January 2025
Pirelli Scorpion Race tyres
28/01/25 21:21 Filed in: Gear
I've spent a lot of time on Maxxis DH soft compound tyres. They grip like Velcro. Like really well on roots and rocks and anywhere that the sticky rubber can get a hold. The mechanical grip obviously depends on the chosen tread type (DHRII, Assegai, Dissector, etc).
I anticipated the Scorpion Race tyres to be better but I didn't expect them to make me feel slow and inadequate. These tyres have SO MUCH GRIP that they never slide. They never do anything at the edge. That can only be because their limits are way out there and I never approached them. Ever.
Wow! After many days at Thredbo on the Enduro Race version (Trek Slash) there are the tiniest amounts of erosion on the inner edge of the knobs. People have said they are grippy at the expense of durability, but that must only apply if the rider is fast enough to slide them.
I definitely wear out the Maxxis tyres slower than many guys - I don't like to lock up the wheels under braking and I don't slide the big bikes around much on the trail. But the Pirelli tyres are wearing slower again than the Maxxis. Amazing.
If you are after some tyres that have both mechanical and chemical grip, are well made and have high limits, I suggest you give the Scorpion Race Enduro or DH a trial.
I anticipated the Scorpion Race tyres to be better but I didn't expect them to make me feel slow and inadequate. These tyres have SO MUCH GRIP that they never slide. They never do anything at the edge. That can only be because their limits are way out there and I never approached them. Ever.
Wow! After many days at Thredbo on the Enduro Race version (Trek Slash) there are the tiniest amounts of erosion on the inner edge of the knobs. People have said they are grippy at the expense of durability, but that must only apply if the rider is fast enough to slide them.
I definitely wear out the Maxxis tyres slower than many guys - I don't like to lock up the wheels under braking and I don't slide the big bikes around much on the trail. But the Pirelli tyres are wearing slower again than the Maxxis. Amazing.
If you are after some tyres that have both mechanical and chemical grip, are well made and have high limits, I suggest you give the Scorpion Race Enduro or DH a trial.
Not all rim tapes are equal - in installation or in use
26/01/25 15:38 Filed in: Gear
Rim tape seems a very simple thing. It should be air tight, sticky, durable and flexible to go into the rim and just sit there through multiple tyre changes. I found many OEM rim tapes all wrinkled up at the first tyre swap. Always disappointing.
I've tried a lot of different rim tapes in the past 15 years of riding tubeless. Gorilla tape is good, but not great. And it leaves too much residue on the rim - which has to be cleaned off for the next taping. I used Tune branded tape, which worked really well but dated from an era when rims were narrow - the tape was too narrow for 30mm internal channel wheels. I had OK luck with the Effetto Mariposa tape. It claims to have better glue on it, but it didn't stick any better than several other tapes I've used. That Stan's yellow tape that has been around since nearly the beginning of tubeless is about as good as anything and now that I have a long roll of 35mm wide yellow tape, it will be my go-to tape for the foreseeable future.
My Canyon DH bike came with DT Swiss wheels. Every part is DT Swiss. Rims, spokes and hubs, plus nipples and even rim tape are all DT Swiss. The tape has been excellent, surviving several changes of DH tyre with CushCore (including taking the tyres off on day 1 just to fit the CushCore).
[side note:] What hasn't been so robust in the DT Swiss wheels is one of the nipples. They appear to be aluminium given how easily it twisted out of shape. I had one loose spoke and put a good Park spoke key on the nipple, resulting in a heavily twisted nipple. What madman specific alloy nipples on a DH wheel? To replace the nipple, the rim tape has to come off. The rim tape lasted longer than the nipple did! When it is time, the tyre has to come off so the wheel can go in the truing stand. New nipple on at least that one spoke. That is my slightly dented rim too - so maybe it won't go back to "perfect"?
I've had several pairs of Bontrager wheels - alloy and carbon rim models - and they have all used a moulded rim strip to seal off the spoke hole. Those strips are great. Easy in. Easy out. Air tight. Tough. A bit heavier than tape, but so much easier. They are even tolerably priced should replacement be necessary. They do make tyre changes slightly more difficult by filling up some space in the rim cavity.
Velox was the rim tape of choice for tubed road tyres. There ought to be something as universally applicable and durable for tubeless as the Velox canvas rim tape.
I've tried a lot of different rim tapes in the past 15 years of riding tubeless. Gorilla tape is good, but not great. And it leaves too much residue on the rim - which has to be cleaned off for the next taping. I used Tune branded tape, which worked really well but dated from an era when rims were narrow - the tape was too narrow for 30mm internal channel wheels. I had OK luck with the Effetto Mariposa tape. It claims to have better glue on it, but it didn't stick any better than several other tapes I've used. That Stan's yellow tape that has been around since nearly the beginning of tubeless is about as good as anything and now that I have a long roll of 35mm wide yellow tape, it will be my go-to tape for the foreseeable future.
