Every time I see this trashed car on the Picture Rock Trail I think that I want to do a photo shoot there. It’s just not really all that accessible other than by bicycle. My Bianchi Rita has so many portraits done of it that I’m going to have to give it it’s own Facebook page.

I’ve waited a while to post these pictures to make it seem as if I’m out riding my mountain bike. Those folks who just glance at the pictures will think, “Wow Steve Z has such an amazing rock star life, shooting photos and all kinds of great rides in the mountains!” But all you 3 people who actually read the posts will know that this is just the 2nd day that I rode 2 weekends ago in Keystone! Ah well, someday I’ll get back in the regular schedule, I hope. In the meantime, this was the final section of the Colorado Trail from Keystone to Breckenridge that I haven’t ridden yet.

This last little piece was a random little spur of barely there trail on the way back to Keystone Ranch. Tilt-shift epic-ness!

Here are some more photos from my Keystone tilt-shift mountain bike adventure. The Blair Witch Trail connects the Swan River section of the Colorado Trail to Keystone Ranch. It’s a super sweet section of trail. This time of year it switches from bright, sunny and pretty Colorado wildflowers to pine beetle death and destruction.

After a full day of beautiful weather and VeloSwapping on Saturday, I figured I had to get back up to Ned for a mountain bike ride before it’s too late.  Well it wasn’t nearly as warm as I had hoped; the high was 50 and the wind was brisk.  All the leaves are long gone, and there is a run of man made snow up at Eldora.

We had hoped that we were going to get one last ride in up high, but there is snow in the woods around the base elevation of Eldora. There were a few snowy turns at the top of Marysville, but nothing like my two early season post-holing expeditions.

Ryan was pretty psyched about his $10 tire purchase at Veloswap. That was until we spent 20 minutes on the shelf road fixing flats and then when the loose bead allowed the tire to peal off the rim during a corner. Bad Specialized tires. Bad.

I originally posted these pictures as part of a pictorial blog post, without many words.  Originally I felt that each picture told a thousand words, as they say, so I let the pictures do the talking.  Since Tuesday, the story of these pictures has evolved, so I have included them again in a new post.   I also have one additional picture from that ride that I didn’t post the first time.  It is this closeup shot of Matt at the top.  I intended to add him on as a friend on Facebook and post it there so he could use it as a profile picture.  I didn’t post it on the blog originally, as I preferred the bigger landscape shot.  Matt looks a bit nerdy in this pic anyway!  Well bike nerds are as bike nerds do.  My girlfriend calls me “such a nerd” almost every day.  It used to be bikes for me, now it’s cameras.  And as my inner photo nerd looks at this photo now, more closely, I am really struck by the lighting.  The diffused sun on his back is providing some amazing light; you can see it most clearly on both sides of his red jersey.  Almost angelic, I might dare to say . . .

Matt and Loni moved into the condo next door to mine early last year.  I was pretty happy that another Boulder cyclist/skier type moved in.  Matt’s garage is sandwiched between mine and Mark’s, and together we could boast that we probably have over two dozen bikes in the three garages in our building.  I could always rationalize my own pile of gear and tools and gadgets and miscellaneous Man Things, siting that well, at least my garage wasn’t as overfilled with crap as Matt’s.

One time, a friend of Matt’s came over to feed his and Loni’s cats while they were away, and he managed to punch the correct code to my garage instead of Matt’s.  I happened to come downstairs at the exact time that this was happening, only to find a man in a dark coat fumbling in the dark for a light switch.  As I walk up to him he asks me, “Do you know where Matt keeps the cat food?”.  I replied, ” No, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t keep it in my garage!”  Humorously, after opening the garage, the friend didn’t realize that he was in the wrong one, well, there was a whole wall full of skis and inordinate amount of bikes and parts everywhere.  Everything seems normal, maybe not this cruiser, but then again, it wouldn’t be a surprise for Matt to pick up another along the way and neglect to mention it.  So anyway, I was shocked to find that Matt had the exact same code as me.  What are the chances?  As it turned out, we didn’t.  The friend accidentally entered the wrong code, which was my code, which doesn’t really make the story any less amazing, humorous, or synchronistic.

Boulder is a funny place.  In any other place when a new mountain biker moves to town, he immediately hooks up with the other mountain bikers in town, goes riding, drinks beer, and makes friends.  Not in Boulder.  There are so many cyclists of every kind, that riding partners are divided into the most segregated of sub clicks.  Like, there is this one group with guys who have VO2 max numbers between 65-67, ride single speed mountain bikes with only 29 inch wheels, ride at lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on weekends like to do rides between 3 and 4 hours, at an average pace of 7.3 mph, leave between 10 and 10:15 am, in a group between 2 and 4 people, and drink only microbrewed beer from the Mountain Sun after the ride.  Oh, your bike has 26 inch wheels?  I’m not riding with you.  OK, I’ve got that creative hyperbole out of my system.  The point is, it took Matt and I about a year to figure out that our next door neighbor might actually be a good riding partner.  But once we did figure it out, we had a great time out on the trails.  And your next door neighbor is the best riding partner, because you can walk simply walk next door and say, “want to ride?”

