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Gear Review: Pearl Izumi X-Alp Seek IV MTB Shoes

Posted by admin – October 26, 2011

Posting a bike shoe review right after one of the first big snow storms of the year may seem a bit odd, but on the other hand it’s hard to do a review until you’ve thoroughly tested out a product. So, to that end we bring you a review of the Pearl Izumi X-Alp Seek shoes, which both Brittany and I purchased last fall around the same time of year. Many of our favorite rides require at least some amount of hike-a-bike, and while many folks would just as soon poke their eyes out with a rusty spoon as hike with their bike, we realize that sometimes it’s worth it.

The problem, of course, with hike-a-bike is that it’s rather unpleasant with stiff bike shoes that often have slick plastic treads. My Lake shoes at least have a Vibram sole, but they are still stiff as can be, so hiking in them tends to be best suited for a ballerina, which I am not. The Pearl Izumi X-Alp Seek shoes, however, have quite a bit of flexibility in front of the cleat, as well as a nice grippy rubber sole. They seemed like the perfect answer to rides when we knew we would be hiking, but how did they perform…

The Pearl Izumi X-Alp Seek shoes:
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The answer is that they performed every bit as well as could be expected. While hiking, they were just as comfortable as any other hiking shoe I have, despite the cleat on the sole. You can walk on a tile floor with these shoes without the clickity-clack of most bike shoes. Their hiking abilities didn’t surprise us. What did surprise us was how well they rode. Despite just being lace-ups, and obviously much less stiff than most bike shoes, they actually transfer power admirably well. they aren’t the shoe of choice for a NORBA race, perhaps, but for every day riding few will notice their shortcomings.

Durability? As you can see in the photos above, taken after at least 200 miles, the shoes are holding up nicely. Most MTB shoes fail in the toe area, but these haven’t shown any wear and tear there.

Our only complaint- the mesh uppers, while being very breathable, also soak through very easily- much more so compared to shoes with leather uppers.

In short, 14erskiers gives these shoes 2 thumbs up- way up!

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Mount Elbert Snowy Bike Descent 8.27.06

Posted by admin – August 17, 2010

Mt. Elbert, 14,433ft via the Mt Elbert Trail
8-27-06

Note: I was recently reminded of this awesome day almost 4 years ago and decided it needed a bump on the blog. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Elbert looks snowy in a couple of weeks again soon…

Mt Elbert is the highest peak in CO, the highest peak in the rocky mountains, and the 2nd highest peak in the lower 48. Despite this, the mountain is basically a huge hill, so riding a mountain bike down it isn’t just possible, but enjoyable. When Brittany and I skied Elbert just 2 and a half months before, we discussed a return trip to ride down the thing, so that’s what we did. Ski TR

We awoke on Saturday, the 26th to a downpour. We didn’t even try for Elbert, but instead went to Buena Vista to kill time drinking coffee at Bongo Billy’s, hitting the Cottonwood hot springs, and eventually the drive-in theatre. This is what it looked like most of the day:

Sunday looked a bit more promising, and we began pushing our bikes up (there is approx 1 mile of riding on the way up). As some clouds parted and I got a look at the upper elevations, we realized that quite a bit of snow had fallen. I was pretty excited about it, and only got more excited when the clean, crisp, snowy air reached my nostrils and touched my skin. Not dirty old suncups, mind you, but fresh clean snow.

The 4,000 foot climb took just 2 hours and 45 minutes, despite pushing our bikes. We were feeling strong this day.
Brittany on top, needing some warmer clothes:

The north face of La Plata, almost looking skiable:

Me, on the summit, with my Yeti waiting patiently in almost a foot of windblown:

Some shots from the way down:

Singletrack leads all the way past the shores of Twin lakes, far below in the picture (over 6,000 vert)

A bit of air down low:

The trail remains steep and techy all the way down:

Given the continued threatening nature of the weather and a bit of an endo suffered by Brittany, we called it a day at the 4wd trailhead, rather than continuing down to Twin Lakes. There is at least one more rideable route on Mt Elbert, the NE ridge route. Having hiked it as well, I know that it is more technical, but doable.

Book Review: Two Planks And A Passion

Posted by admin – June 29, 2010

Title: Two Planks And A Passion

Author: Roland Huntford

Year: 2008

For those of you who check my blog frequently, you may have noticed this book on the sidebar for most of the winter under “Currently Reading”. At 390 pages, I would normally finish a book like this in a month or so, but this one took considerably longer. Why did this book take so long? For starters, it is written very dryly and matter-of-factly- picture the teacher in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” writing a book like this. The other reason the book takes a while to read is that nearly every sentence has a lot to say.

I’ll start off with the things I didn’t like about this book. Besides the somewhat droll writing style, my main complaint with the book was what I would call a lack of organization. Something tells me this book never started with a well-developed outline, for one paragraph could easily go through several centuries and multiple continents without any discernible tie between them. The book attempts to follow skiing in a chronological order, but at times it jumps around- a lot. The other thing that bothered me quite a bit about this book was what I felt were the author’s biases towards the following things: nordic over alpine, Europe (especially Scandinavia) over everywhere else, and a fascination with the slight contributions of the English to the skiing world. Scandinavia unquestionably reigns supreme when it comes to the history of skiing, but in my opinion that doesn’t mean that North American contributions like the world’s first charlift in Sun Valley barely merit one sentence.

On the other hand, parts of this book were utterly interesting. Ski shapes from the very beginning (10,000 years ago) have run the gamut, including what most people would consider to be “new” shapes, namely fat (over 100mm in the waist), reverse cambered, and reverse sidecuts. It seems that “what is old is new again”. As a reference work, the amount of information in this book is simply astounding, and it’s hard to imagine another book covering such a vast array of ski facts.

Overall, I’m happy to have this book as part of our library. I am quite sure that this book will come off the shelf frequently to look up a specific fact or two that can’t be found on google. Still, I wish this book had all the same information but had been written by a different, and better, author. Comparing ancient and modern skis and skiing styles could have made for a much more fascinating book. And as a ski mountaineer, I wish the book had had a chapter on the development of that aspect of the sport. But on a final note, I think that knowing the history of skiing only leads one to appreciate it more, and on that level, this book is a must-have for any serious skier.