Bootleg Canyon on a Sunday

What do you do when the weather in your area is interfering with your riding? You take a road trip and head for the dryer parts of the country! This past weekend I loaded up the car and headed down to Boulder City, NV for a fun weekend of downhilling and product testing.
Some people think I’m nuts for driving 17 hours just for a weekend of riding! Yes the drive is indeed pretty long; there is no doubt about that! BUT once you have your helmet strapped on, goggles secured and you’re bombing down snakeback – you quickly forget about the drive and it’s all about the RIDE!

Since I hate dealing with traffic, I left around 3:30am Friday morning and drove throughout the night, which put me in Boulder City around lunch time. Had some food then decided to go check out Hoover Dam. I had never been there before – didn’t realize it was so close to Boulder City! Hoover Dam was built during the Depression and took less than five years, in a harsh and barren land, to build the dam. Now, years later, Hoover Dam still stands as a world-renowned structure. The Dam is a National Historic Landmark and has been rated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of America's Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders. The Dam sits in between Arizona and Nevada. Giant clocks are situated on the dam's intake towers. They indicate the time difference between Mountain Standard Time (Arizona) and Pacific Time (Nevada). Pretty impressive!





Saturday I got up pretty early all anxious to ride; downed a few cups-of-joe, ate breakkie and headed over to Bootleg Canyon where I met up with a few riding buddies. ‘Get er done’ Dave from All Mountain Cyclery was our shuttle driver for the weekend. All Mountain Cyclery are the ones providing shuttles to the top of Bootleg Canyon during the weekends. Shuttles start between 9am and 9:30am and typically go until dark.

Kevin and Jesse getting ready to ride
I hadn’t touched the big bike since Northstar-at-Tahoe closed back in September of 2005. Needless to say that during my first run, I felt (and also probably looked) like I was just learning how to ride a DH bike all over again. But this feeling only lasted a run of two – it was all back to normal after that! This was also my first ride on the all new 2006 Iron Horse Sunday.


After Interbike Todd Seplavy at Iron Horse was kind enough to send me a 2006 Sunday for product testing. What changed for 2006? Well the 06 Sunday comes with a new lower link, which now gives you the option of running a Fox DHX damper – the new lower link is pretty easy to spot as it’s red anodize. Other than that, the frame is pretty much the same as the 2005 edition. The 06 frames will all come with dw-link tuned Progressive 5th Elements, but like I said above, you will be able to run a Fox DHX. If you have a 2005 Sunday and would like to use a Fox DHX; you will be happy to know that the 2006 lower link is available through Iron Horse.

New Iron Horse Sunday Lower Link
All the little beefs I had with the 05 Sunday have been addressed with the new 06. Better paint (mine was pretty weak), new lower link (so you fit a DHX) and stronger shock mounting hardware (which I already have on mine). Dave Weagle really had his numbers down - the geometry on the Sunday is simply spot on! And what can I say about the DW-Link: it just damn works! When you pedal it on flat grounds - it doesn't seem so earth shattering...but where it shines it when you start mashing hard on the pedals when going DOWNHILL!!


DW-Link has a parabolic shaped path with a tight curve, rearward path just near and above sag. You simply have to ride one to understand. It corners like its on rails, feels super good over square edge hits and carries its speed over rough terrain like no other bike I’ve ridden in the past.
I honestly thought the 05 Sunday was perfect, I loved everything about it – that’s until I got to ride the 06 Sunday. Not that the bike feels that much different, but I personally feel the bike works so much better with the DHX than it did with the progressive shock. Not that the Progressive damper is a bad unit, but more that the Fox is a better one ;o)

The simple fact that I will be riding my Sunday again next year should be an indication of how much I like this bike. This will be my first time ever riding the same bike two years in a row (other than when I had my DHi way back when, but that was my FIRST DH bike...wasn't sure if I would like DHing at the time). I’m going to get the new 06 links and simply upgrade my current 05 Sunday with a Fox DHX.


Heck, I was so impressed with the Sunday last year that I bought a 7POINT7 and just recently ordered a 06 MK III Team, which was delivered yesterday! yay! I think I finally found a bike I like! Not only in performance, but in looks! With its traditional front and rear triangle, my Sunday almost looks like an XC bike when you look at it from the side - that is really appealing to me.

