36er: Death of the 29er?

For anyone who hasn't been following this lately, there have been several frame builders around the US who have been working on an even larger wheeled bike than the 29er; the 36er or 36 inch mountain bike. As you can see in the image above, even compared to a 29 inch wheeled bike, the wheels of the 36er are just massive!

For most, these are projects which simply push the edge of design; to see how far you can push the envelope before certain limiting factors don't allow you to build any bigger. I for one, will go out and say that while I think that 29ers are amazing bikes, I still see room for a larger wheeled big brother.

Will they be for everyone? No. Just like some short people will never find a 29er to suit their form (although we are now seeing many top female riders who are short riding the 29ers). However, once you do reach a certain threshold, smaller wheels, or in the case of the 36er, larger wheels might be the best answer.

Being tall at 190cm (6'3"), I am definitely on the larger wheeled side of things. I also have a strong upper body and long legs which give me a fairly high centre of gravity. While I find that the 29er is above and beyond and 26er, I still feel that I could go bigger.

One of the things I've noticed of all the 36ers built thus far is that they have all been built for an average height rider. Thus, I think the bikes do look a bit ridiculous due to the small frame, short seat tube, negative stems and bigger than life wheels. I can't help but thinking that wheels of this size built on a frame like mine, or someone way taller, would in effect, look.... well, normal.

Black Sheep Bikes makes some absolutely beautiful custom titanium bikes. Shown above is their 36er with a custom titanium truss fork, ti seatpost and bars. If I had the cash, I would definitely get them to build me up a ride (not necessarily a 36er).

There is no denying that these bikes look like an absolute blast to throw a leg over. Anyone who is lucky enough to ride one talks on about the perma-smile they get and how they feel like a kid all over again. Having wheels of this size obviously has design limitations especially on suspension. Thus, anyone who would actually want a bike with this wheel size would do so fully rigid. That being said, you would likely need no suspension whatsoever due to the super low angle of attack of the wheels. After all the years of suspsension, people would go back to full rigids. This would be similar to the fact that many people switching to 29ers are going back to hardtails after swearing off them forever once they got their first 26 inch full suspension bike. Those wheels must weigh a ton? You could never race on that thing! The current answer is that, yes, the wheels are extremely heavy and not practical at all for racing. There is a reason for this though

The only 36er rims and tires currently made are designed for unicycle use.

Thus, one wheel is designed to support the weight of the entire rider. The lightest rim and tire currently made are the following:
Nimbus Stealth Rim: 1116g
Nimbus Nightrider Tire: 1660g

In order to really get a 36er movement rolling fast, you would need rims and tires actually designed for mountain bike use. These would shave at least a third of the weight off the above setup. I would imagine that a good all-purpose aluminum disk-only rim with eyelets would be in the 700-800g range with a WTB Nano-wrapter 36er coming in around the 800g mark. These would be respectable weights; maybe not for the smooth XC race scene but for technical all-mountain riding where you keep the wheels on the ground... this just might be the next bike if your on the tall end of the spectrum.

Will the 36er actually take off as a viable option?
I think it actually will as now that we have the 29er, I think the taller riders out there see the advantages and would want an even larger wheel size. However, maybe the 36 inch wheel size is simply too large. Maybe a 32 inch wheel size would give the best reduction in endo factor, improved traction and rolling smoothness for most tall folk. Also, I have no scientific backing for this, but it seems to me that the taller (and generally heavier) you are, the more traction you require. Thus, a larger rider needs a larger volume tire, a grippier tire, needs to use lower pressure, or larger wheels in order to get the same wheel to the ground grip as someone smaller.

If the amount of grip I have is fine, why would I want larger wheels?
Well, going to a larger wheel size would allow you to run tires with less tread, run higher pressures and give you lower rolling resistance all the while giving you the same amount of traction. In the end, this may negate the effect of the additional weight (just as many 29ers claim over 26ers).

The only reason that the 36 inch wheel size is even entering the mountain bike domain is simply this; because it was already available for another application. Thus, it seems most likely that if another large wheel size is standardized in the bike industry, it just might be the 36er. I definitely think there is a market and room for it in the industry. The main issue right now though is that no one produces a true mountain bike rim and tire for the 36er. However, I see this limitation as being less than the problem that 29ers had when they first entered the marketplace as there were no full-suspension models and limited fork options. With a 36er, no one will want front or read suspension. Thus, a basic chromoly fork (easily made by most custom shops and relatively cheap) and a carbon fork option would satisfy most riders.

So, Bontrager give me a RaceLite 36er rim and WTB, give me a nano wrapter 36 and I'll jump on the train. Till then, the guys at Black Sheep will have to wait to build up my next ride!

