The Good and The Bad

The Good: New Brakes

 

I finally made the switch from mechanical Avid BB7’s on my geared bike to hydraulics. The Avids now reside on my single speed, since they were still perfectly functional.  After French Lick I decided I wanted a bit of extra stopping power. I ran across a nice deal on Shimano SLX Ice Tech brakes and took the plunge. The brakes are nice looking and although I won’t be doing any extended downhills to warrant the Ice Tech, the price for these was the same as other non-Ice Tech brakes so I figured why not. Plus they are lighter than the BB7's. In terms of ease of installation and braking power both are stellar. The first test ride around the block I nearly sent myself over the handlebars since I wasn’t familiar with the stopping power. Hopefully the sticking brakes I ran into during last week’s race are a thing of the past.

 

The Bad: Continental Tires

I want to like these tires. I really do. But my luck with them sucks. I already ranted about the mountain of problems I experienced when I bought a set of Conti Cyclocross tires for the Barry Roubaix.  Well here comes round two. With tomorrow’s DINO race at Brown County likely going to be somewhat wet, I decided I wanted to get a tire with some more bite. The Maxxis Aspen I’m currently running on the rear is a great tire for dry conditions. However, it has a low tread (made even lower since I have been riding this for the past several months) which did not serve me well last week. 

While at REI this morning, I saw that they had Conti X-Kings for reasonable price. A quick search showed they were ideal mud tires, but with their wide spaced knobs, I knew they would hook on better than the Maxxis. I get them home, and the same mounting problems repeat themselves.  I was frustrating and a waste of time. I’ve changed many tires, but for some reason, this one was terribly difficult to mount. In the end, I never did the tire on the rim. I went to the basement to look through my old 29er tires and ran across a Maxxis Ignitor that I forgot still had plenty of tread (I have an Ignitor on the front already). 3 minutes the tire was mounted and ready to go. Sheesh. The Ignitor is slightly slower rolling than the Aspen, but it should provide more traction.

Maybe it is something about the Stan’s rims which make the Conti's hard to mount. The X-King is a really nice looking tire and I would still like to use it at some point. My single speed has a WTB LaserDisc rim on the back, so I will try it on that bike before tossing it on the HMBA buy/sell forum.

 

As I mentioned, tomorrow is the rain date for the rescheduled Brown County DINO race.  Like last week, I’ve been on a constant weather watch. The past three days have been beautiful and rain free. Showers moved in this morning, but it sound like the course will be ready, albeit a little damp. Last year’s race did not go well for me here so I’m hoping for a better showing. Key points will be the initial paved climb and then around the half way mark the  climb up the short side of the Aynes Loop.