About bikes, cycling and cycle to work - Tredz Blog

Cycle Faster!

Cycling coaches are everywhere on the internet, all of them promising to make you go quicker, longer and end up better looking by the time you get to the finishing line. These guys take a fresh approach though: "Our program is based on three fundamentals: Exercise, Diet, and Ridicule..."
Check out the Nega-Coach website! It's a genuinely funny take on the proliferation of exercise 'experts'.

Learn with the Athertons

Need to improve your mountain biking skills? The Athertons (Dan, Gee and Rachel), are offering ‘training days’, using the knowledge and technology that has helped them gain over 30 podium finishes between them. The ‘quickest family on two wheels’ will give you advice on a range of issues, from bike setup to riding different types of transition.
You’ll be learning with riders of similar ability on the Atherton's home training ground in North Wales, with Dan and Gee taking general lessons and Rachel, sadly, taking ladies only sessions.
Sounds brilliant – but ‘training day’. I’m not sure even the freakishly talented Athertons could whip me into shape in just a day...

Shimano Deore XT or XTR?

The 2008 Shimano Deore XT group set is considered the 25th birthday revamp for the XT group, still regarded by many as the benchmark of MTB technology. The set has undergone a complete redesign including some new technology not yet included in the XTR set. The tecchies apparently developed it for the 'All Mountain' market, but surely it'll be popular on all 26" or 29" bikes.

The highlight is the "Shimano Shadow"€ rear derailleur RD-M772 which is lightweight, as you'd expect, with an extra thin profile (in the picture, on the right).

Key design features (as stated by Shimano):

• Super low profile design - improved clearance from trail side hazards;
• Top normal spring - for use with rapidfire shifters;
• Increased vertical stability - prevents contact with the chainstay on rough terrain;
• New crisp shift response - lightweight shift performance;
• Shortened cable routing - reducing cable friction and enhances the low profile design.

Singletrackworld goes into more details about the other parts of the XT set but as can be expected, their review creates some debate among some readers not equally convinced of the 'completely new technology'. Read Bikemag.com for a more data-driven overview listing the specs of the various parts.

With this current buzz about the previews of the new 2008 Deore XT group set, Go Clipless ponders XT's advantages over the XTR and concludes:

"To me, the XT group is the poor man's XTR. But ironically it usually is a better choice than XTR if weight is not your only criteria. The system is simply more durable. (...) If you take your riding seriously, but don't make a living from it, you are better off with XT."

This new XT set is available in August.

How to choose a full suspension mountain bike

Fed up of reading dozens of catalogues and their sales jargon to find your ideal bike? Use our Full Suspension Experience Chart as your research tool instead. To be honest, it’s a revamp of something Specialized produced for those attending their Specialized Bicycle Components University (SBCU: a week of riding in California, bummer eh?).

Now, there's loads of full suspension bikes on the market from dozens of manufacturers, but they are all designed with a rider in mind. Each rider’s style is assigned a category at the development stage; it’s these categories we’ve dissected. It comes down to what you want from your full sus rig – the experience you want to have on the mountain.

Want to ride your favourite loop in 2 minutes faster than your previous PB? Ok, then speed is obviously your main criteria. If fun (shits & giggles as they say in CA), gnarly, slopping, single track is more your bag then it’s more travel for you, my friend. Basically, you need to ask yourself two questions:

1) how important is my speed when I ride uphill?

2) how important is my speed downhill?

Then express these as a ratio e.g. 20/80 makes you a pretty hard-core downhill rider.

Personally, I hate to be the last man to the top. I’m rarely first (especially if I ride with Chris) but I push myself to be as close as I can to his rear tyre – I want my muscles and lungs to know they’re on the bike. That means I’d like less travel and wasted energy – more hard-tail than full suspension. However, I also want to be able to hit stuff on the way down without being kicked off (I’m not that great at picking my lines, so most rocks/roots get touched in some way). Full suspension is obviously far better here than a hard-tail. Overall then, I don’t want to be handicapped in any particular area on the mountain - all round speed and efficiency (of pedalling) is my goal. Therefore, my ratio of priority (% up versus % down) is about 50/50.

Simon, on the other hand, has duff knees and doesn’t give a damn about being first to the top – “you’ll all wait for me anyway, right”. He gets his grins from coming down and riding ‘through’ things with his 6” travel Kona Coiler. This much travel isn’t the most on the market, but it really does mean you can pick some crazy lines to overtake people where you’d never usually put your rubber. His ratio is about 10/90 but he has to ride his bike up the mountain (granted, rather slowly), so that brings it back to more like 40/60. Remember, you’ve also got flat bits in which you need to pedal.

Okay then, our chart works like this:

1) weight up your priorities as a ratio
2) find which category you sit in
3) research the MTBs in that category
4) research some more
5) spoil yourself & grin wildly

Full Suspension Experience Chart as a PDF.