Jet 9 RDO for me!

I was skeptical about feeling a difference rolling over rough terrain. I have to admit I was wrong; there is definitely a difference. Turns out the physics geeks know what they're talking about and the Niner engineers did a wonderful job putting me in the right position to be in perfect control of the 29 inch wheels.

Oh yeah, and let's get this out of the way right here. Niner's Jet 9 RDO is the sexiest bike on the planet. No other bike matches the sleek curves, colors, and geometry in a way that still produces a bike that doesn't look wimpy or fragile.

The full suspension ride is at least as comfortable and responsive as my Fuel EX 9.8. The rear suspension articulation has evolved, and maybe I was biased by a discussion by Butch at Skyline, but it does seem the rear suspension remains at the same place on the bike as it moves up and down. It's a weird little difference; looking at the suspension technology you can see the Fuel EX 9.8 articulates upward more than the Jet 9 RDO, and I believe it can be felt on the dirt a tiny bit.

Front suspension wise I purposefully got a 100mm front shock instead of 120 on my other bike but haven't felt a difference so far. I doubt I will. I can't say I felt a difference with Kashima coating, although I heard the front fork squeak for the first few rides.

I'm pretty confident the most benefit I will get from this bike is the 3 lb weight loss between my two bikes. As I mentioned to a few people already the bike and I are starting to speak the same language and it's quite the ride!

Since I turned 40...

You would know all this is we were Facebook friends...

I train almost daily. I really like training. At some point I may have started enjoying training more than racing. Well, maybe more than racing and not winning.

I started using Strava which is neat in its Facebook-like social aspects and has some nice training and fitness features such as Segments. It is not perfect from a technology perspective. Uploading can be painful, especially larger files. And for some reason Strava admits to being unable to correctly identify the date and time of a session without GPS data such as a stationary trainer.

We went to Montréal for my mom's birthday. It was a nice family get together and I felt the most at ease with the rest of the family as I've ever felt. I am not really regarded as a kid anymore and it's good. I had great conversations with my aunts and uncles and even good discussions with my niece and nephews. Montréal can be an old dirty place, yet its surrounding areas are beautiful.

Late last year I got a warranty road bike frame thanx to Salt Lake City Bicycles and Trek. Unfortunately the carbon failed on the front of the left chainstay. It took awhile to get used to the Ferrari red bike I had but didn't take long at all to get used to this color.
Not long after I joined the Skyline Cycle / Young Subary race team and couldn't pass up an opportunity to build a sweet new Niner Jet 9 RDO. So far I've ridden this bike a handful of times and can definitely feel some differences between it and my Trek Fuel Ex 9.8.

In late March we went to Fruita, CO instead of Moab. That was a last minute decision made as we were driving toward I-70 discussing the possible crowds brought by the Jeep festival. Fruita is less that 40 miles further than Moab and has been on our to-do list for awhile. Fruita has done a good job at advertising and competing for the Moab mountain biking crowd.

We spent a few days there and felt it is a good option with well-organized areas for all types of abilities.

Lastly I raced my first mountain bike race as an Expert, and as expected, I am not ready to compete with that crowd. I got my ass kicked. I moved up to Expert to improve my racing and I definitely have quite the challenge ahead of me.