Ballin' On A Budget at the Stone King Rally

The Stone King Rally is a six day enduro race that takes place on the border of France and Italy, racking up a total of 8,014 meters of climbing and 20,297 meters of descending. The terrain is big, with mountains looming in every direction, and the days are long, often including multiple hours of hike-a-bike to get from one stage to another. It's the type of bucket list event where prior preparation is key – an extensive packing list is sent out beforehand, full of items intended to make sure that participants and their bikes make it through all of the days in one piece.

I read that packing list closely and put together two duffle bags full of carefully selected gear. My favorite riding shorts, a fancy rain jacket, clipless pedals and fresh shoes, spare parts, a first aid kit – I was quite pleased with my packing job when I checked my bags at the airport in Vancouver. Unfortunately, all of that preparation went out the window when my bike and luggage disappeared into the black hole known as the Montréal–Trudeau International Airport.

That's how I found myself in a Decathlon store in Nice, France, trying to find enough gear to get through a few days of racing, hoping that my bags would show up eventually. As it turned out, my bike did arrive in time for the third day of the race (I was able to borrow a Santa Cruz Bronson demo bike for the first two days), but the rest of my gear never made it. That meant I ended up going the whole week with the following items:


That may look like a pretty long list of stuff, but I can assure you there were more than a few things that would have been nice to have. Soap being one of them...

Gloves that were the right size and didn't rip after a single day would have been appreciated, and a sleeping bag that was more than a glorified blanket would also have come in handy. In any case, I figured it'd be interesting to dig a little deeper into my bare-bones setup to see what worked and what didn't.



Apparel

The two synthetic shirts that I bought actually performed pretty well, especially considering their 6 Euro price tag. I'd considered doing the race with just a cotton t-shirt, but I'm glad I didn't go that route. There were enough temperature swings that being stuck with a wet, clammy shirt wouldn't have been ideal. The polyester tees dried quickly and didn't really smell all that bad, as long as I was able to get them aired out before the next day of racing.

The weave of the fabric is a little coarse, and the sleeves are a little short, which I mainly noticed on those really hot days when I wanted to wipe sweat from my forehead. Overall, this purchase worked better than expected, although I'd be willing to pay a little more for a softer fabric and better fit.

Shorts

I splashed out a whopping 18 Euro on these shorts, initially planning on using them for swimming in the Mediterranean. They're obviously very stylish and did a great job of allowing my white thighs to get more sun than they're used to. The gap between the shorts and the knee pads I borrowed is pretty special too. As good as they look, they ended up being a little, um, snug, in the crotch area for extended riding. They did hold a phone in the right pocket well, which is something that can't be said for all MTB-specific shorts. Much to the disappointment of the other racers, I ended up borrowing a pair of shorts that fit much better, which reduced the risk of burning the crap out of my thighs and blinding innocent bystanders.


Shoes & Pedals

FiveTen's Sleuth DLX shoes are casual flat pedal shoes that work well for dirt jumping, pumptrack riding, and shorter rides. The rubber isn't the stickiest in their lineup, and the soles aren't all that stiff. Still, I was glad that I wore these on the plane instead of the slip-on Vans that I'd considered; that would have made for an even more challenging week. While I would have preferred a more supportive sole, I did make it through the whole week without any blisters or hot spots, and the shoes are still in reasonably good shape. There's a small amount of delamination happening near the toe on the left shoe, but I'll be able to fix that with some Shoe Goo.

The real culprit was the Crankbrothers Stamp plastic pedals that I bought. At the shop they looked fairly wide, and the pins seemed tall enough that I figured I'd be fine. Turns out, I was wrong. The Stamp plastic pedals have a convex profile, meaning that they're thicker in the center than they are at the outer edges. In addition, that plastic around the axle is very slippery, which meant my feet were constantly getting knocked out of place - I spent way more time than I would have liked doing a quick seat bounce in order to get my feet re-centered on the pedals.


Hydration Pack

I try to avoid wearing a pack whenever possible these days – I usually stash as much as I can on or in my bike, and then wear a small hip pack. However, when it comes to carrying enough gear for an all-day ride there's really no avoiding it. This vest-style Evadict 5L running pack from Decathlon caught my eye, and the 25 Euro price sealed the deal. Even when fully loaded with snacks and my bulky raincoat thing it stayed in place, and there was just enough room to carry what I'd need for each day. There's not a ton of internal organization, and the stretchy mesh pocket on the outside is a little shallow, but still, for the price it's a handy little pack.

