Starter Bike

First Real MTB
Jamis XC-1

First 29" MTB
GF Paragon

GF Superfly
Carbon HT

TREK Superfly
Carbon FS

Bikes

Like most folks that take up cross country (XC) riding, Bruce started out at the low end and worked up the line as his skills developed. He started with a cheap bike from a local sporting goods chain store, and has progress to the point where he is now riding high-end carbon mountain bikes.

Starter Bike

Bruce's first ride was "Big Box Store Special" from a national sporting goods chain. Being a very inexpensive bike was not really designed for serious trail use. It was heavy, awkward and expensive to maintain. The weight of the bike did have the advantage of making him a stronger and better rider just to keep up with the folks on the lighter, faster bikes.

First Real MTB

His first serious mountain bike was the Jamis Cross Country shown below.

It had an aluminum frame and a decent fork. He upgraded it with some good tires and SPD pedals, got some good riding shoes with cleats and started getting really serious about trail riding.

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First 29" MTB

After about a year on the Jamis, Bruce's skills exceeded the capabilities of the Jamis, so he moved up to the 2005 Gary Fisher Paragon shown below.

The Fisher is known as a "29er" which means it has 29" wheels instead of the traditional 26" wheels at the time. The larger wheels allowed it to roll over roots and rocks easier, and gave it a larger tire foot-print for better braking, cornering and climbing traction.

This was a fine bike configured for competition, so it was appropriate for serious riding. It was light and fast, very capable in roots and rocks, and climbed like a mountain goat. He felt it would be a while before his skills out-grew this one. With it, his riding abilities advanced to the point that he began competing in local club races. Unfortunately, the seat-tube cracked above the top-tube, and the frame had to be replaced as a warrantee repair.

Most of the components on the 2005 Paragon were transferred to a 2009 Paragon frame shown below. He upgraded the crankset to a Shimano XT FC-M770 HollowTech II, the hydraulic brakes to Hayes Strokers and the saddle to a Specialized Phenom. The shifters and derailleurs were the SRAM X.9, the cassette was a PG-970, and the chain was a SRAM PC-991. These were all original components from the 2005 Paragon.

The 2009 Paragon lasted a little over a year and then the frame cracked in the same place. There was another warrantee replacement on the agenda.

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Carbon HT

Having "had it" with the Paragon frame, Bruce elected to spend a few bucks and upgrade to the carbon fiber frame used on the Fisher Superfly hard-tail. At the time, those carbon frames did not have any known weaknesses. Another component swap was done and the result is the bike shown below.

This bike did fine until he took it out to Nevada. After three months in the roughest terrain he had ever ridden, the frame on the Superfly hard-tail cracked. It was the seat-tube again, but this time it cracked below the top-tube. He had the bike repaired in Las Vegas. Since the terrain in Southern Nevada and SW Utah was very rough, he bought a Gary Fisher Superfly 100 full suspension bike for riding out west, and shipped the hard-tail back to Dallas.

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TECHNICAL DETAILS - TREK SUPERFLY HT

The following paragraphs describe the major components on the Superfly hardtail. For information on the accessories such as the computer, GPS, seat bag, etc., see the Gear section of this site.

Tires & Wheels

The wheels are the original Bontrager OSTs that came with the 2005 Paragon. While they are "tubeless-ready", he is running tubes, specifically, light-weight Q-tubes with Bontrager "Super Juice" tubeless sealant. This provides the advantages of "going tubeless" without mess of Stans. He uses the Q-tubes because they are lightweight and have removable Presta valves making "juicing" the tubes rather easy as you can see from the photograph.

The tires are WTB EXI-Wolf 29 x 2.3 and have a tread pattern optimized for loose hard pack. They are the best tire he has found for the local trails. They hold better in the turns than any other tire he has used before and really "dig in" and grip on climbs.

Brakes & Shifters

The shifters are the Hayes X.9 shifters from the original Paragon. These are great push-push style shifters that have served him well and continue to do so.

The original Paragon came with Hayes HFX-9 hydraulic disk brakes. He replaced these with Hayes Stroker Trail brakes after riding Lone Mt. in Tennessee. The descent off the mountain got the HFX's smoking hot and they were never quite the same.

The Strokers are Hayes next generation hydraulic disc brake and and are supposed to perform better than the HFX-9s. So far, He finds the performance to be comparable, and the adjustable lever is nice. It allows him to set the amount of "take up" in the lever before the brake starts to engage.

The rotors are 160 mm and the calipers have a swiveling hydraulic fitting, so the hydraulic lines can be routed directly to the caliper with minimal bending. The master cylinders and calipers come in black, silver and white. The white ones match the new frame nicely.

