Completed my first off-road race on Saturday and am utterly and completely hooked. And the pedal shaped bruises on the back of my knees should be faded in time for Xterra Vashon Island.
But its time to replace the Buick Stationwagon/1990s era Gary Fisher hardtail that I’ve been riding for a few years. All of the bike shops are trying to sell me a full suspension bike, even though I started out looking for a lightweight hardtail.
For you off-road types out there, what is your opinion? Hardtail? Full Suspension?? I want something that is off-road race-able, but also appropriate for recreational mtn bike rides and short track races.
Definitely depends on your abilities on the mountain bike, and what courses you plan on shooting for. If you go with a full suspension go with nothing more than 100mm front, 100mm rear travel, would be my recommendation. Xterra courses, no matter what type of course will have a wide array of different xc bikes, hardtail and full suspension, some single speeds and fully rigid bikes even (although this is rare).
I just switched to a hardtail after riding a lighter full suspension bike for the last 4 years. I am liking the hardtail’s efficiency in climbing and energy transfer. I do miss the full suspension at times but there is a give and take for this decision, it comes down to personal preference, abilities, and trail/course types.
What he said. I’ll also add: do a forum search for XTERRA. There are a couple of good threads where this has been debated, and it seems to come down to ability, personally preference, and price.
With that said, GASP!! XTR crank with SRAM drivetrain?!?! WHAT?!
With that said, GASP!! XTR crank with SRAM drivetrain?!?! WHAT?!
Yeah well, what’re you gonna do, I mean, Truvativ Noir…? I will stick with the XTR, although the blue is a little “off” it is a solid and light crankset.
For Xterra Vashon, a hardtail will do just fine, the course is fast twisty non technical singletrack. What other Xterras are you doing?
Now, as a 5’3" & 120 lbs woman, I really prefer a very light 19 to 20 lbs hardtail rather than a 27 lbs FS … think about it!
Also keep in mind, if pricing is also an issue: It will cost you significantly more to keep your Full Suspension under 25 pounds (depending on your frame size) than it will to keep your hardtail bike under 23 pounds. This obviously will vary but that would be my advice also. And yes, Conrad as well as “most” of the pro’s are using lighter FS rigs.
Well I beat a lot of guys with my hardtail, my back never hurt after the race, and yeah sure Conrad rides a FS, but Melanie won 3 Worlds champs on a hardtail …
I have to agree here, after seeing him race and ride a bike a couple times now atleast, pretty impressive.
He’s impressive. I wonder how he would do against a dedicated MTBer and not XTERRA guys…maybe not someone like Julien Absalon (or even Geoff Kabush if we want to stay in the US), but some top XC guys. Because Conrad is always near the top with his bike split, but he also has a good swim and run, so he doesn’t just fall back on his MTB skills. I wonder if he really pushed the bike alone (if he were able to not swim/run train) how fast he could be.
And I say all of this out of genuine curiosity. I’ve had the chance to talk with him a couple of times and he’s a super cool dude, and man does he train hard. His focus could really take him a long way, I wonder just how far he could go…
Well, he raced the Olympics in 2000 and 2004 and had the fastest bike split in 2000. He didnt finish because of a mechanical in 2004. But this past weekend in Alabama he still dominated despite a flat tire and apparently, an improper airing of the new one.
I don’t know what you mean by guessing how far he can go. I think it is likely he would continue to dominate the Xterra circuit. Obviously the olympic distance plus/minus is his absolute strength. It would be very interesting to debate his abilities in comparison to some mountain bikers…
While I would hesitate to compare say Normann Stadler to David Millar for so many reasons I wouldnt know where to start. The mountain bike racing and xterra and the way those races work as far as competition and so forth, I think it is definitely reasonable to discuss the topic of him competing with some of the best MTB riders.
Anyways, Conrad is by far my favorite triathlete, hands down…
Well, he raced the Olympics in 2000 and 2004 and had the fastest bike split in 2000. He didnt finish because of a mechanical in 2004. But this past weekend in Alabama he still dominated despite a flat tire and apparently, an improper airing of the new one.
