Bike Stable Part 1

Throughout the coming posts I will be sharing my repertoire of bicycles. I currently have four in total with a fifth on its way (apparently it's on backorder).

First up is my 2008 Kona Hei-Hei. My first mountain bike I ever purchased. I got a Kona because the first bike I competed on was a hand-me-down from my dad. I liked it so figured why not try another.

Up until last summer, I rode almost exclusively on this bike. It was my primary bike in all of my 24 hour races and go-to bike for any O-Cups or U-Cups. I also brought it on a training trip to Sun Valley, Idaho and used it for some serious climbing and descending.

SIDE STORY ALERT
Sun Valley is more of a ski place than bike place. On the day I arrived the stores ad already closed so I couldn't ask where the trails are. I decided to climb the cat tracks to the top of the nearby mountain. The base is around 5000ft. The top is just under 10,000ft. Either way I was huffing and puffing like crazy as my normal altitude is just 250ft.

ANYWAYS this is almost at the top but even in June, the top was still covered in snow. The ascent was 1hr 45min of pure agony. The descent was like nothing I had ever done before, the rotors were glowing hot and I was getting a lot of brake fade. I tried to cool them off with snow on the side of the trail but they manged to burn all the way through a hunk of ice and imprint my glove. As the trip went on I got the ascent down to 40 minutes and a lot more comfortable on high speed downhills. It only took me twelve days to go through a brand new set of brake pads.
END SIDE STORY



I'm pretty sure the only original part of this bike is the frame and fork. Everything else has been replaced due to preference or wear and tear. The original wheels were FSA XC300's - they looked sick and weighed nothing but the rims got bent all the time - I was preriding the Canada Cup at Hardwood the day before the race. As I was coming down boneshaker the front rim collapsed. I bought Deore XT wheels almost immediately and have been very satisfied, they are bomb proof. I also discovered the magic of tubeless tires to go along with it!

The bike has more than enough travel for anything in Ontario and does a decent job climbing the really tough stuff. Now with the addition of my hard-tail, I only use it when doing 24 hour races or the really bumpy or wet courses.