And that’s what happened last Sunday, when Matt and I went to go ride the Little Raven Trail up near Brainard Lake.  The Little Raven is a cross country ski trail that has recently been made ridable with the addition of trail work and some plank bridges to get over some small bogs.  We got on the internet, pulled out some topo maps, and planned our route.  We’d do Little Raven, South St. Vrain, North Sourdough, and Wapiti Trails in a figure 8 fashion.  On the drive up the paved road to the parking area, we were wowed by the aspens, peaking gloriously golden.  The temperature was perfect.  Cool and cloudy, but just warm enough to get a bit of a sweat going.  At one point we took a break in an upper meadow at the top of South St. Vrain.  We discussed the possibilities of why they had deposited lots of tree stumps in the middle of the meadow, as seen in the eerie black and white ‘Dead Bike’ photo below.  We gazed towards the Indian Peaks Wilderness.  Matt pointed out the glaciers, and showed me some of the lines that he had skied in the past. We also talked about making some turns this upcoming spring, and getting some cool photos.  On our last few rides Matt talked about his summer ski adventures.  He managed to get some fresh powder turns on a glacier this August, a rare feat indeed.  At that point Matt had skied every month of 2008.  Part of that was made possible from getting laid off from his latest architecture job.  Initially he thought that he would get another job right away, but I guess that didn’t happen.  Hey, why fight it?  Funemployment paved my way into this photography career, and it was going to grant Matt the free time to ski a day in every month in 2008.  His summer goal.  Why not?

The Little Raven Trail is very technical in spots.  The bridges are easy enough, but there was a rock garden or two that forced me to dismount.  I remember telling Matt that I just don’t take the chances any more like I used to.  If I hurt myself these days then I’m out of work and I don’t get paid . . . and in my old age (ha ha), I just don’t feel the need to try and ride everything like I used to.  If there is a 75% chance that I’ll make it, well, thats a 1 in 4 chance that I won’t, and I’ll just walk thank you very much.  Matt and I are seasoned riders, we know where the limit is, and we’ll stay right here, pretty close to the edge, but not quite over it.  We’ve had our crashes, we’ve pushed the limits and lost, and we’ve gotten back up wiser men.  This is How It Works.  This is how we do it in Boulder, we work, we make money, and on the weekends we hurtle ourselves down mountains.  This theory was tested a little bit near the end of our ride, when I got to a rocky corner on Sourdough.  I was getting tired, my blood sugar was low, my brain was a little slow from the altitude, and I stuffed it, going down head first towards some rocks.  Fortunately I’m really good at crashing after all these years, and I was only traveling about 2 mph.  So I stuck my hands out and did a big push up, frogging my right shin a bit as it got caught between the handlebar and the top tube.  Ah well, these things happen, and I limped it back to the car.  No major harm done, just another day on the bike.

We drove down the Peak to Peak, taking the long way back to town, via Nederland, in the name of getting gas.  Matt took me where I could shoot some tourist pictures of Peaceful Valley, where there is a cluster of bright yellow aspens mixed with the dark green pines.  There was also another cluster, in the form of Leaf Peepers.  We were there with dozens of other cars pulled off the road to take the same stinkin’ picture.  I usually avoid this sort of thing, but hey, I need to keep my blog readers happy, so I snapped a pic.  As we drove Matt commented how he’s always coming home a bit late from sports adventures.  He and Loni were supposed to go grocery shopping that evening.  But Loni knows how these things go, adventures sometimes wind up taking longer than anticipated.

Tuesday was the last day of September 2008.  It was the last day for Matt to get this ski day in.  As in any other ski day, he began by eating some breakfast and scouring the maps and topos on the internet.  He decided on a route in Rocky Mountain National Park.  He went by himself.  It was Tuesday after all, and everyone else was working away as working people do.  There isn’t any avalanche danger this time of year.  By mid-summer all of the snow pack has melted away, and the glaciers that are left are water-eroded, bumpy, sheets of ice.  The adventure isn’t so much about the joy of skiing; it’s about the exploration, testing yourself, the solitude of the backcountry, the vistas, pushing your edge, living In The Now.  It is everything that desk job is not.  It is dangerous, unpredictable, trilling, athletic, un-nerving and calming at the same time

When Loni returned home at 5:30 she felt that something was wrong.  Matt should have been home by now.  She found his intended route by looking in the browser history of his computer.  She did not sleep that night. The next morning some of his ski mountaineering buddies set out to find him.  By 10am they had.

As of now we don’t know exactly what happened up on Taylor Glacier.  Matt was an expert skier and an accomplished mountaineer. He was methodical, calculated, and smart.  He knew where that edge was, and how to stay over here.  Well, shit happens, and sometimes we fuck up.  Sometimes we get a little tired, our blood sugar gets a little low, and we make a little mistake.  Unfortunately, at the top of a 12,000 foot glacial slope, a little error can cost you your life. According to the reports, he was wearing a helmet and had the appropriate equipment.  He died from multiple blunt trauma. Maybe he fell. Maybe he was hit by rockfall. It doesn’t really matter now, for whatever reason, it was his time to leave this world.

Death.  A trying time for those left behind.  Lots of questions, and ‘what-ifs’. I offer the story of a wise man.

A wise man won a car in a drawing.  Everyone congratulated him.  They all told him, “You are so lucky! The wise man said, “Maybe.”

A few days later, the wise man was driving his new car down the street.  His was hit by a drunk driver, hospitalized, and the car was totaled.  His friends and family came to visit him in the hospital.  They said, “This is terrible! You won this new car, and now it is destroyed, and you are injured in the hospital!”  The wise man said, “Maybe.”

