Mountainbike

SRM: Operation Moab

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Watch the Operation Moab Movie!

Moab, Utah: home of the greatest mountain biking on the planet. Located in Grand County and surrounded by Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Moab offers mountain bikers an extensive network of trail systems which are wildly technical and back dropped by amazing scenery.

SRM USA, located 400 miles east, uses the mountain biking Mecca for extreme real world product testing. Last week a group of employees packed up for the first red rock excursion of 2012. With SRM 2x10 MTB PowerMeters mounted, fresh legs, and a sense of adventure the crew hit the dirt for a tough long weekend of work!

Pipe Dream was first on the agenda. The single track trail challenges technically skilled bikers with ever changing terrain, never straight and never flat. day_1-_pipedream_trail

Filippo, an SRM technician visiting from the Lucca, Italy office, shared his SRM file from Pipe Dream. The ride was just over one hour, and despite adjusting to the altitude, he was able to average 117 watts over the 11 mile warm up trail.

Click on the SRM Files to Enlarge

On Friday the team tackled Hazard, UPS, LPS, and Porcupine Rim. The ride passed through oak brush, pinions, and junipers while crossing a primitive campground and challenging the group with drops, roots, and slickrock. They ended with a fast, rough ride on Porcupine Rim overlooking the Colorado River.

SRM Development Team member, Christoph Adels, arrived from the German office last week and joined the group in Moab. His SRM file from day 2 illustrates the 21 mile ride with 593 watt surge as he climbs to the top of Hazard County trail.

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The final days ride was the Magnificent 7 to Portal. The “Mag 7” is a recent single track addition to Moab and is a combination of 10 trail segments creating a 26 mile point-to-point route. Portal Trail marks the end of Mag 7 and follows the edge of sheer cliffs into technical sections.

The SRM file below is from Shaun, SRM's Customer Support and Sales manager. Shaun raced competitively for 14 years and demonstarted his strength on the second half of a Mag 7 climb hitting 817 watts.

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A wild video compilation sums up "Operation Moab": Click Here

More information on the SRM MTB 2x10 PowerMeter: SRAM and Cannondale

SRM DH POWERMETER

Downhill biking (DH) is a gravity-assisted time trial mountain biking event where riders race against the clock on 2-5 minute courses featuring high speed descents and extended air time off jumps and other obstacles.

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SRM engineers were driven to provide these extreme cyclists with an advanced training tool as well as to calculate the unique energy demands of DH athletes. In 2010 the design team began to develop an SRM PowerMeter expressly for downhill mountain bike training and racing.

SRM has met the challenge of producing a PowerMeter tough enough to endure downhill abuse while providing accurate, detailed data. The crank-based PowerMeter is compatible with SRAM XO, XO DH or Shimano Saint, DXR, XT crank arms, holds a 104 BCD chain ring, and can be used for singlespeed, single ring, DH and BMX riding. The system can be customized with integrated timers located at the handlebar grip allowing riders to record timed runs safely without releasing their grasp.

The SRM data obtained allows athletes and coaches to track the time for each run and identify where time was lost or improved upon. The ability to overlay data for multiple runs makes it possible to note where different speeds were held in different sections and how the rider got to that speed i.e. more pedaling to get up to speed or less braking and maintaining more speed.

SRM is working closely with downhill professionals, Aaron Gwin and Neko Mulally, during development and product testing phases for the distinctive PowerMeter. Gwin is the first American in ten years to win a World Cup in DH racing and is the only individual to win five World Cups in one season. Gwins feedback and test data has proved invaluable for the design team and SRM is thrilled to offer the Downhill Training System to the cycling community.

For more information on the SRM DH Training System:

SRM Wireless Training System - Truvativ XO Downhill

SRM Wireless Training System - DH Shimano compatible

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Mountain Bike World Cup Offenburg 2010: SRM Data Analysis Nicola Rohrbach

The third World Cup race of the season was in Offenburg, in the south-western part of Germany. Offenburg is a midsize town in the Rhine valley close to France and on the edge of the Black Forest. In 2008 and 2009 it was elected "Best MTB World Cup" by the UCI, and it's known as one of the most technical cross country courses.
More than 20,000 spectators came to Offenburg to watch the women's and men's race on Sunday 23rd. The weather was just perfect. After weeks of cold and rainy conditions, the weather cleared two days before the race, and it was sunny and warm the whole weekend.