Something about me; I'm a terrible procrastinater. I got this frame way back in November. It's now February and I finally have a working bike. My terrible mechanic skills didn't help much (thankfully Adam Schwarcz is one of the best mechanics out there and now this bike rides so fresh). Now I can finally take this bike out. I won't get exactly as many miles to get comfortable on this bike as I had on the Cross-Check (which was near 10,000 miles probably BEFORE the Trans Am), but I am already feeling I made the right choice in a bike for Tour Divide, endurance MTB racing, and everything else. So here it is:
The Carver Gnarvester. A titanium 29+ trail eating machine. I debated between carbon fiber and titanium for a little while, carbon fiber because it tended to be cheaper (especially used), titanium because it could last forever, plus the dampening effects of ti would be nice for future touring over racing (where I think I could take some beating from carbon). In the end I figured I'd get titanium first, as strong as carbon fiber has become it still can fail from time to time, while titanium is more durable.
The cockpit is a mix and match of Ritchey, WTB, and Thomson. The seatpost is carbon Ritchey, because I figured people with carbon frames get flexy ti seatposts, so those with flexy ti frames get stiff carbon posts, right? The saddle is a Silverado I had used in cross, it may change, but I'm definitely over my Brooks love. Besides the whole animal rights thing, I've come to find that traditional saddles can be just as comfortable as Brooks, it's just finding the right one and getting it dialed in. The stem and bars are aluminum, the stem being of the Thomson variety and the bars of the Ritchey variety. Long stem and narrow bars, because that will come back in style when people realize they are destroying their shoulders.
The drivetrain is of course Shimano. SRAM is probably cool and all, but I know Shimano can take a beating to no end. One of the thing's that worries me a touch about this frame is that the wide rubber prevent me from running a front deraulleur which sort of sucks for bikepack racing, as it's about endurance, not necessarily speed, and having those tiny spinny gears at one point and not spinning out at others seems like it's necessary. Because of the lack of front deraulleur I tried to take as many shortcuts as I could. I added the Wolf Tooth Components 42 tooth megacog in the rear and in the front I got an ovalized chainring from Absolute Black. The 42 tooth is definitely necessary, I've used it and like it, the ovalized chainring I'm not sure if I really notice the benefits, I do think that my knees feel it helping.
Three inch rubber was on my list of wants for a MTB frame, not really expecting to get everything I wanted. There are not many 29+ bikes out there right now, but after searching for a ti or carbon bike that would clear these mondo tires I came across Carver, who also ticked my other boxes of replaceable sliding dropouts, 142 thru axle rear spacing, and a tapered headtube. Salsa's El Mariachi Ti came close, but missed the high volume tires. Vee Trax Fatties get the first run for 3 inch tires (like em so far). I am running a Whiskey Carbon No. 5 fork for it's tire clearance. The tires are sitting on Blunt 35s which are laced to Shimano SLX hubs; not my forever wheelset, but they work for now.
When it comes to stopping power, again Shimano wins. SLX hydros means easy oil replacement, oh and mineral oil no nasty DOT fluid. I matched these with Ice Tech rotors. I debated for half a second about mechanical for the ease of replacing, but I think mechanicals are probably more likely to fail than hydros anyway.
So there it is. This is the bike I expect to run Tour Divide on. I have only done some local riding and it really rips down firetrail, my skills on the techy stuff is lacking, so it's hard to say, but it definitely does exude confidence. Now I just need to get bags and everything else for the Tour!