Think all of this is complete rubbish and that a 36 inch mountain bike is a completely ridiculous idea?
My bet is that you're shorter than me.

TNO

The Death of the 26 inch Hardtail

So, maybe you've heard about these 'new' 29ers or 29 inch mountain bikes. Maybe you know some people that ride them or better yet, maybe you've even had a chance to ride one. If you meet any of the above descriptions, you've likely been introduced, possibly quite fanatically, to the 29er revolution.

You see, people who ride these 'big wheeled bikes' not only love to ride them, but they love to tell all their fellow 'small wheeled bike riders' about how much better they climb, how much better traction they have, how you hold your momentem better through the rough stuff and so on.

I for one, am one of those people.

Being a strongly built tall guy, I finally retired my 26 inch wheeled 'circus bike' in 2008 and have not looked back. My level of riding instantly rose to another level as the 'endo' factor of my previous circus bike all but disappeared and I finally had the traction I needed for those tougher than tough climbs. I had read about all the praise before the conversion but was still utterly shocked at just how much better these big-wheeled bikes were.

Well, hold it right there, most people say. If these bikes are really so good, why are most people still riding 26ers and even more so, why are all the top XC riders still not using them? These are very valid questions indeed. For some answers to these questions, Richard Cunningham of Mountain Bike Action recently put out an article in the most recent edition to help shed some light on the situation and predicts, along with Chris Sugai of Niner Bikes, that the 26 inch wheeled hardtail will be dead on the cross-country sceen and the 29er is here to stay. It is funny now watching all of the major bike companies jumping on the train before they miss out like Santa Cruz who said that they would never ever build a 29 inch bike...

I would highly recommend giving the article a read which can be accessed from the Niner website, or following the direct link here.

There was also another interesting article posted on VeloNews that I would highly recommend.

Happy Reading!

TNO

Body Odour: How to control it WITHOUT deodorants OR anti-perspirants

Impossible?

I used to think so.

Being an already sweaty person that usually performs at least one form of physical exercise everyday is a recipe that used to kill me in the body odour department. No matter how many showers I took or what type of deodorant I tried, nothing seemed to work.

I tried the whole spectrum of deodorant options: wet roll-on, powder white stick, spray-on, and the some of the extreme liquid gel which contain super micro body odour destroying particles. I don't like the strong scents provided in some deodorants but was willing to try everything. The verdict? The strong scents seemed to work for a few minutes, but in a short time, my the body odour would overcome any deodorant that I threw at it.

I also tried many kinds of anti-perspirants despite the fact that they contain potentially harmful compounds like aluminum chlorohydrate and aluminum zirconium on top of the fact that they supposedly make you stop sweating. This protective layer just seemed to make me want to sweat more and gave me streaks of white anti-perspirant laden sweat running down my arms and body. I still perspired and body odour was still there.

It seemed like whatever I would put under my arms would actually make me sweat more and would never work. For awhile even the best method I found was not putting anything on at all and simply changing shirts frequently (yes, I would actually bring an extra shirt with me!).

This all changed when I tried out a product that has been used for centuries in different areas of the world. It is the cheapest body odour product that you can buy for the use and is very, very effective.

The solution I found is in a product made by Crystal; a simply mineral salt stick.

A salt stick to get rid of my never ending woes of body odour? Yes, I was skeptical at first but after over three years of constant use, I can tell you first hand that a salt crystal is simply the best body odour product that you can use, period.

So, how does a salt crystal do the job that no other extreme, high-tech, hyped-up product can do? It's simple; eliminate the bacteria. Make an environment in your armpit that bacteria don't like and they won't flourish.

It is simple really. Since underarm body odour is caused by the combination of both bacteria and sweat, if you eliminate one of them, then your problem is solved. We've already seen that if you try to control or eliminate sweat, it is simply a losing battle. Deodorants and anti-perspirants are like the United States War on Drugs; you can try to mask the problem or try to shut down imports but regardless of what you do, people still sweat.

While the Crystal product is actually labelled as a deodorant stick, it technically doesn't deodorize anything. From the Crystal website,

"we believe our products are actually un-odorants, preventing odor, rather than deodorants which just cover it up."

While there are other companies that produce a similar mineral salt stick, this is simply the one that has been made available to me. Crystal makes several different models such as the solid rock salt, a roll-on, and a spray on in un-scented and scented formats. All of the products simply use mineral salts as their base; either as a rock or dissolved in water. The best bang-for-the-buck is easily the solid rock salt (as shown in the photo above). I've tried the roll-on, which works well, but it only lasts for several months. Even with mulitple use everyday, I think you could easily get five years out of the rock salt which makes it the most economical body odour product out there.

