It’s been getting warm down here lately. High temps have been in the 80’s which is great, but considering its only March it makes me scared of what July might be like… Perhaps the heat acclimation will give me some sort of advantage at the NMBS opener in Fontana, California this weekend. I’m excited to race and see how things go out there. It’ll be my first MTB race of the year so the nerves will likely be running a little extra. The Fourstroke is receiving some last minute attention as I finish up the ‘race build’ It looks as if it’ll be tipping the scale at 23.5 pounds. This is the heaviest bike I’ve raced in a long time, but hopefully the additional suspension will make for more speed on the course. Of course the NoTubes wheelset is superlight and that’s where the grams count the most anyways. I used to be more of a weight weenie, but now its not quite as much of an issue although I did weigh four tires at Arizona Cyclist before selecting two of them. I feel bad for the guy who is left to purchase the heavier ones of the same model!
There are only a couple of key part changes on the bike this year. The BMC Fourstroke offers 4″ of front and rear suspension travel. This is more than I’ve ever raced on before. The FOx F100RL is 20mm more travel than my last fork. I’ve also switched to Shimano XTR pedals instead of the Egg Beaters. The Shimano pedals have a more solid feel and don’t allow such excessive movement of the feet and knees. After using fixed cleats on my road bike I’ve learned the importance of piston-like pedaling and I might be better off without all of the free float of the Crank Brothers. These are the only changes for this year’s ride so everything else should be business as usual.
Sunday Chloe and I got out for a solid 3.5 hour ride. Up Redington to the AZ trail and back down Milagrosa. I say it everytime, but I really love these trails and each time out there I’m riding them better. With plenty of technical challenges these trails are always calling out the A game. We even ran into a Gila Monster out there. It was moving pretty slowly and likely just woke up from a long winter’s rest. He wasn’t too happy about the camera so after a quick snapshot we let him be.
More to come from Fontana this weekend, -TJ
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