That night, a landslide ripped down the hillside where the wise man lived.  His house was swept away and destroyed.  Once again, family and friends came to visit the wise man in the hospital.  They said, “You are so fortunate!  If you had not been in the hospital, you would have been at home when the landslide came and you surely would have been killed!”  The wise man said . . . “Maybe”

The moral of the story is, that events are not good or bad.  Things are as they are.  There is really no way as little humans in this big big world that we have any way of knowing what the outcome of events are going to be.  Sometimes minor setbacks and unfortunate events pave the way for bigger and better things. And sometimes major losses open the space for  . . .

Regardless, it can still be really tough to make some rational sense out of these sort of things.  It can be easy to say that he shouldn’t have been up there alone, or up there at all.  We could label the Gen-X and Gen-Y ‘extreme’ image as selfish and egoic.  Why are the current generation drawn to death defying acts?  When I was around 26 I broke my elbow and my pelvis skiing on Mt. Bachelor.  In a split second I could not walk.  I was in a remote part of the mountain, and it took the ski patrol over an hour to find me.  I was taught a very big lesson.  Rocks are hard, and they easily break bones, and if you can’t walk out, you might die out there.  I thought about all the countless times I had done epic mountain bike adventures into the backcountry, all alone, when no one knew my location.  Like the time I drove down to Hole in the Rock way out in B-F-E of southern Utah and was mountain biking in and out of the slickrock bowls 400 miles from nowhere, and no one knew where I was.  If I had fallen and broken my pelvis, I’d have been eaten by the vultures.  But damn that was fun.  I remember that ride so clearly, over the thousands of rides I’ve done in my life.  It was so good.  It’s rides like that that we remember, and tell stories about.  Along with the rides where you get lost, run out of food, get caught in the dark, and are utterly miserable and scared.  It is the epic stories that are remembered and revered.  I learned a lesson on Mt. Bachelor.  I learned to be as careful as possible in risky situations, but it hasn’t stopped me from getting out there.

You know what?  There are worse ways to go.  Matt was doing what he loved to do.  On top of the world.  Out of the office, out of the rut, pushing his physical and mental limits.  When a man loses the drive to push his edge, he is less of a man.  We respect the explorers, the astronauts, the daredevils, the risk takers, the leaders, those who can push fear aside and pursue, endeavor, conquer, suffer, and acheive.  How boring and lifeless would the world be if everyone took the safe route, bought the safest car with the best gas mileage and the biggest airbags?  What car do we really dream of, the Prius or the Porsche?  Someone has to get out there and light the world on fire and make life worth living and to inspire.  I know that I need a reason to get out of bed in the morning, and going to a cubicle never was a very good reason for me. Matt was one of those men who loved pushing his limits. He was a cyclist, a climber, a skier, an adventurer, a competitor. On the softer side, he was an intellect, a wit, a thinker, with many life long friends and companions.

Purpose.  Life just makes sense with some kind of purpose.  It’s what we are passionate about, what we live for, where we want to go, who we want to be, what we want to have.  Back when I was a cube jockey, it was all about the bike.  Faster, harder, higher, longer, and with the latest and greatest 38 gram, pink anodized, unobtainium butted, gadgety widget.  Now I have this drive to just make the best damn pictures that i possibly can.  And sometimes I wonder why the hell I do it.  Then every once in a while I think I take a picture that makes a real difference.  You know what?  I guess I do that at every single wedding.  So anytime anyone ever makes a “what? you’re a wedding photographer?” type crack, I know the answer.  I do make a difference in people’s lives.  I give people memories that they can identify with, and fucking beautiful ones at that.  And on this day, I have a picture of Matt, on his bike, out in the backcountry of the Colorado mountains, doing it his way, our way.  I have made links to all of the pictures of him on this page (just click them), so that his family and friends, or anyone who searches his name can download the full sized images, and they can have these memories as well.  My little gift, in addition to this rambling tribute.

We never know when our time is up.  We never know how it is that we are going to go.  It tears me up to think about his love Loni, and his furry friends Vinny P, Gandalf, and Riley, and how much they are going to miss Matt.  Hopefully Loni will be able to hold on to their condo next door. I also give a shout out to Matt’s sporting friends, who have adventured and suffered with him on many more adventures than myself.  These words go out to anyone who knew Matt, as a memorial of the life, times, and perspective within the Republic of Boulder.  We can’t stop doing all the things that have brought us together at the gateway to the Rockies.  The pursuits that push our limits, test our edges, and give us purpose.  We have to keep on truckin’, doing the things that light our fire, and in some cases, those things are dangerous.  We need to do everything we can to ensure the safety of ourselves and our loved ones.  There are probably extra precautions that we could take . . .  I’m not going to go on any more adventures without letting someone know where I am.  I might even make a will to make some sense out of my stuff and my crazy ass garage full of boy toys.  Think twice before you head into the backcountry, wait another day on that slope with ‘Considerable’ avalanche danger.  Make sure that you are as safe as you possibly can be, for the sake of yourself and those who might be left behind should you fall over the edge.  But after you do all that, go out there and hit it . . . continue pushing your comfort zone.  Continue bouncing down that rocky singletrack.  Continue sending that crack climb.  Continue ripping fresh corn turns on a mid-May morning. Continue getting out into nature and breathing in huge gulps of life. Keep smiling, charging, looking forward, all thrown in will a dash of physical suffering.  Matt wants it that way.