This product just simply works. I put it on everytime after I have a shower or bath whether it be in the morning or evening. This keeps a constant layer of protection that is never irritating and allows me to sweat freely when doing exercise. In fact, I never really know it's even there except for the fact that even after exercise, my armpits do NOT smell! This is quite the feeling after years of having issues and embarassing moments due to body odour.

So, if you suffer from underarm body odour or simply want to get away from anti-perspirants or the masking properties of deodorant products out there, you should seriously consider going for the salt stick. In fact, don't consider it, just do it!

TNO

If anyone else out there disagrees with me or has had a similar experience, give me some feedback in the comments.

2000km Cycling Trip Along the Norwegien Coastline

I have been an avid cyclist for quite some time now but have never gone on a long tour before let alone even a short one. When Kim and I recently did a five day trip in Fosen, it definitely got me hooked though and I knew then that I wanted to do more. While neither Kim or I have proper touring bikes, our old converted mountain bikes just keep going, are quite bomber and gave us not a hint of problems; just spin or hammer and you'll go.

We got a one way train ticket from Trondheim to Bodo and had 10 days together to explore the area; while our main goal was to check out the Lofoten Islands, we weren't sure where else we would go and also, how Kim would return home. The problem was that the train doesn't go further North than Bodo so we either had to return there, or take a flight from another destination. My intention was to continue riding the Kystriksveien (coastal route) from Bodo back down to Trondheim.

We took a ferry over to the Lofotens to a place called Moskenes and were immediately floored with just how amazing this place was shaping up to be.

For someone to claim that the Lofotens and, in particular, the Moskensoya and Flaskstadoya Islands are the most beautiful places on the entire planet, I don't think that I would argue with them. On a nice day, this rugged coastal terrain with steep, nearly vertical mountains pointing out of the ocean toward the sky is simply magical.

Kim and I made a last minute decision to bring two small Salomon backpacks in case a light backpacking trip was in order. It was a great decision as on the second day of our trip, we decided to head up to a cabin called 'Munkebu'.

We then decided that we might as well hike up to the highest peak in the Lofotens. It was completely spontaneous and so worth it as we were having steller weather and could just not pass up the opportunity. The hike did not disappoint.

The hike up and the respective summit was simply more than words could describe.

Kim and I at the summit

The midnight sun at Monkebu cabin!

After finishing the hike, we came back down to the sea and continued our bike journey northeastward toward Tromso. Kim ended up finding a cheap flight from there so that is where we would head, and that is where my journey southward would start.

Reine - The most beautiful coastal village you'll ever find.

Kayakers enjoying heaven on earth

The beaches here were tropical with white sand, deep blue-green water and even better vistas. The water, however, was not so warm!

Sculpture Landscape

Kim and I reached Tromso, where her plane would await and my journey would continue. As we ended up heading northward together, I now had over 1400km of road to travel to get home. I was feeling good and was ready to put in some long days in the saddle. I stopped at many places and have so many amazing memories and photos of Norway's gorgeous mid coast line. They claim that it is the most beautiful coastal route in the world... again, I would not argue.

Small farming villages in paradise


The hole all the way THROUGH Torgotten Mountain

The end of the road on Vikna Island.

I'm not really sure what my longest ride has ever been but I know for sure that I far surpassed it a couple days before making it home. 214km with a geared up mountain bike! Average speed was 22.4 km/hour. Estimated cumulative elevation gain for the day was around 7000m.

What amazes me most about all this is that I actually got stronger and felt better as the trip got longer. I started out doing 130km days then worked up to 214km, followed by a 189km day. The crazy thing is, I still felt like I could have continued on! I guess when you cycle that much, as long as you don't push over into the anaerobic threshold much or at all, you just become dialled in and can keep going until you fall over from a lack of sleep! That's how I felt anyway.

While I had steller weather most of the trip, I did get rained on especially over the last day which had me soaked from head to foot. My spirits remained relatively high though as I knew that home was just ahead where a hot shower, clean dry clothes and a nice bed awaited... ok, and Kim too!

I've learned a lot of things from this trip. One of which is that weather or not you are going for 5 days or 20 days, you don't need any more gear. Thus, we both kept it simple and light carrying everything in two Ortleib panniers with the tent and a pair of hikers bungied onto the rack. Without food, my setup was probably around 22-25 kilos (including the bike) which, as we later found out, was probably the lightest of any of the many many bike tourers we encountered. The full Ortleib setup seemed to be standard (front rack panniers, rear rack panniers, handlebar bag, tent and gear bungied to the rear rack and yes, even a backpack with stuff. I didn't see any kitchen sinks on the rack but it seemed like everyone tried to bring at least everything else. Not sure what you need with 50kg of stuff but if you want to be slow and bring it, be my guest.

