Stuff N' Things

I had high hopes of getting up into the Tetons for some adventure this weekend, but between our "unsettled" weather and a sore back I've been stuck at home riding rollers and contemplating the things that help me get out on adventures.  In all fairness, I could have bundled up and ridden through the wind-driven snain, but why?

Some fun stuff came together in the last week, in both the skiing and singlespeeding worlds.  On Monday a pair of Voilé Vector BC's arrived for me at Yostmark--quite possibly the ultimate mountaineering ski.

WAY light, with a relatively narrow waist at 96mm (at least compared to your average Teton powder ski) and a long turn radius--can't wait to get out on these boards.  They're pretty similar to the Dynafit Manaslu (similar dimensions and weight,) but unlike the Manaslu these are wonderfully stiff and Voilé didn't skimp on edges or base material to achieve their svelte figure.  These things are bomber, and they're manufactured right here in the USA--down in Salt Lake.

Speaking of base material, perhaps the biggest reason I'm stoked for these skis is what they have underfoot: a waxless pattern!

Freaking brilliant.  No more skins for all the flat travel into and out from the mountains.  Across the lake, through the moraines...  Sure, there's some question about how much glide I'll give up in exchange for the grip but I don't think it will be that noticeable.  If everything comes together I'm hoping to take these into the Wind Rivers for some long miles and steep skiing at the end of May--will report back on the waxless performance after that testing.

Voilé also sent some skins, a ski version of what they've been offering for their splitboards--standard orange plush, but check out that tip clip!  Burly.  So I pulled a pair of Dynafit Speed Radical bindings off of another pair of skis and got these mounted up, ready to chase Z around the mountains once the weather clears.  At least I won't be able to blame my skis for being too heavy.


On the mountain bike front, I finally completed the build on the LES.

Some beautiful red cogs arrived from Endless Bikes, along with a Fibonacci Spacer Kit.  Manufactured in the US out of 7075-T6 aluminum the cogs are WICKED light, and at a full quarter-inch wide at the base they'll sit snug and won't damage that expensive freehub.

I went full-geek and weighed the new 20-tooth Endless cog against the 20-tooth steel cog that I've been riding on: less than half the weight!   Damn.  And far more attractive.

"The Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers in which each number is the sum of the previous two. The sequence is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, etc. Numbers in this sequence are found throughout nature, such as the number of spirals in seed bearing plants like sunflowers and pinecones, as well as in the number of petals on flowers."

Endless' spacer system is pretty amazing--provides a complete variety necessary to achieve a perfect chainline and instructions on how to do it.  Why does it matter?  Silence.  And efficiency.  (Any bending in the chain adds friction to the system.)

The last bit of riding-related stuff was recommended to me by Fitzy teammate and self-described cycling junkie Dave Byers.  As a singlespeed rider I'm swapping out cogs on the rear wheel with some frequency depending on the amount of climbing/flat spinning on a given course, and this new tool from Abbey Bike Works totally changes that experience.

No longer do I have to remove the skewer and find a wrench to use with my standard lockring tool--this thing fits around the end of the 10mm thru-axle and has its own ample handle.  At $35 it was well worth purchasing.  Makes me happy.

And that's about enough gear spewing for one day.  Heading to Pocatello in search of rideable singletrack; whatever we find will for sure be better than what we have at home right now!