Evoke RL Mtb Saddle Review

Bontrager has really stepped up their game over the last few years with both the MTB and road line up. From their shoes and apparel, all the way to the components. Their product is well thought out and performance oriented. Bontrager has come out with a whole new line of MTB and road saddles, with both lines offering the Inform size specific fit. Along with the multiple choices of saddle sizes, they also have different padding options with the RXL lightly padded versions to cushy Race model.

Trek/Fisher representative MIke Shrift sent over the new Evoke RL MTB saddle a few weeks back to try out. Having struggled with saddles in the past and tried multiple brands and models, I was curious to try this one out.

From first glance, the seat has a good look to it. The flat black leather and black logos add a clean look to any bike. Along with looking good, the seat looks tough. The abrasive resistant sides and solid shell are nice additions for MTB oriented riding. The saddle is fairly light as well, coming in at around 230 grams. A pretty respectable weight for a MTB saddle.

From day number one, I could tell it was going to be a good seat. The saddle shape is quite nice, with a slight hammock shape and a thicker padded noise. After about about one month of use on the saddle, I am impressed. After riding this seat exclusively on all my bikes, I have not had any discomfort issues. Through rides in the rain and mud and one solid crash, the seat looks brand new. The abrasive resistant sides work quite well, showing no signs of my over cooked turn, unlike my hip.

So if your in the market for a new saddle, I would highly recommend the Evoke series of seats.

Mike

Peak-to-Peak Mountain Bike Race

Mike and I loaded up my Mom's car along with Chuck (my dog) for the journey down to Crystal Mountain for the Peak 2 Peak mountain bike race. Luckily the race didn't start until 12:30, so we didn't have to get up at the butt crack of dawn, unlike Mr. Cowan(s) who mistakenly got there at 8:30 in the morning. Ooops!

Chuck back seat driving.

The race itself was pretty dang fun if you ask me. Fast flowing butter smooth single track connected into one mother of a climb up the back side of the ski resort. Once again was the fastest 5 or 6 fastest dudes in the state lining up,

making for a fun and good spectator watching race. Mike A and Derek Graham got a gap on the main climb after gapping me, so I kept a good solid tempo until Mike Simonson got up with me. He's a big monster of a dude hence the nick name Simonstor, I really could use his draft. After a good lap and half I made a dumb mistake blowing a corner while leading and dropping my chain. After getting laughed at by Simonson he then put the hammer down and got the gap that he held to the end. Oh well! Mike had a show down up front with a sprint finish just edging out Graham.

John Cowan coming across the line in 6th! The dude is on some impressive form right now making the lead group after being gapped out from a crash in the first part of the race. I think he might pull something out of the hat at Iceman!

Now I've got a little pre-race food guide for you that worked wonders for me at the race. I'm not gonna go into foods you should eat so just make it something you know you can tolerate and will give you plenty of fuel.

• Follow dinner with a good quality beer. Not Bud Light, I'm talking something from Bells or my choice this time was Octoberfest from Sam Adams

• Follow this with a putting down a water bottle

• Follow the water with a huge class ( I went with 30 o.z.) of Chocolate milk made with Hersey's Special Dark syrup for the extra anti-oxidants in dark chocolate (I'm sure the syrup really doesn't have the anti-oxidants, but it's all about telling yourself it'll help... more importantly it tastes better)

• Follow this with another beer

• Then hit the water bottle one more time before hitting the hay

• Once the alarm goes off have another water bottled

• Followed by another huge class of Chocolate milk.

After all that get a good solid breakfast in and you'll probably have the best race of your life!

Fun fact:

• Of the top 6 I was the only one on a 26er, all others were on 29ers.....
• 5 of the top 6 were on Trek/Fisher bikes!
• = Trek bikes are fast and I'm getting a 29er next year.

Thanks for reading,

Chad

Lots O' Races

Well.... I've got 3 weekends of racing to get into one blog, so I'll try to be quick on each to enhance your reading pleasure. In other words so you don't get bored!

