SuperBoost

So after 150km on the Canyon Dude I’ve come to the conclusion it is under geared for local riding. Changing that is not as simple as it sounds because of the chainring offset. The Truvativ cranks are fitted with a -4mm offset 30T SRAM ring, nice bit of X0 quality kit, but it’s the only size they seem to do in that offset.

I couldn’t find anyone else making a ring with that offset and it seems to be that it is part of a special for fat bike use. The solution comes in the form of some designed in the UK (machined in Poland) kit from Absolute Black: 32T 0mm offset SuperBoost chainring.

As oval chainrings were a silly idea in the 1990s and no I did not get used to the weird feeling ‘after a bit’ of riding. So this is not one of the odd shaped ones, it is however another bit of lovely design and engineering though. Amazing service too. Ordered Friday night arrived by lunch time on Tuesday via DHL from Europe.

With the increase in gearing from 30T to 32T I am expecting to spend a bit more time in the middle of the cassette so the loss of offset should balance out and in theory running more midway through the gears should mean a bit more life out of the cassette.

I also received the XD Drive cassette I’d be waiting for and combined with a new chain the whole drivetrain is fresh and ready to go. As with the Chameleon, a similar mind bending weight saving experience was achieved.

The X0 XG-1295 cassette is half the weight of the NX PG-1230 (357g vs 712g) and the total saving from this gearing change was a bit more than that because the XD driver body is 20g lighter than the Hyperdrive one and the Absolute Black ring came in 4g lighter than quoted and 16g lighter than the smaller SRAM ring.

There’s also a big difference in the wheels the smaller 26″ wheels with bigger tyres are 300g lighter each than the 27.5″ ones. For transparency that is with a different make of tyre fitted and I am pretty sure (based on the experience from the Scott Genius Plus) that the Schwalbe tyres are some of the lightest you can get.

Bottom line is 391g saved from the drive train and 600g from the wheels. As I have always though about bikes in imperial measurements, that’s a 2lb 3oz weight saving over stock bringing the (large frame) bike in bang on 29lbs.

Weight saving immediately countered by fitting lights (it’s going to be dark out in the woods tomorrow morning). Still need to think about trying the 4.8″ tyres too…