In preparation for a muddy winter, I swapped my Wolverine 2.2 front tyre for a Bronson 2.3 TCS.  I took it out for a ride at Craigburn Farm last week, and I think I have new favorite tyre.

The normally dusty trails at Craigburn were fast, thanks to a recent rain.  With the Bronson on the front, I set several personal best times on some of the descents and had a lot of fun doing it.  On the down side, I was having so much fun throwing the bike around, I slashed the side wall on the rear Wolverine 2.2.  While the rip was too much for the sealant to take care of, a spare tube did the trick and it held for the rest of the ride.

What else?  WTB’s Tubeless Compatible System, TCS, actually works.  I was able to mount and easily inflate the Bronson with a floor pump and no sealant–  I added one scoop (~60ml) of Stans sealant after the bead was seated.  This is a huge improvement over the Ignitors, Crossmarks and Wolverine (non-TCS) that I’ve mounted tubeless.

I’ll be replacing the non-TCS Wolverine 2.2 with the TCS version when it wears out (or I slash the sidewall).  Speaking of which, the non-TCS Wolverine took three scoops (~180ml) of Stans to seal up and stop seeping air through the sidewalls.  The weight difference in the extra sealant makes up for a significant portion of the TCS weight penalty.

For those who care, my Bronson 2.3 TCS weighs in at 790g and measures in at 2.095″ wide at the casing and 2.280″ at the tread inflated to 28psi on Mavic 819 rims.  The Wolverine 2.2 weighs 590g and measures in at 2.120″ at the casing and tread at same pressure on the same rim.

The “old” ’08 Reba Race on the Eriksen has seen better days.  I’ve rebuilt it a few times, but it had been leaky and a bit disappointing for a while.  The Poploc, which never really worked, started seeping oil a while ago, and had started blowing oil out of the adjuster on rides.  While a little messy, this wasn’t a huge issue until I started riding the rigid 29er more– it just made the “flexyness” and other issue more noticeable and annoying.  In the end, the Reba lasted through four years of riding (down to the month), with more than three and half of those years being pretty good.

Fork number 1: I looked around and thought I found a good deal on a Fox F100 RLC FIT QR15.  Although I hadn’t ridden Fox forks much, I had heard mostly good things about them.  On top of that, the QR15 seemed to be a good option to stiffen up the front end.  However, it wasn’t to be.  I had a pricing disagreement with a surprisingly rude Fox distributor, so I gave it back.  Not wanting to deal with Fox anymore, I looked elsewhere.

Fork number 2: Thanks to the friendly staff at Upfront Bikes, the same day I returned the Fox, I went back to Rock Shox and got a SID Team at a very good price.  It’s lighter than the Fox, stiffer than the Reba, and a huge improvement over the last two 28mm SID forks I’ve had.  On the down side, it isn’t QR15, Maxle or anything of the thru-axle variety.  It’s plain-old QR, but it still feels fairly stiff.  Apparently, the Reba was a little saggy as well.  The angle makes it look worse than it was, but the Reba was sagging 15-20mm with no load and proper inflation.

I took the Eriksen and new fork out for a night ride from Flinders Uni through Sturt Gorge,  into Craigburn, back through Sturt and Flinders and back to Glenelg.  I was surprised that the SID actually felt stiffer that the Reba, so it was off to a good start.  The ride was great, and aside from some air pressure adjustments, I’m happy.  The SID cut about 250g off of the weight of the fornt end, but I’ll be putting most of that back on shortly with my winter tyre swap.

This past weekend I raced with the Cancer Voices SA ‘Yellow’ Team in the CSA Cyclo Sportif round 5 at Snapper Point.

This is what happens when you are a mountain biker and get a cyclocross bike.  It’s a slippery slope.  First come cyclocross races, then maybe a road bike, and before you know it, your racing on the road with a team in matching jerseys.   All that said, it’s a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to the next race.