Are you Ready for Hydraulic Shifting?

Do you find yourself replacing shifter cables on a regular basis due to riding in muddy conditions?  Are you tired of cable stretch?  Frayed ends?  Pinch points?  These may all be a thing of the past.  A high end German component company, Acros, has produced a small batch of hydraulic shifters - right and left shifters, front and rear derailleurs, and all the hoses filled with mineral oil.  Acros displayed their completely sealed product, the A-GE system, at the Sea Otter Classic last month and it has drawn plenty of attention.  You can find plenty of articles discussing the A-GE system on many sites such as Pinkbike, Bike Radar, Bike Mag and Bike Rumor.  I am by no means any sort of subject matter expert so I will simply give you the gist of what all these sites are reporting.

Dream the Design

This is not the first attempt at a hydraulic system and this isn't even Acros' design.  These hydraulic shifters originally appeared at Eurobike in 2006 as designed by Christophe Muthers as 5-rot.  Due to limited resources, Muthers was unable to get the idea to production on his own.  Muthers approached Acros in 2009 to complete the product where Muthers was hired on the R&D team.  With some minor redesigns, the hydraulic shifting system was reborn.

Benefits

The first benefit is in the shifting ability.  Without cables and wires, the A-GE system promises silky smooth shifting that should not change over time due to the sealed hydraulics.  But what about fade, as you experience with hydraulic brakes?  Because shifters don't face heat cycles as you would see with brakes, this shouldn't be a concern.  Actually, it is predicted that, barring a epic fail of the sealed system, these hydraulics may last indefinitely. 

Okay, improved shifting is fine, but running hydraulics must present a weight penalty?  Well, according to Acros, the A-GE system is 150g lighter than SRAM's XX and 175g lighter than Shimano's XTR.  This claim includes all shifters, derailleurs, cables and housing.  Impressive. 

Pricing

Of course, with all these added benefits over XX and XTR, there should be a hefty price tag.  You wouldn't be incorrect - it is anticipated that for a cool $2,000 USD you can have your own A-GE system.  What?  Too steep?  Ya, no doubt.  Keep in mind this is the first run and at production level of 250, the price seems to be reasonable, all things considered.  Once the A-GE system goes into large scale production, expect the price to drop.  Once there is market saturation, the price will come down even further.  Still, even after the price hits the bottom, you have to expect that these will still cost quite a bit more than XX or XTR if you are getting better shifting at a lower weight. 

What Does the Future Hold?

This is a huge step in technology.  Similar to when hydraulic brakes entered the market, expect a few other companies to jump on board and drive each other to create improvements and push the price down.  Hopefully there will be some entry to mid level offerings that are a bit more wallet friendly.  Still, it will be a few years before these become a fixture on the Alberta racing circuit, even if there is a more 'mid level' offering for those of us who have to buy our own parts.

It will be interesting to see how far behind the 'big boys' SRAM and Shimano are on this movement.  In 2006, Shimano published a patent for hydraulic shifting mechanisms.  It would have seemed like a natural fit to introduce them to the dual control levers, but since Shimano dropped their dual control line for 2011, that seems like the least likely scenario at this point.  If the user feedback from users on the A-GE system is positive, expect the race to be on for SRAM and Shimano.

This still doesn't address my concerns with rear derailleurs and the long cage that can bend or snap off with minimal impact.  Perhaps Shimano and SRAM are focusing on internal gearing such as the Alfine rear hub or the Hammershmidt crankset?  Both require further improvements but if you were running one of these component giants, where would you want to focus your R&D?  Internal gearing or hydraulic shifting?

Fat Tire Tuesdays

Here we go again for 2011!  This is my 3rd year participating in Fat Tire Tuesdays, which is definitely one of my favorite parts of the mountain biking season. The races are located at Terwillegar Park where there are plenty of options to put together a variety of courses so that races don't get stagnant.   There isn't many places were you can spend $5 and get the level of entertainment you can as here.  A short track MTB race, draw prizes, snacks and refreshments, and good friends is well worth the small fee. 

For those who ride mountain bikes but haven't tried racing you should come check out Fat Tire Tuesdays.  Even if you aren't into doing a lot of training, there are several categories of racers to test any skill level.  If you are interested in racing but you don't want to spend the extra money for a race license and the Alberta Cup race entry fees, these races are exactly what you are looking for.

For me, each year my family life gets a little bit busier and I find it more and more difficult to put time into training. Weekends will eventually be filled with transporting Lachlan to his events and there will come a time when I won't be able to participate in Alberta Cup races. Even though that isn't something I want to give up, I know I will still be able to make time to come to the Fat Tire Tuesday races to get my competative racing fix in. Judging by the ages of the more experienced participants who regularly attend Fat Tire Tuesdays, I expect to be racing in these for as long as my body will allow me to.

