29in·CH+

After I’ve only found the way to bed past 2AM last night, I wasn’t feeling all that fresh for a long ride this morning. It was a bit hazy, but the sun was already busy slicing a clear message into the haze that a great day lay ahead. A bit tired, I pulled the Focus out of the basement and decided to take an easy spin up to the Chasseral. I climbed the Psycho to Magglingen, then turned off to the left to reach Lamboing. I looped around the Mont Sujet and stopped at the Métairie de Prêles. My mom was working there and she offered me a half liter of Coke. That sugar bomb was super welcome. Right when I saddled up to continue the ride, a biker with a familiar face climbed up the mountain road. I was going the same way, quickly caught up and sure enough - it was an old cycling buddy from the days I was in the local bike club in the early 90ies. Neither he nor I remained members. He was riding a rigid MTB from exactly those days - a steel Ferraroli with all original Deore XT parts from the early days of Swiss mountain biking. We rode to the Chasseral together at an easy pace and chatted about bikes and the world. We stopped at the Chasseral restaurant for a drink, then descended to Nods on the road, where we each went different ways. He continued to the nearby paragliding landing spot to meet up with a couple of friends that were enjoying a day in the air and I headed east to Lamboing to return home. Perfect day that turned even better sharing it with someone who’s been riding just about as long as myself.

Distance:	68.4km (42.5 miles)
Elevation:	2’402m (7’880 feet)
Time:	03:54:43
Speed (avg/max):	17.5/80.1 kph (10.9/49.8 mph)

★ collideous

I picked up Niner Air 9 Carbon #3 on Saturday but left it untouched and unassembled today. Instead, I rolled out of the house on the Focus Mares for another long Sunday ride through the Jura hills. I rode pretty much the identical route from last Sunday up to the Montoz and down to the Col de Pierre Pertuis. But instead of dropping into the valley, I crossed the Col and climbed to the Jeanbrenin. Past that point, I had to pull out my map occasionally to stay on the right track heading towards the Col du Mont Crosin. This is a nice crossover the Montagne du Droit which cannot be accomplished on a road bike. Pavement, gravel and grass - a marvelous terrain for a cross bike. Before reaching the Col du Mont Crosin though, I turned left at the Chalet Neuf and hit a fast descent to Courtelary. Just before reaching the village, I stopped for a short snack (Banana Passa as usual).

Right after I crossed the main street and passed by the train station, I stood at the foot of today’s next long climb to the Petite Douanne. As the narrow paved road pointed upwards, my legs signaled that they were tired. Luckily, the ascent to the Métairie du Prince was pretty mellow. It took a while but it never turned steep. The trail from the Métairie dropped to Le Grabe creek and went up a steep pitch to Le Pletz. I walked the bottom section until the trail turned left and headed into the forest. Back on the bike I reached the Petite Douanne within minutes.

From here one could gain some more elevation by heading west and climb the Chasseral. During my short snack stop, I iphoned home and realized that I had been out riding for some time. Without including the Chasseral, I turned east to pass the Place Centrale and head home taking the shortest way. When I arrived in Orvin, I deliberately missed the turn and shot down a gravel road to Frinvillier. At first, it was a newly graveled trail - wide, smooth and seriously fast. Closer to Frinvillier, it got bumpy and rocky and therefore not very fast on the Mares. The last couple of miles were spent on the road with a last short gravel section along the Suze creek, where I almost ran over an old lady with her dog as I shot through a tight turn. What did she say? “Jesus Christ”, neither in German nor French but in plain American English. Note to self: be more careful on that trail on a Sunday afternoon.

