khai profile

I've had my eye on a different version of these for a few seasons, but a combination of injury, laziness, and forgetfulness kept it such that I only remembered when actually out riding in the cold and wet - which was less frequently in the past year+.

I've run pogies on the moto in the winter (back when I used to commute year round on it) and the combination of a heated vest and pogies made all the difference in the world. They look dorky as hell, but you've seen my fender... ;p

I'm not sure how much protection those handguards that some of the EWS guys use would give you from the cold. I asked Jesse about them when he was standing in line behind me at Whistler at the beginning of last season, and he said he was "just trying them out" as some of those Euro courses are super tight and he hits a lot of branches, etc. (same reason many of those folk run narrower bars than one might expect).  Seems he liked them as he's been running them for a couple of seasons now. 

In terms of pinkie protection, I really like the LoamLabs Counterpunch. I bought a pair after clipping the rock wall taking the high line on Pamplemousse, but they stayed on my workbench for a year. I finally installed them on the DH bike this past season and liked them so much that now I run them on several bikes. They won't help one bit with the cold, of course, but I've glanced off enough trees with sufficient force to be fairly confident that they've saved me some bruising for sure, if not a hairline fracture or worse. They actually help with control as well you can run slightly a looser grip and the Counterpunch helps to keep your hand in place, and gives you a bit more leverage when needed. I'm a big fan.

_>> I’ve heard rumors through the grapevine that feedback from the inaugural event was that it was too much technical singletrack, and the days weren’t long enough. _

As someone who (mis?)spent a good portion of my youth trying to be a road racer/triathlete and who still enjoys road touring, this sounds like absolute HELL.  The worst part of the Test of Metal was all the super fit roadie/triathlete/mountain runners hammering up the fire roads and then clogging the singletrack, actively blocking passes.  I guess they've made an accommodation here by getting rid of the fun bits?  

I'll read your "training" and race reports, happy in the knowledge that it's not me.  :)

That's awesome.  I was looking for one of those droppers a couple of years back for my DH bike.

So sick...

That tire stand is commonly seen and used for changing motorcycle tires.  They have fancier ones that help to break the bead, but that simple padded ring on feet is light & portable, so easy to transport to the racetrack/MX track.

This is all true when standing on solid ground and pushing off to move or change direction.  The key difference, however, is that when you're smashing through a rock garden or landing a drop/jump is the amount of force being transmitted through the lever which is your foot - the pedal effectively being the fulcrum.  The further back your foot is on the pedal, the longer that lever is, increasing the force.  There's a balance that flat pedal riders can discover for themselves which clipped in riders can play with but to a much more limited degree.  Too far forward and you lose mobility, feel "stuck" or "rigid", and may even slip off the pedal.  Too far back and there's simply too much force being transmitted through that lever and it's unnecessarily fatiguing, or in some cases can lead to a failure in the system (Achilles rupture).  

To me, ideal is somewhere between ball over spindle and midfoot for descending.  My foot isn't centered over the spindle when going downhill, but it is more centered than when I'm pedaling up.  This gives me a stronger platform than a ball-over-spindle position and the slight reduction in ROM and pedaling efficiency doesn't really matter so much.  When I'm pedaling up the forces are much lower and the articulation and efficiency from a slightly more rearward foot position outweigh the "strength" of the more forward foot position.  

As an aside, I'm pretty sure that Andrew gets more reader engagement than the rest of the NSMB crew put together.  He drags all us nerds out into the sunlight!

Ball of foot over the spindle is absolutely more efficient for pedaling (see any XC racer or roadie for that matter) but it puts more strain on the arch/calf/Achilles than does a more midfoot position. Midfoot over the spindle is a biomechanically stronger position, but that strength comes at the expense of range of motion and optimal pedaling efficiency.

After riding with loose cages way back in the day and then upgrading to clipless for a long time, I transitioned to flats somewhat slowly - preferring to be clipped in for fast/rugged terrain and to be on flats when riding skinnies and other lines where the need to quickly jump off and not have the risk of a foot getting hung up, or just hang a leg for balance was paramount. This is related to foot on pedal position because most clipless shoes have a very small range of adjustability, so one is forced into that efficient/ball over spindle position.

I started to (deliberately) use a more centered foot position when I experienced foot/calf fatigue in the bike park and during longer downhill runs without stopping. With a closer to midfoot position I can ride [downhill] longer, and with less fatigue than when my foot is further back on the pedal.

Nowadays I move my feet around a fair bit - ball over the spindle when seated for climbing and mellower undulating terrain, and more forward when it gets steep/long descents/rough terrain/jumping/drops. More simply, I tend to climb with the ball over the spindle and descend with the midfoot a bit closer to over the spindle. One does lose a bit of ankle articulation when moving the foot forward on the pedal but I feel that the tradeoff is worth it.