A big 'thank you' to the group at Hardcore Bikes for the organizing that goes into running this event every week.   Take a look at the poster for 2011 to see more details.

Ahhh... Sweet Dirt!

It was a long, snowy, cold winter here in Edmonton, followed by a long, snowy, cold spring.  It's hard to believe that it is May before we can ride the trails without plowing through snow or bogging through mud.  Sure you can find snow and mud on the sheltered trails or those with poor drainage, but trails that are in direct sun all appeared to be clear. 

After seeing how wet the trails looked on Tuesday and Wednesday during my commute, I didn't plan a lot of single track during my ride today but rather just get out and spin the legs.  All of the multi use trails that were sloppy on Tuesday are now dry which gave me some hope that there would be some single track action that wouldn't result in a mudfest. We ran into a few small sections of mud and snow during our ride today, but I found more tacky dirt than anything, and that is definitely a good thing.

I'm not exactly sure why, but Ewok always seems to be one of the first areas to be ready.  Whether it is because it faces west or due to the slope of the bank helps it drains quicker, the upper trail is always one of the driest trails in Edmonton.  There was only one real muddy section near the south end of the trail in one of the drainage areas where there was some standing water.  Overall, the trail is is prime spring condition.

Mill Creek has a couple west facing trails as well which were also quite dry.  The upper trails on the north end of the ravine are in great shape and very little mud to be found.  Some of the steeper climbs were quite dry and loose.  A big 'thank you' to the mysterious person who was busy last fall putting in some ladder bridges over the mud holes. The few mud sections that were found had bridges in place to help preserve the trails as best as possible.

Having some single track to ride home on the commute will sure make the ride home a lot more enjoyable.

Really Busy or Just Lazy?

My updates have been few and far between lately but I suspect they should pick up with some regularity now.  I have a couple really good reasons and several excuses for not posting updates,  My best (or should this be my worst?) excuse is that my old laptop bit the dust and having to go down to my office rather than sit in front of the TV and type with the tube on in the background seemed like too much of a chore.  I was getting some renovations done around the house and taking Lachlan skating but there is always time after he has gone to bed.  The only good reason I had was the workload of my latest NAIT class, but I was able to manage previously so why not now?  As most people with full time jobs and families, I am really busy, I am always really busy, but there is always time for something if you make time.  I simply chose not to make the time.

So what's the big deal?  It's a blog with 4 readers (okay 4 might be a high guess - let me have my moment).  Who cares?  Well, it's just a small example of how I let anything to do with cycling slip by this winter.  My training occurred about as often as my updates and the 'drive' to step up my game for 2011 went by the wayside.  Thankfully, I wasn't on the couch all winter so even though I wasn't on the bike I was able to keep some general level of fitness. Playing hockey, choosing to take the stairs rather than ride the elevator and walks at lunch have helped keeping my fitness from deteriorating.  With the first race of the season upon us, what should one do if they haven't sat on a bike all winter? 

I have only been cycling for 3 years now and commuting has always been something that I thought would be great to do but because of location and travel time, lack of adequate bike storage facilities and no shower facilities, commuting was never given much of a second thought.  There would be no real monetary advantage as my wife and I have always managed to carpool to work and even if I decide to ditch the car for the bike, she would still need to drive as Lachlan would still need to get to daycare. 

This year, due to the unpredictability of my wife's schedule as of late, I decided that I would start commuting home from work.  This works out well as I still get to sleep in, pack all my gear into my pack, throw the bike into the back of the car and drive into work with my wife.  I lock my bike up in the secured storage area and I don't have to worry about getting showered or changed before stepping into the office.  On my way home I can now leave the office when I am ready, get some saddle time in and on my first attempt today I actually got home before my wife. 

The commute went well as it is only 20 kms, most of which can be done on bike paths rather than on the streets.  Using Mill Creek and the bike path along 91 Street sure made the first commute comfortable as I was able to keep off the road for approximately 75% of my ride.  Once I perfect a route and my bike fitness levels return to a reasonable level I might consider riding into work as well.  I pushed reasonably hard for the entire trip and determined a few things.  First, the little bit of hockey and stair work kept my lungs in great shape.  Second, all those things did nothing for my cycling legs.  My legs were burning with every pedal stroke yet I was never even close to being out of breath.  My legs definitely felt better near the end and I was able to kick it up a few gears - I suspect that it was the rust on my legs. 

Just a quick update on the trails - there is some actual dry dirt out there!  Unfortunately there is only small sections and mostly just soft and muddy.  I suspect it will be another 10 days or more before we can get on the trails without causing too much damage.  I'll start bringing my camera next week and post some updates.