Super Rare Vendetta Sighting on the Diablo

[RojoRacing]

Spotted this sharp looking ride at the summit of Diablo and was totally surprised that my first cruzbike sighting outside of a race was at the summit of what's arguably the toughest mountain climb in the bay area. And yes he cleared the final 20% 1/4 wall without falling over which from personal experience is not easy to do even for me. It's too bad I wasn't on my Vendetta today just for this picture but the Orange and Yellow look good together.

 

[ccf]

Good to see you up there Jason. Good thing that wall climb isn’t any longer or I surely would have fallen over!

 

[RojoRacing]

I saw three riders walk up that part in the 40 mins I was up and around the summit today. Is that a Thor seat?

 

[ccf]

Yes, a Thor seat.

 

[Don1]

that is awesome

 

[DavidCH]

A couple of gGreat looking bikes (capital G for the Vendetta)

 

[DavidCH]

What goes up must come down... how was the ride down for you on the Vendetta?

Probably a bit hair raising?

 

[RojoRacing]

What goes up must come down... how was the ride down for you on the Vendetta?

Probably a bit hair raising?

New Years gets over 1000 riders maybe even 2000 on the 10 mile climb who trickle in at their leisure. For some reason hundreds of cars also find pleasure in climbing the mountain and getting stuck and frustrated behind hundreds of cyclists going 5mph who they can pass because of all the blind corners and constant traffic flowing down the mountain. It's a day to just take it very casual and expect a car in your lane on every blind corner just in case.

I bet he was loving his disc brakes even more than usual since I'm sure he was dragging them twice as much yesterday.

 

[bladderhead]

Good thing that wall climb isn’t any longer or I surely would have fallen over!

What was your minimum speed?

Probably a bit hair raising?

These days I would be more hair raised doing it on a DF. The last time I tried one it felt really precarious. On either of my bikes, what worries me is cars and holes in the road.

 

[bladderhead]

Good thing that wall climb isn’t any longer or I surely would have fallen over!

What was your minimum speed?

Probably a bit hair raising?

These days I would be more hair raised doing it on a DF. The last time I tried one it felt really precarious. On either of my bikes, what worries me is cars and holes in the road.

 

[DavidCH]

What was your minimum speed?

These days I would be more hair raised doing it on a DF. The last time I tried one it felt really precarious. On either of my bikes, what worries me is cars and holes in the road.

Ditto....

I usually ride defensively in the middle of the lane... but a couple of days there was a huge gust of wind from no where that pushed me over into the opposite lane.

Fortunately no cars

 

[Jeffrey Ritter]

Good to see you up there Jason. Good thing that wall climb isn’t any longer or I surely would have fallen over!

Hi. Would welcome knowing your front and rear gears-hope to work on climbing a lot this year! Thanks!

 

[RojoRacing]

Hi. Would welcome knowing your front and rear gears-hope to work on climbing a lot this year! Thanks!

Looked like some form of sram XX1 with that black cassette so maybe 10-42 but I'm sure Cliff will get back here with exacts.

 

[ccf]

how was the ride down for you on the Vendetta?

What Jason said, though I descended via North Gate, and there seemed to be less traffic on North Gate than on South Gate. Besides the cars, the bike traffic itself can be a challenge. Near the top I got stuck behind a rider who was braking pretty hard through every turn. I nearly rear-ended her the first time, and it took a while to get past her because she kept moving left to right in the lane.

What was your minimum speed?

4.9 mph min speed on the wall climb.

Would welcome knowing your front and rear gears

On the front I just installed a Q34 and a QXL50. On the rear I have a 10-42, 11-speed SRAM cassette with a SRAM X0 10-speed RD. I find the 34 front with 42 rear very useful for the steep hills since I have 145mm cranks.

-Cliff

 

[RojoRacing]

What Jason said, though I descended via North Gate, and there seemed to be less traffic on North Gate than on South Gate. Besides the cars, the bike traffic itself can be a challenge. Near the top I got stuck behind a rider who was braking pretty hard through every turn. I nearly rear-ended her the first time, and it took a while to get past her because she kept moving left to right in the lane.



4.9 mph min speed on the wall climb.



On the front I just installed a Q34 and a QXL50. On the rear I have a 10-42, 11-speed SRAM cassette with a SRAM X0 10-speed RD. I find the 34 front with 42 rear very useful for the steep hills since I have 145mm cranks.

-Cliff

11 speed cassette
10 speed RD
So what kind of right brifter? 11 speed?

Yeah your 145mm cranks with 42 rear probably aren't so far off my 170mm cranks and 32 rear when you consider leverage ratios. If we had been using the same pedals it would have been cool to take you bike down and try climbing the wall with the short cranks.

 

[ccf]

So what kind of right brifter? 11 speed?

11-speed, exact-actuation. Got the idea for using 10-speed exact actuation RD with 11-speed exact actuation brifter from a post by @ratz .

If we had been using the same pedals it would have been cool to take you bike down and try climbing the wall with the short cranks.

Next time. Maybe by then I'll want a real power meter bad enough to give up my Speedplays.

 

[Jeffrey Ritter]

Thanks. As a Cruzbike newbie not yet done with my first year, might you also explain the value of the shorter cranks, esp. for climbing? It almost sounds like it makes sense to have a special drivetraing/crank configuration on one bike for climbing and a second bike (YES!!) for more normal riding. All advice is welcomed.

 

[RojoRacing]

Thanks. As a Cruzbike newbie not yet done with my first year, might you also explain the value of the shorter cranks, esp. for climbing? It almost sounds like it makes sense to have a special drivetraing/crank configuration on one bike for climbing and a second bike (YES!!) for more normal riding. All advice is welcomed.

You don't get short cranks for climbing, you get short cranks because you feel they compliment you leg dimensions as some will tell you. As with many innovations, things tend to get blown out of perportion by some a passed around as the be all end all solution. Study, try first hand and decide for yourself what you feel.

 

[Jeffrey Ritter]

Thanks!

 

[ccf]

Short cranks do not help with climbing, but they don't hurt, either. They help with knees (e.g., half-squats are easier on knees than full squats). This article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11417428 indicates that you lose nothing from shorter-than-common cranks. In fact, of the five crank lengths tested, 145mm resulted in the highest power by a little bit, though the difference between 145mm and 170mm was not statistically significant.

If you go with short cranks, then you need to adjust your lowest gear ratio so that you aren't forced to push really hard on the pedals when climbing, which would defeat the knee-saving benefit. That's why I have the 42-tooth cog on the cassette and the 34-tooth ring on the front.