This is a quick post to explain to John Harrington (facebook discussion on 24 August ) about clipping tires.

(There is more, but I couldnt screen shoot the whole thing- was born in the 70s)

These Specialized Captain 2.00 tires  clogged with mud at XTERRA Vermont in 2009 (Read more about the race, rotten foot and tire story here)  Not knowing Vermont, I didnt bring real mud tires, so I had to make do, so I used a sharp wire cutter and clipped every 2nd knob out of the center line of knobs. Which would help the mud shed (fling off) the tire easier when speed increase.

Real mud tires are narrow (sinks to the bottom of the mud where the real traction is) with few, but tall knobs. Tall knobs provide more grip (like paddles or spikes) and few because, too many knobs will let the mud pack onto the tire  and make a thick sausage like the pic above.

Downhill racers are famous for cutting tires to suit certain courses.

Off course, a rainy pre race taper allows for plenty of cutting time, so here is my product. Cant see on the pic, I clipped every 2nd knob out of the center row  of this Specialized Captain for better mud clearing.

Of course, its a tedious job, it takes seemingly hours and 1 slight mishap and you can throw the tire in the garbage.

Before the new fast rolling  Specialized Renegade  tire the Specialized Factory Team (especially Susi and Burry) used to cut the Fast Trak knobs shorter for less rolling. (and less stopping/cornering 🙂 ) But now they’d cut Fast Trak tires for more grip on somewhat muddy courses. If it gets real muddy, they’ll go with a full on mud tire. Except Burry. He just sticks to low knobs and goes with the sliding- I saw it 1st hand at Sani2C…

I interviewed Chris McCormack for I am Specialized.

All pictures by Nils Nilsen

My dad is right- one can count a humans’ age like a tree- by the number of rings it has.  My dad says he is at the age where you can count the rings around his knees. One can count the number of USA XTERRA Titles I have won by the number of rings I have when smiling and squinting into the sun… (its 7, if you cant bother to count)

Seriously, check out why my dad will kick your dads ass HERE.

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So, you are a trail mashing mofo; gnarliest of the gnar. Yes, you are a fit machine and can ride. You have skills. Skills, eh? How about swimming, mountain biking and running — as in consecutively… in one day… at race pace?

Whaddya say? That off-road triathlon stuff — Xterra — isn’t for true mountain bikers? It’s so easy even a caveman could do it?

Straight-up fact: The Caveman does make it look easy. And the Caveman will make it look easy as he smokes you out on some technical singletrack — on a big-wheeled bike, no less.

He isn’t racing Xterra — yet — on a 29er, Conrad Stoltz rides his Specialized Epic 29er the rest of the time. CHECK OUT MORE PHOTOS IN THE SLIDESHOW BELOW Photo by Seth Lightcap

A couple of weeks ago I did an interview and shoot with Singletrack.com editor Jamie Bate (and photoman Seth Lightcap) in Truckee. We talked 29er, kicked some ideas around and I have to say I’m quite stoked with the result. This website has some real meat to it. Informative, technical material for the serious trail rider.

Here is the complete article from SingleTrack.com

Visit Stoltz29.org for my 29er manifesto

Melanie McQuaid, myself, Shonny Vanlandingham and Josiah Middaugh “teaching” The Art of XTERRA at the Paul Mitchell XTERRA University.  Pics by Nils Nilsen

I dont have 3hrs to write a good race report right now, but I know monday everyone spends half the day on their Facebook and reading about the weekends race results before real work starts, so here is a quick little something something about the weekend.

I’m driving to Reno today (9hrs) so I can get back to training for Maui in 4 weeks.

I finished 2nd behind Nico Lebrun on this mountain goat course, but nailed my 7th XTERRA USA Series title. More about this tomorrow.

This is a quick peek at this whirlwind weekend.

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