29in·CH+

On Saturday, Biel woke up under a grey veil just as it did the day before. The wooden floor on our balcony was not in its usual grey but a shiny brown. It must have rained during the night. Looking south the sky looked threateningly dark. The Jura in the north however was engulfed in a friendly looking haze. It seemed safe enough to spend a couple of hours on the bike so I left for the Mont Sujet, which I had not visited yet this year. Standing slightly south-east of the taller Chasseral, the Mont Sujet seems to have his own climate that generally dictates a longer winter than anything else in proximity. I decided to take the easy western approach to climb the mountain and found it entirely free of snow. The ground though, clearly showed that the snow had only melted very recently. I had to be back home around 1PM, so I turned into the Noir Combe (the Black Canyon) to jump into a downhill trail ending at the Métairie de Prêles. Both canyon and downhill still had some snow. The rocky downhill was extremely wet and challenging. At the Métairie I stopped to see my mom and have a cup of coffee. I couldn’t stay long. A few things needed to be done at home. I took the shortest offroad way to reach the Spaghetti Trail and dropped to the Jorat. The trail had dried quite a bit in just a day and this time the tires remained in their trajectory through the trail’s rocky sections. On a wet day like yesterday, they slip all over the place. I was back in town in no time to take care of my list of house chores.

Distance:	39.5 km (24.5 mi)
Elevation:	1’404 m (4’606 ft)
Time:	02:55:54
Speed (avg/max):	13.5/53.1 kph (8.4/33.0 mph)

★ collideous

While a lot of folks escaped south for the Easter weekend in search of a couple sunny days, we avoided the gridlock on the highways and stayed home. It’s been foggy and wet outside but it hasn’t been raining. In other words the day offered itself for a nice mountain bike ride across deserted trails. I chose the Rondchâtel climb, as it’s a good climb in any type of weather. The forest in the lower part of the climb is currently filled with a delicious smell of wild garlic. The whole ground is covered with this flavorsome herb. As I gained altitude, visibility got shorter and shorter. Trees were dripping water in the thick fog and when I left the gravel road, I really had to pay attention to stay on course. I decided to follow the crest across Les Goules (goule = stream sink), where I had to climb across a half dozen fallen trees and had to battle an extremely slippery trail. While I was moving forward rather slowly, the Niner rolled through mud and across soapy limestone with bravery. At the Cabane du Jura I turned left to hit the downhill back home. The slippery descent required a bit more force on the brakes and a bit more attention the the trail. Back home, the bike got a quick shower in the backyard after which the chain got dried and oiled to be ready for another ride tomorrow.

Distance:	31.7 km (19.7 mi)
Elevation:	1’306 m (4’285 ft)
Time:	02:45:48
Speed (avg/max):	11.5/45.4 kph (7.1/28.2 mph)

★ collideous

The Zaboo folks have been busy and just announced that they’ll be having a small number of their new full-suspension 29er in stock shortly.

★ collideous

Once in a while you ride a new trail and you come home saying you won’t need to do that one again. Today I picked two such trails. I started with heading up the Rondchâtel climb, then popped into a downhill I often passed by. It looked interesting on the map. It killed a lot of altitude, had a few switchbacks, but turned out to be a rather boring narrow hiking trail. Neither technical nor fast. A trail not worth bothering. The trail dropped me into La Heutte, where I crossed the main street to climb up the other side. I wanted to reach the Métairie de Werdt and knew that I’d be hiking the upper part of the way. To my surprise, I had to push the bike quite a bit to reach Le Van in the lower section of the ascent. The middle and longest section was an easy, gradual fire-road. Once the fire-road ended, a yellow sign pointed to the left, straight uphill. I put the bike on my shoulder and started climbing. Somewhere in the forest I lost sight of the trail and just went uphill the best I could. The bike often catching branches in that steep terrain, this was no easy adventure. At some point, I found the hiking trail again and made it to the Métairie. My initial plan was to head east to reach the Pré Richard from where I would have crossed over to the Stierenberg, but the large amount of snow still up there forced me to abandon that plan halfway. I rode by the Pré Ménori and then recognized the trail to the Pré la Patte. I hit the shortest way into Péry, then followed the hiking trail back to Frinvillier. A last climb to the Lysserbrunne took me back into town. While the Van and the Montoz are quite scenic places, I have yet to find a climb that is both rideable and fun to do. The ascent through the Van isn’t. Taking the hiking trail, it might be an interesting descent, though. 44 kilometers, 2200 climbing meters, sun and a bunch of spring flowers made it worthwhile despite the so-so trails.

