How about a 29er? Don't mind if I do.

After riding the Epica with four guys on 29ers I imagined that I was witnessing what all the fuss was about. I imagined that those bigger wheels, bigger everything, made riding the snow easier for them, which must have been why I had to work so hard to keep up (and upright) on my 26" (There were of course other, more significant reasons, but I needed a scapegoat). And having ruled out the other craze these dayz - the fatbike (just too one-ish dimensional for me) - I began dreaming. In fact I dreamed so hard, it came true, this week:

It's a 2013 Jamis Dragon Sport

I was determined that the frame would be steel, and that the bike would be purchased in whole or in part from the LBS. That and I wanted to order the parts and build it myself. Initially I was looking at the Karate Monkey frame, but the LBS couldn't bring that frame in. Bruce gave me a few options, one of which was that he'd bring in a Jamis Dragon Sport, strip it, and sell me the frame, which was pretty good of him, except that the price he quoted for the whole bike made it clear that I'd be spending a bunch more cash for about the same or lower quality components to build it myself.

Shimano hydraulic disc brakes, Deore, & reasonable Alex wheels

RockShox XC 32 and Ritchey cockpit: 90 mm stem & 725 mm bar

The steel is Reynolds 520, so the bike's not super light, but all this comes to me for a few bucks over a grand, before taxes. I added eggbeaters, a long Easton seatpost, and a fizik saddle to make things fit for me. I think it looks and feels pretty good. 

Today, in a March snowstorm (winds 30 to 50 km/h) I took it for a ride. Oh my. There were lots of drifts across the roads, and under that ice and ruts. This bike handles so well! The front wheel hardly deflects at all in snow, and it rolls over iced snow banks and ruts with the kind of certainty that really surprised me. I did not expect it to be so much different from the 26" bike, or from my 700c winter commuter (a cross bike). It just rolls over things. 

I did some reading today about bar width. I was thinking that I'd cut them down. After all, 29" wide bars for me (at just under 5'7") seemed ridiculous. But the online consensus was that wider meant more stable steering, and more control of the wheel's line. So I decided to ride it first, and I'm convinced. I will not cut them down. Between the big wheels and the wide bars you really feel confident. You feel large and in charge. 

Speaking of working on being large and in charge ... this kid did some fine riding this weekend at the Tucson Bicycling Challenge.

She's been upgraded to Cat 2, so she rides with Cat 1 and Pro riders. The field was pretty tough at this 3 stage event. On Friday she puked beets and other weird shit during the TT but still managed a 18th place finish. On Saturday she felt a bit better and raced to 13th in the road race. Today, she road the circuit race (a six mile loop - an extended criterium) and placed 7th, for a GC finish of 14th. Yeah. I'm proud. As of this May she will have been racing road for one year. She's doing okay.