Lumberjack 100 Follow-up, Part 3

In this installment of my Lumberjack 100 follow-up, I'm going to cover the final bike setup I used.  Having ridden the course last year, I knew it was pretty smooth single track, but last year I didn't even manage 50 miles coming off of a cold.  I decided a hard tail was still the way to go, even though I was spending 8+ hours on the bike.

Looking back, a very efficient full-suspension bike probably would have been a better choice for me, but not by much.  The hard tail offered incredible climbing, but a full-suspension frame would have offered a bit more comfort on the last lap.  I did lose some time on the last lap from cramping legs, so I'm split on whether or not I could have made up for some of that lost time with more comfort.

Regardless, here's the bike from my 2012 Lumberjack 100 campaign:

Niner Air9 Carbon RDO frame, large, licorice.  PressFit 30 carbon bottom bracket, Rock Shox SID XX World Cup fork with 15mm Maxle.  This frame and fork combo is as light and stiff as anyone could hope for right now.

New ENVE 29er XC carbon rims came in slightly lighter than their claimed weight and much stiffer than anyone could have convinced me of.  After getting used to riding light alloy rims built with light spokes, it's amazing how stiff a set of 29er wheels can be when made from carbon.  Sapim CX-Ray spokes were used not because they are bladed, but because they offered the best platform for building and keeping the weight low.

American Classic hubs were chosen for their light weight and adaptability.  These wheels will most likely see some cyclocross duty and the front hub can easily be adapted from 15mm thru axle to a standard QR.

The tires may or may not have been the best choice, but I went with Schwalbe Furious Fred 29x2.0 tires.  They are shockingly light, hundreds of grams lighter than most other 29er tires, and they roll as fast as a CX file tread.  The down side was the low-volume casing which didn't offer the kind of float a 2.1 or 2.25 tire would have given.

Crank Brothers Egg Beater 11 Ti pedals were chosen again for their light weight.  Their ability to clear mud is great in cyclocross, but in a super-dry cross country race that didn't matter at all.

My favorite saddle of all time, but custom.  Fizik's custom program is awesome when you get in on it, it's quick and doesn't add an extraordinary cost to the saddle.  The Aliante has made it's way onto all of my bikes at this point, and even after 8+ hours in the saddle I didn't have a single saddle sore, no numbness at all, and no chafing.

The only cage anyone should trust, a King stainless.  King Ti is a nice touch, but it doesn't save much weight at all and gets really expensive.  The King stainless cage has a classic look and at $20 it has no match.  I've also never lost a single bottle when using one, which is the most important aspect.

Thomson X4 130x-10 stem has made it's way onto a number of my Niner bikes.  Puts me in a riding position I feel powerful and in control of the bike.  I also like knowing that it'll survive any situation I find myself in when on the trail.

Rock Shox has an excellent hydraulic lockout as part of the SID XX line.  I was skeptical at first, wondering why I'd need something other than a cable-actuated lockout, but once I used it I understood.  Smooth, light action to open your fork or lock it out.

Shimano brakes, XT to be specific currently.  They just can't be beat, and I've tried a lot of disc brakes.  Shimano has no equal in power, modulation, or ease of set-up.

Shimano XTR rear derailleur.  After 8+ hours and countless shifts in the sand, it still worked perfectly.  I didn't miss a single shift all day and after a quick wipe-down with a wet rag the derailleur looked brand new.

There you have it, my 2012 Lumberjack 100 race rig.  I'm not sure what 2013 will see me riding, maybe a Jet9 RDO or a Felt Edict 29?  We'll see.  If my fitness comes in better next year than this year, I'll probably go full-suspension.  Use my fitness to get me up the hills and let the extra squish get me downhill faster.  If my fitness comes in the same or less, I'll probably use a hard tail and hope it climbs fast enough to make up for that lack of fitness.

NEW BIKE DAY! Independent Fabrication Ti Factory Lightweight

It's finally time for this beauty to head home.  She was a pleasure to build, every detail combed over nicely and chosen for a specific reason: lightweight speed.  Pretty incredible what's being hand-made these days and what frame made almost entirely of metal can still become. 

