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The Herald-Sun
March 24, 2005

DURHAM — Picture yourself riding a Six-13 — the bike so light, Cannondale claims they had to “add weights to the frame just to make it UCI-legal.” A plush blend of carbon fiber (hence the six – check your periodic table of elements) and aluminum (the thirteen) not your style? Then how about taking a spin on the Prophet – Mountain Biking Magazine’s pick for Bike of the Year?

Next week, you’ll get your chance.

Cannondale is touring the country, showing off its latest technology by bringing it with them. On Thursday, March 31st, Cannondale will be at the Durham Cycle Center with a full fleet of Six-13s and Prophets. Guaranteed, they’ll have one that’s your size. They’ll be back in the area, at the Clean Machine in Carrboro, on Sunday, April 3rd, to let you test ride the Prophets on some Orange County singletrack.

Demo tours offer you the chance to take one of these beauties for a “longer test ride than on an in-store bike” says Brian Bergeler, store manager at Durham Cycle Center. He adds that Cannondale’s visit promises to bring together some top-of-the-line “bikes that aren’t normally found in great quantities anywhere.”

The Prophet, with five inches of travel in the fork and the rear swing-arm, is the current pinnacle of full-suspension technology. It’s “super plush” says Matthew Lee, Carrboro resident and member of the Cannondale Mountain Bike Team. And at just under 28 lbs, the Prophet is “a lot lighter than other 5-inch travel bikes.”

The Six-13 is the bike of choice for the 2005 Lampre-Caffita team, a professional road racing team in the European circuit. The Six-13 combines aluminum downtube and chainstays with carbon fiber top tube and seatstays. The result is a rigid powertrain with a more humane, more comfortable seat.

Cannondale has long been the most innovative of the major bike manufacturers. They made their name establishing aluminum as a reliable frame material in the late 1980s. The single-pivot rear suspension design pioneered in their “Super V” model is one of the the most unique and most mimicked frame designs ever. Named for the unusual V shape to the frame, these are the beefy-but-light bikes that both the Duke and Durham Police Department’s Bike Units rely on. Advanced as the Super V was, Lee says the Prophet is a tremendous improvement.

Lee will be riding a Cannondale this summer, when he rides in the Great Divide Race for his second time. The GDR is a 2500 mile mountain bike race from Canada to Mexico along the Continental Divide. Lee did well last year; this year he’s out for a record.

But you don’t need to be a pro to visit with the Cannondale representatives next week. A longer test ride on these Ferraris of the cycling world gives you more of a feel for the bike in case you want to take one home with you. For most of us, Cannondale’s visit is a chance to throttle some of the nicest bikes in the industry. For free.

 

The Herald-Sun
Mar 9, 2005

DURHAM — If he sees one or two fresh sets of tire tracks on a wet, muddy trail, Stewart Bryan of the Durham-Orange Mountain Bike Organization gets frustrated. Three or four sets and he’s angry.

“Five or more,” Bryan jokes, “and I heat up the branding iron.”

As DOMBO’s trail construction coordinator, Bryan knows that even the best-designed trails are more delicate when wet. Keeping the flow of a well-designed trail depends on riders respecting the trail by taking a minimal-impact approach to their rides.

But recently, conscientious mountain bikers have noticed more and more ruts in the trails. Whether this is due to inexperience or to riders who just aren’t watching the weather, the local mountain bike community is now paying more attention to this issue.

The International Mountain Bike Association recommends waiting at least 24 hours for every inch of rain before hitting your local trails.

But these are just rough guidelines, since drying times might be longer depending on other factors. Freezing temperatures, for example, can extend a trail’s drying time to a week or more.

It’s taken many years of volunteer organizing and thousands of hours in meetings with politicians and land managers for mountain bikers to shake loose the “Mountain Dew” image of the sport’s youth. Repainting our bikes (and ourselves) with mud “reinforces the negative stereotype that we are destructive and unconcerned for the environment,” Bryan said.

That’s why DOMBO is more than a mountain bike club — it’s an environmental organization “dedicated to building and maintaining low-impact sustainable” trails.

Triangle cyclists bent on proving that you don’t need mountains for mountain biking still have to admit that trails in the area don’t have the benefit of steep slopes. As a result, water drains more slowly from local trails than from trails in the western part of the state. Each rut carved into a trail is a pocket where rainwater pools, and every puddle extends the drying time of the trail.

Since fewer than half of the trails in the area are managed by park officials, mountain bikers need to develop their own awareness of trail conditions. If the dirt singletrack is too wet to ride, cyclists can still ride their knobby tires on the gravel trails in Duke Forest or at Umstead State Park.

There’s always asphalt too. Yes, some mountain bikers are also roadies. “Better yet,” says Bryan, “take up another form of recreation like weight training, yoga, or table tennis, and watch [your] riding improve.”

So, the next time you’re tempted to steal a few laps in or soon after a rain and you come out muddy on the other end, remember that you’re sharing this trail with others, including your future self.