Some of Matt’s friends are planning a memorial service later this month.  Starting Monday, people can send donations to the Matthieu Chesaux Memorial Fund at Wells Fargo.

]]> http://www.steve-z.com/my-last-ride-with-matt-chesaux/feed/ 20 http://www.steve-z.com/mountain-biking-the-swan-river-to-georgia-pass-section-of-the-colorado-trail-to-celebrate-my-leaving-the-cube-anniversary/ http://www.steve-z.com/mountain-biking-the-swan-river-to-georgia-pass-section-of-the-colorado-trail-to-celebrate-my-leaving-the-cube-anniversary/#comments Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:31:06 +0000 stevez http://www.steve-z.com/?p=589

While most of you were enjoying a three day weekend, I was working my butt off and shooting two weddings!  Lucky for me I like shooting weddings . . . ;>) . . .  and even luckier still the second one was up in Keystone.  So I splurged on a resort hotel room for myself and my lovely girlfriend and made a weekend out of it!  Part of the deal was that on Monday I would get to do an epic mountain bike ride in the mountains . . . my only high altitude ride of the year so far!

I rode the Swan River section of the Colorado Trail section between Breckenridge and Georgia Pass.  Last year we rode up to Georgia Pass from the Kenosha Pass side.  That was part of a whole mountain bike weekend and I made a photo slideshow and blogged about it HERE.

But this time I was on a solo mission so I took way less photos.  Portrait of my mountain bike by itself?  Check.  Self-portrait on the trail?  Check.  Accidental mis-timed action shot?  Check.

But this time I was on a solo mission so I took way less photos.  Portrait of my mountain bike by itself?  Check.  Self-portrait on the trail?  Check.  Accidental mis-timed action shot?  Check.

What an amazingly sweet ride.  Super smooth and fast.  There was one pretty tough section that had me pushing at times, but I was conserving my energy because I wanted to do a pretty big ride.  I thought I was saving my energy, but man, I was so ill-prepared for 3 and a half hours of riding between 10 and 12,000 feet.  On the Swan River section of trail I blew up like I haven’t blown up in a really really long time.  I could barely even pedal in my smallest ring.  But, it was worth it.  No downhill lasts as long as one when you are bonked and wishing you were done!  And when it’s some of the sweetest trail on the planet, that’s actually a good thing.  On the last stretch of climb I had to get off and collapse because I thought I was going to puke.  This is what it looked like.

I brought an SB-26 and some Pocket Wizards on this Sunday’s mountain bike ride. My little Canon G9 has a hot shoe so that you can use big boy flashes on it. I strapped it to a tree to try and get some action shots in the deep dark woods. Unfortunately most of the crew came down before I had a chance to get the exposure and flash power dialed in. Billiam is running a little hot in the above shot. Oh well, I was able to get it dialed in by the time the ladies came by.

I told myself at the beginning of the mountain bike season that I was going to ride one during the week and once on the weekend. Well, that hasn’t worked out so well. I haven’t even been able to squeeze in a weekend ride the last couple weeks.

But not today damnit! Scott sent me the 10:10 bus text and I was in. The heat coupled with my broken AC in the studio have been leaving me a bit tired, so we rallied it slow and went to Happy Trails in Ned for some coffee to rev it up.

There were some pretty sweet clouds! I was wishing for the fisheye, but all I had was the G9 pocket camera.

We headed north and rode the first Swiss Miss of the year. The flowers are really, really awesome this year after all that spring moisture. I started off taking some normalish shots of a rider in the wildflowers . . .

. . . but I quickly moved on to incorporating a butterfly who was hanging around. I accidentally blasted him with the flash, but as it turned out I like the effect! I managed to catch him flying off as Scott rolled past. Overall it was a great ride, and not too hot in the high country. I’m feeling rejuvenated after a week of too many hours in the office. Oh, and an added super-treat was that someone brought out a chainsaw and cleared all the down trees on the Todd Gulch singletrack; that big tree in the beginning has been there for years!

My goal is to go mountain biking twice a week. I’ve been failing! I can’t complain too much because the photo biz is keeping me super busy midweek. So I’m a Sunday rider and this week we traveled down to Buffalo Creek for some classic Colorado buff singletrack.

Some of the terrain in the area is still recovering from a major burn that happened 8-ish years ago. This was the burn that was started by a Forest Service worker who was burning old love letters from her boyfriend. I guess she got fined 11 million dollars. She’s going to have to work a lot of overtime!

This is Issac. He still got the hall pass from the family today despite the fact that the last time he rode with him we made him get home late by taking him on a ‘special’ route.

The other news, is I’m playing with my new tilt-shift lens. That’s why the photos are all blurry in places. No, it isn’t photoshop. I’m still figuring some things out with it, but it’s pretty fun!

Yeah we hit some snow drifts. It got progressively worse until we were mostly hiking the entire time, punching deep into the drifts with our feet. This is known as post-holing BTW. Ben slipped and put his knee to the snow one time. This is what it looked like. His sock is in his hand because he is wringing out the freezing cold snow water. Weeeeeeee!

So, hiking up through the snow was pretty dumb, because we weren’t getting to anywhere where we were eventually going to ride, since we were on our way up towards Brainard Lake, and the trail on the other side of the access road is north facing and would likely have even more snow on it. Oh, whatever. We’d hike through a drift, ride 50 feet. Pick up heavy snow covered bike. Repeat.

