Enduro XD15 BB86 bearing kit

I've sort of written about this very cool bottom bracket before. I have been running these ceramic balled, ultra long lasting, super smooth spinning bearing kits for a while now. The first one was in my Meta 55 mountain bike for about 8 months and know it's in my road bike, spinning very happily and making my riding less of a drag, literally.

Now Enduro have put the same awesome bearings in a press-in BB86 style kit. I've put one in my Meta SX. After running one of these bottom brackets, you just can't got back to the standard types from Shimano or Truvativ. Even Chris King bb's feel slow compared to these. These bearing kits can be disassembled, cleaned, re-greased and made to run good as new time and time again. If it gets water or mud in it, no big deal. Simply pull it apart, clean out the dirt and water, put in fresh Enduro Ceramic grease and away you go again. No waste and high performance. Sure, they are not cheap, but neither is a new BB kit from the big 'S' every 3 or 4 months and your cranks doing spin very easily with one of those in, that's for sure.

ONZA tyres

A couple of months back, several pairs of tyres arrived for evaluation at Blue Shark, the NZ distrubutor for FOX Racing Shox, Commencal, Troy Lee Designs etc. As a part time contractor and product tester for them, I get to try out products new to the market. Tyres are always items I'm wearing out and finding that new do-it-all tyre has become a life long quest.

So, for the past few months I've been testing the IBEX and the CANIS from ONZA of Switzerland. It has been a very dry summer here in Central Otago, great conditions for trying out new rubber. I ran the IBEX first up, just on the rear for a while and then both front and rear to see how the pair worked together. Most of my riding is on dry lose terrain, lots of rocks and tree roots, very little wet conditions, especially in summer.

The IBEX in 2.40, was a tyre that I had high hopes for, but I really had a hard time getting it to work for me. It was very good in a straight line, climbing and braking, but on the corners it really lacked enough bite. A slow rolling tyre, it's casing is very stiff, making air pressure choice critical to get the right combination of lack of drag and good traction. If it was to hard, it would skip and drift all over the place, to soft and it would hook up, but wear you out making it roll. The sweet spot for me was 30psi in the back and 22 up front, running tubeless. The best thing about these tyres are they are very hard to puncture.

The CANIS 2.25 on the other hand is amazing. Very small knobs and a huge casing for a 2.25, this tyre sticks to every thing like glue. I have only run it on the rear, not enough side knobs for me to have up front, but it just hooks up on every type of surface it comes across. I've ridden it in some very wet and slick clay, gnarly tree roots, rocks, lose-over-hard, raced on it in a 6 hr Super D. Thrashed it really. It did puncture on a sharp rock early in it's life and I thought it was all over, but it has sealed up again no problems. One of the best tyre s I've used in years. Pretty fast too and seem to wearing very well. Buy some, really. They rock!

Skyline Super D

This past Saturday, the 31st March, I came out of retirement to race for the first time in 3 years and compete in the second annual Skyline Super D, part of the 2012 Queenstown Bike Festival. Super D or Super Enduro, as it's known in Europe, is the best combination of terrain, excitement and requiring high all round fitness and skills. This particular race is 6 hours long, on a course approximately 7 km's long on the DH tracks at Skyline Bike Park. Mixed in with the downhills are a number of short sharp technical climbs. The laps take about 20 to 25 minutes, including riding back to the top of the course in the gondola. The object is to complete the most amount of laps in 6 hours.

There were 170 entrants, a mixture of teams and solo riders, such as myself. There were about 100 riders on course at any one time. After the 6 hours, I had completed just shy of 14 laps, so only counted as 13 laps. I won my class, vet male, easily and placed 7th out of the 44 solo riders and 26th overall including the teams. I rode my Commencal Meta SX, which dealt with the demanding course with ease, giving me some big thrills with the speed and air it takes in it's stride.

Check out the pictures!!!

Commencal Meta SX Custom build.

This Meta SX was a standard model to begin with but has had a number of changes. The whole bike is stripped and reassembled piece by piece. Then the fork and shock were up graded to Factory series RP23 in the rear and Talas RLC up front. Both have had some 'Pro Tuned' custom tuning, different oil is used and small mods to the internals to make the ride that much more smoother and controled.

The shifting is all Shimano. XTR shifters and rear derailleur, with XT front derailleur. Dura Ace cable housing finishes off the shifting to keep it ultra smooth. The standard Sram cranks and cassette were used as were the Formula brakes, but the rotors were up graded to Shimano ICE in 203mm. The stock wheels and Commencal stem, handle bars, saddle and Reverb post are used as well. Another sweet ride from Black Peak Cycles workshop.

Specialized RIME shoes

Here's a new shoe from Specialized, called the RIME. They say on their website it's a mating of XC performance and All Mountain/Freeride features, something many riders are looking for these days. There is a fairly stiff sole, that flexes nicely at the toe, gripy Vibram rubber for walking across rocks and a niffty Boa closure system to snug the upper in across your foot.

I spent 3 full days recently wearing these shoes, while I was chasing people around the Gold Rush Multi-sport event, taking photos. On and off my bike a lot, running up and down hills with a pack full of camera gear and standing around for hours waiting for athletes to come by, is a great way to learn about how good a shoe is.

On the comfort side, the RIME is definitely more comfortable than normal XC shoes, almost street shoe comfort to walk in especially. They peddled ok too, the slightly rear set cleat placement was a bit odd though. I did feel like I couldn't get the same amount of power into the shoe, but this positioning would be better for more recreational users, offering them more stability. The heel cup could do with a bit more padding and a snugger fit. On the 3rd day my narrow heels were needing some more plush back there and to be held in tighter. The Boa closure system worked well, relatively easy to use and snug up the upper around your foot. A bit tricky to get the little cable to un-hook when hands are wet and cold, but so are most riding shoes.

All in all a pretty good shoe for those looking for a modern shoe to cover most bases in MTB riding. They don't have the performance of a XC race shoe nor are they as burly as a DH/Freeride shoe, but pretty squarely in between. They are light and easy to get on and off and looking at the construction, should last a while too.