Trek released a new singlespeed mountain bike this year. Since I’m taking a break from racing Xterra and focusing on endurance singlespeed mountain bike racing, this was the bike I selected for 2008. While there was a slight delay in receiving the bike, it was well worth the wait.
This singlespeed hardtail bike is called a 69er, since it has a 26” rear wheel, and a 29”front wheel. It was developed by mountain bike Olympian / alternative MTB legend Travis Brown, who I’ve had the misfortune of racing against at Sea Otter (there’s nothing quite like getting beaten by 4 minutes, well actually there is - more on that later). It’s the first of Trek’s 69er line, in 2008 they will be producing geared hardtail and full suspension versions as well. The original 69er will remain largely unchanged for 2008.
Frame: The frame is aluminum, which works great for this application. Since singlespeeders spend a lot of time climbing out of the saddle and reefing on the handlebars, a stiff frame is key. If I may dream for a minute, I’d love to see Trek make this in Carbon Fiber, especially since no other manufacturers are doing it…
It may sound strange to have a 29” front wheel and a 26” rear wheel, and the bike indeed looks different. However, there are sound reasons behind this, and after riding it all season, I’ve become a believer.

1. The 29” Front wheel rolls better. The larger contact area, and larger wheel diameter cause the wheel to roll faster and not get deflected as easily as a 26” wheel, most noticeable on rocky descents. The bike descends SO well, I feel almost as fast as I do on my full-suspension.
2. The 26” rear wheel accelerates faster than a 29” wheel and allows for shorter chainstays, which climb better (I’ve never ridden a full 29er, but both points sound reasonable).
3. The sliding dropouts are just about the coolest thing ever. They allow the user to run a standard quick release hub as well as a normal BB. This facilitates tire changes and chain adjustments. Speaking from experience with all singlespeed options, the sliding dropouts are so much better than horizontal dropouts or an eccentric BB that I can’t imagine either of those will be around for long..
4. The rootbeer brown color is terrific. It looks very cool. (though this year I’ve certainly done my best to scratch a tremendous amount of paint cartwheeling the bike across the rocks)
5. The geometry is perfect. Since I ride a medium, I was concerned the handlebar would be too high and it would be difficult to weight the wheels optimally while climbing. Turns out, it climbs as well as it descends.
6. It sure gets a lot of attention! It’s a unique and new design, and I get comments and questions on every ride and at every race.
7. The Bontrager Race X lite wheels are stiff and light. I don’t notice any wheel flex, whether climbing out of the saddle, or hard cornering on descents.

While I sincerely like the bike, I feel there are a few minor areas for improvement (of course I pretty much feel that way about everything in life:

1. The whole thing should be lighter. 25 lbs is too heavy for a singlespeed. It’s pretty easy to lighten it up, but it would be nice if it came that way, though that would make it more expensive…
2. The bike should be a little cheaper. I realize this is in direct contradiction to my quest for it to be lighter, and I understand this is surely a result of a small production run of a new product, but feasibly this will change when they start mass producing it.
3. As mentioned, the frame would be ridiculously cool if it were carbon, though I’m not sure how that would stand up to my recent rash of crashes…
4. The fork should be toned down (see pt 1). The bike comes with a 3.75lb Maverick dual-crown fork. While the travel is nice, as a traditionalist I find the thru-axle a little inconvenient and the double crown over spec’ed. A Rock Shox Reba Race would be 0.25lb lighter.
5. The rear disc rotor should either come spec’ed as 140mm, or allow an adapter. Most racers are running this to save weight, since most braking power comes from the front anyway.
6. It needs a second bottle cage mount. Since I train and race for the longer endurance events, I need to carry more fluids, and don’t want to carry a camelback.

Interestingly, the complaint I hear most from non-believers is you have to carry 2 tubes. Before I go any further on this, I should state that EVERYONE should be running tubeless. However, if you get a front flat, simply inflate your 26” tube to the point where it fits in the 29” tire, mount it the rest of way, and inflate it the rest of the way, and you’re good to go!

In conclusion, I really like the 69er’s ride, and definitely recommend this bike to anyone shopping for a singlespeed.

This weekend I was out on the Lake Placid course, one of the advantages of living less than 2 hours away, and I had a solid weekend full of self inflicted pain! However, this was not a normal weekend training camp. My bike training (and hopefully racing) was totally revolutionized…why? For the first time ever I rode with a power tap . What an enlightening experience!! Now with a grand total of 3 rides under my belt with this tool I am still very much in the learning phase and, believe me, knowing the power you are producing minute to minute is awesome, but there is much, much more to training and racing with power than just watts.
There is a lot of science and theory that also must be incorporated into training with power. For example when I uploaded my file to my computer I was able to see histograms of my ride including power output (seen below), heart rate, cadence, speed as well as some estimates of the physiologic stress of my ride. The following chart was also spit out…Oh man do I have some learning to do.

