Bikepacking: S24O to Cienega Cyn.

Took a trip last night to "The Wilds" of a nearby canyon; part gear refinement, part me refinement.  S24O stands for Sub 24hour Overnighter and is designed to just get ya out of the the house and into the hills, but back at home the next morning.

Sweet stuff.  Feels like a mini vacation.

Film at 11:00.

SS Leviathan

Now this has me thinkin'.

Good is Good

It has been my fortune to be able to ride some nifty bikes lately, most recently the Specialized Epic Marathon. This has let me compare a more modern approach to a 29er FS to my trusty Lenzsport Leviathan 3.0.

The Epic has slightly shorter chainstays, a longer toptube, a much stiffer front end/fork combo, the correct offset and fork height for the frame, hydroformed tubing, and the super Brain Shock tech working for it, all backed by the might of a mega bike company with cutting edge resources and multimedia all over the place.

The Lev has old geometry, 18" chainstays, a 3/4" shorter top tube (also an XL frame), a pretty stiff front triangle paired with a noodly old Reba, was never meant to run at 100mm (designed around 80mm) and has the wrong fork offset for the slacker HT angle, no hydroformed tubes, but plenty of hand formed and nicely welded aluminum pieces, and Propedal is required to keep it from being a bunny rabbit when pedaled vigorously, all backed by one man...Devin Lenz from a one man shop in Colorado who has not updated his website since WWII.

The Epic is more agile, steers more precisely, has the amazing Brain, and has better overall balance.

But.

It is amazing how well the aging Leviathan holds up to times passing. I rode it again last night on the group night ride. I could feel the flexy Reba and the slightly slow steering when it needed to dance a jitterbug and not a salsa beat. And, I needed to do the Propedal Boogie to keep it climbing well AND descending well, but honestly other than that, it is a great bike still. If I upgraded the fork, say to a Fox 100mm with 15QR, that stiffer front end and increased offset would be a big improvement. I can't help the longer rear stays and shorter TT nor can I do much about the RP23 needing Propedal to perform well, and frankly, that is not a big deal to me, but it goes to show how well done the Lev was from the get-go.

Devin at Lenzsport continues to push the envelope of 29ers with his Milk Money FS SS and the PBJ 7" travel 29er models. I know the new Levs have shorter chainstays, tapered HTs, and longer TTs available. It goes to show how a little fish can still be relevant in a big pond.

Besides that, he is a darn nice guy.

Mr. Lenzsport, Devin Lenz

The Green After the Rain

It does not take much for So Cal to green up a bit. After the cold storm that rolled through on Monday, there was snow on all the surrounding mountains above 3500'. It did not last, but the rain that accompanied it is really bringing the grass alive. No wildflowers yet.

Lev in repose, caught during a quick after work spin o' the legs.

Still the Right Dance Partner?

I am not sure if you understand this, but when I was shopping for an FS 29er, I wanted to purchase a great dance partner. I say that because on some level, a really good bike compliments the rider, lets them lead without much argument, and then simply moves to the music. Dancing, indeed.

This past month I have been able to throw a leg over most of the latest and greatest 29er FS bikes. It has been interesting to see how the new crowd of wunderbikes compares to my old gal, the Lenz Leviathan. From the rocky trails of Bootleg Cyn to most recently a few hours spent comparing a Jet-9 to a RIP-9 for twentynineinches.com, I have a pretty good idea how they compare, at least for an old weekend warrior like me.

I won't repeat my findings at Bootleg, you can go read that here , and the RIP vs. JET is posted here to read as well, but I will sum up a bit as thoughts come to me. I don't think the Lev 3.0 that I own is better at any one particular thing than any other bike I rode. There is no 'best' bike. But so far, nothing other than the Big Mama from Salsa (and my time on that was limited) has impressed me in its ability to do nearly everything very well and some things really well, and the Levs are lighter than pretty much all the others in that genre. Is light weight everything? Nope. But it does not hurt the final result to start a build with a lighter frame.

I would not hesitate to take the Lev on a multi hour ride with tons of climbing, race it in the endurance environment, etc, and yet I rode it from Hazzard down to Porc Rim and while more travel would have been welcome, it never felt anything but competent and steady. Remarkable, really.

I do find myself thinking about more travel both front and rear. There are bikes that fill that notch really well now, the RIP, the Big Mama, the Sultan, and more. I am tempted to cheat on the Lenz folks (well, Devin, really...just one guy building them critters), but I would sure miss that Lev's all around goodness.

Maybe I need to start looking for a 4" Lev and a 120mm fork. Maybe THAT would be the killer app. Meanwhile, despite a lot of winks and whispers from other babes out there, I am still taking the same ol' gal back home from the dance.