Baaaaaahhhhhh

TMFTE (The Most Funnest Thing Ever) can go down in the books as a success. While it was not actually the FUNNEST thing ever, The Most Horrible Thing Ever was hardly the most HORRIBLE thing ever. There was not one waterboard special test and I never saw jumper cables and a car battery laying next to some old bed springs. It did seem that the racers were put in some uncomfortable situations for 36 hours, and the temps did get below freezing, so I imagine that the stage with the seven mile road descent on the Blue Ridge Parkway woulda been pretty horrible. Kudos to all those with the balls to hang it out there.

The Other White Rich D and I cheering on our boy (Rob C, but not the Other White Rob C) while reminding him that the hopes of dreams of the people of Charlotte rest on his shoulders.

photo cred: Leanne

The Other White Rich D and I went out for a merry and joyous ride, drank our very maturely moderated amount of beverages, and woke up looking not too shabby before heading back to our wonderful families able to function in our roles as husbands and fathers.

Sunday I decided to NOT do the short track race. A full'ish day of riding in Pisgah followed with a not so comfortable night of sleep in the back of the cold Element put me in a bit of a sore state, so I elected to opt out and just watch The Boy do his laps. I did see one Jeremiahbishop.com warming up on his new team bike that did not look like a Trek at all (because it wasn't) and his shorts matched his bike pretty well, so one can guess that he'll be announcing his new affiliation shortly VIA the WWW.

The Breck Epic site has gone live. All the blogger contest info isn't quite up yet, but promoter Mike McCormack has put the voting system in place. You can go here to check it out. Here's the best part (I'll harp on yinz about how great I am later). The voting is set up so you can pick your top three. I know that some of us that are on the ballot swim in the same ponds with a lot of the same fish, and some people were going to have a hard time deciding just where to put their one vote. Well no worries as you can rank your top three choices and spread the love... more on all this when the blogger info goes live. I placed my vote this morning, so if you know what I know, which is that I know who I know, I went ahead and voted for who I know so you can go and vote for someone who you know... if you know someone or know someone who knows someone.

Last week I was "gently" reminded (in my comments) that I promised to talk about the MOOTS process in a little bit of detail. I guess I was lacking in that department a little, so thanks for the reminder. Getting the frame going took a little bit of time as my contact person had a shit ton of repping to do in January. I have to admit as anxious as I am to get my hands on my new frame I wasn't the least bit concerned since this go around I'm dealing with a fairly big company with a long history of satisfied customers. I had submitted my numbers and ideas back in early January, and I knew sooner or later I'd see a drawing. Specifically I knew my first race wasn't till April, so my panties remained unwadded.

Here's the boring number stuff, so read on if you must.

I got the drawing on Friday. They pretty much used the numbers I supplied, and pushed some things as far as they could logically be pushed. The front end geometry is very close to that of the medium One Niner I rode last summer. That was my doing. The head tube is 90mm and will sit on a 490mm long Niner fork with 40mm of rake. This makes for @ 77mm of trail, which is on the longer side in comparison to my Thylacine (which was closer to 70mm), but with reason. I wanted to be able to put my 100mm Fox on the bike when I needed some recovery time (or when I get too old to ride rigid), so the l-o-n-g Niner fork was in order. Also instead of having to get a custom fork I now have two Niner forks I can use at my disposal which I obtained for a very good price (less than half what I paid for my sexy custom IF fork).

I was comfortable with the Niner handling, although I wanted my weight to be further back to unweight the front end a little. When I rode a small Zion with around 80mm of trail and a 74.5 STA/71 HTA I found it hard to unweight the front end and I had problems with the front tire washing out. What I want is going to be accomplished with a 72.75 degree STA (the Niner was 73.5) and the use of a setback Cinch seat post. What does all this mean? The bike will hold its own on downhills without the wash out problem, and I will be able to get back to where I'm comfortable on descents. I am doing my best to avoid the terms "stable" and "flickable" that Walt so poignantly dissed when talking about overused terms in the 29'er world.

Let's see, what else?

I went with 60mm of BB drop. That means a BB height of around 12.25". With all the EBB bikes I've ridden I've had my BB at so many different heights, so when I actually had the option to have my own custom (and very static) height I went with the one that felt best on my other bikes (when they were in the "right gear").

The stays have been set around 17.6" (with the sliders mostly all the way forward). If you wanna debate stay length go over to MTBR and have a field day. Too short and the bike rides rough and doesn't climb as well, unless you're in the camp that believes the opposite. Too long and you can't get the front end up... well unless of course you think that's wrong. The great thing is with sliders and half links I'll be able to mess with the chainstay length and dial it in as I please. Both the Zion and the Niner were 17.3" and my Thylacine was closer to 17.6", and to be honest I couldn't tell the difference. I will say that when you ask for 72.75 (MOOTS) or 72 degree (Thylacine) seat tube angle you are going to end up with longer stays or a worked over (bent or cutaway) seat tube. It's all good.

Other bland stuff...

23.5 ETT
17" C to Top/15" C to C seat tube
Saddle and bars damn near level. I used to think I liked a little drop, but after riding the Niner with a tall front end I found myself drawn to it like a fly to shit. Some people might think it stinks, but I say it's what's for dinner. Besides, it make the bike more "stable" and "flickable"...

Damn it, I'm such a sheep.