Adding lightness to the Hei Hei and other improvements

 Out of the box, I was a little disappointed with my new bike. It was a little heavy and sluggish and the brakes didn't work that great. A new hardtail race bike wasn't in the cards due to the availabilty of bikes, and of funds when I needed to be actually trying to order it, so the idea was to turn this into something I could actually race.

So mostly that meant replacing the heaviest parts. Firstly the cranks. Kona specced a ridiculously heavy set of cranks and chainrings, and spending about $200 for some truvativ stylo carbon cranks dropped 190g from the bike. Carbon bars, carbon cages, a few titanium bolts, and xc tires got me through the friday night season with reasonably ok results but I was still not thrilled with riding a 27.5lb bike up the race course at marshall.

I wanted nicer wheels and a lighter cassette, but most of the racing was done by the time anything I ordered actually showed up. That didn't stop me from spending money though and I had some DT Swiss carbon wheels along with an XO1 cassette and 2 piece rotors in time for the butte 100, taking a full pound off the bike. 26.5 is now not so bad for a 120mm bike (with pedals and cages).

Along the way I also did that brake upgrade, going to RSC levers and then carbon blades to keep my fingers warmer in the cold

This was well worth it, the bearings and "swinglink" actuating the MC gives them much better power and feel.

I'd say overall lighter cranks and better brakes would have been the main things this bike should have had in the first place. The fancy cassette and wheels and carbon bars are all things you don't find on a new bike until you spend twice as much.

Combined with an ever increasing rear shock pressure (I'm up to 215 from an initial 185) the bike is starting to feel a lot better on the way up. It also just got a fox transfer SL post, saving another 250ish grams which when I go back to XC tires should drop the bike to just under 26lbs (with pedals and bottle cages on it, most listed weights exclude all that). However, I've still never broken 23min on the ravine trail climb on this, while my best time on the hardtail is 21min flat.

So pretty overboard. I've probably spent as much on the upgrades as I did on the whole bike. And I still want a new hardtail. Hopefully I can get just a frame from orbea and then use these fancy wheels and piece together the rest of it before race season starts. 

Oh yeah I got a new bike - 2020 Kona Hei Hei CR review

So I wrote this like, a year ago? Didn't post it, probably because I sell konas. But did some work to the bike over the last season and was kind of bored and haven't posted in here in awhile and thought about writing about all the stuff I've done so far and found this. Still pretty accurate, but needs a followup that maybe I'll do later.

Finally, I have a modern, full suspension mountain bike. It's been a long time coming. As great as a hardtail xc bike is for around here, and for racing, I wanted something a little more appropriate for big days, rougher trails and steeper descents. 

The new Kona hei hei. 120mm front and rear suspension, 67.5 degree head tube angle, dropper post, carbon fiber, fox 34 step cast. It seemed like everything I wanted and more - still an XC bike, but more capable.

On real descents, big back country rides, and trails that aren't smooth dirt like we have around town, it's pretty fantastic. So fast, so smooth, so stable. Rocks you pick your way through and things you slow down for on a hardtail, you just float right through. It'll go faster than is appropriate for public trails and you'll feel calm and in control.  The difference between how this bike handles and feels compared to the old hardtail with a tall post and steep hta is huge, and getting back on the old bike is really strange and awkward. You have to remember how to ride it again and you're wondering how you ever managed.

Now, my gripe with this bike: Kona calls the hei hei an XC bike, but that kind of depends on your definitely of XC. If you think of XC as racing, yeah nah, it's not going to do that very well. If you consider XC as general "cross country" riding where you go long distances with good efficiency, then yeah, sure. It's that. But not the racey part. I'm sure that for a capable full suspension bike it feels light and fast, and if you're coming from an older, or longer travel full suspension, it'll seem like a rocket ship. But compared to a real XC race bike, it's heavy and slow. Almost every time I ride it, that's staring me in the face. It's minutes slower to the top of ravine trail, which I ride a lot. Trying to get on the pedals on the flatter sections and between corners, it's sluggish. The weight doesn't help (currently sits at 28.2lbs), but it feels like there's something else going on there. Even with the suspension all closed it feels like there's squish and twist and flex happening somewhere, and the bike just doesn't surge forward like you want it to.

So is that even a reasonable gripe? That my 28lb 120mm bike isn't an XC race bike? Maybe?

