B29er Attack on Squirrel Gap

Arrived safe in Asheville on Friday afternoon. 

Friday night seemed like the perfect night for wrenching.  Why not change up the bike equipment the night before hitting one of the most remote trail rides in Pisgah?  Parts came via UPS on Thursday so I brought them to Asheville for the build:

• Atomlab Pimp 9sp Hub (HEAVY!!!! But it has bolt on mounts which I dig!)


• Alex XD Lite 650b Rim


• DT 14g spokes and brass nipples


• Veloz Rim Tape


• Kenda Nevegal 27.5" X 2.35 tire

Props to NC Dave for letting me use his truing stand.  He and I surfed the couch watching the TdF while I laced (and re-laced, d'oh!) and tensioned.  By 1am the tire, rotor, spacers and 20T cog were ready to rock and roll.

Arrived a Turkey Pen parking lot around 9am.  NC Dave, Jen, and I met NC Jamie there.  Me and Dave on single speeds, Jamie on an XC double-squishy and Jen on geared hardtail.  The ride was kinda like 2 rides, Jamie's ride and everyone else's.  Jamie is super fit and fast and would create huge gap on every uphill.  He did a lot of standing and waiting for the rest of us.

Mullinax climb is a long brutal assault even on a geared bike.  Squirrel Gap trail to the ridge top is rooty and pretty eroded in spots.  A bit wider than I remembered it from two years ago (perhaps all the bike mags that have featured Squirrel have increased the outta town traffic;-( ).  This rooty part has side-hill trail with drop-off to the right.  Once you cross the ridge top, Squirrel switches to left side-hill drop-off trail that is 1 foot wide single track with rots-a-rocks-and-roots.  3 miles of perfect gradual uphill tight technical single speed fun.  Wished I had a fixie thru here so I could regulate speed without using brakes.  At around mile 8 we made a left turn downhill on Horse Cove trail.  This one would've been much more fun on a squishy but I still had a ball bombing down rooty-rocky-droppy schweetness.  Trail was a little moist and each creek cross was covered in misty fog.  Then we rode the Cantrel Creek to South Mills River trail back to the vehicles.
http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/41743148
New 650B rear wheel performed well.  I dug the Nevegal's footprint and soft grippiness.  Rolled well over rocks and logs too.  I am officially the first kid on the block with a B29er now.  The verdict on the 650B wheel is that it was worth the bike stuff I had to liquidate on Craigslist to afford the new purchase;-)