Sure, it wasn't cheap, but it wasn't meant to be.  It was built to be the best bike for this rider, holding back nothing, to create something more than just a bike off of a rack.  About 8 weeks after the original design was done, the bike is complete and it's beautiful.

The 2012 SRAM Red gruppo seems to be an enormous jump in the right direction for our local buddies.  The brakes originally concerned me with their design, the single pivot when announced made me think "Zero Gravity" which meant light but terrible feel.  The 2012 Red brakes actually work really well, though.

Front shifting is also vastly improved which was sorely needed.  Previous SRAM Red was at the bottom of the front-shifting list when compared to Campy and Shimano, but the new Yaw front derailleur and stiffened chainrings lead to quality front shifting.

Rear shifting from Red was already very good, but 2012 Red gives you a bit of a sexier look and light action.  The new design looks great and shifts well, what more could you ask for?

Ergonomics were already quite good with previous generation Red, though it's extremely personal.  The new "wedge" system with gel inserts does ease the transition from the lever to the bars, which was an issue for some.

And oversized bottom bracket is a necessity for a bike like this.  There's no reason to build a race bike custom without including this as it can be adopted to standard 24mm cranks or you can use the 30mm cranks made for BB30.

A shot of the 2012 Red Yaw front derailleur, the matching braze-on clamp, and the impressively-machined titanium front derailleur shims from IF

Mad Fiber carbon clincher wheelset.  Love it or hate it, their weight is nice and the stiffness is there.

The ENVE 2.0 fork was perfectly painted to match the frame, nothing less than perfection will come out of the Independent paint booth.

Another shot of the inside of the fork legs painted to match the scheme on the bike.

The rear dropouts get an etched treatment on each side and are masked from paint to keep that exposed for everyone sucking your wheel to read.

The rear hub shell on the Mad Fiber wheels is made of carbon and totally sexy, whether it's your style or not.  You have to appreciate the amount of work that goes into molding these things.

Skewers are a nice place to make an impact, and Mad Fiber took the opportunity to do so.  Titanium and carbon, incredibly sexy.

A shot showing the custom paintwork done to match the Prologo saddle to the stem to the bike to the fork.  A scheme perfectly carried throughout the entire bike.

A bit more detail on the saddle, which is a great touch you don't see often.  Incredible care was taken to ensure that everything went together.

Ti FLW logo found on the carbon seat mast of each frame out of Somerville.  You won't see many, soak it in.

The standard sterling silver head tube badge is all class...and not cheap.

A couple cockpit shots to show the custom-painted Zipp SL Speed stem matching the scheme on the bike.  Matte black and gloss orange everywhere.

The new down tube script is quickly becoming a favorite on the frames we've been designing.

This seat mast topper is of course custom, but probably more custom than most.  We needed slightly less set-back than the stock hand-made offering, so IF came up with a custom design for us.

Lumberjack 100 Follow-up, Part 2

Part 2 is going to follow through a little photo montage of the weekend.  There are huge chunks missing since I wasn't taking a ton of pictures while racing (duh), but let me share a few things:

First, the pre-ride.  This time I DID have my phone with me to snap a couple of shots of the course.  Much of it looked just like this.  There were a few miles of sandy fire roads, and a TON of singletrack.

My wife was kind enough to grab a couple shots of Kenda course tape.  What we do without pictures of course tape!?

We missed some shots of the mass-start, which I can't help but to assume was fun to watch.  400 or so people buzzing down the road on knobbies at 25+ mph had to be kind of neat.

Luckily there were a few shots snapped coming in after lap 1.  Think it was a but dry and dusty out there?

Here's Rob coming in after lap 2.  Still in good spirits, it's all about getting out for lap 3.

Barry Wicks is a nice dude, but when someone is able to win a 100 mile MTB race in under 6:30 and have a smile on their face at the end I just want to punch them.

And then there's me, rumbling through the finish at 8:27.  Exhausted, but I had a great time up there.  I'll be back again.

Holy Moly! Independent Fabrication XS!