The other thing I'm not thrilled with are the parts. I thought, GX and guides, yeah that's what I have on the hardtail and i generally like it. Yes, it's what you'd expect on a bike in this price range, and they're not like, low end stuff, but at the same time I don't find them to be very good. The shifting, no matter how carefully I check hanger alignment, adjust the b-limit with the special tool, and fine tune indexing, just never seems to be quite right, especially making multiple shifts, and quick shifts under load like you might in an xc race. The GX 11 speed on my hardtail is way better- smoother, faster, more precise- even though you'd expect them to be about the same.

The guides also really lack power for a bike like this, something I never had an issue with on my hardtail. If anything, they were sometimes too much and I had trouble modulating the rear brake with xc tires. But those are RSCs, and apparently that swing link and bearings instead of bushings really make a difference. The hei hei's brakes are just weak. (they've been bled twice and the pads were bed in properly). I've found myself pulling the levers so hard it hurts my fingers and they just don't give the bite and braking force you want for confidence while descending.

The suspension is fine, but not fancy. The 3-position grip damper on the fork is not very useful, as I want it to be either open or closed. There's not really a good use for the middle spot that I've found although I do try it on smoother, more rolling trails. Still, it doesn't reduce bob enough while pedaling and then is just harsh over bumps. A low speed compression adjustment would be nice too, and I've already looked at what a fit 4 damper with lockout costs. The middle position on the shock, on the other hand, actually is pretty good and I use that more than fully open. I also changed the volume spacer (from 0.8 in2 to 0.4) so I could run a little higher pressure to get more support and a better balanced feel while still using most of the travel.

This bike is still pretty fun to ride though, especially when I'm on the right trails. I rode the alpine 7 trail this fall and it was the perfect bike. I never felt like it was too slow climbing and left the shocks in the middle setting pretty much all day. The other big ride was to the top of carlton ridge, down mill creek, and then up to the top of blue mountain the back way and down deadman's ridge. For stuff like that, it's perfect. I didn't make it over sheep mountain this year, but that's another spot where I'm sure this bike would shine.

On paper, it seemed like the perfect bike. In reality, I'm not in love with it. Maybe, but just maybe, if I had the fancy version with nicer parts and shocks (they were out), I would like it better. Maybe if I bought an XTR or XX1 group for it and better brakes and lighter wheels it would cut it on the climbs. IF it could pull that off it could be a do it all bike for me. But as it is, it feels like my issue isn't so much the weight as it is that the bike just isn't as efficient as I want. You notice it on flat ground, with the suspension closed, with the original light and fast tires.

Which leads me to a dilemma. What do I do when there's actual racing again? Try to upgrade it and make it light enough to get to the top of the xc course? Sell it and buy something else like the fancy xx1 version or a scalpel or scalpel se or orbea oiz/oiz tr? OR, just get a new hardtail to race and keep this as the more fun trail bike, possibly with a modest upgrade here and there?

I guess I have all winter to think about it.

In the meantime, this has been on some pretty fun rides

Friday XC races

After a lot of trainer miles and solo rides over the last year we're back to some regular racing again. Most of what I do is pretty local- the wednesday XC and CX series plus the occasional road, cx, and mtb race on a weekend somewhere.

This year the "wed xc" races are Fridays and we're doing a full day where you can do it solo, time trial style, or a mass start depending on your comfort/vaccination level. The course and timing are set up pretty much all day and then there's an actual race in the evening. This year I'm also working for Shaun/MTCX so I'm there all day helping get the course and things ready. Running all over up and down a mountain is probably not the ideal pre-race routine but on the other hand getting payed to be at a race is nice too.

Week one we did only the "show and go" format with a max starting group size of 4. I went out with Cory, Kory, and Owen and it was almost like a real bike race. It was a pretty short course, up the road to the lower part of hot sauce and right back down, so I rode my old hardtail for the extra uphill speed. It definitely doesn't handle rougher trails and the downhill like my hei hei but it sure climbs better. I wound up 7th, behind all the people I'd expect including Howard Grotts, who lives here now.

Week two was the first time I've worn full spandex on my hei hei I think. This was 2 laps of the full xc course and it's nice to have a more modern bike. I was in a good spot for about the first 5 minutes and then guys started pulling away and one more passed me. I stayed there and held off the fastest masters racers (here we do 40 plus and I'm getting close to there and we all started together). Thankfully it was only two laps because I was not having a good time. It was the first warm one and that always gets me. Like halfway up on the 2nd lap it seemed to be a little cooler and then I felt alright to the end.