Distance:	44.3 km (27.5 mi)
Elevation:	2’191 m (7’188 ft)
Time:	04:00:17
Speed (avg/max):	11.1/50.5 kph (6.9/31.4 mph)

★ collideous

Spring only begins with the equinox on March 20th, but with the warming temperatures and the quickly melting snow the optimist in me got a little bit ahead of schedule. In addition my bikes badly asked to be thoroughly serviced. The Niner A9C has seen its fair share of snow this winter. It has been out at some of the coldest temperatures, where the freewheel of its rear Chris King hub occasionally failed to catch. After a ride, the bike often got a quick hose-down with a followup chain lube. Nothing more. Needless to say, the bike’s internals, though well protected, needed to be cleaned and covered with a fresh layer of the finest bicycle grease.

Last night, front and rear wheel were disassembled, cleaned and lubed. The Edge Composites rims got some Turtlewax and the rotors got a simple rub with a rag. Tonight, the disc brake calipers were cleaned from brake dust, the fork was removed to gain access to the headset bearings, which were wiped clean and generously greased for rust and creak protection. Once everything was back together, it was the frame’s turn be turtlewaxed.

Still to be done is a full drivetrain swap. The 19T Boone titanium cog has reached the end of its life. The Actiontec 34T chainring still has some life left, but will be sacrificed in the process. A new cog also demands a new chain. Since Boone’s no longer around, I’m planning to get some Homebrewed Components cogs - a worthy successor.

★ collideous

Saturday morning I pedaled out of town with the idea of riding a long loop on that early spring like day. The mercury had jumped up a notch, the snow was wet and falling off the trees. Things were dripping and melting. I chose an easy ascent above the lake thinking I would have a good chance to find rideable trails, but little did I know that I’d spend most of the six hour adventure hiking with the bike dangling around my shoulder. After a long hike through the forest to reach the Twannberg, I found some snowmobile tracks leading into Lamboing. Once on the main road, I stayed on it to save time and reach Nods. Despite a sign in Nods indicating that the Chasseral pass was closed, I thought I could ride up far enough and hike the rest of it to the top. Well, that idea got killed as soon as I passed the last row of homes and the street ended under three feet of snow. I turned around to head to the snowshoe trail and rode the first mile of it. My rear tire failed to find enough grip for more. I shouldered my bike one more time for the long, arduous climb to the Chasseral. Exhausted I reached the top. When I dropped my bike into the snow, my whole right side was numb. It took a few minutes to regain control of my right arm. I rode to the antenna for a few photos and then made a huge mistake by taking the crest trail going east. I was able to ride at first, but then ended up hiking all the rest. The snow was too deep and too soft for the narrow 2.3 inch tires. A fat-bike would have handled it, I’m pretty sure. If I want to enjoy and actually ride such snow adventures, I should consider building such a monster with 4 inch tires and gears. Once at the Place Centrale I descended to the Jorat on the bike. The normally easy stretch to Evilard however, popped me off the bike one last time. These were six good hours outside on a splendid day, but the little I rode, I won’t repeat this any time soon. This was a day for a fat-bike, snowshoes or skis.

I ran into a couple of strangers, most were fun conversations, one wasn’t. A mentally blinkered lady on skis was upset that I had the audacity to ride a bike on her mountain. It amazes me that some people go outside to do something fun, but instead of finding enjoyment, they to their thing with a grumpy face. Oh well. At the top of the Chasseral I had a nice chat with a guy on skis who noticed my 29 inch wheels. Later on the crest trail, I crossed an old runner who came up the trail in shorts - freaking shorts. He pulled out his camera to take a picture of me hiking with the bike. I should have done the same and shot a photo of a crazy old dude in shorts.

Distance:	50.5 km (31.4 mi)
Elevation:	1’594 m (5’230 ft)
Time:	05:56:22
Speed (avg/max):	8.5/64.1 kph (5.3/39.8 mph)

★ collideous

While it’s raining into the snow outside, I’m sitting at my desk drooling over the new Niner Air 9 RDO. A light, “race day optimized” all carbon frame construction with slimmer tubes and a new dropout design that places the brake caliper inside seat and chain stay. Quite elegant that new, kermit green Air 9 RDO.

