Wednesday, March 14, 2007

New Weapons and Races

The local mountain bike community has been awaiting this announcement from Eddie for quite some time. So here it is a new hundy festival within two hours of the house. He had to tease me though as this race is two weeks before the SM-100. That settles it then, I will be riding my bike 200 race miles in two weeks. Let’s get it on!

In other news I was able to make my circuit out at Paris last night. I was trying out some new weapons. I recently received some Nevegals that I installed for the first time last night. Here they are in all their fatness:


Now you must first understand something when I tell you about these tires. While I was riding my suspension bikes I never really took the time to research tire options. I just kind of ran whatever. Now with the Drunken Monkey I pay very close attention to these things.

The Nevegals inspired a new confidence in me. I have seriously never ran a tire with this aggressive of a tread pattern and volume. Wow is all I can say. I could even feel sand and dirt flying off the tire onto my legs around corners. There were two times last night were I was really testing the tire and my own limits when I would hit a root and send the front tire through the air. I would un-weight the front end and get ready for disaster but the tire just hooked right back up. AWESOME!

My other new weapon is shown here:
Yup I got some “adventure racing” shoes. I figure most of my rides involve hike-a-bike so why not get something more suitable to this design. The soles aren’t as stiff as I would like but that is the trade off for being able to actually hike over rocks with some sense of safety.

The shoes are definitely comfortable and the first ride I had with them was over 40 miles so I am confident in them already. It is weird to look down and see a normal looking shoe though. It doesn’t seem right.
I got back to the top of Sulphur Springs just in time to see the sunset. I was able to snap this one after I stopped gasping for air.

4 comments:

The Ghost of Jerry Reed said...

Great blog... I was think about switching to Nevegals from my trusty WTBs. Do they feel "heavy" for a large volume tire?...100 miles in GA in August (sic. 8th level of "Il Inferno")? I look forward to losing 35 pounds in one day of riding...

ExtrmTao said...

Ghost,

Thanks, I was trying to decide (last night) if I felt anymore rolling resistance or heaviness. I think they are about the same as the exi's in that realm. I am not a good judge of these things though.

I think Eddie meant to put the times for the race from 7:00 pm - 7:00 am. It's gonna be hot, that's a given.

Namrita O'Dea said...

aw, it's the mountains. it's always 10-15 degrees cooler up there ;)

ExtrmTao said...

Namrita,

So it will be 115 instead of 130, sahhhhhhhhhhweeeeeeeeeeeeet.