My Canyon DH bike came with DT Swiss wheels. Every part is DT Swiss. Rims, spokes and hubs, plus nipples and even rim tape are all DT Swiss. The tape has been excellent, surviving several changes of DH tyre with CushCore (including taking the tyres off on day 1 just to fit the CushCore).
[side note:] What hasn't been so robust in the DT Swiss wheels is one of the nipples. They appear to be aluminium given how easily it twisted out of shape. I had one loose spoke and put a good Park spoke key on the nipple, resulting in a heavily twisted nipple. What madman specific alloy nipples on a DH wheel? To replace the nipple, the rim tape has to come off. The rim tape lasted longer than the nipple did! When it is time, the tyre has to come off so the wheel can go in the truing stand. New nipple on at least that one spoke. That is my slightly dented rim too - so maybe it won't go back to "perfect"?
I've had several pairs of Bontrager wheels - alloy and carbon rim models - and they have all used a moulded rim strip to seal off the spoke hole. Those strips are great. Easy in. Easy out. Air tight. Tough. A bit heavier than tape, but so much easier. They are even tolerably priced should replacement be necessary. They do make tyre changes slightly more difficult by filling up some space in the rim cavity.
Velox was the rim tape of choice for tubed road tyres. There ought to be something as universally applicable and durable for tubeless as the Velox canvas rim tape.
The endgame for most helmets...
15/01/25 19:35 Filed in: Gear
Almost every road helmet I have owned has reached an end of life point when the pads perish. Pressure between head and foam, intense salty sweating and being really thin and light mean that the seams on helmet pads typically fail for me after something like 2 years of routine use. Instead of a pad, I end up with a multi-layer mess: inner pad stuck to the helmet, mid-layer foam held loosely in place because the foam is usually semi-rigid and front face fabric flapping in the breeze. They quickly become uncomfortable and unless replaced, call for the end of a helmet.
I try to replace the pads at least once in the life of my helmets. Sometimes that is easy. I've had a couple of helmets that came with spare pads even. I'm currently trying to replace the pads in my Bontrager helmet - a discontinued helmet as it happens - and Trek keeps pushing the due date for them back in time. Maybe they won't ever come? They are also a significant portion of the price of the helmet, about 20%.
The best practice to date has been the Fox Proframe. There are 2 shell sizes and 2 pad sizes. Together they make 4 helmet sizes (S/M/L/XL). My partner's Small comes with the thick pads installed and the thin pads in the box. My XL comes with the thin pads installed and the thick pads in the box. Between us we each have a spare set of pads for the other's helmet. Then replace the helmet a couple of times and we have a good selection of spare pads. These pads are easy to remove, run through a wash cycle, and reinstall without risking damaging helmet or pad.
Another pathway to spare pads was crashing in a race in my then-new Fox Speedframe helmet. I replaced the helmet with another straight away, leaving the soft pads from helmet 1 to be spares for the helmet down the road.
Neither of these is a great option for someone who has a helmet and needs spare pads. I believe the pads need to be readily available, and for a few years after the helmet is withdrawn from the market, at 10% of the helmet price or less.
I would really like to see a helmet that lacks fabric pads. I don't know quite how it would work - the bare foam sitting directly on the forehead of the cyclist seems suboptimal. But something like this would be fantastic. Even the best pads store up salty water and drop them onto lenses or eyes at the worst possible time. No pads should see no source for big drips.
I try to replace the pads at least once in the life of my helmets. Sometimes that is easy. I've had a couple of helmets that came with spare pads even. I'm currently trying to replace the pads in my Bontrager helmet - a discontinued helmet as it happens - and Trek keeps pushing the due date for them back in time. Maybe they won't ever come? They are also a significant portion of the price of the helmet, about 20%.
The best practice to date has been the Fox Proframe. There are 2 shell sizes and 2 pad sizes. Together they make 4 helmet sizes (S/M/L/XL). My partner's Small comes with the thick pads installed and the thin pads in the box. My XL comes with the thin pads installed and the thick pads in the box. Between us we each have a spare set of pads for the other's helmet. Then replace the helmet a couple of times and we have a good selection of spare pads. These pads are easy to remove, run through a wash cycle, and reinstall without risking damaging helmet or pad.
Another pathway to spare pads was crashing in a race in my then-new Fox Speedframe helmet. I replaced the helmet with another straight away, leaving the soft pads from helmet 1 to be spares for the helmet down the road.
Neither of these is a great option for someone who has a helmet and needs spare pads. I believe the pads need to be readily available, and for a few years after the helmet is withdrawn from the market, at 10% of the helmet price or less.