★ collideous

I thought about heading to the Lac de Joux on Sunday, but changed my mind knowing that I’d be spending two and a half hours in the car just to visit a frozen lake. It quite often happens like that. There are many cool places to ride in Switzerland, but as soon as I’m looking at the prospect of driving several hours, more often than not I forget about the whole idea and just hop on a local loop. Sunday was no different. After freezing to my bones Saturday, I decided to take a late start in the early afternoon Sunday. On Saturday I passed by the Rondchâtel Climb and noticed that it had been frequently used leaving a snow-covered, rideable fire road. This time, I arrived on my Niner and turned into that climb. The trail was good until the Sesselin du Haut from where I had to follow the tracks of two snowshoers. Quickly, I realized that hiking through the deep snow was easier than to step into the semi-hard tracks left by the two folks who had passed through the area before me. I was hoping to get back onto a rideable trail at Les Coperies, but I didn’t get that luck and now faced an even longer stretch through deep snow to reach La Ragie. It was quite an effort that cost a lot of time. My right shoulder thanked me for having a light singlespeed, though. The small farm of La Ragie is inhabited and the trail to reach it had been cleaned. I was back on the bike and now took the only rideable way out to Les Près d’Orvin. My shoulder thanked me one more time. I jumped into the Spaghetti Trail and carved down the mountain. Ah, now that’s how snow’s supposed to be! A last, short effort up to Evilard and another descent which included a tiny, secret trail took me back into town and straight to a hot cappuccino.

Distance:	30.5 km (19.0 miles)
Elevation:	1’199 m (3’934 feet)
Time:	03:09:40
Speed (avg/max):	9.6/48.2 kph (6.0/30.0 mph)

★ collideous

Today’s ride was another far below zero cyclocross ride. While it’s lovely to climb at those temperatures they come to haunt you on the descent. For one it gets really uncomfortable to brake over an extended period of time wearing thick gloves and the clothes that have been keeping you warm ultimately capitulate to the cold. Today’s ride was fun going up, even while hiking a long stretch of snowmobile tracks, but the descent against the biting bise almost left me permanently deep-frozen to the bike. I’ll keep today’s post short, I’m still in the process of defrosting.

Distance:	37.4km (23.2 miles)
Elevation:	1’156m (3’793 feet)
Time:	02:46:26
Speed (avg/max):	13.5/59.3 kph (8.4/36.8 mph)

★ collideous

First and foremost be warned, what follows is some 26er content. You know, those small-wheeled bikes we used to ride in the dark ages of mountain biking. Those bikes we look at today wondering how in the world we possibly rode them across trails. Yes, I still own not one but two of those museum-worthy off-road velocipedes. The mean green riding machine is a bike that I’ve now owned for thirteen years. Circumstances wanted that in all of those thirteen years, the bike only saw dusty trails during the first two. The bike went to Sea Otter, to Downieville, took me on many rides in Annadel and traveled to Switzerland twice. After two seasons, the clear coat on top of the green paint started to have lots of tiny, barely visible cracks. Chris Kelly offered to repaint it and as he was just starting to do all frame painting in house, the frame remained at his shop for a good amount of time. In order to continue riding, I put my Merlin back into service and then never built the Kelly back up again. My Santa Rosa apartment just didn’t have the space for yet another bike. Three were already sitting in my living room and that was plenty enough. In 2006 a Niner took the place of both and only after getting settled in Switzerland, the Kelly was pulled out of the box to become my wife’s mountain bike. She rode about 300 km on it and never really liked the fit. At the end of January, I vanished in the musty basement, armed myself with spanners and hex keys to take it apart, toss the parts on Ebay and have them forever disappear across the globe. Such was the plan. After hours of carefully cleaning one component after another, I changed my mind. The frame and all components are impeccable. Joined they make up a unique hardtail with an unmistakable Northern Californian heritage. The bikes’ steel tubes are filled with deep memories of unforgettable rides on dusty NorCal trails. So the same weekend, the bike was rebuilt with many of the original parts to stay here some more time.

★ collideous