Cannondale Habit Ride #2

On Sunday, Ryan and I hit up the trails in Fort Ord.  We first headed over to Toro Park, but were stopped at the gate.  Apparently, the trails ("all of them") had just been restored and because of a bit of rain they were closed to bikes and horses.  No problem.  Plenty of fun to be had in The Ord.

Ryan had just installed a new (to him) Pike on his Felt Virtue, so he was all fiddly with it, and I was a little less fiddly with my new Habit.  We rolled in to Fort Ord at the low point of Oil Well and headed up to the top of Jacks Road, up to Three Sisters, and down Trail 42 to Skyline.  This time I was committed to getting used to having a dropper, but it still felt strange.  I may fight change a bit, but I'll get over it.  Apparently I did ok since Strava (which I use for personal comparison, not competition) later told me I got a PR.  I'm now tied for 325th place on that trail.  Movin' on up.

Next, we rode up 49 to Lookout Ridge and over to the 80s.  There are some fast and fun rollers over there.  Popping out on Crescent Bluff, we caught the pavement on Eucalyptus Rd to take us to the other side of 49, and back up we went.  Back down 49 I got another PR and was really getting in the groove and feeling comfortable with the dropper.  Low low low.  A certain song comes to mind here.

After a bit of whining on my part, I let Ryan continue to drag me around the trails.  Out of 49, we turned right and began climbing Skyline to 44.  Fun trail.  Cross Three Sisters and 44 turns into 41 (Goat), which traverses across the hill toward Jacks Rd.  Before Jacks, we took a hard right to continue on 41, up to the lookout.  Quick photo break and back on it to ride the rest of Goat.

All was going well until just after the hard right at the bench.  Tree down.  Momentum killed.  Still fun.  Back on Oil Well, we took the short route back to the road and to Ryan's truck.  A little talk of our next ride and I then rode the two blocks home and straight to the back yard to hose off the bike.

19.5 miles, lots of smiles, and only a little pain (that I'll admit to).  I'm incredibly happy with the Habit and it does everything really well.  I'm not a lot faster on it (yet) than I am on my Santa Cruz Highball hardtail, but I am overall more comfortable across the varied terrain that Fort Ord has to offer.  Yesterday I took care of the excess dropper hose at PBW, so the next thing I need to do is drop the stem 10mm (slam it, I suppose) and cut the steer tube.  There really isn't much to upgrade on this bike.  I've done ti bolts on the rotors and rear caliper, because pretty.  I suppose wheels, but I see no reason to do that for a while, if ever.  Unless someone wants to throw a set of Project 321 wheels my way.  I bought Steve at P321 a beer at the 2014 Sea Otter.  I should collect on that this year.  Silver hubs, spokes, and nipples on black rims.  Pretty please.

Yes, that trail is closed.  No, we didn't ride it.  Just a nice spot for photos.

Cannondale Habit - If I Can't Ride It, I Should Write Something About It

New bike day came on December 10th, 2015.  It was a good day.

What's in the box?  WHAT'S IN THE BOX???

But let's back up a bit.  I had been looking at the Cannondale Habit for a while and Bike Works got the Carbon 3 in as a demo.  It was a size large, and I ride a medium, but I took the opportunity to flog it a bit anyway.  The Habit and I had some fun.

 

In the stand, getting all set up.

After getting it set up, I took it out to Toro Park to climb Ollasen and then back down Pipeline.

Ollason Peak - 1800ft

Then a couple days later I took it out to Fort Ord to ride down 42, over 44 (Outhouse) to 41 (Goat Upper & Lower). Good times.

Beautiful sunset over Fort Ord.

The bike was great, but definitely on the big side. When I returned the demo bike, I talked with Sean about what was available in a medium.  The Carbon 3 and Carbon 2 were available, but the Carbon SE wasn't available until April or May 2016.  I wasn't terribly fond of the graphics on the 3, so after much nagging to my wife she caved and I ordered the 2.  Much stoke.

The bike arrived and I built it that night as soon as my daughters were asleep.  The only things I changed were the stock 60mm stem to a 75mm Thomson and the stock grips to ESI Fit XC.  I also added a titanium King Cage and a set of Crank Bros Eggbeaters (since replaced with Candys).

Unfortunately, due to rain and holiday travel, I've only been able to ride the bike one time.  For 9.5 miles.  Ugg.  And now the forecast is for rain for the next two weeks.  Yay.  My one ride was great.  The bike climbs well, as all reviews have claimed, and is a great descender.  I've never used a dropper post so I was a bit lost when first trying it out on Trail 42.  I've always used the seat as a reference to where I am on the bike, so I need to get comfortable getting lower and changing all I've known for the last 20 plus years of mountain biking. My next step will to experiment with the pressures and settings for the Lefty fork and Monarch shock.  So far, so good.

