A better 29er Front Derailleur

Recently, SRAM did their public launch of their new internal front mechanism, the Hammerschmidt. With that came a bunch of forum and blog chatter. However, I've seen little on the new Shimano SLX dual ring front derailleur and it just might be one of the coolest little items on the market. Maybe I've missed it. Maybe this is old news. Just maybe what I'm about to write will be new news.

Before I get into the details, you will need a little back ground info to appreciate and understand my perspective on this new product. Think about 29ers. Think about big 29er tires. Now throw in suspension. Now think about the 29er crowd's thirst for more travel and even bigger tires. Now make the chain stays as short as possible. Now add in the requirement to properly design and position a front derailleur. There is a lot going on down there in the crank, bottom bracket and front derailleur area of a bicycle.

Back in February I was in Southern California and had the opportunity to see some prototypes of Shimano's new SLX group including their dual ring front derailleur. Since then, I've been excited to install one and test it on my own bike. I received my SLX group back in June, but unfortunately Shimano only supplied a triple front crank and a triple front derailleur. Recently, I got my hands on their new dual ring crankset and front derailleur and immediately installed it on my full suspension Big Mama prototype play bike.

Before I installed the new stuff, I took pictures of my Shimano XT front derailleur and triple crank set up. Here is a top and a side view. Notice that the rearward, lower portion of the front derailleur cage overlaps the big 2.4 Schwalbe tire mounted on Salsa's 35mm wide Gordo 29er Disc rim.





Now, take a look at this set up with the new SLX Dual Ring Front Derailleur and crank set.





Amazing. To top it off, the front derailleur cage is designed with almost the exact radius as the outer bash guard. The system virtually eliminates the possibility of throwing the chain over the outer bash guard. Wow, a drive train optimized for dual rings, big tires, a 36tooth max chain ring. That sounds good to me. It works great too.

In addition to all this, the system is optimized for a Shimano dual ring crankset. Yes, I know it is currently only available in a 104mm bolt circle and a 22-36-BG. But I would argue that this is the ideal set up. I've been running my "Play" bike with a 22-32 for over a year. It does work great, but in reality when I rode this bike in the Colorado front range, in Fruita, in Grand Junction and in SoCal, the 32tooth was too small. When I'm climbing those big long climbs, I'm dropping into the 22 anyway, especially on my 30 lb play bike. For me, the 22-36 is an ideal set up.

All I can say right now is that I'm smitten with this set up. I really like it for how I set up and ride my 29er. I also think it opens up some new possibilities in 29er design and bigger 29er tires. We'll see.

Photo Friday

I did the cobweb ride again on Tuesday. I have been denying the fact that the days are getting shorter. I protested by not bringing my headlamp. As a result, I spent the first 30 minutes in almost complete darkness. I had two good pedal strikes while my eyes were adjusting to the darkness. One jarred my back pretty good. What was my reward for this Jedi like ride through the dark? The sunrise. I stopped and spent about 10 minutes just watching and breathing in the damp, cool morning air. I also saw 3 deer and almost ran over a raccoon.




Last week I posted about rebuilding my beloved Dos Niner. It's been my bike of choice of late. I love this bike.



Enjoy your long weekend. I know a bunch of the bloggers reading this blog are racing this weekend. Good luck.

Mission accomplished - Back up bike completed

Well, between kid activities and a few chores, I managed to get my back up bike finished. All I need to do now is polish it. My back up bike is an original Salsa El Mariachi prototype. This bike is unique in many ways.

The first thing folks notice when I ride this bike is the dual crown plate fork with curvy fork blades.



It also has some old school Salsa down tube decals and cantilever bosses.



I built this bike with a mix of old and a few appropriate "new" parts. I'll call out a few notable parts; M950 8 speed XTR, Avid Ulitmate brakes, Hope headset, Salsa ProMoto Carbon bar, CroMoto stem, Shaft post, & DT 340 hubs with Salsa Delgado X rims. I topped the whole build off with some NOS WTB Nanoraptors. The only part I didn't have that will change from the following photo is I have a gold Salsa Flip Lock seat collar at work. I just forgot to bring it home.



This bike has been built in so many ways. This bike has seen single, fixed, 1x9, rigid, & front suspension. It was even built as a back up bike for Arrowhead. It didn't get used because my buddy chose his Pugsly because of fresh snow.

In the end, I think it is one sweet bike. Just right for just about any trail or gravel road I'll ever ride here in the Midwest. It's so nice to have this bike up and running again.

Going to the woods

Folks, I'm checking out for the week. I'm headed up to the north woods to ride and camp for a few days. I'll be riding this, Salsa's new Big Mama. It's my all day trail bike.



I plan to have time to ride, camp, eat, have fun and of course, stop and take pictures. Hopefully, I'll still manage to get a Friday Photo up.

Have a great week. I need dirt.

When it rains, it pours

It's been a crazy year. Lot's of riding and lots of crazy weather. This past weekend brought both to the greater Minneapolis area. Just after getting a good ride in on Saturday, a good size storm blew in.

When it rains (yes, that white stuff is hail)....



It pours.....



My Fox 120mm F29 showed up on Friday. That's two new forks in 2 weeks. Yeah! Can't wait to do back to back comparisons.



While all this new stuff is fun, it is a busy time for me and it isn't leaving me much time to do some of the things I want to do.

I really want to jump into touring equipment and discuss some of the equipment I used on my Alaska to Utah jorney. I've started my research on racks. I'm also digging into touring frames. In both cases, I'm looking at it from a then and now perspective. In both cases, I think I know what I'd choose today. It might surprise you. Stay tuned.

You must mean this....

Got my new long legged toy mounted to V2 last Thursday evening. I couldn't wait to test it at Lebanon Hills, my neighborhood single track. This 3 day weekend also brought the T-R-E-K demo event to Lebanon Hills, so I had to be careful as I didn't want to share the trail with a bunch of other people. I also didn't want to explain this.



I did the cobweb ride this morning. The cobweb isn't a specific ride. The cobweb ride means you are the first person on any given trail on any given day. At least here in the Midwest, the first person on the trail that day cuts & clears all the cobwebs laboriously built by all those important spiders the previous night.

It is amazing that almost no one rides the trail or enjoys this amazing park at 5:00AM. I rode about 20 glorious miles of Minnesota's best singletrack. You know how many people I saw? One hiker. I also saw a few deer and an owl. The morning air and temps were incredible.

I cruised home by 8:00AM and made 2 rounds of coffee for my wife and I. Nice!

This just in....

Just in time for a 3 day riding weekend!