At least that big nasty cloud that I saw from town wasn’t pouring down rain on us right?

Right. By the time we got out of the trail to the road it was snowing. In June. Below 10000 feet. We descended with shorts and light windbreakers and got ice cube feet and Slurpee headaches. Luckily the Millsite Inn was nearby and we got to warm up.

And drink beer and eat wings! It’s very important to refuel properly for epic endurance rides. And doubly important to keep the spirits up!

So we got rolling again and within no time the sun was out and our jackets were off. We rode past Gold Lake and ripped down the fast descent into Jamestown. It was a good time, lots of water, and I was wishing for my full suspension and gears as I was the only one without.

Down at the the bottom we had a creek crossing that was a little hairy! Everyone had at least one wobble where everyone thought that the person was going in! That wouldn’t have been fun, AT ALL! After Jamestown we did a little more exploring before finally hitting the road back to town. That last climb over Old Stage put a sting into the legs then we cruised the Foothill Path back downtown. So that’s the story. You know how it is, sometimes you have to endure a little suffering for a memorable ride and a good blog post! CYA next week!

Am I allowed to still label this post ‘Daily Photo’ now that the photos no longer arrive daily?

I’m at a rest stop on the way back from the show and I picked up a wireless signal so I thought I’d check my email and post a photo. In short, the show was very busy and I didn’t have time to get on the computer much. I did mountain bike every day however, and fell in love all over again with the Wasatch Mountains. I really need to spend more time in nature and less in front of the computer. I did take a decent amount of photos, so look for more to come shortly.

I met up with a crew and did a pretty epic 7 hour Ned ride on Sunday. I didn’t even remember that it was the last day of the Tour. I guess that means that I’m over it. Here is Jason concentrating hard on a very high old tressel.

One of the mistakes I’ve made in the past as a newly self employed individual was working through holidays. Life is too short to work on holidays, and I find that it makes me cranky anyway. So for the 4th of July our crew of 29ers headed out to Golden Gate Canyon State Park to check out the trails.

The night before I did my homework and read some online reviews of the trails. For mountain biking there are basically two loops. We parked at Kriley Pond and rode the western loop, which is best ridden counterclockwise. It consists of Blue Grouse to Mule Deer to Raccoon to Elk and back down Blue Grouse. According to the maps this loop is around 10 miles. The eastern loop is the Mountain Lion loop, and is a more advanced trail. Unfortunately the trails that connect the two loops are reportedly not too mountain bike friendly. So our plan was to ride the first loop, then assess whether we wanted to go for the second loop.

Blue Grouse is a very nice switchback climb with a few rocky technical sections. The Mule Deer trail varies between super technical rocky single track, loose rocky fire road, and loamy pine forest. It offered some challenging climbing on the single speed, but shouldn’t be all that difficult on geared bike. It is mostly all uphill, with one fast rocky road descent in the middle. Mule Deer tops out at one of the main park roads where it meets the Raccoon Trail. We took the longer stretch of Raccoon which provided us with a super fun twisty and fast descent. Raccoon then follows a smooth and wide track that climbs back up to the road. The final descent was on Elk. Elk starts out super fast through the woods. Watch out for the hard right hander before the bridge! I barely braked in time to make the corner, while both Rob and Ryan blasted straight off the trail. Unfortunately Ryan taco-ed his rear wheel, and had to hike to the road and wait to be picked up. He missed out on a beautuful singletrack descent through open fields and wildflowers that reminded me a bit of Crested Butte. This part of the descent was fast and smooth and not very technical. There is a small amount of climbing left before the final quick descent back to the car on Blue Grouse.

So overall this is a great ride and is highly recommended. I would estimate that it is about 70% singletrack. The longish drive to get there and the $5 park fee will probably keep it from becoming a regular ride, but it is definitely worth checking out. The best part of this ride was the lack of crowds, even on a holiday. We were on the trail for over two hours and we didn’t see a single other mountain biker! There were probably 6 or 7 groups of hikers. Luckily we had Ryan’s mechanical to use as an excuse not to ride the longer (13 miles) and more technical Mountain Lion Loop. I’ll be checking that one out for sure very soon!

THE COMPARISON

I drove both bikes up to the Betasso Loop outside of Boulder. I rode each bike over a set loop and timed myself, meanwhile making notes in my head, comparing the bikes over the same terrain on the same day. I wanted to compare the bikes one right after another. It can be hard to compare bikes on different days, as my energies and motivations vary day to day. I did not wear a heart rate monitor. I did not have a power meter. I did not set the bikes up exactly the same way. If you want a totally scientific comparison, check out CyclingNews’ Tech Feature: 26 vs. 29 inch wheels. Unfortunately, that project has been in the works for well over 6 months with no final results published, so I decided to conduct my own. While the CyclingNews comparison is all about science and performance, I want mine to be all about fun and feel. With a little bit of numbers; because getting dropped is no fun at all!

The subjective nature of this test is of course the biggest limiter towards any sort of validity relating to my course times. I just tried my best to go the same speed on both runs. I did not go all out, rather, “comfortably hard”, which is around 80%. Well, except on the Canyon Link, because on a singlespeed that trail is an all out event, but more on that later. I have ten years of heart rate race training experience, as well as a season on a PowerTap under my belt. I’m pretty confident in my ability to monitor output and effort. Plus I’m a bit of a wimp these days; I don’t like to suffer too badly, so I’ll generally ride as fast as I can without really suffering too much. I’ve had enough of the pain cave. I like to smell the flowers a bit more these days. On to the 26 verses 29 inch wheel trail review.

