Singletrack Staff Blog

I picked up some freshly built wheels from the lovely chaps at Blazing Saddles this morning. Some Mavic 823 UST rims built on to Hope Pro II hubs. They’re for my beloved Cannondale Prophet MX which has been slumped, wheel-less against the wall downstairs ever since it came back from Finale Liguria last September (I pringled my front wheel on the last run of the last day). Last week some High Roller 2.35 Super Tacky UST tyres from Maxxis arrived. As did a very impressive-looking trackpump from Topeak.

So this afternoon I mounted the tyres on to my new wheels (which would have been a nightmare of a job without our Pedro’s DH Tyre Lever) and began pumping away with the new trackpump (no, I didn’t put any sealant goop in the tyres). I fully expected this to be a fruitless, swearing-filled exercise in sweaty futility. But much to my surprise and delight the tyres pumped up straight away and - an hour or so later - they still appear to be fully inflated.

I hurriedly slapped my rotors and cassette on to the wheels and rushed downstairs to build my Prophet back up…

The idea was to make my Prophet tubeless without putting on too much extra weight. As it turns out, after switching from a DT 5.1 rim and Bontrager Big Earl 2.5 tyre (with inner tube) setup to my new Mavic and Maxxis UST setup I’ve actually lost half a pound of weight off the bike. Coolio!

My Cannondale Prophet MX (with burly-but-good stuff like Fox Talas 36 RC2 forks, Shimano Hone chainset and Hope Moto brakes) now weighs in at 31.48 lbs.

I can’t wait to throw it down a very big hill, very fast, very soon

More words and pics of this (and my other) bike build project appear in the next issue of Singletrack Magazine - on sale March 27.

I think the Orange may get finished this week! Shifters and front and rear Mech are on their way from those nice people at Madison. I have a pair of Formula “One” brakes from Toby at Propel, a crank and headset from Superstar components and all the other bits are in a pile ready to go!

I also have some nice new Manitou Minutes to fit to my Trek 6er. I’m interested to see how different it feel with the new front end. As the Manitou’s are probably the most different feeling fork possible they should be very progressive compared to the Mavericks super-linear feel. The Trek could also do with a new crankset as the Isis BB’d Bontrager cranks are creakier than my knees on a wet day in January.

The other thing I’d like to get for it is a bigger volume front tyre which has a sticky compound. The WTB ExiWolf tyre is very good but I’d like something stickier for Calderdale rocks! But I haven’t found anything suitable yet. if any one has any ideas let me know…

What a busy weekend. Managed to play guitar every evening and ride bikes every day. ‘Jazzy’ Brian, Barney and I went out for a ‘2pm until dark’ ride on Saturday, then played bad Pink Floyd covers for most of the evening. Sunday was another ‘late til dark’ ride followed by more strumming. I now have sore legs and sore fingertips. Got a load more test-riding that needs doing this week too, so an early night tonight I reckon followed by a week of riding (and writing) madness.

A surprise pothole pinchflatted my Steamroller on the wet ride home on Saturday night - the first mechanical of any kind it’s given me in over two years. Think I’ll treat it to some chunkier tyres.