BC Bike Race Day 7 and Bike Setup for Race

Day 7 began like so many others before it. A breakfast followed by a bus ride. The night of day 6 was most premium, involving tequila shots, beers, laughs and hot tubs. Whistler promises lots of climbing and lots of technical descending. As I sit here on the bus from Squamish to Whistler I can’t help but recall the last days and on day one today seemed like an eternity away. After days of riding some of the sweetest trails around it seems like yesterday that we started.


Over the last 7 days I have been periodically checking on what people seem to want to hear. Bike/ bike setup seems to be on people’s minds both up here and people thinking about doing the race. I have waited until now to talk about the actual bikes since now I have a pretty good idea what seems to work and not work at a race like this.

I rode a KHS XC Team for the race that I got from the Bike Coop in Albuquerque NM. The bike is spec’d with 2011 Shimano XTR (3X10) front and rear derailleurs, shifters, and crank set. It has an 11-36 XT rear cassette. Up front it came with a Rock Shox SID RLT with 100mm of travel, but I blew this fork up in 45 minutes and the guys at RockShox were awesome and upgraded me to a SID XX with 120mm of travel and hydraulic lockout. In the back the bike gets 100mm of travel from a RockShox Monarch rear shock. The wheels that came on the bike are American Classic mountain bike wheels with Kenda 2.1 Small Block Eights mounted on them. I put on Maxxis Larsen TT 2.35 front and rear and run them tubeless. Stopping the bike is a set of Avid Elixir CR calipers and levers mated to 160mm rotors. For pedals I am using Time ATAC freeride pedals, I have used these for years and love them. The Truvativ Noir Carbon is the handlebar that came on the bike and measures a now normal for XC width of 680mm (26in).

Bottom line is that the bike worked really well, it is very light (24ish lbs) and climbs like a scalded ape. Downhill it handles like a well designed XC bike should, the guys at KHS gave it a 70.5 degree head tube angle mated up with a 13in bottom bracket height. The overall geometry of the bike makes it really responsive in the single-track whether pointed up or down and not too twitchy. The Larsen TT was a really good tire choice since they roll fast, shed mud pretty well and brake and corner great. I know that there are some tires out there that might have been better over the roots, but I compromised with a tire that rolled nice and fast instead of one that was specifically designed for loose conditions. The 2011 XTR stuff can only be described as dreamy. Not only does it look dead sexy but functions flawlessly and predictably. Even after 7 days of riding it has given me no problems and has only been hosed off every night and lubed up. XTR stuff has always been good, but the drive train on this bike is exceptional. The Avid Elixir CR’s have done a good job of braking. Overall I like the setup of the bike. If I did this race again I would do it on the same bike, but put a dropper post on it. Some of the descents so far in the race were really steep and hitting doubles on an XC bike yesterday with the seat all the way up was sketchy and hilarious.

As to what everyone else is running up here. I have seen lots of full suspension 29ers from Trek, Specialized and Santa Cruz. The 29ers seem to be fine but sometimes suffer on the really tight stuff up here, but that could be the rider also. A few of the fast guys are on 29er hardtails and I have spoken to them and some of them love them and others hate it. The overwhelming majority of people up here are on fully suspended 26 inch bikes with 100-120 mm of rear wheel travel and something similar up front. They all seem to be doing fine. A couple of people are on hardtail 26ers and are getting beat up. One crazy dude is on a singlespeed, enough said. A few guys are on 5-6 in bikes which also seems to be good for them, it would be nice to have a little more on some of the descents, but with nearly 35,000 feet of climbing for the week we spend a lot of time going uphill. In my case I go uphill slowly and am so fatigued now that I need the lightest bike possible. Tire choice varies, but most people are on some narrower XC tire with an open tread design. I am an advocate of big tires not only for their comfort but also the increased traction. I have heard many people mention that they wish they also had wider tires. A triple crank is absolutely needed unless you plan on being on the podium everyday. Andreas Hestler, one of the faster riders around started the race on a 29er full suspension Rocky Mountain Element with a double up front and gave it up for a 26er full suspension Rocky Mountain with a triple. He said that he couldn’t do it without a granny gear, hence the bike change. If he didn’t like a double up here, you probably won’t either.


In other news, the course in Whistler was sweet. The climb was long and horrible because I was suffering so badly and my legs don’t function like normal appendages. The descents were awesome with lots of rocks and roots. Really fun, rocky roll ins were the theme on most of the downhill. People on course today were really suffering and I heard a lot of riders that weren’t happy with the course. On one hand I have sympathy for them and on the other hand I think that you shouldn’t come here and sign up for what promises to be a technically challenging race and then complain when there are “too many” rocks on one of the stages or you feel it's too steep.


Finishing today was a great accomplishment and it was really nice to get off my bike and know that I don’t have to ride tomorrow. I’m looking forward to the party tonight and getting home and seeing my family on the flipside.

Post race blog coming soon….

Photos by
Todd Weselake
Dave Silver
Stephen Wilde
Margus Rigia