THE BIKES

Bike #1: On-One Inbred 29er Single Speed. This bike to me is kind of like the British Surly: Economical, Image-conscious, bombproof, but not particularly light or high tech. The sliding horizontal dropouts are cool. This bike can be built as either a geared or a singlespeed without derailleur. There is pretty good tire clearance, and a lot of standover. Unfortunately the Rock Shox Lockout knob does hit the frame, thus the piece of rubber stuck on there. This is a common 29er problem. The seatstay tubes and yoke are a cool design, although not a particularly weight efficient one. The bike has Avid Juicy 7 hydraulic disc brakes, a Rock Shox Reba 80mm fork, and XT Hubs laced to WTB Trail 29er rims. Traction is controlled by Maxxis Ignitor 2.1 29er tires. The rest of the parts are reasonably light components. Gearing is a 32×20, which on a 29er is 47.2 gear inches.

Bike #2: Curtlo Single Speed. I bought this bike cheap and used at VeloSwap two years ago. I don’t even know the year or the model. This bike was hand made by a small builder in Washington State. It has True Temper Platinum OX steel tubing, butted and ovalized at the bottom bracket. The S bend seatstays have monster tire clearance, 2.5′s are no problem. I love this bike; it is very smooth and very stiff. It still steers pretty quickly even with the 120mm Fox Talas Fork I have on the front. It has Paul’s Components V-brakes, which are the best V-Brakes that I have ever used. The brakes grab ceramic rim surfaces on my 1^st generation Bontrager Race Light wheelset with Chris King Hubs. Ceramic rims make a huge improvement for rim brakes. They are a whole level of performance increase over regular machined surfaces. The front tire is a WTB 2.5 Weirwolf and the rear tire is a WTB 2.4 Motoraptor. The rest of the parts are a small bit lighter than the On-One, but the spec is similar. Gear is a 34×19, which on a 26er is 47.4 gear inches, which is almost identical to the On-One gearing.

Comparing the bike builds: I have a detailed list of all the parts on each bike, and their approximate weight IN A CHART CLICK HERE. The frames are functionally pretty similar. They are both steel hardtails weighing approximately 5-ish pounds. The On-One has a distinct braking advantage with the hydraulic discs. This should not affect the test since there is only one downhill with a lot of braking on this course, and it is not very long. The biggest discrepancy is in the wheelset. The XT/WTB wheels weigh 2400 grams for the pair while the Race Lites are only 1435 grams! Some of this weight is due to the larger size, but most of it has to do with the performance. The Race Lites were $800 retail in their day, have 400g rims, 24/28 DT 15/18 Revolution Spokes, alloy nipples, and top of the line Chris King hubs without discs. The XT/WTB wheels are price point, do-it-all-for-everyone, 32 3 cross 14g spokes with brass nipples, plus disc brake rotors (weight not included above). In order to balance the weight a LITTLE bit, I put my biggest and heaviest 26 inch tires on the Curtlo, the fatty WTBs, along with heavy tubes. The tubes and tires on the Curtlo actually weigh more than the 29er’s, which should balance the inertial drag by a bit. Gearing on both bikes are essentially the same. When all is said and done, the 29er is 26.2 lb and the 26er is 23.3 lb. Exactly two pounds of that weight is in the wheels. Wow. There is also a difference in fork suspension travel. I made the Curtlo’s suspension a little stiffer than normal, to compensate for the 50% increase in travel of the 120mm Fox over the 80 mm Rock Shox.

RIDING THE COURSE

The course consists of 2 distinct parts: The Betasso Loop and the Canyon Link. I know these trails like the back of my hand, so riding order shouldn’t matter from a technical sense. I planned to ride the Loop once, take a split time, then ride down the Link to Boulder Canyon, then back up the climb and stop the clock. The Betasso loop itself is 3 miles long, and is generally rolling, fast, and hardpacked, like a BMX track at times. It is very NORBA race course style, and it is perfect for a singlespeed as none of the climbs are very steep for very long. That changes very quickly when you plunge down the Canyon Link. The Link is straight down, then straight up, maybe a mile each way. This part of the course would be the real test for climbing performance. The lower part of the trail varies from barely rideable to unrideable on a single speed bike. The upper half is steep, but poses no real threat of getting knocked off the bike. Also, the Park Service alternates bike riding direction once a month on the loop. On this day the Loop was ridden clockwise.

26er VERSES 29er ON THE TRAIL

I had been planning this test for a while, but I really have things that I should be doing other than spending my time writing this for fun. But God do I love bikes.

So I woke up Thurs morning, and saw the sunrise peeking in my bedroom window. It was already hot in my room at 5:45. I laid there for a minute, then decided it would be a great day do get up early and beat the encroaching heat. I didn’t find out until that afternoon that it was the Summer Solstice! Cool.

I decided to ride the On-One 29er first. It is only fair that I ride the heavier bike when I am fresher. I headed out on a warm-up lap of the link. Since it was early there was no one was out on the trail yet to get in the way of my blazing speed. Haha.

