Off To the Races

Steve Crandall, Justin Kosman and I leave SNAFU HQ tomorrow for Las Vegas and the 2009 Interbike trade show. Personal plans include blogging a product preview on some of my personal favorite new technologies, and avoiding booze for 84 hours. The former should be easy—the latter will be difficult.

Here's a peak at something I've been lusting after for years:

SRAM XX 2x10 MTB drivetrain

That's a CNC'ed billet 9-cog cassette with an 11-tooth cog that fastens the entire assembly to SRAM's best 135mm OLN rear hub. Ten in the back + two up front = double XX. It makes perfect sense. My current favorite bike in my stable has a 1x9 drivetrain: a set of Mayweather tubular BMX cranks with a 36-tooth chainwheel up front and a 9-speed XT 11/34 (or is it a 32?) cassette. All the gears I could possibly need for most rides on most roads, plus that 36/34 for climbing anything but the steepest trails in the avacado orchards above the Temecula valley. Conclusive proof that complicated-er is not always best-er.

More tech BS this Wednesday…

Off To the Races