I would really like to see a helmet that lacks fabric pads. I don't know quite how it would work - the bare foam sitting directly on the forehead of the cyclist seems suboptimal. But something like this would be fantastic. Even the best pads store up salty water and drop them onto lenses or eyes at the worst possible time. No pads should see no source for big drips.
Finding the flow
11/01/25 23:39 Filed in: Riding
The other day I was out at Stromlo by myself - quite literally as it was a warm day between Christmas and NY and there were about 2 cars in the parking lot and I saw zero people on the trails - having a contemplative sort of ride. I was pushing myself, but certainly not at race pace. I rode up the front side and then back down the front side - a lap I have done a thousand times. The descent turned out to be one of those times where everything just felt perfect. I knew I wasn't going to be setting any speed records but everything was simply effortless. Jumps attempted were landed well. Corners flowed, linking together nicely.
It reminded me of the flow states the main character in "Senna" (Netflix show in Brazilian with English subtitles about Ayrton Senna) described when he was driving well. Only in Ayrton's case, he was doing it at maximum possible speed.
It is days like that which make mountain biking worthwhile. All the rides and all the bad moments and bad gear and everything collectively culminate in those few good times.
It reminded me of the flow states the main character in "Senna" (Netflix show in Brazilian with English subtitles about Ayrton Senna) described when he was driving well. Only in Ayrton's case, he was doing it at maximum possible speed.
It is days like that which make mountain biking worthwhile. All the rides and all the bad moments and bad gear and everything collectively culminate in those few good times.
Great lap at Thredbo
09/01/25 21:20 Filed in: Riding
This season Thredbo renamed the All-mountain Trail with 3 new names so as to bring it into line with other trail naming conventions up there. The traverse across the top to the top station of Gunbarrel is now Panorama - fitting with the sweeping views for most of the way. It is also now a Black Diamond trail. After spending a day riding it repeatedly, I feel like I know why it has been uprated.
There was quite a lot of rock armour on it before. But also long bits of open dirt. Now it is rock a majority of the way. Past seasons the melting snow would make mud out of the dirt and it took sometimes well into the new year to dry out enough for good riding. But now it is almost all rock, I suspect not only can people ride it as soon as the snow melts, but the upkeep will be way lower. The rocks are boulders so chunky and rough. Every small descent ends in a boulder with no downramp. There is a bit of a drop off on each one. Either you pop off the final rock or drop off it. It could overwhelm a novice rider with so many.
The lap becomes up the main Kosciusko lift, across on Panorama to Gunbarrel lift, and then down to the bottom of Gunbarrel by one of the choices available (Dream Catcher is the new name for a lower portion of the All-mountain and is identical to past seasons). Then up the Gunbarrel and across the traverse to the Flow trail and down to the main lift again. Obviously one could take that traverse from the first time hitting top of Gunbarrel, but that doesn't do the lap justice. With 2 lift rides and lots of traversing sections it takes around an hour to do the figure 8 lap. The roughness of the rock armour will leave an impression in your shoulder muscles too.
But it is fantastic fun and if you clean the little climb on Panorama it means you were paying attention to what's ahead - it is easy to get caught in the wrong gear if you don't see the climb approaching.
There was quite a lot of rock armour on it before. But also long bits of open dirt. Now it is rock a majority of the way. Past seasons the melting snow would make mud out of the dirt and it took sometimes well into the new year to dry out enough for good riding. But now it is almost all rock, I suspect not only can people ride it as soon as the snow melts, but the upkeep will be way lower. The rocks are boulders so chunky and rough. Every small descent ends in a boulder with no downramp. There is a bit of a drop off on each one. Either you pop off the final rock or drop off it. It could overwhelm a novice rider with so many.
The lap becomes up the main Kosciusko lift, across on Panorama to Gunbarrel lift, and then down to the bottom of Gunbarrel by one of the choices available (Dream Catcher is the new name for a lower portion of the All-mountain and is identical to past seasons). Then up the Gunbarrel and across the traverse to the Flow trail and down to the main lift again. Obviously one could take that traverse from the first time hitting top of Gunbarrel, but that doesn't do the lap justice. With 2 lift rides and lots of traversing sections it takes around an hour to do the figure 8 lap. The roughness of the rock armour will leave an impression in your shoulder muscles too.
But it is fantastic fun and if you clean the little climb on Panorama it means you were paying attention to what's ahead - it is easy to get caught in the wrong gear if you don't see the climb approaching.
Suspension "balance"
03/01/25 23:16 Filed in: Gear
Many set-up guides will assist getting the settings in the suspension fork and the shock close to correct for a rider - even if the rider doesn't know what they are doing. I keep reading that most people do not play with the suspension settings at all. That's disappointing because there is so much potential contained in turning a few knobs and adjusting air pressure.