What seems like a year ago (3 weeks back) I went down to Pando just North of Grand Rapids for some sweet twisty single track. It ended up being a very roadie like course since I was there last back in 2003 or 4 and as luck would have it one the best roadies in the state showed up too. I should say he is one the best in the countr

y after a pretty impressive finish at the U.S. Nats a few weeks back. Anyway, after I attempted a few attacks in the very limited single track he would always bring me back on the long flat sections and with my general lack of fitness at the moment I cracked with a lap to go and soloed in for a nice 2nd place!

The following weekend was the Cry Baby Classic! I was pumped for this because of the lump some of money to be had, but it also haunted my dreams knowing it was that very reason why all the notable studs of Michigan lined up next to me. It ended up being an incredible race with lots of attacks and lots going back and forth with fellow racers. By the end of the day my lack of training all summer showed as I cracked on the last lap losing $260 in thelast 3 miles. Yep that's right I went from 3rd to 6th and lost $260 doing so! Now cracking is never fun, but that one was one of the costliest bonks I've ever had. Mike Anderson took the big fat W for some fat cash and took down the roadie who got me last weekend, so thanks for that. Not all that surprising, but nice to see John Cowen"S" coming in on the last proper podium spot in 5th in the elite field. The Captain Todd Fridinger had a nice solid ride coming in 10th in the expert class that was combined last minute with the old dude class. Lets not be fooled here those guys are fast simply because of Old Man

Strength.... it is in fact a scientific term. Look it up.

With all the free beer flying around there, the fact that the Captain was staying at my place, and my general feeling of a lackluster performance we all had a little bit to much to drink and ended up at the casino for a great smoke filled evening.

Taking advantage of the free beer..... Thanks to Craig for the eye protection!

This last weekend Mike and I headed to Cincinnati for the UCI3 Cross Festival. That's right 3 staight days of CX racing at it's finest. From the get go I was planning on doing only 2 days of the festival and I'm pretty glad I made that choice because we got there with about enough time for us to get a lap on the course and start the race. Mike maned up and went for it leaving him with some very loaded legs and nasty lung butter forcing him to stop 2 laps in. The 90 degree temps where deadly and we where stuck with them for the whole weekend, plus the drought that the area has been in for weeks made for some very dusty racing to say the least. Day 2 brought the same nasty temps, but on a nice and twisty course bringing the speeds do

wn a little bit allowing me to fake my fitness. Mike and I ended the day with me coming in 29th and him in 30th. Not steller days by any means, but starting from the back row you have to take what you can get until you get some points rolling. The next day we started a day by getting kicked out of the hotel room because they wouldn't let us a have a late check for some reason, so we spent some time in Panera bread people watching before heading over to the Bass Pro Shop. Oh man that place is so freaken cool

complete with massive fish tanks, waterfalls, and rock climbing walls. Probably the best pre-race warm up I've had in a while. Unfortanalty we had to take off for another day of racing in the 90 degree heat. Neither of us were motivated about the global warming going on during cross season. The course was straight up roadie, which made my motivation head even further South, while Mike got pretty pumped. Well it showed as he moved up to around 11th or so before a last lap crash broke his shifter off ending his day. I started slow and ended even slower finishing 35th. At least I still passed a few people out there!

After the race we hopped in the car around 6:00 p.m. to head home from Cincinnati. The GPS gave us an e.t.a of 2:35 a.m. ouch!!! Mike did his best impression of Dale and got us home 2 hours and 12 minutes faster then the original e.t.a. Nice driving there! As if we didn't punish our bodies enough this weekend we did a 3 hour ride on Monday. Riding from P-town to the North Country Trail off from Chandler hill and back to town. Super fun fall riding!

This weekend we are all off the Peak 2 Peak mountain bike race at Crystal Mtn.

Thanks for reading,

Chad