He bought the brakes as a complete kit, so they were already charged with fluid and ready to install. He simply bolted them on and that was it. They also came with a bleeding kit, but he has yet to use that. The brakes went on the Paragon in February of 2009 and and were transferred to the Superfly frame in 2010. They have yet to need any attention even though he puts over 1,000 miles a year on this bike.

Fork

The fork is a RockShox Reba Race from the original 2005 Paragon. This is dual chamber fork with positive and negative air pressure tuning, motion control damping, lock out and external floodgate adjustment.

The fork has been amazing. He keeps it clean and checks the pressures about once a year and that's about it. Occasionally, it will get some dirt in a seal and leak a little, but that usually clears it self out after one or two rides.

Drive Train & Pedals

The original drive train has been completely replaced. The crank set is a Shimano FC-M770 Hollow Tech XT with outboard bearings. It is coupled to a SRAM PC970 nine-speed cassette with a PC-971 chain. This upgrade took place during the summer of 2009 and was transferred to the 2010 Superfly in May of 2010.

The pedals are the Shimano PD-M540 SPDs. The pedals also came over from the Paragon in 2010.

The rear derailleur is the SRAM X.9 from the original frame. The front derailleur is a newer version X.9 installed to better fit the new frame. The new frame has a slightly different geometry and requires a different style derailleur to allow the shift cable to better clear the rear tire.

The sprocket is a SRAM PC970 and was installed in the summer of 2009. The original chain, rings and sprocket had all worn together, so much so, that after replacing the crank set the chain broke. After replacing the chain, the rear sprocket was worn so bad that is was skipping and had to also be replaced.

Saddle

The saddle on the Superfly hardtail is the Bontrager RL that came with 2010 Superfly full suspension. The original Bontrager saddle on the 2005 Paragon had seen its better days and was upgraded to a Specialized Phenom 143 around 2008. The Phenom was a great saddle, so it was swapped with the Bontrager RL saddle that came with the Superfly full suspension. In 2019, the RL had seen better days and was retired. A new Phenom Expert 143 went on the FS and the original Phenom went over to the HT. As it stands now, both bikes have the Phenom saddles.

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Carbon FS

The Gary Fisher Superfly 100 Elite full suspension bike Bruce bought for riding out west can be seen below. This was the best bike owned to date. It handled the rocky terrain around Las Vegas and in southern Utah well. The photo below was made on a group ride in the Spring Range near Mountain Spring, Nevada. Cottonwood Valley in the Red Rock Canyon NCRA can be seen in the background.

After about six months, the Gary Fisher Superfly 100 developed a crack in the frame and chain-stay yoke. The shop did a warrantee replacement with a TREK Superfly 100 Elite frame since the Gary Fisher line had been discontinued. The result is the bike shown below. All of the components are the same as those on the 2010 Fisher Superfly 100, although the frame is is by TREK. This bike is shown in the photo below. This photo was made at the same location in the Spring Range, but from a slightly different angle.

He is currently riding the TREK SF 100 Elite, but has upgraded the tires, brakes and drive train.

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TECHNICAL DETAILS - TREK SUPERFLY 100 ELITE FS

The following paragraphs describe the major components on the Superfly 100 Elite. For information on the accessories such as the computer, GPS, seat bag, etc., see the Gear section of this site.

Tires & Wheels

The wheels are the original Bontrager Race X Lite (RXL) Scandium 29 Disc, tubeless ready that came with the 2010 Superfly. He initially ran light-weight Q-tubes with Bontrager "Super Juice" sealant in them. This provided the advantages of "going tubeless" without mess of Stans. The Q-tubes had removable Presta valves making "juicing" them rather easy. In 2012, he went full tubeless. Since the rims were tubeless ready, the conversion was very easy using Bontrager rim strips specifically designed for these wheels.

The current tires are 29 x 2.40 Maxxis Ardent TRs with a tread pattern optimized for loose hard pack. They went on in August 2014, replacing a set of Maxxis Crossmarks he put on in Vegas. Before that, he was using WTB Wolverines in the Vegas area. Both tire brands provided outstanding traction, but wore fast in the volcanic rock in the Las Vegas area. The lightweight sidewalls on the Crossmarks took a beating in the rocky terrain, and eventually, the rear blew out. It was replaced in 2012 with a S-Works Captain Control. At that time he also added rim strips and went tubeless. Eventually, the S-Works Captains were replaced with a Maxxis Ardents.

