Novato Ridge Ride: JEP Downhill

Garmin Connect

Great Marin Singletrack: Crosshairs Trail, Backside of China Camp

Some Sweet Novato, CA Singletrack

Video: Middle Finger Trail, Novato CA

Here is a trail off the "ridge" in Novato, CA. Get out and ride!

Awesome Trail Video from Nate Hills

Awesome trail footage from Nate Hills YouTube. This guy has some of the best footage I have ever watched. I recommend you follow his YouTube

Shimano Zee Brake Review

I have been contemplating putting some stronger brakes on my Mach 6 for a while now. I am a 200+ pound rider and I didn't feel like the power I was getting from my XT brakes was cutting it.

I have ridden with XT brakes on my last two bikes and they were great most of the time. What I started to notice though was they got a little soft after long/fast decents. I don't think this was as much the brakes fault as is the fact that I am an aggressive heavier than average rider. Another thing that I noticed about the XT brakes that some people love but I don't is the quick "grab". When I hit my brakes the initial bite was immediate and strong, but I noticed I had to squeeze harder and harder until I was getting forearm fatigue to get additional power out of them.

So I decided it was time to upgrade, I did some research, talked to friends, looked at pictures, you know how it is, really got myself all worked up with "new brake envy"...I looked into a few different option. On the high end of things were the Magura M7's and Shimano Saints, middle ground were the Shimano Zee's and SRAM RSC's as well as some Hopes and Formulas.

After deciding there was now way in hell I was going to spend $700 plus the M7's and Saints were quickly eliminated. So I started looking a little deeper into Zee's and RSC's. The Zee's from what I can tell and feel are identical to the Saints with the exceptions of the gold accents and tool-less adjusting reach. But lets be honest, how often are you adjusting reach?? In most cases I have adjusted my reach once and then never messed with it again so the tool-less "feature" was useless to me. As for the gold accents....well the color honestly isn't what the "upgrade" is. The hose fittings are a little longer, because when bombing downhill some hardcore riders were getting this to pinch on the first Saints so Shimano made it longer and made it anodized gold. Again, a great feature for pro downhill riders but not so much me.

I have ridden bikes with Saint brakes and they were amazing, but let me be honest, the Zee's feel the exact same and are half the price. As for the RSC's I have heard great things but my local bike shop showed me that more R, RS and RSC brakes get turned in for warranty than any other brand in the area, that was enough for me to take them off the list.

So onto my Zee's, I had them installed on my bike and the next day went out and bombed some fire roads to get them set in. After my 3rd or 4th decent a switch was flipped and these brakes came to LIFE! Chip your teach on the stem type of power. What I love about them is that I feel more in control of the power, I can start slow and get more aggressive and thats what the brakes do, unlike the XT's with that hard initial hit. It took me a few close calls to remember that I didnt have to slam into these brakes. The four ceramic pistons really do a great job here.

So for around $300 I feel that I got the most bang for my buck. I highly recommend these brakes for anyone looking for more power, riding downhill on a budget or who weighs more than the average rider.

Five Ten Kestrel Lace Review

I purchased the Kestrel Lace from Five Ten right when they became available in February of 2016. I have been a little hesitant of laced mountain bike shoes. But I loved the way these shoes looked and I heard they were going to be about 15% less stiff than the original kestrel shoes. I do some walking when our riding and a super stiff shoe makes the fact that you are hiking instead of riding that much worse.

I have been using Shimano M200's great shoe but super stiff and I was actually experiencing some foot pain, I am not sure if its just the fact they were getting some miles on them or if I was over tightening them....They have a boa type and ratchet type closure system.

The Kestrel lace on the other hand are just that, classic lace up shoes...Out of the box I was was pleased with the appearance. When I tried to flex the sole I was extremely surprised how stiff they felt in hand, so I immediately put them on and was shocked at how stiff they were, and these are 15% less than the original boa type kestrel's? WOW. I have heard that Five Tens are super stiff and let me tell you, if this shoe which is supposed to be a little less stiff is any representation of then you will not be disappointed.

I think what I like about them most is that I can get them to the perfect fit, it always seemed that my ratchet type shoes were either to tight or to loose, and my boa type were the same, I couldn't get them perfect.

When I picked these shoes up we were experiencing some very needed wet weather here in Marin County and I put these shoes to the test right away, they never claimed to be waterproof and they weren't, but they did dry out quickly and were not super uncomfortable when wet.

All in all these are the best shoes I have every purchased when it comes to the clippless shoe game. I highly recommend them.

Link to Five Ten:
http://www.fiveten.com/us/kestrel-lace-onix-yellow