my Intense Spider 29er is up for sale

This sweet machine has been my ride for about a year. As the riding season draws to a close, it's time to say goodbye to a bike that has treated my extremely well - I'm putting the Spider 29 up for sale.

It started as a fairly standard Intense Spider 29er build with a Reba, xt and x9, etc. I spent a good deal of time on it that way before I made a few tweaks to make it feel a little more at home here in the foothills around Lyons.




The first modifcation I made to the original build was last summer, after only a month or so on the Reba. I swapped the fork out to a Maverick DUC 32, which also called for some cockpit rearranging. Fortunately, the Maverick 31.8mm stem is not only svelte, but functional. A reversible cam on the stem allowed me to run it at either a 75, 85, or 95mm length. The top tube is long, but I ran it at 95mm because of my monkey arms. The Maverick front end and Chris King comb made for a very smooth, light feeling, and stiff front end.

The DUC slackened the head angle just a tad and gave me a bit more cush at the same time. I played with the fork after I got it mounted up and eventually had it dialed in as a good mate to the rear end. The fork dove a little into the travel so I experimented with oil volume in the air chamber until I got the fork to settle into a smooth ramping stroke. The front end was stiff, predictable and allowed me to push into corners or set up tricky lines with confidence.

Unfortunately, I felt that the original RP23 that came on the other end of the bike ramped up a little to sharply for my taste towards the end of it's stroke. It was, after all, a race bike, but I was using it to stomp around the backcountry foothills around here and it's rocky as heck. I wanted plush. After a quick call to Fox, I had a large air cannister coming for the rear shock. With the larger can, the expanded air volume of the rear shock helped to flatten out it's rapidly rising rate.

It was just what the rear suspension was looking for in this terrain. It now felt super smooth and controlled on all the ledgy, rocky bits not far from town. Back to the fork oil volume again and I got this sucker dialed into a super smooth riding 4" travel 29er trailbike. I liked it so much I left it and rode it that way until the beginning of this summer. After a drive train replacement (crank/chain/cassette) a few weeks ago and a new Nevegal rear tire 1 ride ago, I made the tough decision to let one go.

It's been a great trail ride, Spider. thanks.

email me (dave@redstonecyclery.com) if you're interested. It's in great shape and has been treated with much love and kindness. :)

Fat Tire Fest 08 "A" recap

Jesper starteed the day off with a new bike. A magic bike. Pretty much as soon as our feet hit the pedals, we started climbing. 6 miles on the road followed up with as many more on jeep road climb. Some steep and technical, and other parts looong and gradual.

Everyone was feeling pretty good and riding well at this point, roughly 1.5 hours in. Still climbing.

The road rolled up and down before spitting us out to the western reaches.

Where we found some more climbing.

The day started wearing down on us, breaking us. It's not a mountainbike ride unless your hiking.


We did manage to find a beauty of a spot for lunch. Georgeous meadow, fantastic views, and full sun. The snowflakes had quit blowing around mysteriously by this point.

Ah, snacktime. Gotta celebrate Lyons proper, now :)

After lunch, there was some descending, and a bit more descending. Loooong steep and fast sections of rock, rut, and root covered double track descent. Snow and water crossings, too. Too fun to stop for pictures. And then there was a flat. First one of the day, too. Not too shabby.

At least it was a good place to stop, take in the scenery, and snap a pic or two.

Then there was more climbing. It's not mountain biking unless you're hiking.



Finally, the singletrack. An all too brief descent followed up with some more climbing.

Hot damn, that last singletrack climb was followed up with one of the most well rounded, fantastic descents on the northern front range. Again, too fun to stop for pics except at the bottom. Not the foundation. This was our first homestead stop on the tour.

We had a few bail out at this point. One with a destroyed bicycle (it really was a fun descent), one with fuel reserves almost tapped, and one wanting to have enough energy to really enjoy the final descent. We took a brief tour of a few more homesteads. It was then that I heard my first and only disparaging comment. "More climbing? sheesh." Or something like that. It was worth it for the final descent, a trail that makes men of men and can bring other riders and bikes to crumble.

Rocks

and steeps

and water crossing
But we all made it out alive. Another 2.5 miles back down the paved road and we were back at the car. Stats were something to the effect of 6,000 feet of climbing in just shy of 32 miles. Good stuff! Smiles were seen all the way around as folks loaded back up to head back down the hill towards Lyons. After all, the day wasn't over. We had grills to stoke and a keg of Dale's Pale Ale to look forward.

Thanks all for coming out the 8th Annual. We'll do it again next year. Stay tuned :)