This bottle cage is a great way to save a little weight. No it’s not carbon fiber, but a light plastic. There is an added elastic cord that can be used it you have a taller bottle and you think it might pop out while riding. The bottle cage comes in a few different colors and weighs only 39 grams. Your typical aluminum water bottle cage weighs about 55 grams. The cage comes complete with mounting bolts and washers if your bike doesn’t already have those in place. The bottle stay securely inside and is easy to access while riding or stopped.
The Mucky Nutz Face Fender, mounts on your front fork. It measures 8 1/4 inches long and narrows in width from 5 1/2 to 3 1/4 inches and weights only 25 grams. The Face Fender comes with a roll of micro hook and loop (Velcro) 34 inches long by a half inch wide, to create straps out of. If you evenly cut the strip of Velcro you could make four, 8 1/2 inch strips. There are eight cut outs on the Face Fender that the Velcro straps will loop through. A strap on each side, both left and right on the fork and two straps wrap around the fork’s bridge. With the Face Fender mounted under the fork bridge, there is still enough clearance for your tire to still roll smoothly. The Face Fender keeps mud and dirty, or whatever may be on the trail, from being slung in your face or thrown at your bikes frame. Being mounted below your exposed shocks, it too keeps whatever mud or dirt would be thrown on them away. They stay put and are very solid once attached and don’t rattle or shake around. So with the Face Fender protecting the front end of your bike, Mucky Nutz has just the answer for also protecting you on the back end too. The Butt Fender!
The width of the Butt Fender tapers from 5 1/4 inches wide to 3 1/4 inches wide. The length of the fender is about 12 inches long, some of this length gets taken away as it attached under the seat. It mounts without any added accessories as the Butt Fender mounts with the pre-made hooks that attach to the underside of your seat, with the seat rails. It weighs only 30 grams. There are two creases in the fender you can bend to create more of a curve or square out the flat piece of thermoplastic polymer which has a highly resistant to heat.
With both the Face and Butt Fenders being made of the plastic, they can easily be washed off of the mud and dirt the trails throw at you.
After mounted on the bike seat, the Butt Fender ends up sticking out behind the seat about eight inches.
When the trail is dry, these light weight and flat profile Mucky Nutz fenders have a place in my mountain bike pack, right next to an extra tube. If the wet or nasty weather moves in while I am riding, they can simply be attached and the ride can continue. Check them out and order a set before the winter rains arrive and turn your trails into muddy messes.
Two weeks out from my next race. Teamed up with another rider to create a duo team, to take on 8 Hours in the Showdown at Usery. An 11 mile mountain bike course, as many laps as we can ride in that time period. Looking to have a lot of fun.
Often I find myself wanting to lock my bike up, leaving it on my car’s rack, to go into a store and grab something really quick. This Amazer 35 inch cloth covered chain with lock is the perfect solution. The easy “no need for keys" when you can create your own, easy to remember, four digit combination. It’s pretty hefty weighing a little under two pounds, so keeping it in the trunk rather than on my bike is where it stays. The cloth cover over the chain protects it from scratching your bikes frame or even your car. It’s strong to keep your bike or other belongings safe.
*As with any lock or chain, if a thief wants something bad enough, nothing is really going to stop them, this chain and lock however can slow them down in their attempt.
Regular bike maintenance will increase the life of your bikes parts. Washing, adjusting and lubricating are all must. Pedro’s makes this easy to use chain cleaner. With it being easy to use, it makes doing the maintenance less of a hassle. I have had other chain cleaners in the past. Not very good ones, that’s for sure. Not only were they terrible to use, but really didn’t do a good job. For both my road and mountain bike, I recently started using the Pedro’s Chain Pig. I am extremely satisfied with it so far. Easy to use and I think does the best job cleaning the chain over all the others I have used in the past. Of course the best way to really clean the chain, would be to fully remove it. Attach the Chain Pig to the lower part of your chain.
Then fill it with your favorite degreaser through the port on the top of the Pig, there is a “fill line” on the Pig to show you how much to fill it with. It can be used with any degreaser or bike wash. To work this cleaner your chain will be running backwards, or counter-clockwise. The Chain Pig lets you leave the chain on your bike the way it is. As your chain rotates around, the wheels inside with brushes hit your chain from all angles, scrubbing it for you inside the pig. The chain exits the Pig through a sponge, cleaning off the solution on the sides and bottom of the chain but not in between the links. A feature I love of this chain cleaner is the hands-free part. The other chain cleaners I have used in the past, you had to hold your left hand on the cleaner, keeping the cleaner in place, while rotating the chain with the pedal of your right hand.
The hands-free of this cleaner comes into play with a derailleur hook, or in this case the Pig's tail. It simply hooks around the lower bottom bracket pulley wheel on your rear derailleur. This keeps it in place, so your left hand is now free while still using your right hand to rotate the chain around. I rotate the chain around until a dirty foam has formed on the chain, then undo the Chain Pig, scrub the cassette with the included brush or other brush, then rinse off with light pressured water.
You could go back again, of course, and scrub certain links or areas that did not get the grime out. I do this simple and easy cleaning of my chain and cassette about every three or four rides, depending upon how dirty the chain gets from the dusty trails.
The chain did become cleaner, there was s few links and in between some links needed to be scrubbed a lot better. Keep in mind that the lubricant you put on the chain after cleaning will lubricate the metal on metal parts while attracting dirt from the road air.