Cannondale Habit Carbon 2

Cannondale Habit Carbon 2

Race Face Narrow Wide Chainring Install - Bolt Decisions

After numerous rides on my Santa Cruz Highball using only the 32 middle ring, I decided to ditch the front derailleur, shifter, and extra chainrings.  After looking at the options I decided on the Race Face Narrow Wide single ring, mainly because I could get it in orange, and bumped up to a 34.  If it proves to be too much, I can always do a cassette conversion to gain a 40 on the rear.  My current XT cassette is 11-36, and I rarely use the 36 out in Fort Ord.  One of my big concerns with going to one ring was losing top end speed which is why I opted for the 34 tooth ring.

Install was straightforward.  Mostly.  I pulled the cranks to get the rings off and do some general cleaning and went to slap on the new ring.  There is a choice of graphics on this ring.  One side is mellow with some laser etching in the grooves, but the other side has Race Face laser etched all over it.  I wanted the beautiful orange color to show, so I opted for the mellow side out.  I had ordered a set of Wolf Tooth Components single chainring bolts in blue to nicely offset on the orange and tie in the blue bits of the Fox fork.  This is where I ran into trouble.  You see, the Race Face ring is flippable, but different.  On the mellow side, the bolt holes have a recess for a bolt head to sit in.  The flashy side is flush.  If you want the mellow side out, you need double chainring bolts.  If you want the flashy logo side out, then you need single chainring bolts.  Bummer.  I dropped $36 ($28+tax+shipping) on the WTC bolts which are now useless to me.  Luckily I had a set of double bolts sitting around that I slapped on.

Race Face Narrow Wide Chainring - 34 Tooth

I wrapped the chain around the chainring and largest cog in back, without running it through the derailleur to determine the new chain length.  With three links overlapped, I shortened the chain by one link and added a master link.  I was a bit surprised that the XT chain didn't have a master link installed.  On the stand, shifting didn't seem to be any different, and thinking about it, I didn't take note of extra noise from the chainring.

As for weight savings, I dropped about 380 grams (0.84 pounds) by removing the rings, cable, shifter and derailleur.  It's a decent chunk of weight dropped for parts I rarely used.  I will give it a proper flogging this weekend to see how well everything works and will do my best to try and drop the chain.

Hard to see, but the flashy side holes are flush and the mellow side holes are recessed.

Fort Ord Is My Back Yard

After moving to the Toro Park neighborhood about a month ago, I have been spending a lot more time in Fort Ord and have basically forgotten about my road bike.  It's awesome to hit dirt within about ten seconds of leaving my front door.  Yes, it's that close.  Below are a four photos from recent rides.

My new back yard - Fort Ord.

Motobecane Fantom Cross Uno SSCX looking over the new 'hood.

Redline Monocog Flight AL SSMTB looking over the new 'hood.

Santa Cruz Highball AL on one of the many trails in Fort Ord.

New Bike!! Santa Cruz Highball

On Sunday, I took delivery of a bran-spankin-new Santa Cruz Highball.  I opted for the aluminum frame over the carbon for two reasons.  First reason is price.  It was going to be nearly an extra grand for the carbon.  Second reason is dropouts.  The aluminum frame has swappable dropouts that allow you to run it geared or singlespeed.  The singlespeed swinger dropout kit is about fifty bucks.

Sunday afternoon I swapped out some stock parts for some parts snagged off other bikes that I prefer.  The parts I removed were a 70m Easton EA70 6 degree stem, WTB saddle, and Lizard Skins grips.  They were replaced with a 90mm Thomson X4 -10 degree stem, Fizik Tundra carbon saddle, and Oury Grips.  The other things I did was remove the red and white decals from the WTB i19 rims
add some orange aluminum bottle cage bolts to hold the King Titanium Cages, and toss on a set of Crank Brothers Eggbeater pedals.  I was hoping to have a mango Chris King headset installed, but they are on backorder so I'll swap it in as soon as it arrives.  Other parts I'm waiting on are a custom orange seatpost clamp from Purely Custom, some miscellaneous titanium bolts, and a stem (mentioned below).

On Monday morning I had a fit session with Chris Burnham, who has an office inside of Peninsula Bike Works.  We spent most of the time with my road bike, with the main focus on my cleats.  On the Highball, there were a couple tweaks with saddle height and position.  At his recommendation, I have a Thomson X2 100mm -17 degree stem on order to get some more drop and a little more reach.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take the Highball on dirt, but did get a quick eight mile ride on the bike path to get a feel for the bike.  The main thing that I found strange is the massive width of the Easton EC70 bars.  They're listed at 685mm, but measure out closer to 710mm.  The bars on my other mountain bikes are closer to 600mm wide.  I'll be chopping them to a more reasonable width when I swap out the stem.  This weekend I'll be able to take it out to Fort Ord for a proper break-in.