Blather on Bicycling

Old Man Winter finally brought some fury to the Grande Ronde Valley. Last week I spent most of my recovery days on snow shoes in what quickly became waist deep snow at my house. This probably wasn’t the best recovery for my legs, but it was beautiful being out in the white. Read more

I built up this mountain bike last spring, and I’ve been riding it quite a bit this summer. I’ve already introduced my road racing bike and my cyclocross bike, so here is my Giant XTC:

Click for full-resolution image.

I’m mainly a roadie most of the winter and spring, scared to jump on a mountain bike for fear that all my training will be ruined by some silly encounter with a tree or rock. Later in the summer and fall, I tend to enjoy more mountain bike riding, especially because the snow finally melts off our good trails in Northeast Oregon. Most of my riding on this bike is on gravel roads, ATV trails, and some singletrack.  

I intend to do some XC racing next year, mostly in Oregon. The tires pictured are intended for the all-mountain riding that I’ve been doing this summer. I’m sure I’ll go with some different tires for racing. I don’t have enough experience with tires and I don’t stay up on the mountain bike tech, so I’ll be researching and experimenting with some different models.  

So far, I’ve really enjoyed the responsive feel of the bike, especially while climbing. I’m glad I decided to go with a hard tail. I have yet to hear a convincing enough arguments to change to either full suspension or disc brakes.

Another major reason I wanted this bike is for ice biking in the winter. I’ll still ride my cyclocross bike with studded tires on the smooth plowed roads, but this bike with a couple hundred studs on each wheel will allow me to hit more gnarly terrain. I suppose the winter riding is a convincing reason to go with disc brakes. We’ll see. I do have a gallon of ammonia ready to be used on the rims and brakes to keep the ice melted in the deep stuff.

Finding the Fizik Nisene allowed me to transfer my love affair with the Fizik Arione to my mountain bike. The Nisene has the exact same shape, but with more padding and some plastic protection on the side. I removed the front under-plate right away though. There is no need for that and it looked like it was going to rip up my Lycra. 

The immediate upgrade I want to install are Eggbeater Ti or Stainless pedals.  

I’ve put up a thread at the MTBR.com forums for anyone to vote on the bike. Comments and critique are welcome here too.

The weight as pictured is 22 lbs.

Here are the specifics:

 
Click for full-resolution image.

Click for full-resolution image.

Click for full-resolution image.