This was my 4^th ride on the On-one, and I’m getting quite used to it. The cornering traction is amazing. Hey maybe it could be the Maxxis Ignitor tires, but I kinda doubt it. It feels to me like the gyroscopic action of the big wheels helps to keep you upright and pointed forward. I can definitely two wheel drift more securely and predictably with the longer contact patch that the 29er wheel offer. The Loop does not have too much in the way of rough terrain. There are a few patches of rocks and roots here or there, but you can blast over most of them without slowing down. The big wheels surely roll over these obstacles smoother. In really rooty terrain such as East Coast riding I’m sure this is even more predominant. I have the wheel moved quite forward in the dropouts, I find that manualling (wheelie-ing) this bike with 17.3 inch chainstays is no problem. Finishing the Loop portion of the course (I actually only did a partial loop before heading down the link); my 29er time was 16:01.

Downhilling is where big wheels get really fun. All that spinning inertia between your legs is confidence inspiring. I feel more secure with the big wheels, like it will take a bigger obstacle to knock me off my line. I rode a prototype Ellsworth Evolve full suspension 29er in Moab back in October. I noticed that on the rock drop offs and ledges that Moab has to offer, that big front wheel made it feel like I could nose dive bigger without feeling like I was going to go over the handlebars. Back to Boulder, I finished the descent without much fuss. Now the work begins, 15 minutes of singlespeed pain, here we go! Summer is here and the trail is drying out quick. The dirt is getting loose and sandy, and rear wheel traction is the difference between cleaning the section and walking. Oh, I should mention that the second pitch is ‘unrideable’ on a singlespeed; it is just too steep. (Disclaimer: I’ve heard that Travis Brown has cleaned this section on a single. Olympians don’t count!) After a short push up the second pitch, there is another very steep and painful but not technically hard third pitch. Then, a VERY short flat spot, followed by the crux of this climb, a 4 tiered maximum output section that is rocky, loose, and rutted. The rear wheel traction of a 29er is wonderful. I’m able to grind away at 40 rpm and still hook the rear wheel up into the dust. I cleaned the rest of the climb without any real close calls. Make a left at the picnic table, to the top of the next short climb, second split was 19:02, for a total loop time of 35:03.

Now, I’m out on the Betasso Loop on the Curtlo Single Speed mountain bike with 26 inch wheels. I’ve been riding 26 inch wheeled mountain bikes for 16 years. Four rides later and now I feel like I’m on a kids bike! The wheels are just so darn LITTLE! Into the first high speed corners, whoa, almost lost it trying to drift as fast as the other bike. I felt like I had to take the corners a tiny bit more carefully than I did on the 29er. OK, but the 26er should feel more nimble, more flick-able, a better jumper, right? Yes, it does. A little. But not much. On the rough patches I could feel the wheels packing up in the ruts more than the 29er, but I didn’t feel like I was going any slower. It was just felt a little more choppy. On the short and steep climb that finishes the Loop I could feel the lighter wheels. I could definitely hold a seated position more easily while grinding away at 50rpm. I held the more efficient power position for longer on the 26er, which was fortunate since out of the saddle traction was greatly reduced compared to the other bike. As it was getting later in the morning, I had to slow down twice to pass hikers this time around the Loop. I tried to sprint spin back up to speed to make up for lost time. I finished the loop in 15:47, 14 seconds faster. I’m certain that much of it was gained in the steeper uphill portion where I remained seated. Or maybe I was just riding faster after my previous warm-up laps?

On the upper parts of the Link downhill I felt like I was riding exactly the same speed this second time. Both bikes maneuvered the twisties and the turnies equally. The bottom quarter of the run features steep loose and rocky high speed sections. This bike maybe felt a little twitchier and nervous, but I’ve ridden this trail so many times that I’ve got it pretty down. I DID notice the decreased power of the V-brakes, and these Paul V’s with ceramic pads are the best V’s that I’ve ever used. I was getting noticeable forearm pump on the descent which I did not encounter at all on the previous run. So I may have lost a little bit of time on this bike, but I doubt that it was more than a handful of seconds.

Turning around to come up the link, I realized that the first Link run took more out of me than I wanted. I’m not quite fit enough to maintain maximum anaerobic efforts with repeatability. On the first pitch I could feel the lactic acid built up in my quads. Oh crap, the rear tire is spinning out, A LOT! I dismounted for the hike a little earlier than I did last run to try and save my legs a little bit. On the 3^rd steep pitch I was glad that I had wheels that were two pounds lighter because I needed to stay seated to keep that rear wheel hooked up. On the small recovery spot I started having nightmares about the lactic acid that was going to pack through my body over the crux. And what if I don’t clean it? That will throw off my times! Well, my lapse of mental focus bit me in the ass, and I missed the very first small root and rock section for the first time in a couple years. I had grown used to those big wheels rolling over the section smoothly and forgot to slam the pedals as hard as I could. I lost maybe 7 seconds and remounted. 20 seconds later while grinding up the hardest part of the section I accidentally pulled my worn right cleat out of the pedal and had to dismount a second time. Bummer. This bike is definitely more difficult to clean these maximum traction technical sections. Once I regained my composure on the more moderately graded upper half I felt like I was going a little faster on the lighter bike. Maybe it was mental. Maybe I just thought I was going faster because the light wheels are supposed to be faster. I can’t say for certain, but once traction was no longer a concern, it just seemed easier to keep the pedals turning over while staying in the saddle. Final time for this split was 18:53. So even with 2 dismounts I was still 9 seconds faster. Total time was 34:40 which was 23 second faster than on the 29er.

THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS

It doesn’t surprise me that my times were very close to being the same. 23 seconds variation over 35 minutes is a difference of only 1%. Since I only had one gear it makes sense that I rode roughly the same speed! What I wanted to find out is which bike made that 35 minutes more enjoyable.

Riding around the loop, the 29er had superior cornering capability due to a larger contact patch. The larger wheels lessen the ‘angle of attack’ that the wheels hit obstacles on the trail, thereby rolling over them with less jarring. On this loop I was not bothered by the longer wheelbase. There is only one real switchback on this trail, and this bike negotiated it without problems.

On the steep downhill, the larger wheels are confidence inspiring. The bigger bike feels more stable at high speeds. Flicking small kicked out tabletop jumps off of waterbars may have been a little easier on the 26er, but not much. On previous trails I have noticed an increased level of confidence on drop offs with the bigger wheels.

Steep and technical climbs on the limit of singlespeedability (Yay, new word!) are where the big wheels really shine. Cleaning the Canyon Link was undoubtedly easier on the 29er, despite a 3 pound weight penalty.

So far I’ve been mostly promoting all these benefits of the 29er. I’ve listed; a less jarring ride, better cornering, stability at speed, increased rough terrain performance, and better standing climbing traction. Yet, it was still slower. When you look at the stopwatch, when it comes down to steep high altitude climbing, VO2 Max is King, and light makes right. This is why I want to get a custom 29er wheelset that is very light, so I can have the best of both worlds.

WHICH BIKE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Well how tall ARE you anyway? Not in Internet Inches, like, I mean for real. I am 5 foot 11, so the big wheels fit under me quite nicely. I would imagine that the threshold for 29er sizing is around 5 foot 7. At that point toe overlap with the front wheel begins to become a concern, and the frame head tube angle needs to be slackened to increase front center distance, all of which are all trade offs that lead to a less nimble bike in the singletrack. This is a *rough* guideline for around the point where size becomes a consideration. Can you be shorter and ride one? Sure! But it *may* not give you the best performance possible. Conversely, if you are a gi-normous 6 foot 2 or above type, well, don’t even think about it. Airplane seats were not made for you and neither were 26 inch mountain bikes. That said, flame away.

Secondly, where do you live? If you live in flatter to rolling terrain then go for the 29er! The rougher the trails the more you are going to like one. If your terrain finds you keeping more of a constant speed on average then you are not going to be spending a lot of energy spinning big wheels up to speed. In fact, that inertia that you put into the wheels is going to help you maintain that speed when you encounter something that is going to try and slow you down. On the other hand, if you spend a lot of time on long climbs, then maybe you would be better off with the lightest option that you can find. And that is going to be the smaller wheeled bike.

Thirdly, what is important to you? Are you a go fast at all cost racer? Do you just ride trails for fun with no other agenda? Do you like cleaning climbs on a singlespeed while geared full suspension guys walk? Do you have every part of your bike weighed and calculated in a spreadsheet? If you are a racer, you still might go faster on a 26er depending on your racing discipline and location,. But then again, maybe not. 29ers make a lot of sense to me for endurance racing, where the race is more about conserving energy and maintaining a high average speed than it is reacting explosively and powerfully. And that is what big wheels are good at.

After 16 years of riding wheels of one size, to try something new is just fun, plain and simple. Feeling a bike that rides differently is fresh, interesting, and exciting. Additionally, I find that riding a 29er makes me feel more of a man. Ooooh, Big Wheels (insert Tool Time Man Grunt). Does this mean it can also make a female feel more like a woman? I guess all you 29er riding ladies will have to blog us and let us know. There is one thing that do know for certain. Last week I went up to Nederland and did my first highly technical ride of the year (too much photo and computer time . . .). I was on the 29er and I cleaned a section up there for the first time of my life, on my first attempt of the year. I was on a 29er; was it coincidence?

]]> http://www.steve-z.com/trail-tested-26-vs-29er-mountain-bike-comparison-which-is-better/feed/ 30 http://www.steve-z.com/colorado-springs-mtb-road-trip-photo-gallery/ http://www.steve-z.com/colorado-springs-mtb-road-trip-photo-gallery/#comments Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:45:26 +0000 stevez http://www.steve-z.com/2007/02/20/colorado-springs-mtb-road-trip-photo-gallery/

Messing around with the photo below motivated me to finish off some unfinished business. I’m posting the pictures from our October mountain bike trip down to Colorado Springs. Four months late, I know, it’s a little sad. But on the other hand, I now have some fresh bike related content! It is going to be hard to come by in Colorado for quite a while yet, the snow is just barely melting off the asphalt, let alone revealing shady singletrack. I have included my usual skewed comments on all of the pictures in the gallery, so click on the first thumbnail and read the series.

Back in June I brought the camera out to the Bartlett Wash slickrock near Moab. This riding area is like slickrock on steriods. There are big drops, bowls, and wall ride, as well as some super scenery. Jose and I met up with Carol and Mike of Ellsworth, who were in the midst of a summer long propotional demo tour with the factory demo bikes. Carol is a pro downhiller chick, and was excited for me to show her where all the stunts were on the hill. Also along for the day was Steve from SLC, who I handed the camera to when it was my turn to get jiggy. Some of you may notice the pictures aren’t new, but I never blogged or fully edited them, so here they are in final form.