Cannondale Prophet 650B Conversion

After bashing away on my Cannondale Prophet for the past three years I desperately need a new ride, but that aint gonna happen anytime soon. So I decided to at least go with a new feel, by getting a new set of wheels.

I noticed sometime ago on MTBR that riders are swapping out their standard 26" wheels for 650B's (27.5 inchers), and that the Cannondale Prophet with the Lefty is great candidate for this conversion. What makes this a kewl fit is that the Lefty I have allows this bigger wheel with no modifications necessary. And the chainstays also allow for a bigger rear wheel, but the fit is little more snug. I prolly have 3/8" between the tire and the front derailleur, and about 1/4" gap between the tire sidewalls and the chainstays.

Why in the world would I do this??? 650B isn't widely used, but its popularity is starting to roll. The 29r (29" wheel)is already widely accepted tire convention, and using a bigger wheel chews up the bumps and roll really well. But in my opinion, those benefits come at a cost; bike geometry that doesn't fit the smaller rider, less sturdy wheels, longer wheelbase, and slower acceleration. The goal of this conversion is to capture some of the benefits of bigger wheels, while mitigating the weaknesses that hamper the larger wheel.

With these wheels the only geometry change is that my bottom bracket height/ stand over height increases about 3/4". The bottom bracket on my Prophet is already pretty low (XC mode: 13.7 & FR mode 13.0), so this isn't a big deal. Although the standover height for me is now a little higher than I'd like, but its not that bad. There is also a change in the amount of trail by using the bigger wheels, but I really don't notice it.

The setup I went with was silver Velocity Blunts (would've preferred black, but nobody had 'em in stock). The front hub is a Woodman Lefty, and the rear is Hadley 135mm Quick Release. The tires are Pacenti Neo Moto's, which I'll convert to ghetto tubeless in the near future. Since this isn't that popular of a wheel size, the tire selection is pretty small, but I actually love these tires. They roll fast, here in the desert. Availability is also a problem, because I doubt there is a shop in AZ stocking this tire, so I ordered a third tire. That way I'll have a spare handy, in case I have a sidewall tear.

So far the wheels feel far stronger than the cheap wheelset I've been rolling on, despite the larger less rigid wheel. And I tried to mitigate the slower acceleration by going with a faster engaging, high quality Hadley hub. And since the only geometric change is for my ride is a higher standover height, I don't feel hampered by it.

I love the new feel of my bike. It chews up the bumps, which allows me to keep rolling in crucial spots of a technical trail. I do sit up a little higher, so I haven't found the point where I can rail. And if I roll on some super hard trail that demands a smaller wheel, I can easily swap out 'em out for my old set.

I purchased the rims and hubs from Universal Cycles. I got a good deal on the tires from Speedgoat. And Mike from Curbside Cyclery built the wheels.

To learn more about 650B, here are a couple of sites:

sixfiftyB and 650B Palace.

Here's short vid of what my bike looks like with the new dubs:

Click to play

Desert Botanical Garden - Chihuly: Nature of Glass 1/10/09

My wife and I met up with couple of her old Air Force buddies and one was a residency partner-in-crime for a tour Phoenix's Desert Botanical Garden to view Chihuly's The Nature of Glass exhibit.

Dale Chihuly is a remarkable northwest glass artisan, who incorporates his glass sculptures into the natural landscape of the garden.

We timed it perfectly, because we got to view the garden in natural blazing Phoenix sunlight, twilight and in the dark.

Here's a vid of the Exhibit:

Click to play

High Res Quicktime version can be found here: Desert Botanical Garden: Chihuly
Here are a few pics my beloved wife shot:

Alta Loop: South Mountain - Phoenix, AZ

It had been several months since I've been on Alta (South Mountain),and I felt the need for some chunk. Scotty proposed and lead the ride, and the other attendees included, Dgangi, Carmen, Lynette, DurtGurl, Zort, Jeffro and Su Ling.

It was a beautiful morning, as we rolled outta Scott's place at the wee early hours of the morning (about 10:30 am). His place is the north west corner of the park, so we entered the park thru a trail he built. We then bombed down Maz Delta, which was actually in pretty good condition. From there we kicked it on Bajada for about half mile before making the long climb up Alta.

The climb up Alta is never easy, but it went fast enough. For some reason, I wasn't feeling it on the ride down. I chalk my under performance up to a couple things: 1) I wasn't seeing the trail really well; my contacts we giving me grief 2) I was not feeling super ambitious 3) The trail was uber chunky. I actually walked a few sections that I had cleaned before on prior rides. Alta can be an unforgiving trail where even minor slip could cost you a major penalty. This saying has been coming up a lot lately, but "Choose Life" really fit the bill on this ride. The exposure is way big.

Anycow, everybody else was on, and I gotta ride a new section trail as we exited stage left at the end of San Juan Road.

Scott's wife, Bisera treated us all to an amazing apres ride feast.

Here's a vid of the day:

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And Here's a Google Earth Tour of the Loop:

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Quicktime Hi Res Versions of the Vids can be found here: Alta Loop & Google EarthTour: Alta Loop

Sun sets behind the Sierra Estrella 12/19/08

Here's a 38 second time lapse vid, as the sun sets behind the Sierra Estrella.

Click to play

Here's Google Earth Tour of the Seirra Estrella:

Click To Play

Double Bypass: McDowell Mountain Preserve 12/14/08

Yesterday a rather large crew of MTBR riders (about 25) meet up in North Scottsdale for a chilly, but epic ride around the McDowell's. WaltAZ suggested the route should consist of riding up and over Sunrise and then returning over Windgate or Bell Pass; hence the name "Double Bypass". This is a shake down ride, in preparation of the third annual Quadruple Bypass (Windgate, Bell, Sunrise, and Windgate again) slated for January 2009.

