My reviews on bikes and parts.
Today…I have done something that I have never done on Mountain Biking by 198. I went back and revised a previous article that was product based. Normally, I would leave the article alone…that was how I felt at the time, so it should have stayed in tact. In this case, my opinion has changed over time due to several business practices and quality issues.
So Big Creek is like my home track. You won’t find it on anyone’s Top-50-Must-Ride-Before-You-Die lists. But for nearly 8 miles of totally wooded singletrack and a natural freeride area smack dab in the middle of where like 4+ million people are crowded into? Trust me, it’s got its merits … and TTFs … and rocks … and drops … and rooty gnar.
The reason for this open letter to your company is my frustration with your hub production. For many years, I ran your XT hub set. During those times, the XT hub set was known for its quality build and free spinning characteristics.
The Avid Elixir brakes replace the Avid Juicy Ultimates and become the top of the line, multipurpose brake set for Avid/SRAM. Braking power with the new Avid Elixir’s are claimed to be somewhere in-between the Juicy and Code lineups. With new technologies like Taperbore, tool free adjustment, new G3 rotor and banjo fittings, the Elixir brake lineup brings something completely new to the table for Avid.
Shit track, single track heaven, very technical, rocky, shist rock is the base, with flowing trail which is narrow and shist rock is very loose runs up and down a creek bed past old god mine diggings and water races all built by the Chinese in the 18th century by hand, the trail is goat and rabbit worn and used a bit by the hardens locals who will show you the way.
Now it is easy to capture mountain bike components in action. The web is the only media that can bring you video of your favorite parts instantly for your viewing pleasure. While the GoPro Hero may not have the best video quality for product use through tv or other resources, it is perfectly setup for web use.
I remember the first time I rode my favorite trail. Every turn gave me the feeling of Christmas morning opening gifts. Every technical section was thoughtfully designed to challenge and entertain at the same time. “It has it all” I thought silently in my mind, while the wind from the beach traveled through the palm trees, as a prelude of what was soon to come.
It was a great night of wrenching tonight. I got the Hadley Racing hubs back from John at Kovachi Wheels built up on Notubes.com ZTR Flow rims with red nipples. What better bike to review these red hot hubs on than the spanking new Rocky Mountain Slayer SXC 70? With some new Kenda rubber (more on this later…) and a simple parts swap…we are ready to go!
Rocky Mountain Bicycles sent us in a new Slayer SXC 70 for review. This all black Easton aluminum with carbon seat stays mountain bike delivers 153mm of rear travel via a Rocky Mountain LC2R suspension design. Designed to conquer the entire mountain, this 33 lbs. Canadian built monster is ready to take anything that you can throw at it…and I am going to try to do just that.
On the University of Mississippi campus (technically), this miles long trail has almost everything for the trail rider, from race-pace riders to weekend warriors, even to first-timers out on their brand new hybrids. Loops can be put together that will take half a day and rarely cover the same ground twice. Expert trail building (trained by IMBA) yields excellent use of topography and fun use of sustainable features.