Helmet

Wearing a heavy full face for an entire day of riding can take its toll, which is why I went with Specialized's lightweight, DH-certified Gambit helmet. At only 640 grams and with plenty of ventilation, including a generous opening in the front of the chin bar, it's a good option for a race like this, where there's lots of pedaling and pushing.

For an actual DH race or doing lift-served park laps I'd go with something more substantial, but in this case it was the right tool for the job. I luckily kept it upright so I didn't need to actually test its impact resistance, but the fit was comfortable and being able to spit or drink through the chin bar opening came in handy on multiple occasions.


Bike Setup

I rode a Santa Cruz Nomad when I attended the Trans-Provence back in 2014, so it seemed fitting to bring the new Santa Cruz Megatower along for Ash Smith's latest race creation. There's a full review of this bike on the way as part of the upcoming enduro bike Field Test, so I won't go too deep into the ride characteristics here. I will say that the geometry worked well for the variety of terrain that the race covered - it's slack enough for the steeps, but maneuverable enough for the tight switchbacks that were created hundreds of years before mountain bikes even existed. It pedals well too, especially for a bike with 165mm of travel, which meant I never had to reach for the climb lever to quiet things down.

Suspension

I spent a decent amount of time tinkering with my suspension setup before the race, even spending a day in the Whistler Bike Park going back and forth between a coil and an air shock to decide which I preferred (I chose the air-sprung Super Deluxe). All of that tinkering didn’t amount to much for the first two days of the race when I was on a borrowed Bronson, but the four big days of riding I did get in on the Megatower ended up being a good way to validate my setup.

As the race progressed the only real changes I made were to the low-speed compression on both the fork and shock. With my overall level of fatigue building, I started to give comfort a higher priority over support and began backing off the compression. This resulted in a softer overall setup, which helped out when rolling blind into awkward, rocky sections of trail. Even with the compression lowered the fork rode high enough in its travel to prevent it from feeling like I was getting pitched over the bars. I'd say the changes felt similar to what you'd experience when dropping a few psi from your tires, something I wasn't willing to do due to all those aforementioned rocks.

My pressures and settings for my 160 lb weight were as follows (all clicks are from closed):

RockShox SuperDeluxe Ultimate shock: 160 psi / 30% sag. HSC: 4. LSC: 2 at start, switched to 4
RockShox Zeb Ultimate: 55 psi, 1 token. HSC: 4. LSC: 7, switched to 12. Rebound: 8.


Tires

The Megatower I used for the Stone King was still wearing the Continental Kryptotal tires that it was set up with for the recent enduro bike Field Test. I'd been impressed with the traction and overall feel of those DH-casing tires in Bellingham, so I figured I might as well put some more miles in on them overseas to see how they held up.

As it turns out, they worked extremely well, and even with that Supersoft compound the rubber isn't worn nearly as much as I'd expected. I ran 21 psi up front and 23 in the rear and didn't have any punctures, despite taking some poor lines through several high-speed sections where sharp rocks seemed to be perfectly placed behind tall grass that made them impossible to avoid. I'm pretty picky when it comes to tires, but the Kryptotal's have more than made the grade – they're currently sitting near the top of my list when it comes to favorite aggressive tires.




The Takeaway

Despite the fact that my luggage never showed up, the race went about as smoothly as I could have hoped. Every day had its highs and lows (feeling nauseous and puking on day three was probably the lowest low – maybe I shouldn't have drank that stream water...), but overall I usually found myself focusing solely on the trail and my surroundings rather than worrying about my gear.

Rolling with a bare-bones kit actually makes things easier - the part of your brain that would normally deal with thoughts like, "What should I wear tomorrow?" is freed up for other tasks, like figuring out what flavor of gelato to try. As fun as it is to nerd out on all the nuances of bikes and components, it's the actual act of riding that will always be the best part.

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Want to hear more about the Stone King Rally? Give episode 132 of the Pinkbike Podcast a listen here.
Riding & bike check photos: Sven Martin