After I’ve had 200 fun kilometers on the Focus Mares CX 2.0 I need to bring it back to the shop. Just like my previous two Niners, it’s got a BB issue. Last week I noticed that the BB would release a popping sound when I turned it backwards by hand. Always at the same crank position. Pedaling forward there was no such sound until today. In the climb out of Courtelary the bottom bracket all of a sudden started creaking horribly. It creaked for several miles regardless if I was sitting or climbing out of the saddle. Then as suddenly as it started it ceased. It remained quiet all the way to Frinvillier, where it started again and continued all the way home. Could be a damaged or contaminated bearing occasionally preventing the balls from spinning freely. Won’t know until I’ll let the shop have a look at it. Sure strange. What’s up with oversized bottom brackets? Can modern BB designs not handle my singlespeed-optimized leg power?

Distance:	79.7km (49.5 miles)
Elevation:	3’330m (10’925 feet)
Time:	04:30:34
Speed (avg/max):	17.7/78.1 kph (11.0/48.5 mph)
GPS Track:	GPSies.com

★ collideous

Today I jumped out of bed as if it was a weekday. Breakfast and I took off into a cold foggy morning. The plan was to cyclocross up a climb out of Péry that I have never done before. I kept an eye out for the church in town, then saw a road named “Rue du Montoz”. That was the one! The climb out of the village started steep, first on pavement and after the first sharp righthand turn it turned to gravel. It climbed along the mountain side to the Pré la Patte, always at a pretty tough grade. The Mares climbed like a mountain goat. Whether sitting or out of the saddle it never lost traction on this gravel road. I’d probably be happy for a 28T cog if my legs were tired, but with fresh legs the 25T was just fine.

It didn’t take too long to get out of the fog. Past the Pré la Patte the trail got too steep and rocky to ride, but the hike wasn’t horribly long. As I got closer to the Montagne de Sorvilier, the trail occasionally turned white. Up here, it had already snowed. I turned left following the red biking signs pointing to the Métairie de Werdt. The trail stays at about 1300 meters above sea level for several miles and offers spectacular views in every direction. Trail conditions today, dry, wet, muddy and once in a while icy. We’re definitely heading into winter.

The first downhill of the day quickly brought me back into the fog and into the cold. The steep descent required a lot of hard pulling on the brakes. Welcome back to the world of cantilevers. Plenty of power on the flats, but once you need them for long better start working out your hand muscles. The freezing cold added to the suffering. By the time I reached Sonceboz, I shook my hand, while waiting at a red light, to get some blood flowing again. They slowly woke up and when I entered the second ascent they were happy to grab the hoods again.

Today’s second climb was a first as well. The lower section was mellow. After the first turn, the trail picked up a couple of percentage points but remained rideable. Soon after the second switchback, the trail was suddenly buried under the mountain that had come down. Shortly before, I noticed a small hiking trail going up. Should I climb over the rocks and hope the trail would be clear further up? Or should I shoulder the bike and take the narrow hiking trail? I opted for the hike. It was steep but it wasn’t all that long. Soon, I was on green pastures climbing fences and looking for a trail. My map said there had to be one. I found it and rode towards the Anabaptist Bridge.

Right around there, I noticed that my front tire had barely any air left in it. I pumped it a little and continued for a few miles. That wasn’t going to work. Before reaching the bridge, I pulled off the side of the road and replaced the front tube. First long ride on the Mares, first flat. Gotta be more careful going down rough trails. While riding I thought about going all the way up to a snow covered Chasseral, but after fixing the flat, I decided to shorten the ride. I continued to Pierrefeu, then made a U-turn to reach the Place Centrale.

Heck, was this a busy place. People escaping the cold fog, but too darn lazy to work a little to reach the sun, all parked their cars at the end of the paved road. There’s no official parking up there, but neither is it officially prohibited. Well, I think it should be. Dozens and dozens of cars wildly parked on every free square foot; it wasn’t a pretty picture. I left the place behind quickly and shot down to the Métairie d’Evilard. Holy cow, can that bike be fast. I rode down to Orvin, first on the grassy trail, then on the paved road. A last short climb took me to Evilard, and I returned home hitting a few more miles of fire road.