The hei hei does make up decent ground coming back down. Comparing my best lap on strava I'm even for the first five minutes, and then lose 37 seconds in the next ~7 to the top of the last road climb before you get onto a kind of rolling bit of trail across the top of the course. There it's pretty even- gain a little ground going down, lose a bit on the short climb back up, then lose a bunch on the last stretch of road to the top, at this point I'm 52 seconds back on about a 20min lap. Then I come back to within 36. picking up 22s over about 3 minutes. However that is compared to my fastest lap, but not my fastest descent on the hardtail.

But maybe this will be an xc bike yet. It's close to 5lbs heavier but for the most part I was glad to be on it, and I have some lighter parts hopefully coming in the next few weeks. The guy in front of me kept riding away on the road and then I caught him at the bottom of the first lap. Then did it again on lap 2 and was almost in a sprint finish. Also, I did my fastest 2nd lap ever so that's something. Comparison says I did the 2nd half from the top, across, and down about 30s faster, and then was only significantly slower on the first part of the climb where you're basically sprinting. Kind of promising that I can put down a lap a good amount faster than I've done if I can just put it all together.

Behind Howard, Ivan finished 2nd and then his dad was 2nd in masters so we got some decent team points tonight. I was 10, after a 7th last week.

Carlton Ridge and a little more

I've been trying to write up some of the better rides I do, and this one is about a ride south of town just outside of Lolo. Lolo Peak is the north end of the Bitterroot mountain range and I want to say it's just shy of 10k feet tall, which isn't the biggest one down there, but with the valley floor at 3300 or so they all stick up quite a bit, and lolo peak has a whole bunch of mass.

Much of the bitterroot is in wilderness, including the top of lolo peak, so there isn't a ton of mountain biking, but the north/east side of the mountain isn't and there are a couple of pretty good trails.

The other nice thing is that a road goes a good way up to the lolo peak trailhead, so you can shuttle these rides.

That's carlton ridge back there. The trail climbs up, goes down the other side to a lake, and then you can continue up to lolo peak. The lake/dam is the wilderness boundary. You can see that it was all burned in that fire a few years ago. It was a big one.

 

This was from the hill above my neighborhood way on the north side of missoula

 

That was 2017, and the trials up there were closed for over a year, because, well, they basically didn't exist anymore. But they were rebuilt and reopened by late summer 2018.

The trailhead

3 years later, much of the area is still charred grey and black and lifeless

But there are also patches of green and it will all come back eventually. The open-ness is actually really nice when you're up there. it's brighter and you have good visibility. And a neat strobe effect as you ride through the shadows of the burnt trees

The climb to the trailhead is pretty long, so it's common to do a partial shuttle and not even go all the way to the top of carlton ridge. Just the mill creek trail back down to the highway is a really fun ride and involves very little uphill pedaling. However, having been all the way up to carlton ridge a couple times I've found it to be worth the effort. It is pretty far up there, the ridge being an elevation of 8300ft, making for about a 5k foot climb from the bottom. But then 5k back down, nearly all the way to highway 12 on singletrack. you probably want a squishy bike as it's a little rougher than most of the missoula trails.

 

Since the fire, I'd even say the carlton ridge trail is the best riding up there. The mill creek isn't quite the same and is much narrower, looser, off-camber, and a little overgrown. The lower part, before you hit the creek, has you struggling to even keep your tires on the tread, and I would say it definitely needs a little work. It is still a lot of fun, with some steep, technical corners and a big rock garden when you hit the creek. The calton ridge trail is open and bright with many roots, rocks, and high speed sections.

Normally, just driving out there and riding carlton ridge and mill creek is a big ride and more than enough for the day. But I did this during the move MT challenge, so just that didn't quite cut it. Instead of driving I rode from home, but also I had a secondary goal for the day- climb to blue mountain from the hwy 12 side. I had a track, and a general idea of how long it would take, and gave myself a cutoff time for when I needed to be at the bottom of mill creek. It seemed like I was ok, so after a water and snack break at the travelers rest store I went back up the highway instead of back down to lolo and the bike path.

Just climbing up to the top of blue mountain is another big ride in itself, and going the back way is longer and a lot less straightforward than just going up blue mountain road. There isn't really a direct route, and I'd never done it before, and was relying on a gps track i created myself in caltopo by drawing a line that seemed to go through on satellite imagery. It, uh, doesn't if you only have a forest service topo.