Carbon Wheel Upgrade

In 2018, his good friend and riding buddy from Vegas, Preston, was managing the mountain bike wheel production line for Pro Wheel Builder in the Atlanta area, and built Bruce up a nice set of carbon wheels. These wheels were based on proprietary carbon wheels made to PWB specs laced to blue Hope Pro-4 hubs using Sapim Race double butted white spokes and Sapim alloy blue nipples. The blue and white color scheme with the black rims matched the frame colors. The photo below shows the wheels straight out of the box.

The photo below was made at Cypress Wood trail in Houston for their inaugural run.

The factory Bontrager RXL wheels were good, but the PWB carbon wheels were noticeably better.

Brakes & Shifters

The Superfly 100 came with Avid Elixir CR hydraulic disk brakes. These were moved over to the TREK frame in 2011 when the original Gary Fisher frame was replaced. The rotors were initially 160mm and the calipers have a swiveling hydraulic fitting, so the hydraulic lines can be routed directly to the caliper with minimal bending. While riding in the west, he felt he could use bigger rotors on the down-hill sections and finally upgraded to 180mm rotors after wearing out the 160mm rotors while riding in Colorado.

These were the brakes came with the original GF Superfly 100 and have yet to need any attention, other than replacing the brake pads, even though he tends to ride over 1,500 miles a year.

The brake leavers on the Elixirs also use the adjustable lever. This is nice in that it allows him to set the amount of "take up" in the lever before the brake actually starts to engage.

The shifters are SRAM X.0 Redwin nine-speed for the cassette and three speed for the chain ring. These shifters (seen behind the brake) use a carbon body. The original GF Superfly 100 came with a 3 x 9 SRAM drive train, and this was moved over onto the TREK SF 100 Elite frame. The Superfly HT has X.9 shifters, and while the X.9 are great, he likes the X.0s even better.

Fork & Shock

The fork is a Fox F100 FIT RLC 29 with 100mm travel. It uses the custom G2 Geometry with a 51mm offset crown and an E2 steerer. It also has lockout force adjustment and a FIT cartridge damper.

The fork has been amazing. He keeps it clean and checks the pressures about once a year and that's about it. Occasionally, it will get some dirt in a seal and leak a little, but that usually clears it self out after a couple of rides.

The rear shock is a Fox Float RP23 with 110mm travel. It has a boost valve, air spring, 3-position Pro Pedal, external rebound, 7.25 x 1.75" custom race tune. This is a lightweight, high volume air shock using Fox's boost valve damping technology originally developed for downhill courses. This is a great shock for riding in the western states with their harsh trails.

Drive Train & Pedals

The drive train components came across from the now dead GF Superfly 100. The crank set is a Truvativ Noir Redwin Carbon 44-32-22. It is coupled to a SRAM PG990 nine-speed cassette with a PC-971 chain.

The pedals are the Shimano PD-M770 XT SPDs. He considered the M970 XTR pedals, but after reading the reviews decided the XTs were more appropriate for his riding and occasional racing. The XTRs are a bit lighter, but not as durable.

The rear derailleur is the SRAM X.0 Redwin from the original GF Superfly 100 Elite frame. The front derailleur is a Shimano XT Direct Mount.

The terrain in Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Oregon often consisted of long climbs followed by fast down-hill runs.

Saddle

The original Bontrager saddle that came with the Superfly was moved to the Superfly HT and the Specialized Phenom 143 that was on the HT was moved to the TREK Superfly Elite 100. The seatpost on the full suspension is a Bontrager Race XXX Lite Carbon OCLV model with a carbon shaft and infinitely adjustable carbon head.

Information on the seat bag and contents can be found in the Gear section.

On a couple of occasions riding in the Denver area, Bruce had an opportunity to ride some demo bikes with 1x11 drive trains and dropping seat posts. He was so impressed with the droppers, he took the plunge and installed a dropping seat post In June of 2015. With the addition of the dropper, he had to put a new parts bag up on the top tube.

The terrain out west included long, brutal climbs and long, fast down-hill runs. After riding 1x11 drive trains in Colorado, Bruce converted the 3x9 drive train to a 2x10 wide range drive train in January 2016 at the suggestion of his friend Preston. The wide range drive change included SRAM XO shifters, an XO type 2 long cage 10-speed rear derailleur, a Sram1050 10 speed rear cassette with a One-Up 42 tooth climbing sprocket, Black Spire 24T and 38T chain rings and a KMC chain. The new drive train is shown below.

He does most of his level riding in the 38T "big ring". It is also handy on those long, fast descents. For the gnarly climbs, he gets down into the 24T chain ring where he can spin for hours going up hill.

The biggest advantage is that when going down and transitioning to a climb, he can drop the equivalent of 4 gears with one click by dropping from the big to small chain ring.

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Version 0.2, February 20, 2017