We met up here at 8:00, on the coldest morning we had for long, long time. Actually it wasn't that bad, prolly about 50 degrees. It was supposed to be cooler and a chance of rain. No rain materialized, but the temps did drop a bunch as the ride progressed. In just shorts and a long sleep biking kit, I felt pretty comfortable through out the ride. It was pretty interesting seeing the Arizonans all dressed up in there cold weather clothing.

After a long climb up to Sunrise, Tecate and Foster's oil cans were abundant, but I opted for the Sparks (a malt liquor/caffeine enhanced energy drink). Mixing my stimulates and depressants sent me sideways instead up or down. Proper nutrition is crucial on a long and demanding ride like this. A few riders turned around at this point and went back the what we just climbed up, leaving us with 20 riders continuing on. The flight down the backside of Sunrise was hoot - fast, swoopy, curvy and long.

At this point, a few more riders bailed, the rest of the crew headed off like a herd of turtles up the jeep road on the backside of the McDowell's (Fountain Hills). This part of the ride is deceivingly hard, because you do end up climbing about 1,000 vf without much reward. And this jeep road actually gave us a couple crashes, the left one rider with a bashed up leg and hand. The other dood wasn't so fortunate; at the time he thought he just sprained his wrist, so he continued on. Apparently, he actually had a broken hand. Which is pretty amazing, cuz he suffered up another grueling climb and a pretty demanding downhill run.

After licking our wounds, we made the long slog back up to the next pass. Fellow MTBR rider, DurtGurl, had a nasty spill a few weeks ago that left her with a broken scapula, so her combination of not riding the past few weeks, fighting off a nasty cold, and pedaling on flats left her looking for a slightly shorter option of going up and over Bell Pass instead of Windgate. The rest of the continued on to Windgate, so not wanting Durtgurl to feel alone, I road up and over Bell with her. This trail is so freaking fun. It's steep, with nicely designed switchbacks that allow you keep your mojo going. This decent goes on for few miles.

We rallied up with the rest of the group at the bottom of the Gateway Trail, and completed the loop with a few miles of XC single track on Paradise trail.

Hopefully metrics on the ride will be made available, but we road the 20-some miles in about five and half hours.

Good Times.

The run up to this ride can be found here: MTBR Double Bypass Post

And the post ride comments can be found here: MTBR Double Bypass Post Ride Report

Info on the January 2009 Quadruple Bypass

Here's a vid of the day: McDowell Mountain Preserve Double Bypass

Click to play

A high res (Quicktime)Version can be found here: McDowell Mountain Preserve Double Bypass

Six Shooter Canyon (Pinal Mt): Globe, AZ in December

This post is mostly for me as a reminder of what it takes to pedal up to the top of Pinal Mt and down Six Shooter Canyon.

I left Phoenix at 5:00 this morning. I got into the parking lot in Globe at 6:30, and was pedaling by 6:45.

It was a little cool, prolly between 35 and 40, but I warmed up quickly as the sun came up around 7:30.

I did the 14 mile (4,000 vf) climb in 2 hours and 45 minutes. With one stop to adjust my seat and another stop to eat a candy bar. It was no land speed record, but it was my best time yet.

The mud puddles up high had ice, and there was a small trace of snow.

The Six Shooter was in great condition, except for a the leaves kinda obscured the trail. There were four pretty good sized trees the recently feel across the trail.

I got back to my car at 11:00, so the total trip time was 4:15.

Past Trip Reports and videos can be found here"

Six Shooter Canyon: Pinal Mt.

House of Ruin: South Mountain

I got my bike back, but all is not well. Life is good again, but today's ride I could've done with out showing up to the trail with a flat tire and dropping a paper thin Performance Bike's special tube I knew was going to bring me trouble. That and my derailleur needs to be replaced. On top of all that, I need some new tires. Enough about things that should be done; my Lefty (fork) is feeling good again. Woot Woot!

I met up with MTBR's Kortface and BritMtnBiker at Warpaint at 8:00 for pedal up to the helipad, out to the end up Desert Classic, and then on to new trail to myself to homestead of where just the fireplaces and foundation remain.

Although I've been getting my commuting miles in, it had been four weeks since my last ride on the trails. I really was looking forward to mountain biking again, but legs need a little getting used to differing levels of exertion.

I've been up to the helipad a bazillion times, but I've only ridden the approach most people take a handful of times. I usually ride up the Goat Trail, but today we road up the Helipad trail, and down the Goat Trail. These stretchs aren't ferociously long, but you do end up gaining about 400 vf. The ride down the Goat Trail was a hoot. I thought it was gonna be sloppy, but actually the drops really let you flow down this thing.

Next our destination was to get to the end of Desert Classic and leave the park at the Desert Foothills Lot. We took right and on Desert Foothills Parkway and continued on for about 3/4 of a mile. Kortface lead us into a wash that connected us with a trail that took us out the the ruins of a home from long ago. Actually this trail prolly doesn't get much traffic, but it kinda reminds me Trail 100. Actually it was pretty fun.

My derailleur had been clicking the whole ride, so just before we left the house I decide to see if I could remedy this. This is when I noticed my tire was flat. Boo Hiss! This is the first punctured tire on the trail in about 2 years. Thin tubes suck, are are worthless in the desert. I threw a patch on and we rolled on back home.

Here's a vid of the Day:

Click To Play

A high res Quicktime version can be found here: House of Ruin 11/23/08