 

I hope this is right. Gee, I still have a long way to go. If you look closely you can see the blue mountain fire lookout up there

 

Eventually I came to a road with signs of use, and followed that to woodman saddle, which is just off the back of blue mountain. Then a bit of moto trail got me to the top

 

Where I was

 

Then it was a fast, fun descent down deadman's ridge and then straight to the dram shop for a beer.

This one's a pretty big day so make sure you bring snacks. I wound up with something like 70mi and 9000ft of climbing.

Shimano RX-8 gravel shoes

A few years ago, I can't say I was very excited by Shimano's shoes. I even tried some on (the previous XC7) the last time I was shopping and they didn't fit right or feel comfortable. I wound up with some sidi dominators, which fit me great, just like the geniuses I've had for almost 10 years. But then last summer I won a pair of the pretty blue S-phyre RC9 road shoes and suddenly Shimano had my interest.  With my discounts resetting at the end of the year I was looking for something to buy, and decided on another pair of shoes. Also they were about all Shimano had in stock. The replacement parts situation is not good right now. So here they are, the "gravel" shoe:

They're super light and sleek and cool looking, have a stiff carbon sole, and a BOA IP1 dial like the rc9 and xc9.

The nice thing about these dials is they work in both directions so you can loosen the shoe by just a click or two if you need to, compared to having to fully release the lower end dials.

One thing that differs between these fancy shimanos and other cycling shoes is that you're right on the carbon sole without a foot... board thing in between. I'm no expert on shoe construction but noticed that under the insoles of all my other shoes there's some sort of a wooden? board thing between the insole and sole of the shoe. I assume not having it in there makes the shoe lighter but probably takes a little more work to shape properly. It also reduces the stack enough where I had to lower the saddle on my road bike and if you've seen Phil Gaimon's newest video he mentions it.

These rx8s are really similar in construction to the RC9s (and XC9 mtb shoe), but cost, uh, a lot less at $225 vs $425. I suppose they're considered more on the same level as the rc7 and xc7, which cost the same. S-phyres are pricey. But also very shiny and blue  and will make you feel like the prettiest princess. I've even had someone yell "nice shoes" at me and I think he was being serious (you can get other colors, if you really want).

The insoles are even nearly identical between the two and include two different arch supports that stick to the bottom

Like I mentioned, the s-phyre puts the insole right on the carbon, but the RX8 adds a very thin layer of foam that I assume is there to add a bit of comfort and vibration absorption.

The s-phyres have that 2nd boa dial, which is nice, and the interior fabric around your ankle is  softer, and they have the cool heel gripping fabric. But it's a little hard to see what makes them cost almost twice as much. I did still consider the XC9s over these RX8s. Between the two, the sole itself is probably the biggest difference, as the XC9 has more substantial lugs and holes for toe spikes, and would be more appropriate for racing cyclocross (well, as long as you're ok with running through mud in $400 shoes). Look close at a world cup race and you'll see a lot of them.

The RX8, on the other hand, has kind of a narrow, minimal sole lugs and is really meant for rides where you aren't having to get off and run or walk. I'm a little concerned about gouging up that fancy carbon on the bottom going over rocky hike a bike situations. There were a few rides last year where I walked a lot (alpine 7 and the miller divide backwards on my cx bike for example), and I'm not sure I'd want to be wearing these. They do have a nice rubber pad to give you a little more grip if you miss clipping in, and will likely be perfectly fine for dry, grassy cx races where you don't have to run up a muddy bank.

The unfortunate thing is that I've only worn them for about 45 minutes on the trainer so far and it'll probably be months before I actually go out on a real ride with them. I didn't have any issues for that short spin with thin socks, but they are a little narrow compared to my sidis, so we will see if I regret not ordering the wide version, or if they'll break in a bit. They supposedly have the same fit as the s-phyres but they seem just a bit tighter across the toes.

I'll also admit that a "gravel specific" shoe seems a little bit dumb and ridiculous. At the same time, that does fairly accurately describe a large portion of my riding, and they look a lot cooler than my sidis, which despite being pretty new look like they could be from 20 years ago.

In other news, I'm going to start posting mostly on patreon now instead of blogger. It works about the same, and I suspect most things are going to be public, but there's a slim chance people will kick me a few bucks here and there so why not.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=46334758