The Megavalanche is one of the few mountain bike races where you need luck, skill, fitness and confidence in equal measure. Conquering the snow and ice, rocks and roots and torturous climbs that pave the way takes a special type of person and machine. Finding a bike that climbs as well as it descends is a veritable rainbow-farting, five-legged unicorn of a bike and can only go some way to making up the shortfall if you’re not one of the aforementioned special types.
Ed and I were both signed up to compete at the 2016 Megavalanche. Ed, having raced the torturous event before knew what was in store — a lot of, quite frankly, mental bike riding. I, on the other hand, was a bit of a newbie and an internet aficionado; “how hard can it be?” was one of the loosely and thoughtlessly thrown about questions that came out of my mouth. Having now completed the event I can answer that question, “bloody hard”.
To make things interesting, Ed and I both opted to ride Nukeproof Mega bikes. The only variable we decided would be wheel size in an attempt to find out which one would dominate when things got rough and wild.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ed opted for the 29-inch 290 model and I was riding my long-term 27.5-wheeled bike, hoping that knowing the bike may offset any disadvantages that the smaller wheels may bring.
- The course: 21km of grueling trail that starts on top of Pic Blanc above Alpe d’Huez, 3300m above sea level. The track begins on a glacier that transitions on to dusty and rocky natural singletrack, this then winds down the mountain through a root-filled conifer forest and spits you out at 800m. It’s quite a ride.
- The equipment goal: discovering which wheel size would ace the climbs, sail over the holes and dodge the rocks and roots that litter the trail.
- The horse: Nukeproof Mega 275 and 290 Pro full bike build kits, featuring Rockshox Pike forks, Reverb Stealths, SRAM Guide RS brakes X1 11-speed drivetrain. There was little difference between the bikes, bar wheel size.
Alex’s diary
Swinging a leg over my bike at 3,300m should have been a comforting feeling. I’ve learnt the ins and outs of the 275 Mega and felt at home riding the bike at, yep you guessed it, home. This wasn’t quite the case in Alpe d’Huez — so much so, I felt overwhelmed sitting on the start line with over 300 other riders surrounding me. So far, though, none of this was the bike’s fault.
The only changes I made to my bike were reversible set up changes, rather than massive component changes. I increased the fork pressure to 97psi with two bottomless tokens, and upped the tyre pressure from around 26psi to 29.1psi in the front and from 28psi to 31.9psi out back. The SRAM Guide brakes were fitted with some fully sintered pads, ready to take on all the abuse I could throw at them.
Ed’s diary
Summary
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
via BikeRadar All the latest from BikeRadar.com http://ift.tt/2cZghBb
No comments:
Post a Comment