Does anyone know of a website that details the bike setups for various different XTerra pros?
Thanks.
I’ve never seen that, other pictures posted. I always check out the pro bikes at the bigger Xterra races. Pretty standard setups for high end XC bikes. Do you have any particular questions. I might be able to answer them.
Nothing specific. Just looking at a possible purchase, and wanted to see what the top guys were running.
The bike I’m looking at is a 2013 Trek Superfly AL Pro (great deal, since the 2014s are out). Full XT group with Fox Float CTD suspension. I want to make sure it’s a good choice as a “do everything” bike for XTerra triathlon, adventure racing, and XC racing. I know the whole “horses for courses” deal, but the budget only supports one MTB. I’m bigger than average (6’2, 195lb), so I don’t think the extra couple of pounds of a full squish will hurt me (much).
Thoughts?
26" full-squish or 29" hardtail you’re pretty good either way.
The Superfly would probably be a good choice for you. Many of the male pros ride 29er full suspension rigs like that or the Specialized. Of course, theirs are carbon, with XTR or Red, and Carbon wheels. Weight wise, their bikes can run less than 20 lbs (my hard tail 29er for example is just around 20).
That rig will be fine for Xterras and XC racing. It might not be ideal for adventure racing, but you can’t have everything.
If you have one upgrade, get carbon wheels - at least to race on. For me, they were the one “holy s&*^” upgrade.
The Superfly AL Pro is a sweet bike. I’ve ridden them a few times and love them. If you’ve been on SRAM equipment up til now, you’ll love Shimano’s super smooth 2x set up and the brakes are awesome. I raced Xterras last year on a Trek Stache 8 with full XT and had a blast. If you are a good mtb’er than try to cherry pick the more technical courses where your skills will come in handy. My only other suggestion is to learn to swim well, as there will be less people clogging the singletrack in front of you. My first Xterra race had me coming out of the water way below middle of the pack and I was frustrated with all of the people that I had to pass on the bike. This past winter I put a lot of work on my swim and was able to get out of the water with much fewer people on the trails. Good Luck!
Go full squish 29er if you really want a versatile bike - Spesh Epic is by far the most race proven (olympic gold) yet you could ride gnarlier single track on it too. You certainly don’t need a full squish for xterra though, but to buy a bike just for a xterra wouldn’t make any sense, unless youre trying to win it.
I ride a scapel 29er 1 and do longer races.
Others will say learning on a hardtail and then graduate to full squish is the way to go.
My current MTB is a fully rigid single speed. Hopefully that’s sufficient “learning”.
I guess all of us of a ‘certain age’ started out on fully rigid. Single speed is definately for the full beard, craft brew MTB crowd.
My current MTB is a fully rigid single speed. Hopefully that’s sufficient “learning”.
I know this one’s about a week dead, but I’m also looking at learning a bit more about Xterra’s and the kit necessary. I grew up mountain biking, but gave it up years ago, last “proper bike” was a Gary Fisher Joshua F1, suppose I sold it around 2005 after a couple years inactivity. Only bike I have had for the last 8yrs has been my Trek 4200, which was just a commuter during grad school, and occasional pleasure rider since then (ya know, the average garage dust collector), until I bought my Shiv for Tri.
Enjoying trail runs (done a few 10 and 15k trails) and missing mountain biking - aka looking for any excuse possible to justify a full suspension 29er - I’m interested in Xterra, but no idea what the proper bike, or other kit, might be.
I did see one back in October on Conrad Stolz’s 2014 epic. It may have been in his Facebook page.
For Xterra, the only requirement for the bike is that it’s a mountain bike - can be 26", 27.5" or 29". I find that a hardtail 29er is best for me for the majority of Xterra courses, but what type of bike you should get really depends on the types of trails that you’ll be riding on a regular basis around where you live. If you will be biking on really rocky technical trails, you might want to go for the full suspension for comfort. If that’s the case and you can swing it, the Specialized Epic is a great full suspension bike as mentioned above. If you’ll be riding on less technical trails and/or have a lot of climbing, you might want to save weight (and cash) and go for a hardtail.
For the other legs of the race, you won’t really need anything extra. The swim is the same as any other tri, and if you’re already trail running then you probably have the shoes you need.
The Fox CTD fork sucks. I bought one for my Niner, I ended up having it revalved for me and I weigh 165. Even in climb mode with max air in the chamber it was too soft. I spend most of my time on a rigid RDO fork. Unless I know the course is really brutal, full rigid works best for me although the work I had done on my Fox does make it a much better fork.