Summer 2006 Gear Smack Down
The summer of 2006 has proven already to be an epic one for the Gear Junkie here. In addition to the Primal Quest race -- a nine-day event held last month in the Utah desert -- I've managed to climb a mountain in Vail, raft class IV whitewater, bike the 100-mile Maah Daah Hey Trail in North Dakota, sail overnight on the giant reservoir of Lake Sakakawea, and participate in my usual training and tomfoolery at home.
All fun aside, the intensity of the last two months has allowed me to squeeze in the equivalent of an entire season's worth of use and abuse upon several key outdoors products. Indeed, a few items that were shiny and new in June had been killed off by end of July, dead and literally discarded in the trash.
As an example: Somewhere in a garbage dump near Moab, Utah, future archeologists might dig up my Outdoor Research Sun Runner Cap and the frail rag that was my Rail Riders Eco-Mesh shirt. Both items were summarily disposed of in a hotel room near the Colorado River on July 3, 2006, the day my team finished the Primal Quest race.
To be sure, these products served me quite well, and I wore them most of the nine days I was racing in the desert. Materially, they were mostly intact. However, the stench both items retained after soaking up my sweat for a week was unbearable, and in the end it was a death sentence for two pieces of quality gear.
My bike -- the $2,300 Dakar XC Expert made by Jamis Bicycles -- has taken a severe beating this summer, sucking up more than 500 miles of singletrack, including trails as tough as Moab's Poison Spider Mesa and the aforementioned Maah Daah Hey, a relentlessly hilly route through the Badlands of North Dakota.
Major bike issues have included: a bolt on the Dakar XC's rear disc brake that rattled free and was lost forever in the Utah sand, prompting some ad hoc mechanic work with zip-ties and a spare derailleur cable; a rear tire blow-out, which occurred simultaneously in two places on the sidewall after about 450 miles of wear; and a bent disc on the rear wheel -- likely the result of one of my numerous crashes.
Footwear proved to be troublesome for me this summer. The Montrail Continental Divide shoes I'd planned to wear during the Primal Quest were a terrible choice for the Utah desert, as sand and grit seeped in through the mesh sidewalls, causing large blisters on day one of the race.
Luckily, a teammate had an extra pair of shoes -- Hi-Tec's V-Lite Hurricane -- for me to borrow. The waterproof shoes, which employ breathable Event fabric, did their job keeping the grit out. However, by the end of the race something was disturbingly amiss with the Hi-Tec hikers: large parts of the raised and knobby Vibram outsole were sheering clean off, strands of black rubber tread flapping like lamprey underfoot.
Though I'd worn them occasionally for a couple months prior to the race, SmartWool's $40 Boxer Briefs -- underpants made for warm-weather aerobic activity -- were DOA after the Primal Quest. The thin wool fabric, which breathes exceptionally well, stays dry and non-clammy for several days straight. (Yes, I unfortunately know this from experience.) But after an exorbitant amount of abuse the fabric simply wore out and ripped in that high-wear area between the legs.
Finally, Topeak's MTX BeamRack paired with the MTX TrunkBag EXP worked well for storing 10 or more pounds of food, water and equipment on my bike. For the most part, this equipment survived the summer. However, the bungee cord on the rack did come off quite un-serendipitously one day, flinging into my bike's rear gear cassette and twisting itself tightly in as the wheel ground to a halt. The same thing happened without warning to one of my teammates, prompting me to contact the company with a design-change suggestion -- the first of several similar missives I was moved to put out last month.
All fun aside, the intensity of the last two months has allowed me to squeeze in the equivalent of an entire season's worth of use and abuse upon several key outdoors products. Indeed, a few items that were shiny and new in June had been killed off by end of July, dead and literally discarded in the trash.
As an example: Somewhere in a garbage dump near Moab, Utah, future archeologists might dig up my Outdoor Research Sun Runner Cap and the frail rag that was my Rail Riders Eco-Mesh shirt. Both items were summarily disposed of in a hotel room near the Colorado River on July 3, 2006, the day my team finished the Primal Quest race.
To be sure, these products served me quite well, and I wore them most of the nine days I was racing in the desert. Materially, they were mostly intact. However, the stench both items retained after soaking up my sweat for a week was unbearable, and in the end it was a death sentence for two pieces of quality gear.
My bike -- the $2,300 Dakar XC Expert made by Jamis Bicycles -- has taken a severe beating this summer, sucking up more than 500 miles of singletrack, including trails as tough as Moab's Poison Spider Mesa and the aforementioned Maah Daah Hey, a relentlessly hilly route through the Badlands of North Dakota.
Major bike issues have included: a bolt on the Dakar XC's rear disc brake that rattled free and was lost forever in the Utah sand, prompting some ad hoc mechanic work with zip-ties and a spare derailleur cable; a rear tire blow-out, which occurred simultaneously in two places on the sidewall after about 450 miles of wear; and a bent disc on the rear wheel -- likely the result of one of my numerous crashes.
Footwear proved to be troublesome for me this summer. The Montrail Continental Divide shoes I'd planned to wear during the Primal Quest were a terrible choice for the Utah desert, as sand and grit seeped in through the mesh sidewalls, causing large blisters on day one of the race.
Luckily, a teammate had an extra pair of shoes -- Hi-Tec's V-Lite Hurricane -- for me to borrow. The waterproof shoes, which employ breathable Event fabric, did their job keeping the grit out. However, by the end of the race something was disturbingly amiss with the Hi-Tec hikers: large parts of the raised and knobby Vibram outsole were sheering clean off, strands of black rubber tread flapping like lamprey underfoot.
Though I'd worn them occasionally for a couple months prior to the race, SmartWool's $40 Boxer Briefs -- underpants made for warm-weather aerobic activity -- were DOA after the Primal Quest. The thin wool fabric, which breathes exceptionally well, stays dry and non-clammy for several days straight. (Yes, I unfortunately know this from experience.) But after an exorbitant amount of abuse the fabric simply wore out and ripped in that high-wear area between the legs.
Finally, Topeak's MTX BeamRack paired with the MTX TrunkBag EXP worked well for storing 10 or more pounds of food, water and equipment on my bike. For the most part, this equipment survived the summer. However, the bungee cord on the rack did come off quite un-serendipitously one day, flinging into my bike's rear gear cassette and twisting itself tightly in as the wheel ground to a halt. The same thing happened without warning to one of my teammates, prompting me to contact the company with a design-change suggestion -- the first of several similar missives I was moved to put out last month.
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