Sometime in early July 2010 I decided I would do the Butte 50 portion of the Butte 100 endurance mountain bike race. I had been riding and training from 5-12 hours a week since May and I decided I had enough fitness to warrant a try at this type of race. I knew I had NO chance of doing well, and also a big chance I wouldn’t even finish but I figured regardless of outcome I would know if this type of racing is something I wanted to do. I had a bike that was totally wrong for this type of race, I was over 200 lbs in bodyweight, and the longest I had ever ridden any type of bicycle was about 5 hours. But I wanted to do it, and I had been riding more than I have in years in the spring and summer.
The Butte 50 Part 2: The Bike
I had one mountain bike at this time, which is a 07 Santa Cruz Heckler full suspension bike with 6 inches of travel. It weighs about 35 pounds which is ridiculous for any sort of race bike other than for downhill. Using this bike for this race is like racing a bobsled in a XC ski race. You basically push it uphill, but the downhills are pretty fun! But it is my only bike so I am using it. I decided to prep it as best I could for limited funds and time.
I figured the drivetrain was most critical and had to be basically new to ensure no problems out on the course. I go through bottom brackets pretty quick being 200 lbs and my current BB was toast and making bad noises. I had crappy Shimano XT Octalink cranks/BB but they never seemed to last or not make noise in some fashion. So I got a whole new setup with Truvativ Stylo GXP’s, and a new chain and cassette. Also I redid my shifter cables. The Stylo’s with the outboard bearings felt solid as hell, but time will tell if they last.
I got some new ODI Rogue Lock-on grips, which are softer large diameter grips which are good for my bigger hands. I had ODI Ruffians on before, but they are too hard. I replaced my 90mm stem with a 120mm I had lying around, as the size Medium Heckler frame is actually a little short in the top tube for real XC riding. I have dealt with it for years but any steep extended climbing was pretty unpleasant. Downhill of course was super fun having a shorter bike to whip around so I had always tolerated the less than optimum fit. The longer stem stretched me out over the front more and weighted the front wheel enought to really help the climbing. The final cockpit modification was some bar ends. I got the smaller Serfas type which really helped by giving me alternate hand positions during climbing. I have issues with carpal-tunnel and hand numbness and need all the help I can get to be able to move them around during rides and not keep them in the same position for too long.
Tires: My rear tire was a slow rolling Maxxis Minion 2.3 which is kept on there. I had a Maxxis ADvantage 2.4 on the front which I replaced with a WTB MutanoRaptor 2.4 which is actually like a 2.2 in width. In hindsight I really should have replaced the rear but I didn’t want to spend any more money than I already had. The WTB front I had laying around from when I did the 24 Hours of Rapelje, a fantastic event, a few years before which was also the last time I had raced my bike.
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