This was truly an amazing experience that I will never ever forget. Norway is truly a world class cycle tourer's dream come true. During 21 days of cycling, I paid for two nights of accommodation; one at a mountain cabin, and one at a campground that had laundry facilities. You can camp anywhere as long as you're not close to private residences and if you're fine with cold water bathing in the ocean, rivers or lakes (warm), you can stay clean and comfortable.

Would I do it all over again if I could...

In a second!

To check out more amazing photos, click here (should be updated soon).

TNO

Baltic Sea Tour

As I write this, I just noticed that this is in fact my 100th blog posting. Never thought I'd get this far but I guess if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other, you eventually make it there!

I have been away on trips for virtually the past 5 weeks and this is going to continue next week as well since Shane and Sonja from Victoria are coming for a visit and Norway tour! Cannot wait!

As Kim had some fellow collegues and friends from Victoria over in Helsinki recently, we decided a spontaneous trip over to Finland which ended up being a whirlwind tour of four new Countries and their respective Capital Cities in five days! Our trip essentially went like this:

Fly into Riga, Latvia (cheap flights in and cheap to stay),

Take a bus up to Tallinn, Estonia

Take a ferry over to Helsinki, Finland,

Take a ferry over to Stockholm, Sweden,

Fly back to Trondheim, Norway

This was really a City tour which we have never really done before but we really wanted to experience some older Cities, all of which have lots of culture and time built into them. It is amazing at how short a distance you can travel in Europe and have a completely different cultural experience. In Canada, you can travel 5000km and everything is still pretty much the same in terms of language and overall culture. On this trip, we found ourselves on the second day in three different Countries and Cities, all with their own unique background and of course, different languages. Kim and I have learned a bit of Norwegian but trust me, this does not help you out at all when it comes to Finnish; it's a entirely different beast!

Helsinki, Finland

We had amazing weather over the entire time period with high 20 to low 30 degree temperatures. You just don't get shorts and sandels everyday over here in Trondheim although you don't normally either in Helsinki or Stockholm... we just completely lucked out. The whole trip was just a great journey and experience. We made the best of it as well be renting bikes in Helsinki and becoming a member in the City Bike program in Stockholm which was super fun (there are racks of bikes all over the City which you can take and return at your will).

City Bike Tour in Stockholm

The bikes really allowed us to see more of the City besides the downtown. And besides, who doesn't like to rip around on some cruisers!

Rock'n out the Singlespeeds in Helsinki

We did the whole trip with budget conscious in mind staying in hostels and trying to eat on the cheaper side. Even so, like Norway, the Scandinavian Countries are not cheap so if you decide to go, plan on getting your booze fix in Riga or Tallinn before heading up to Helsinki!

I would highly recommend anyone who is over visiting Europe to do a similar trip to this as the sights and travel between Cities was just superb.

We have sooooo many good photos from this trip that you can check out here.

Cheers,

TNO

Back From The Baltic... To Loften Land

I've been away much more than home in the past couple weeks and am just heading out now for a 1000+ km bike tour in the Lofoten Islands here in the Norway. Last week, Kim and I did a Baltic Sea tour by flying to Riga, Latvia, taking the bus up to Tallinn, Estonia, taking the ferry over to Helsinki, Finland, another ferry over to Stockholm, Sweden, and then a short flight back to Trondheim. It was nothing short of an amazing trip and now we are in for another one. Will post up picks as soon as I get back. Promise :)

TNO

Hiking Trip to Sylan

This past weekend, Kim and I decided to get out of Trondheim in search of some adventure and some sun. While we found the former, the later was harder to come by. We decided to get a car through our car co-operative and head over to a beautiful area called Sylan which is right on the Swedish boarder. The area is characterized by large rolling alpine mountains with low-lying vegetation in tundra type wetlands. What I'm realizing here is that Norway is essentially one very very large wetland... and if it rains things happen liking losing your boots or bike in mudpits. :)

We ended up driving into the Sylan area, parking, and then doing a hike into a Trondhjems Touristforening cabin called 'Ramsjøhytta'. Norway is filled with a dense network of cabins that you can hike to in the summer or ski to in the winter. It is really something else. You can literally hike around in the summer with virtually nothing on your back and end up sleeping in a bed, having a good meal, and drying all your clothes by the stove. Some are even full service with full meals being prepared and yes, showers. The cabin we went to was 26 person self-sevice cabin with a full kitchen and stocked food that you could buy on a per item basis.