The frame I tested was fully kitted with all the latest goodies: 06 RockShox BoXXer WC, X0 triggers/derailleur, Avid Juicy 7, e.thirteen LG-1 chainguide, e.thirteen Ali Stem, DT Swiss FR 2350 wheelset, SDG I-Beam post and saddle, Truvativ bars and Truvativ Holzfeller cranks with Howitzer BB. It weighs in at less than 40lbs (about 39lbs)…that’s pretty good for a DH bike.


As with the 05 Sunday, the 06 bike is well balanced and begs to go faster. In fact the Sunday inspires so much confidence, that I sometimes have tendency to go faster and take gnarlier lines than I would have otherwise taken with my previous DH bikes. And even more so with the 06 bike than I did with the 05! Why? The 5th Element on the 05 Sunday worked pretty damn well for the most part, but at times the rear end of the bike would get “bucked”. Most noticeable when hitting a mid size rock/rut or speed bump at speed. It’s like the damper wouldn’t have time to absorb the hit and would jerk the back just a bit. When attacking a technical section that can sometimes scare the living piss out of you. Well with the DHX that is a thing of the past! You can use a light spring, set it up pretty soft and not worry about bottoming out since you can control that via the Bottom out control. The Bottom-out control on the DHX only affects the last part of the compression stroke which gives you a nice compliant ride overall.

Okay - where is that shuttle?

Mated with the smooth buttery travel of the 2006 RockShox BoXXer World Cup – the Sunday becomes the ultimate DH weapon. Before I go into details about the new BoXXer, I would like to warn all you long time BoXXer users out there: start saving your pennies now! Once you get ride time on the new WC fork, you will not want to go back to your HC2 BoXXer.

Once upon a time, there was this unobtainable fork that used to only bee seen on BlackBox racers bikes. But that is a thing of the past – finally you can bolt that same BlackBox technology on your own bike. Jeremiah Boobar, BlackBox Product Manager at SRAM/RockShox, and his team really came through and has given us (consumers) a product that really surpasses its predecessors.


The 06 BoXXer World Cup is stictionless right out of the box and can be adjusted to any rider weight with the simple use of a shock pump. No more messing around trying to find the right spring combo of your weight. Simply break out the shock pump and fill up this single valve, which will simultaneously fill both positive and negative air chambers, fork setup is simplified, while retaining the light weight and plush ride.

In addition to Solo Air, the WC uses the Maxle DH system and Motion Control damping. The Maxle DH system is easy and only required one 6mm hex wrench to install/remove. This also allowed RockShox to do away with the lower leg pinch bolts.

The blue knob on top of the right leg controls low speed compression damping. This is what you would use to control pedal bob, brake dive and fork sensitivity. I found that two clicks of compression (e.g. turn clockwise towards the “+”) damping worked well for me. But that’s all dependent on rider style, weight, and preference.


I asked Jeremiah to give us more info about the SpeedStack and this is what he had to say:

"To control high speed compression on the 06 BoXXer World Cup, RockShox utilizes a secondary high speed shim stack that they call the "BlackBox SpeedStack". The SpeedStack becomes active when the Flood gate valve opens. On the top of the left fork leg above the blue low speed compression knob is the gold Flood gate knob. With the SpeedStack in place the Flood gate knob becomes a high speed compression adjuster. By turning the Flood gate knob clockwise (indicated by the "+" sign) you increase the amount of force required to open the Flood gate valve and activate the SpeedStack. By playing with this adjustment you can tune how your fork will perform on high shaft speed hits like square edges and hard jump landings."

I ran mine 3 full turns out and it seemed to work pretty well.

I can’t comment on the long term reliability of the 06 BoXXer World Cup, but I can tell you that I’m blown away by the initial impression. It’s like riding a Dual Air Pike in its plushest setting, but with 3 extra inches.

Last year I fell in love with the Sunday. After two solid days of shuttling at Bootleg Canyon, I fell in love for a second time. There is no other bike I would rather ride this year. Seek a Sunday out and try one out – you’ll know what I’m talking about.


If Dave Weagle ever decided to form a religious group – I would probably be the first one to join!

Giver’


Todd Seplavy @ Iron Horse Bicycles
Dave Weagle @ DW-Link, e.thirteen, Evil Bikes
Eric Schutt & Jeremiah Boobar @ SRAM
Dave Loner @ All Mountain Cyclery
Brent Thomson @ Bootleg Canyon
All my riding bros: Kevin, Jesse, Mani and Scott@Go-Ride
And finally Master Card for making it all happen ;o)

Only in Vegas