Last Friday, Neil and Phil were joined by Cycle Monkey friend Charlie for a day in Monterey at Sea Otter Classic, one of the bicycle industry's largest festivals. Sea Otter is the event at which most companies debut their most anticipated new products, so our trip to Laguna Seca raceway, where the festival is held, gave us a chance to do some important product research. After a long day at the festival seeing old friends and checking out new products, we got a chance to get an evening ride in at the neighboring Fort Ord National Monument.
The day started with a two hour drive south to Monterey, where we were thankful for a relatively uncrowded day before most of the festival-goers arrived for the weekend. We took Neil’s Oxide Battleaxe and Surly Krampus with us to walk and ride around the festival grounds, offering people a chance to check out the Rohloff SPEEDHUB and Gates Carbon Drive system. The bikes were quite the conversation starter, as plenty of people asked us about the innovative dual-chain jackshaft design on the Battleaxe or the belt drive conversion on the Krampus. Aside from conversations, both bikes generated even more lingering stares from passers-by.
After the morning fog burned off, the day turned out to be pleasant and sunny. We spent the most of the day walking around to different booths and scouting out products we may be able to use for builds in the Monkey Lab. Of particular interest were the Rockshox Bluto fatbike suspension fork and the 29+ compatible MRP Stage fork, both of which will greatly expand the versatility and range of fatbikes. Other new fork options include RockShox’s inverted RS-1 fork, with carbon uppers and clearance for 29+ tires, as well as Lauf’s 29er fork, which has no moving parts and is very promising for bikepacking or touring applications where minimal maintenance is a top concern. We also took a look at new fatbike rims from Whiskey Parts Co. and Sun Ringle. After making the rounds at the booths we caught some of the racing action, while cheering on another friend who had entered the Enduro race. The course looked so thrilling and the racers seemed to be having so much fun that we told ourselves we would sign up to race next year.
After a full day browsing the festival grounds, we made our way back to the car to change and head out for a ride. Neil grabbed his suspension-equipped Krampus and Phil took his rigid Krampus while Charlie rode his Santa Cruz Tallboy LT. We started the ride at the beginning of the cross country race course, heading up and over the top of the ridge into Ford Ord, which has a large intertwining network of fireroads and singletrack on a sprawling 15,000 acres. An up-and-down rollercoaster climb along the ridgeline dropped down into a very fun, twisty section of singletrack that flowed on for a few miles.
At the bottom, we climbed up the other side of the valley and rode some more fireroads along the ridge. Many sections of the trail were very sandy because we were so close to the ocean and were a perfect match for the Krampus’ large tires. The three inch wide tires mounted to 50mm wide rims provided good traction in the sandy sections while still rolling fast on the hardpack. One particularly exhilarating part of the trail led us down a steep, technical chute that was covered in sand. Although we fishtailed down the trail a bit as the tires dropped down ruts into small sandpits, we had the confidence to take the chute at speed.
We climbed another long fireroad as it got dark and made it to the car just at dusk, just as the fog began rolling in from the sea. Exhausted and satisfied, we packed up and drove back home.
To watch the video from our ride on the trails of Fort Ord, sign up for our email newsletter that will be sent out this weekend.
-Phil
We'd love to hear stories and see pictures of your Rohloff and Schlumpf equipped bikes in action! Send them to adventures@cyclemonkey.com
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