Lake Placid Second Loop:
Duration: 2:35:14 (2:35:15)
Work: 2134 kJ
TSS: 140.8 (intensity factor 0.726)
Norm Power: 240
VI: 1.08
Distance: 56.14 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 684 222 watts
Heart rate: 0 0 0 bpm
Cadence: 29 193 91 rpm
Speed: 0 54.5 21.0 mph
Pace 1:06 0:00 2:51 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 297 85 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 797 207 lb-in
Regardless of the fact that I am a newbie to power I am already aware of the amazing amount of information that can be gathered and analyzed using a Power Tap. My coach, Kurt Perham, is being very patient as I ask a million questions and begin to wrap my head around the power of this tool. Training with a Power Tap will definitely taking my training and as a result my racing to the next level!

Train Smart! Rest Hard!

Last time I reviewed what blueseventy’s Ben Bigglestone said about wetsuits at the Timex team meeting. This time the blog is about bikes. Dean Gore and Scott Daubert of Trek showed up to talk about their bikes, specifically the TTX. The new TTX is suppose to be faster than the model that Lance rode in the TDF, but since none of us are racing Lance, (and Trek would probably give him the new model anyway) I’ll share their tips that will help against the amateurs most of us race.

Here’s a time saving tip. Next time you see a forum thread on Slowtwitch asking, “Should I ride my road bike or tri-bike in such and such triathlon?” just skip it. The answer is always ride the tri-bike. The position benefit of the tri-bike trumps the weight penalty versus the road bike for every real world triathlon bike leg. The guys from Trek had modeled the first part of the Ironman Wisconsin course to show why. Only when someone creates a triathlon with a one way, mountain top bike leg finish should you re-address this issue.

Want to cut time off your bike split for free? Their next tip was to carry a water bottle on the down tube.Tests in the wind tunnel showed carrying a bottle here reduced drag versus a bare frame. By the way, this was the second time I’ve heard this; John Cobb found the same thing in his wind tunnel tests. Take the advice and carry your spare tube, tire levers and CO2 cartridge in the bottle and ditch your seat bag. Bontrager is suppose to have some cool aero water bottles, but the only place I’ve seen them is in a picture of Karen Smyer’s bike.

The last tip I remember was about tri-bike handling. When Trek was redesigned the TTX the feedback they got from their pro riders was a short stem handled better on the downhills. The jumps between sizes on the TTX are pretty big so if you are between sizes, you might be best served going with the larger size. I asked the Trek guys if there was a stem size that they wouldn’t recommend and that said they offered stems between 7 and 13 cm and all would work but…shorter seems better.
Those are the sponsor’s tips. And when I hear a good pro tip, I’ll post it.

Being an amateur on Team Timex is like being the proverbial fly on a wall; you hear a lot of stuff that’s not being said to you. Sometimes you pick up some helpful or funny pieces of information from the team sponsors and pros. By helpful/funny information I don’t mean “Our brand X is the fastest,” or “You need to swim 42 X 100’s on sub 1:07 to get faster at the IM swim”. The first isn’t kept as a secret and the second isn’t helpful…or funny to someone who swam 1:20 last October.

Take wetsuits, for example. Sure, we’ve all heard that Vaseline petroleum jelly is bad for wetsuits, but is the damage to the suit worse than the damage to your neck from a wetsuit hickey, and if so how bad is it? And how about swimming in chlorinated pools with wetsuits? How much will knowledge about my 1000-yard wetsuit aided time cost me in terms of wetsuit wear? According to blueseventy’s Ben Bigglestone both Vaseline and chlorine will degrade the stitching of your wetsuit. But if you’re a pro and get a new one every year, what the heck do you care? Apparently, neither eats away like acid so base your behavior on how long you want to keep your suit.

How about Pam non-stick cooking spray? OK, according to Ben, except that it makes you smell like “chips”. That’s across the pond talk for french fries.

But the big question everyone wants answered is, what about peeing in your wetsuit? Will this shorten wetsuit life and friendships? Ben says you can use your wetsuit like your own private port-a-potty with no worries, enough water gets in the suit during the swim that there is no harm and no one will ever know.

The Timex pros are also a great source of tips. Ever had trouble pulling the ankles and wrists of a wetsuit up high enough for a snug fit? You should, it takes time to put a suit on right. Timex pro Blake Becker said he puts his suit on starting with it inside out. I had to see it to believe it. It works.

Encourage Blake to post pictures or video of this tip. There is no way I’m posing in a Speedo for pictures on the Internet!

Next time I’ll post what I heard about the Equinox TTX from the man know as “Lance’s bitch” at Trek. It’s not on their web site!

It wasn’t until team camp that I found out about Trigger Point Performance Therapy…but now that I have, I’m totally addicted. It’s amazing how the use of one or two simple tools can help alleviate muscle soreness and tenderness almost instantly (even though it doesn’t exactly feel so great while you’re doing so). I am pretty sure that most members of the team use the products regularly, but for those who don’t, I highly suggest giving it a shot. I’m the absolute worst when it comes to stretching and taking care of my body after a long day of training, but after spending a few minutes a night with this stuff…I can’t even tell you what a difference it has made! Killer products Cassidy!Check out the site for more info!

Trigger Point Performance Therapy