Marin Team CXR 29er carbon HT - first impressions

After racing the Spring Challenge on a borrowed bike, I had two weeks to figure something out for Sage Brush. Warranty replacement for the Motobecane was going to take a while, so I decided to get a new race bike. The Marin Team CXR is a carbon 29er hardtail. The frame is tube to tube construction, where carbon tubes are bonded together to make up the frame. Cool features include a tapered head tube and bent chain/seat stays with the rear caliper located inside the bend. The front end and BB areas are huge (= stiff!). It comes with Black Flag wheels and Fox RL fork with 9mm QR. I swapped out the wheels for my Stans crest wheels, and installed my old Reba with 1-1/8 steerer. Basically, I didn't see the point of a new fork with 9mm QR setup, so I planned to sell the OEM fork and upgrade to a thru axle fork and wheel eventually.

Ride impressions  Using my old wheelset and fork made for a direct comparison with the Motobecane Ti frame. The Marin climbs like a goat. It's stiffer than my old Motobecane Ti 29er, which is evident in climbing, tracking through turns, and pedaling out of the saddle. At the same time, there's a subtle smoothness to the ride. It's clearly a hardtail, but an element of mellow takes the harsh edge off the trail - even in comparison to my old Ti frame. It handles tight switchbacks nimbly, unlike some 29ers (like my FS RIP9) that navigate switchbacks like an 18 wheeler. It picks up speed super fast on the downhills. The stiffer front end definitely shows up the flexiness in my old Reba and front wheel. Need more ride time to get familiar and dial everything in, but it's good so far.

Idyllwild Spring Challenge

 I was really looking forward to the great Spring Challenge course, and a weekend in the mountains. But Tuesday before the race I discovered a crack in my frame. Not good. After some scrambling, I borrowed a bike and even got in a shake down ride. The bike was a Banshee Paradox - a 29er hardtail with super short chainstays and slack head angle. I couldn't handle it as well as Mike (it's really suited to his riding characteristics), but I could work with it. I was racing in open category so I could do the long course. At 27 miles, it's shorter than a marathon, but longer than a typical XC course. All the climbing and single track made it feel longer too.
We went out fast for the first climb up to Keen pass, and were soon on May Valley fireroad. I was pretty far into the red at this point, but there's a lot of downhill in the second half of the course, so better go at it now. The Banshee and I got acquainted on the singletrack Bonita Vista trail down to the base of Lower Southridge. Ah, Southridge: rock and root infested hike a bike climb. I do actually kind of like it, though in the race I tend to dismount readily rather than try to clear everything; the spirit's all wrong, but it's faster. I settled in back on the fireroad, enjoyed the fun singletrack section near the top of MVF, then hit town at Astrocamp. Diana met me near the top of the course to hand off some bottles... thanks D! The final climb is some nasty steep road through town. The payoff is a great downhill singletrack, Mid Southridge. I had passed Coach on the road climb but he went hauling past on the descent - Coach has skills! After the initial steep trail, we raced Snakeskin, Cahuuilla, and Tres Hombres trails. This is where the early hard climbs catch up with me. It's downhill overall, but the trail twists left, right, up, and down through lots of tech sections. In other words, awesome trails, but not the sort where you can just sit and spin. This year the final section went back across Keen meadow and down the Keen pass trail. It seemed a little easier than the usual course; at that point, I wasn't complaining. I finished in 2:57 for 3rd place (of 11) in Open men 30-39. Would've been 10/16 in Cat 1, though... keeping me humble.