[oathead]

I ride a lot, and used to race downhill way back in the day, but this will be my first XC race. I'll probably do the 35 miler, 50 feels beyond me right now. I'll be on my Evil Following MB, not exactly an XC bike, and i'm thinking I should put on some faster rolling tires than the DHR II's that are on there right now. I was thinking Ardent front and Ardent race rear? With all the rocks I'm thinking EXO protection is worth it. Thoughts? Who else is racing? What tires you running?

 

[OttaCee]

Will be racing the 35 miler (2 laps). Be my 5th time racing at Freetown. The race is segmented out = 1-2 miles of chunky challenging singletrack then 1+ miles of fireroad recovery, repeat over 17 mile lap.

Tried multiple tires 29er setups at this race:
Ardent 2.4 (front), Ignitor 2.35 (rear)
Rekon (front), Ikon (rear)
Forekaster 2.35 (front), Ardent Race 2.35 (rear)

And twice ran 27.5 Plus:
Rekon 2.8 (front), Ikon 2.8 (rear)
Rekon 2.8 (front and rear)

The course in general is pretty loose - lots of sand, loose dirt over rocks. While there's alot of rocks, dont find them as the type that kills tires.

This year im probably going to run - Rekon 2.25 (front and rear) or Ardent Race 2.35 (front), Aspen 2.25 (rear). The fireroads is where you can gain or lose the most since there's so much of it (end of lap 1 into being of lap 2 is over 3 miles of continuous fireroads)

 

[haymaker]

I considered signing up for it this week, maybe doing just 1 loop but after seeing all the rocks on the youtubes I'm thinking my old bones might not be up to it . I'm more of a Landmine Classic race guy, let me know how it goes.

 

[OttaCee]

I considered signing up for it this week, maybe doing just 1 loop but after seeing all the rocks on the youtubes I'm thinking my old bones might not be up to it . I'm more of a Landmine Classic race guy, let me know how it goes.

you do the 12 or 26 mile Landmine course? If you did the 12, yes the one Freetown loop might be rough. But if you did the 26, one lap at Freetown is easy (get multiple fire road breaks) with one technical rock section. That's why I'm doing the 35 mile.

 

[tedmasta]

I run Ardent race for most every race, or forekasters if loose/wet, but for Freetown I go full Ardent because they can be run at lower pressures for the rocks. like 20 psi vs 25 psi for the XC race tires.

This is on a hardtail btw.

 

[OttaCee]

Well...who raced and how did it go? After hearing the weather was going to be dry, it rained the night before and the course (1st lap) was sketchy. Tons of people crashing including myself that wrecked pretty good. Ended up running Ardent Race front, Aspen rear which was awful for lap 1 but great on lap 2 once things dried up.

 

[Chippertheripper]

Not I.
I’ve done it a couple times, with a few different fronts but always an ikon rear.
I rode some of the trails a couple days ago mike used, and it made me wish they had 100+ bikes running over them all the time. Even the baby head laden stuff had a nice buff to it that made it feel faster and less brutal.