3. The Preparations (Part 2 - Machine)

Mountain bikes are truly impressive pieces of engineering these days.  The capabilities have made leaps and bounds of progress in the past 5 years.  Weight.  Dropper posts.  Bob-less suspension.  Tubeless tire grip.  If your bike is 4-5 years old, you are not taking advantage of technology.

You could argue that old bikes are just as fun...  But, you can't argue that they are as fast and capable.

I wanted a firm pedaling bike, since I enjoy riding hardtails, but I knew that I wouldn’t survive 7 days on one in BC.  I do like to “stand and stomp” up and over small rises on the trail, not a “sit and spin” kind of guy.  

I don't really like overly "plush" suspension movement, I want to feel the trail.

My short list came relatively quickly down to Santa Cruz Tallboy, Cannondale Scalpel, Specialized Epic.  The Calgary Cycle demo day at West Bragg Creek sealed the deal for me.  The feel of the Santa Cruz Tallboy was spot on.  It has 4” of rear travel, but it feels like it barely moves when you stand to hammer up a small rise in the trail.  When you are descending, it is just active enough to allow you to go much faster than on a hardtail.  When you sit and pedal through a rooty section the suspension seems to kick in.  It never feels wallowy, like you are riding a teeter-totter…  Plus it rides best with a 5" travel fork, which would be out of place on an Epic or Scalpel.

Frame in hand, I began the careful selection of parts.  The BCBR is an extreme test of rider and bike.  In the end, it is beefy where it needs to be and still very light:

• Chris King for the bearings, (hubs/headset/etc)
• Fox 32 120mm fork w/ the older FIT RLC damper,
• XTR for the drivetrain (with OneUp 42t modification)
• XTR brakes, 
• 29" Light Bicycle carbon rims (wide and hookless)
• a sprinkling of carbon parts.  
• 23.5 lbs.

The colourway is bound to please Vancouver Canucks / Seattle Seahawks fans, but I assure you it was unintentional… 

My brother will run a very similar setup.  The Ibis Ripley offers slightly more travel, and the Pike fork is the benchmark against all other forks are measured.  He has chosen to run a little bit more travel (140mm fork / 120mm rear) and a dropper post for added confidence through the technical trails.  The weight penalty is minimal over mine.  Around ~1.5 lbs.

Looking fine in Bici blue.

We chose to run single ring setups, with small chainrings.  (26/28 teeth.)  Taking advantage of new 42t granny cog cassettes, we’ll have a good gear for slogging up 7 days of climbs.  There may be the odd fireroad where we are spun out of gears, but this is not a concern given the vast majority of the days are spend climbing.

Pretty similar.  Ready to rumble.  Nobby Nic tires hungry for some BC loam.

We talked to several previous BCBR participants about tires.  We were given a tip that the Sunshine Coast days have a lot of sharp edged rock, and that thin casing tires would be prone to sidewall cuts. I went out in May and pre-rode those stages and confirmed this!  Lot of high speed double track with "V cut" drainage trenches (ie. G-out!).  For this reason we are running Schwable tires with "Snakeskin" protection.  2.25 Nobby Nic on the front.  2.25 Racing Ralph on the back.  We'll bring extra Nobby Nic's to throw onto the back tire if rain/mud comes into the picture, but at this point the forecast says Dry and Hot!!!

That's hawt.  Should have been on the trainer with no fan to get ready for this...

It also took us a while to get our heads around the gear and kit.  Speaking with past racers, there are two approaches:

1. Racer dude:  Team Kit, 2 bottles, minimalist tools/food.
2. Trail rider:  Baggy shorts, hydration backpack, bring what you need to be comfortable out there all day.

It didn't take us long to decide that we wanted to ride hard and finish as fast as possible each day.  Comfort is secondary.  After all, 30 minutes less racing is 30 minutes more to drink a beer afterwards!  So, we're going super lean.  There is a decent list of mandatory gear, so we have more stuff than we'd like...  But, we're prepared.

Space blanket, waterproof matches, where are they sending us? 

One in the jersey, one taped into the front triangle of the bike frame.  Hopefully we won't feel like we are bikepacking.

When starting to pack, we found this video from BCBR extremely helpful.  Without further ado, the quintessential "gear laid out" shot:

Go Pro? Check.  Selfie Stick?  Check.  Large tube of chamois cream?  Check.

 There it is...  This is my life from June 27th to July 4th.  I'm sure some things will happen along the way that we'll have to overcome.  But, we did the training.  We researched.  We prepared.  We're looking good in the Bici kit.  Just one thing left....

Braaaaaaaap...   (Photo:  Ken Anderson)