Expensive bikes and gear - is mountain biking becoming off-road golf?

Few days ago on Pinkbike I was checking a photo report from 2014 Eurobike and someone made a funny comment under one of super expensive bike components: "Biking was a cool thing to do but I can't afford it anymore so I am riding MX". Are mountain and road bikes ridiculously expensive? Yes but... so what?

Test: Light Bicycle AM33 wide carbon rims

I am repeating this very often: A great bike is about the whole package, geometry and components, you cannot take one thing out of the formula and make it a deciding factor, sometimes a supposedly positive change can require more than one component replacement for the package to feel right. Things can get unbalanced. Then another mantra is that and everything in MTB is very subjective. Just because something feels fast it does not mean it is fast, and symmetricaly if something feels slow it doesn't mean it is slow. The first ride impression on those wheels have proved those points. Here is the review of the recent rims form Light Bicycle.

Test: Ultimate MTB Workout

We often get into buying speed, lighter parts, better suspension, optimized geometry, faster compounds. Those things surely make you faster, they may cut seconds of your race or Strava runs, but the truth is that vast majority of us are not seconds but minutes behind, to what is possible on a specific track in specific conditions. More skilled and stronger we get, the more fun is riding our bike - that is simple. Being able to scrub a table top on A-line is more fun than rolling on top of it or just jumping it and buying shit is not an effective way of getting from being scared to turn handlebars in the air, to throw whips and no handers riding 40k per hour. Being stronger allows you to enjoy your full skill level longer, if you get battered already 30 minutes into the 3 hour ride then clearly you are not having as much fun as a bloke who doesn't hit a wall after 4 hours. But well, buying stuff is fun and can be a good game on it's own, my Swedish forum friends (hello Nils) enjoy their shopping lives more than "that random grump" on the hill talking shit on eating less and riding more. So if we have the disease of MUST BUY, how about we think outside the box? How about we invest in the engine?

Test: Absolute Black N/W chainring

During the last winter I've had it with my chain guides. First, the Hope chain guide including the fancy Integrated Bash Ring sucked at keeping the chain on. Despite using the clutch rear mech I was just dropping it on and on. Then on one of the rides the lower roller on Gamut P30 seized up permanently. MRP G2 Mini SL got screwed up in Hafjell, in a stupid slow speed crash the boomerang got bent and I have never managed to straighten it up so that the chain wasn't rubbing on the upper guide. That was just before i lost the lower roller to it... lots of bad luck aye, enough to turn my eyes on narrow wide chain ring...

I decided to try that hyped thingy before buying a new guide. There were plenty of options but I wanted to buy something made in Europe, and it happened that there is a Polish bloke in UK making those. He runs a small manufacture called Absolute Black making very nice looking components. So I gave it a try. I bought a beautifully carved 34t chainring fitting my old XTR cranks. The finish quality is top notch and it arrived quickly in very nice packaging. I like such approach to business.

Cairns World Cup - Who is going to win?

It always amazes me, why people want to know the future, what is coming. There are some relatively non-creative fantasies of what is going to come: who is going to win a race or a match. Most of us if asked about the sense of visiting an astrologist or a fairy, would use words like useless, stupid, delusion, mumbo jumbo, waste of money. Yet everytime a new race comes along, many of us "fans" predict future in the same manner, it's just that instead of horoscpes or cards they tell future from start lists, timed practice, qualifications:  Danny is going to win. In more popular sports, like football, tennis or F1, there are masculine fairies. They sit in TV studio and are called: "experts". There are also means of wasting money on future telling called "betting".

I believe that surprise is a bigger reward than "Hah - I said so!"  so just sit back and enjoy watching it unfold alright?

Say NO to Prejudgment! Kill the prejudice!

I recently read a book called Spiritual Bypassing by Robert Augustus Masters. A great book about the mechanisms that push us into unhealthy denial of our own feelings, like: "I was too harsh for my girlfriend today, I should not have shouted on her so much" - "it is because I haven't prayed too much lately, I am too weak in my faith, I am missing the leading power of God". Or more secular interpretation: "I overreacted because I am disfunctional, I grew up with a harsh father", or atheist interpretation: "I haven't read enough articles from psychology, how to control emotions, maybe I should have been more aware of the low atmospheric pressure causing me to be irritated due to diminished ability to focus - I am missing the leading power of Science". Maybe: "I should have taken a spare tube, I wouldn't be so angry after walking home for 3 hours in hard clipless shoes"

Frame project update

Geometry for the "production" frame is ready. Main differences from current prototype are very slightly slacker head angle, lower BB, steeper seat angle, much more tyre clearance, 650B compatibility. Short stays stay where they are, just as the reach. After testing the bike with longer 417 mm stays I decided that 405-410 for 26" is just this bit more fun. Then by adjusting head angle I need to keep the reach as it is, in order to avoid making the front end too long. We have too many tight corners here to hang around with DH wheelbase :D