rear brake, and cooked the pads. Cleaning the rotors with disc brake cleaner helped a bit, and replacing the pads helped more, but the rear brake felt pretty spongy as well so I decided to try bleeding it.

Step one was to work out what tools and kit I needed to buy to do a successful bleed. There are so many different bleed kits available and not much official advice about exactly what you need. I have Tektro brakes, and I ended up with two of what Tektro call their basic bleed kit. Most people seem to agree that bleeding is much easier with two syringes, and the basic kit only comes with one. However buying two of them was still cheaper than any other two-syringe kit I could find and I was pretty sure that if it said Tektro on the box it was going to fit my brakes somehow.

Official bleed kits!

 

This is what you get in the box.

Next bit: mineral oil. The shop I found the bleed kits at didn't have any official Tektro mineral oil, or in fact any kind of mineral oil on display. After a bit of waiting around for helpful staff they came up with a bottle of Magura Royal Blood mineral oil, which I was assured would be fine. 

One last luxury purchase: my first ever bike stand. Now I really feel like an adult.

Time to start work. First off, how to get the bike into the stand? I settled on clamping on the seat tube as the top tube is a bit of a weird shape and didn't fit so snugly in the stand clamp. This worked fine, until I took the rear wheel out to start the bleed process. Then this happened:

Never mind. Removing the front wheel as well sorted the balance problems, and once the bike was angled ready to bleed (caliper at the bottom and lever at the top) it was all fine anyway. One thing I hadn't thought of was how to stop the bars flopping around. I didn't have anything the right size to wedge in or tie on anywhere, so settled on doing up the headset preload bolt way too tight to stop the bars moving. It was pretty dark in the cellar, but I had a bike light handy that fitted perfectly on a pipe on the wall. Now it was really time to start work.

One toolbox is never enough.

Step one - wheel out, brake pads out, push the pistons back with a tyre lever and put a bleed block in. Obviously there is no bleed block in the Tektro basic bleed kit. A small amount of swearing later and I managed to get a 10mm allen key to stay in there.

The main part of the process went reasonably smoothly. 

• Rotate the lever so it is level, bleed port facing up. 
• Remove the bleed port screw and make sure the rubber O-ring comes out with it. 
• Screw in an empty syringe using the correct adapter to the lever bleed port. Pull slightly on the syringe so less oil comes out of the bleed port on the caliper when you undo it. 
• Fill the second syringe 3/4 full with oil, make sure you get all the air out of the tube and attach to the caliper bleed port.

Then comes the fun bit. Squeezing the bottom syringe and pulling slightly on the top one starts to push fresh oil into the system. At this point, this is what I saw:

Pink Tektro brake fluid with giant air bubbles; surely this was the source of my spongy lever! Once I'd pushed most of the fluid through the top syringe looked like a bit like a raspberry and blueberry slushy:

Sorry for the terrible photo. It is quite hard to take a photo with a mobile when you have oily hands and have to hold one syringe up and it's quite dark.. As you can see, the new Magura oil is less dense and has floated to the top - weight weenies take note. I decided to ditch the oil in the top syringe, refill with new, blue oil and carry on. According to instructional videos from both Park Tools and Tektro, you should push the brake fluid up from the caliper first, then back down from the lever end, and then back up again, repeating until you don't get any bubbles. It all seemed too easy. I removed the syringes (caliper first), screwed the bleed screws back in, and tested the brake.

Maybe I need a third toolbox.

Spongy. Probably a bit worse than it was before. Damn. I compared it to the front brake lever which of course pulled straight back to the bar with no resistance as the front wheel was still out. Now my front brake pads were stuck together. Rage. I levered them apart with a tyre lever and cone spanner and decided to just reinstall the back wheel and see if it worked at all. First, brake pads back in. After three of four goes at this I dropped the whole lot on the floor, and the spring disappeared. Several minutes of hunting on the floor with a torch later I noticed it was still stuck in the caliper. After finally getting the rear brake back together and wheel inserted I gave the lever a few more squeezes just in case, and once again compared it to the front brake. Whoops. Still hadn't put the front wheel back in. More pad levering followed, and then front wheel reinstallation. At this point I was pretty fed up with the whole process, not to mention hungry, so I decided to give up and try again later. 

Here are my top tips for your first go at bleeding a brake:

• It might not work - don't do it the day before a big ride.
• Make a list of what you need before you go to the bike shop. Include a bleed block.
• If you have a choice of long or short hoses, use the short ones.
• Have somewhere to put small bits, like bleed screws and pads.
• Have plenty of clean paper towels or similar.
• Don't start if you're already in a bad mood.
• Make sure you have lots of time. For a first time I needed around 90 minutes but I reckon it will go much quicker when I try again. 
• Preferably have a cup of tea ready, unless you are miles away from a toilet.
  

If you're reading this and you know what I did wrong, please let me know! Otherwise I'll give it another try at some point and let you know how it goes.

How to start a Blog about mountain bikes

Blogs are the source of much wisdom, and much more content, so where better to find out how to start a blog than by looking at some blogs about how to start a blog. Here's what I've learnt so far:

• Get it wrong and you're doomed to fail
• The brutal truth is that if you fail to capture your first visitors’ interest at a deep level with your first article, you will lose them forever
• Direct readers to your next blog post (no really)
• Start by introducing yourself

OK, I can do at least two of those. Hi! My name is Andrew (or Mr B for short) and I like to ride bicycles. Earlier this year I rediscovered mountain biking after a 20 year BMX-based hiatus, and have been having so much socially isolated fun since then that I wanted to share it with you. I'm also planning to write down some of the things I have learnt and am learning along the way.

If that sounds interesting, why not keep a look out for my next blog post! I haven't written it yet but it might be about what I learnt from a first pretty cold ride of the year, or what happens when you try to bleed your brakes without the right tools, or maybe why you should all buy a BMX immediately if you want to improve your mountain biking. But that's for next time.