As far as pedals go, I ride Daggas most of the time and Crank Bros Stamp 7s some of the time. Both are fairly large platform and I don't have big feet at all, but I like the support.

I'm a bit surprised that the change in bike fit relative to fore/aft foot position never occurred to me. Perhaps it's because when I'm standing I've typically got a closer to centered/midfoot position and when seated I have a more ball over spindle position - though for tech climbs when standing I'm not certain now... I'm going to have to focus on my feet for a bit over my next few rides. Thanks for this, Andrew!

>> I wish that Kali did a kid-sized (one smaller shell) Invader 2.0 as I'd have my daughter in one for sure. The Super 3R has been a great helmet but she basically always has the chin bar installed on trail so the extra breathability and simplicity of the Invader would be awesome.

With the XS pad setup in mine, it fits her head safely, but the small 3R has a lower profile.

=====

It's not a kid sized Invader, but this is a pretty nice looking option.  Sweet graphic that she'd love, too.  Too bad it still has the same drawbacks as additional weight and complexity from the removable chinbar: https://kaliprotectives.com/collections/youth/products/maya-full-face-child-artist-series?variant=39520982827102

Thanks for that - looks like a nice mounting option!  I do prefer the chinbar for the lowered angle but even more for the lowered weight.  On top of the helmet even a "not heavy" light puts a reasonable amount of strain on the neck.  Breakaway isn't something I'd considered too carefully though...  [Given the same breakaway force] I think the opportunity for increased injury with a top mounted light is significantly higher than a chinbar mounted light -but odds are the breakaway force of a zip tie is higher than that little clip and elastic loop.  I've not seen any studies or stats on breakway force of a zip tie but the one I used is fairly small.  Still higher than I'd like to subject my neck to (which ideally is zero), but I don't foresee the probability of a crash situation where that placement is more of a risk than the negatives of a top of the helmet mounted light.  Still, I may think about replacing the zip tie with a smaller/weaker one.

This is a great discussion!

I was just looking for one that fit my round head but didn't slip down over my eyes when riding rough trail.  After trying on everything I could get my hands on I realized that full face helmets have the advantage of cheek pads to help prevent that slipping down.

// Intended to comment on RG's post re: the Kali mount

Holy crap - $6?!!!  A pic showing the mount on the helmet would be nice, but DAMN...  Another "well done!" to Kali for supporting their product and not bleeding the customer for every little thing!

>> Green electrical tape or if you want to be fancy green vinyl from a sign shop can cover any damage at low $/hassle with some close colour match or contrasting accent options as desired.

I've never been arsed to do it myself but understand that nail polish is really good for small paint touch ups like this.  Comes in a billion colours, is cheap, and once you clear over it should last a good long time - but is pretty easy to remove when fresh if the colour doesn't quite match.

Is anyone else experiencing problems with Chrome? I'll fairly often get the following error message when trying to either follow a hotlink to the board (say from the main page of from a search), or as I drill down into a specific post/thread: The page you are looking for is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. If I copy/paste the URL into Internet Explorer it loads just fine. Other times/threads everything loads as I'd expect.

Anyone else seeing this? Solutions as to a fix?

Thanks,

Here's where I pull the "I've owned a 2013 Saint Shadow Plus Derraileur for 4 months now" card and say;
I've tried it, it kind of works, but its definitely not worth you spending your money on buying a product that "kind of works", or trying it to find it doesnt work for you, when there's one that will work infinitely better for the same ching.

Cool - thanks. I'm in the process of building an AM bike and it just sounded really awesome… Not that XT is "bad" by any stretch, but because the shifter is paired with the dérailleur it seemed a natural time to try it out. Or not, as the case may be. I still want to be able to climb anything pretty well so I need that 2nd chainring.

According to everything I've read this is designed as a 1x10 RD. Does anyone know if the cage is too short to be used with a double up front? Tooth restrictions?

I tried the Shimano tech website but all I found was a blow-apart diagram…

Thanks,

I rode it yesterday, and was very impressed.

Perhaps a dumb question given that you were in Whistler, but did you spend any time climbing on it? How pedally is it, say compared to the new 2013 (non-Evo) Enduros that are supposed to climb really well, or the 2012 Enduro Evo?

I demo'ed a 2012 Enduro Evo and thought it was a blast going down - but not that much fun to climb or pedal through rolling singletrack… (mind you, my current bike is a 100mm Titus Racer X so my frame of reference is quite different from that of a shuttle/park/DH guy). I'm looking for a bigger bike to complement the XC race bike but I still want it to be a fun, capable climber.