I don’t know what you mean by guessing how far he can go. I think it is likely he would continue to dominate the Xterra circuit. Obviously the olympic distance plus/minus is his absolute strength. It would be very interesting to debate his abilities in comparison to some mountain bikers…
While I would hesitate to compare say Normann Stadler to David Millar for so many reasons I wouldnt know where to start. The mountain bike racing and xterra and the way those races work as far as competition and so forth, I think it is definitely reasonable to discuss the topic of him competing with some of the best MTB riders.
Anyways, Conrad is by far my favorite triathlete, hands down…
I mean if he were to train as an XC MTBer rather than an XTERRA athlete. He has a very strong bike, but if he took away his swim and run training to focus solely on the bike, what’s he capable of? I’ll also agree with you, MTB and the bike leg of XTERRA seem to align fairly well. You don’t really get to work your tactics too much because you never know what kind of lead you have (or how much you trail by) on the course.
Didn’t Shonny just put down a pretty convincing win in AL over the weekend? She is one hell of a MTBer, so does that say that her MTB skills were far enough ahead of the XTERRA girls that possibly an XTERRA pro wouldn’t do that hot going to pro XC racing? If I remember correctly, a number of XTERRA pros came from a MTB background (didn’t Melanie as well?).
How would you see Conrad doing as a pure MTB guy?
And yes, Conrad is by far my favorite athlete racing right now. I got to meet Melanie a few times as well, and she was nice enough to take me and a couple friends through a pre-ride of the SE Championship last year the day before the race. What kind of pro (in any sport) will do something like that?!
Yeah, Shonny V. did put down a pretty impressive bike split in AL. A girl named Jennifer Smith was only 30 secs behind Shonny (she ended up finishing 6th PRO WOMEN). Her results,however, would still contradict our hypothesis of Conrad competing with the top XC MTBers on the pro circuit. But like you mentioned, it’s hard to tell for me what all the top Xterra guys and gals background’s are (the top guys could come from mtb background, the women not so much or vise versa). It is difficult to judge based on this…its all speculation.
I would love to see Conrad do something like Sea Otter or another similiar race.
And, your story about Melanie reminds me of exactly why Xterra is so bad-ass…and why I am turning most of my focus to Xterra for the next season and more I’m sure.
Yeah, Shonny V. did put down a pretty impressive bike split in AL. A girl named Jennifer Smith was only 30 secs behind Shonny (she ended up finishing 6th PRO WOMEN). Her results,however, would still contradict our hypothesis of Conrad competing with the top XC MTBers on the pro circuit. But like you mentioned, it’s hard to tell for me what all the top Xterra guys and gals background’s are (the top guys could come from mtb background, the women not so much or vise versa). It is difficult to judge based on this…its all speculation.
Yes it does contradict us. That’s why I wonder…hmmm.
I would love to see Conrad do something like Sea Otter or another similiar race.
Now THAT would be sick! I like the way you think. I think I have Conrad’s email, maybe I’ll toss out that suggestion…just plantin’ the seed.
And, your story about Melanie reminds me of exactly why Xterra is so bad-ass…and why I am turning most of my focus to Xterra for the next season and more I’m sure.
Same here. I haven’t done a road tri in 2 years now because of the atmosphere of XTERRA. The racers, the courses, everything just comes together for those races. I’ve even been to a couple races that were poorly run and I STILL loved it in the long run. My favorite was a race that had enough racks in transition for about 1/3 of the people. Everyone else was just laying bikes on the ground, leaning them on the fence, etc. Not exactly prepared for the turnout, but awesome none the less.
Yeah, ask him when he is going to bust the 29er that he has shown on his blog in an xterra race. In temecula he used his regular stumpy. On a “flatter” Xterra course a 29er experiment by him would be very interesting.
Also, is the craig evans who got 3rd in alabama the same as the one who beat my #2 hero chris eatough in the awesome dvd ‘24 hour’ ???