One thing the guides seem to deal with less often is the concept of fore-aft balance. Set the two ends of the bike up in isolation and go ride. If they are quite far from each other in behaviour, the end result is going to be an ill-handling bike. Most suspension runs an o-ring on the inner suspension piece to visually reveal how much travel was used. Probably not on any single run, but certainly through a couple of hours of riding, the front and rear should exploit a very similar proportion of travel - and that proportion should be near full travel.
You don't have to bottom it out every time out. And if you have an Enduro bike, as the best example, riding it on lower speed trails will not push the suspension through its travel if it is set up to deal with higher speed impacts. But if you never bottom out the suspension, then something is not set correctly.
Take my recent ride at Thredbo. Even a low-speed day at a ski hill is a high-speed day compared to almost anywhere else. The runs are long, tend to be steep, and give plenty of opportunity to let the bike run wide open. I was running about 1/3 sag in the shock on my DH bike prior to the day. I put a little air in, dropping sag to 30%. I didn't touch the fork. By the end of the day, I had used 95% travel up front and only 80% travel out back. It felt off all day and I think it was the rear not working in harmony with the front (the test will be next time with the rear restored to 33% sag).
If the rear is too high in the travel, it steepens the head angle and pushes weight forward.
Meanwhile my partner's bike used about 98% travel at both ends. Perfect. Those last few percent of travel require hitting something HARD because there is a bottom out bumper inside that has to be squashed out of the way.
I suggest you tinker. Change one thing at a time. Keep notes. Try the extremes to see what they do - rebound and compression can cover a small or wide range of actions depending on the brand and model of suspension. I like to bracket - 0 clicks is not enough. All the clicks (just for this example, let's say that is 10 clicks) is too many. Five clicks is close but too little. Eight clicks is close but too many. Six clicks seems good. Seven clicks seems good too. When in doubt, I would default towards less damping. In the example, that would be 6 clicks and not 7. Having decided on 6 clicks, it is time to try something else - if that was rebound now try compression. These things interact. With X pressure and Y clicks of compression, there will be an optimal rebound setting. But change air pressure and/or compression settings and the optimal rebound is likely to be different. Experiment.
While I prefer "set and forget" I acknowledge that sometimes the optimal is a few clicks different at different trail locations (different altitude, different dirt, different slopes). And if you sometimes carry a few kg of stuff on your back, where other times you do not, that can alter best suspension settings too.
One thing the guides seem to deal with less often is the concept of fore-aft balance. Set the two ends of the bike up in isolation and go ride. If they are quite far from each other in behaviour, the end result is going to be an ill-handling bike. Most suspension runs an o-ring on the inner suspension piece to visually reveal how much travel was used. Probably not on any single run, but certainly through a couple of hours of riding, the front and rear should exploit a very similar proportion of travel - and that proportion should be near full travel.
You don't have to bottom it out every time out. And if you have an Enduro bike, as the best example, riding it on lower speed trails will not push the suspension through its travel if it is set up to deal with higher speed impacts. But if you never bottom out the suspension, then something is not set correctly.
Take my recent ride at Thredbo. Even a low-speed day at a ski hill is a high-speed day compared to almost anywhere else. The runs are long, tend to be steep, and give plenty of opportunity to let the bike run wide open. I was running about 1/3 sag in the shock on my DH bike prior to the day. I put a little air in, dropping sag to 30%. I didn't touch the fork. By the end of the day, I had used 95% travel up front and only 80% travel out back. It felt off all day and I think it was the rear not working in harmony with the front (the test will be next time with the rear restored to 33% sag).
If the rear is too high in the travel, it steepens the head angle and pushes weight forward.
Meanwhile my partner's bike used about 98% travel at both ends. Perfect. Those last few percent of travel require hitting something HARD because there is a bottom out bumper inside that has to be squashed out of the way.
I suggest you tinker. Change one thing at a time. Keep notes. Try the extremes to see what they do - rebound and compression can cover a small or wide range of actions depending on the brand and model of suspension. I like to bracket - 0 clicks is not enough. All the clicks (just for this example, let's say that is 10 clicks) is too many. Five clicks is close but too little. Eight clicks is close but too many. Six clicks seems good. Seven clicks seems good too. When in doubt, I would default towards less damping. In the example, that would be 6 clicks and not 7. Having decided on 6 clicks, it is time to try something else - if that was rebound now try compression. These things interact. With X pressure and Y clicks of compression, there will be an optimal rebound setting. But change air pressure and/or compression settings and the optimal rebound is likely to be different. Experiment.
While I prefer "set and forget" I acknowledge that sometimes the optimal is a few clicks different at different trail locations (different altitude, different dirt, different slopes). And if you sometimes carry a few kg of stuff on your back, where other times you do not, that can alter best suspension settings too.
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