Monday, November 12, 2007

Night ride and a Bike Check

Instead of regaling you with tales of tonights night ride and how I underestimated how cold it would get after sunset and the subsequent lack of feeling in my feet. I give you a Marc inspired bike check.

My 2005 Specialized Stumpy is my primary trail bike, as well as what I ride in enduro events and basically everything except XC races where I usually ride a hardtail. Over the years, I have switched out everything except the seatpost, stem, and cranks. Here's how she sits now:


Frame: 2005 Specialized Stumpjumper, 19 in, blueish paint
Wheels: Mavic Crossland (I could run tubeless, but haven't yet)
Fork: Rock Shox Reba Race - Dual Air (100 mm travel)
Rear Shock: Fox Triad with lockout (100 mm travel)
Tires: Michelin XC Dry 26 x 2.0
Cranks: Shimano LX with most the paint chipped off
Pedals: Crank Brothers Candy
Chain: Sram 990
Chain Rings: Small & Middle - Race Face, Big Ring - XT
Rear Cassette: Sram 990 (11-32)
Front Der: Shimano XT
Rear Der: Shimano XTR
Shifters: Shimano XT dual
Brakes: Avid BB7 - 7 in rotor up front, 6 in rear rotor
Cables: Aztec Powerlines with electrical tape covering the wear holes
Stem: Specialized 90 mm
Seatpost: Stock Specialized
Saddle: Brand new Specialized Rival
Bars: Specialized 31.8 mm mid rise
H2O Cage: Specialized rib cage
Grips: Ergon GP1 in team green baby!!
Computer: Usually busted
Extras: Spots of electrical tape covering up chipped paint and a variety of colored zip strips for flair
Weight: 26 big ones

Sure it's not a super sweet race bike and it's not super light as far as most race bikes go, but I love it and tend to lean more towards reliability and durability than super light and flashy. It's a bike that I can pound the crap out of and still race super hard on during long events. It's light enough to be competitive with but strong enough to withstand a beating....perfect!!

Also, here is a picture of my NightRider Sol system that I rode with tonight. It cranks out 180 lumens of retina searing white light and has a 4 hr burn time on this tiny battery. The battery can mount under the stem, but on this bike it just works better on top. I won this set-up at this years 24 in Boone so I haven't raced with it yet, however it has worked great on gravel rides and I want to get it on some singletrack to test it further. Nightrider does make 2 models above this one, with 2 and 3 led bulbs...the top light (tri-newt) cranks out 480 some lumens making it brighter than a brand new Mercedes cars headlights (according to the Nightrider guy anyway). I have had cars flash me to dim this light when riding. I can't imagine what kind of temporary blindness the 3 bulb light would cause.

Get out and RIDE!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

ill be at cranksgiving...me and mario are headin down there...dont worry, well be lost too :)

Anonymous said...

go team shake!



P.S. Reba SL will rock your socks off............bitch

P.S.S COuld you please give me your brother's name so I can report him to the sexy police, he is in violation of being TOO sexy.
That is all.

Carney said...

Stephen, I'm going to kick you in the face.