River crossing on the start of the hike to the cabin.

High water in the river

While we had rain on Saturday, Sunday got continually better weather. So, we decided to hike up the highest peak in the immediate area (Fongen at 1441m). Unfortunately, the clouds would cover the peak and obstruct any view that we might have had.

Close to the top, we decided to take in what we had accomplished and make our way back to the cabin and then back to the car.

Going back to the cabin on the end of the lake.

Small private cabins with Ramsjøhytta in the background.

Ramsjøer Lake

REINDEER!!!

Fongen Mountain almost out of the clouds once we were leaving! :(

Hiking the way back

Sylan was a highly recommended place for us to go and it did not disappoint. While the trails were very wet and muddy, with a bit of sun and no rain, I'm sure it would dry up considerably. Just another amazing place in this gorgeous Country Kim and I presently call Home. :)

TNO

No Sun + Rain + Wetlands = Mudpits

To say I've been riding through mudpits a lot lately would be an understatement. While I have yet to have a complete mud faceplant, I've gone over the bars a number of times; mind you at slow speeds due to the amount of mud robbing any speed that you could generate. Most mud pits are not that deep and are still rideable. Occassionaly though, you hit that mudpit that devours your ride.

Here, I rode into this unassuming mudpit and stopped midway through. I literally got off my bike and Mr. RIP9 decided to not go anywhere.

Uh... yeah...

Ok, we have had some sun and the weather is starting to take a sharp turn for the better. Looks like we might finally have some full on nice weather for the next while. My RIP9 taking in the view.

TNO

Rain, Clouds, Wind and My Big Toe

In the past two weeks or so, the weather has unfortunately been less than par. We have had some rain and lots and lots of cloudy cold windy days. The summer is just not coming. Everyone who lives here assures us that this is not normal. Regardless, I can't wait for some nice weather again (especially with the gorgeous weather that the west coast of BC has been getting!).

Despite the weather, I've still managed to get in a good amount of biking although it is not always easy to make my way out the door. This week, I've also managed to get in two short runs. What I have neglected to say in the past few months is that I have still been recovering from a big toe injury that happended way back in December in the Stewart Mountain XC race. After having some good manipulation physio done, things started to feel better but I could tell that it still needed some good time to heal. I may have waited a bit longer than I needed but all I knew was that I had tried to run a couple of times since I have been here in Trondheim and both times I had toe pain following the run. However, this week was to see no pain after the runs and everything felt good (expect that my legs were wondering why they weren't spinning in their regular circle on top of a bicycle).

Despite taking my first run on the slow and short side, I definitely felt the effects for a good two days afterwards. Should be less so after this last run. Maybe I'll actually get to do some orienteering while I'm over here!

Kim's also been having some injury troubles with an inflammed achilles which she is now seeing a physio for. Unfortunately, it has cut into what we have been able to do a bit (for bike rides and tours) but on the otherhand, the weather hasn't cooperated much either. Hopefully she'll be in good shape in a couple of weeks when we want to do a bike trip around the Lofoten Islands (one of the absolute highlights in Norway). More on this soon...

TNO

Hitra Island Trip

The last weekend, Kim and I rented a car to drive over to Hitra Island and do a bit of exploring. When I say we rented I car, what we really did was become part of a car cooperative so that we have access to a vehicle when we need it (without the worries or hicups of owning your own car). For us, it makes perfect sense as we are on foot or on our bikes almost all the time and only ever really 'need' a car if we want to get out of Trondheim to areas not serviced by bus or train. Actually, it is still cheaper to take the car, so we'll probably do that still unless we want to do a bike trip and take the train home. So far, the cooperative has worked out very well and is quite affordable.

Hitra Island is located out of the fjord to the west of Trondheim. The island is very coastal comprised of many surrounding smaller islands, big chunky rocks, lots of wetlands, small but steep mountains, and many small communities that are closely attached to the sea by fishing.

Small and quaint inlet

Coastal hike

A very nice coastal hike

Cairn Garden

Continuing along the coast

We did another hike up a mountain calling Tonningen and on the way had some nice views of the distance fjord mountains and some pristine blue lakes.

The way up Tonningen was quite steep up since the rocks that made up the mountain were like large rectangular polygonal lego pieces. We ended up getting cliffed out at times but managed to do some bouldering and succeeded in making the summit.

We had some really nice but cool weather and as we thought, there was a trail that would take us down another route and to where we started.

Tonningen Mountain

We ended up camping for one night and then heading back the next day. It was a short but fun trip. A great way to spend the weekend out of Trondheim.

TNO