A few words to the bike: the Focus Mares CX 2.0 is hugely fun to ride. Not since first getting on a 29er have I had so much fun on a bike. Where a road bike is the Formula 1 car of bicycles, the mountain bike is the SUV. A cyclocrosser like the Mares, to use the car analogy, is a freaking Rally car. I’m hooked!

Distance:	65.1km (40.5 miles)
Elevation:	2’600m (8’530 feet)
Time:	04:00:57
Speed (avg/max):	16.2/63.3 kph (10.1/39.3 mph)
GPS Track:	GPSies.com

★ collideous

The Focus Mares runs front and rear derailleur cables on top of the top tube. To reach the front derailleur the shifter cable runs down along the seat tube and loops around a pulley at the bottom to run back up to the front derailleur. The pulley sits just in the area that will collect the most mud and dirt from the rear wheel. On dry days no problem, but on wet days I think this setup is going to suffer.

Thanks to Speen’s Umlenker, the extra pulley doesn’t need to be. It converts the derailleur to top-pull to achieve a direct cable connection that offers a shift with less friction. In addition it won’t be negatively affected by mud, grass or (winter soon knocking at the door) ice. This German-made little gizmo is available for pretty much any derailleur on the market and is used by quite a number of cyclocross teams.

10/14/11 Short Update: Received it in the mail. Quality leaves much to be desired. The Umlenker is cheaply laser-cut out of stainless steel. Speen has not even bothered to deburr the edges. My verdict: okay for a rusty old bike - unworthy for any decent quality front derailleur. 16 Euro into the recycling bin. Thumbs down on that one!

★ collideous

After spending lots of time riding through the Jura on my asphalt rocket and less time on my trail bomber due to a second warranty replacement, I realized that I lacked the right horse for the region’s huge network of gravel roads. The farms, hilltops, valleys and plains are all well connected, but much of it are small non-paved roads. I’ve been pedaling across many of them on my road bike, occasionally ending up somewhere with a flat or worse with a sliced tire. Well after all, I went to explore a course with the wrong horse.

I could hop on a mountain bike, but that’d be the wrong horse once again. My mountain bikes always belonged and will always belong on single-trails that go up and go down. Flat terrain, gravel or heaven forbid pavement are not their purpose. What I needed was a bike that meets the happy medium between mountain and road. So, a few weeks ago I started to look for the perfect gravel grinder.

The first idea that popped into mind was to tear down my good old Trek Madone and to get a cyclocross frame, a fork and good set of cantilever brakes. I found Dengfu’s FM058 on Alibaba, contacted the folks in China and was extremely pleased with their quick and friendly manner to email back. I was not going to purchase anything though before selling the Trek frame, fork and a few leftover bits. Days passed without me actively trying to sell the Trek frame when I ran across the 2012 Focus Mares line of cyclocross bikes. The super sharp looking Mares CX 2.0 just looked like my kind of rig. This immediately led to a new idea - sell the Trek as a whole. I put an ad up online and within two days I found a buyer. He made an evening trip from St. Gallen to Biel, paid cash and returned home with my Trek minus the drivetrain (he’s going compact).

To find a Mares CX 2.0 I didn’t have to go far. My local bike shop carries Focus bikes and was super-happy to order one for me - their first I should mention. While a customer would occasionally pop into the shop and ask about a cyclocross bike, it’s not a category of bikes that they have actually ever been able to sell. I’m their first customer placing an order for one. Well, I’m pretty happy to have spent my money at the shop where I’ve bought many of my previous bikes and I’m looking forward to get my first cyclocrosser.

I have a few upgrades in mind like swapping the Ultegra 6700 bits for SRAM Red. Most of all though, I want to start hitting the trails on the Mares. It’ll be my exploration bike to get to know the very last corner of the Jura. Although I’ve grown up here and been riding the region for decades, there are lots of trails, roads and places I have yet to see. And the better I know each and every square-foot of this beautiful part of the country, the better I’ll be able to pick the right horse.

★ collideous