Blind Date in Sedona
Fergs heads South for a date with Marta
Words by David Ferguson. Photos by David Ferguson.
I'm not sure how it happened, or when it happened, but somehow I've managed to get into Cam's good books. I am starting to get used to the emails I get from him every once in a while: "Hey Fergs, do you want to go to Taiwain?", or "Hey Fergs, Do you want to go to Sedona?". Of course I do, thanks Cam! So what's in Sedona? Turns out it was my chance to meet a couple of German girls named Marta and Louise. Until this opportunity, I hadn't a chance to get my hands on these fine German specimens.
View from the deck off my bedroom in The House.
My contact at Magura USA prior to leaving for Arizona was Jeff Enlow (general manager), and in an email Jeff reminded us to bring our pedals. My first (and as it turns out, correct) thought was "time for some spandex XC fun". Prior to this trip, I hadn't been on a mountain bike since the late Fall, before vast amounts of snow covered our lovely North Shore. Luckily however I spent a lot of time on my roadbike this winter. And it's a good thing too - in case you didn't know, XC requires lungs. I had an idea of what I was getting into after I read Cam's article from the same trip last year. What I didn't know, and was about to find out is that riding technical uphill requires a set of bike skills that I neglected to acquire when I signed up for the Shore years ago. Anyway, I packed up my camera, dug out my shorts and dry weave tops, pulled my Syncros flats off of my 243 and headed South.
A makeshift bike shop with enough really nice bikes to make some bike stores envious
Sedona is a tiny little town about 90 minutes North of Phoenix. I arrived at The House on a Sunday night, just in time to catch the tail end of a delicious feast of bbq chicken and beef. Gathered around the dinner table were a handful of journalists, the product guys from Magura USA, and our trail guides (and builders) John and Janet Finch. The House is owned by a daughter of the man behind Purina dog food. It was a real treat to come back to after a solid day of riding. The pool and hot tub were well used and there were plenty of really comfortable places to relax when one wanted a reprieve from the heat or the crowds.
It seemed that everywhere I turned in the house there was a comfy hanging bed
A very welcome treat at the end of a good ride in the intense sun
The first day of riding had us all up early enough to claim a bike from the huge selection of rides, fine-tune our suspension, throw on our pedals and head to the trails before the heat of the day set in. My ride on the first day was a powder blue Titus El Guapo, spec'd with Louise brakes, a Wotan 160mm fork and the Hugin rear shock. Drivetrain was a mix of Deore LX and SRAM X.9. Stefan Pahl is a product engineer from Germany, and he flew in to take part in the event and provide a great level of expertise. Stefan helped me setup my suspension and explained the flightdeck controls of the fork (more on that in a moment). While we were doing that, I was noticing that all of the other riders had clipless pedals. Was I the only one with flats? What did I get myself into? No fear - John, our trail guide, also had flats.
My ride for day 1: Titus ElGuapo with Louise, Wotan and a Hugin rear shock
Cabling gets a bit messy with 2 shifters, brakes and 2 remote controls
When someone says "shuttle", what's the first thing that comes to your mind? For me it means "drive up, ride down". In Sedona, it means "drive up, ride up". In Sedona, a "downhill" trail is one that isn't all uphill, and there are quite a few running jokes among the locals about this fact. Thankfully the uphill riding wasn't an issue, even with my flat pedals. The technical uphill sections however seemed to rob my flow, but that's not a trail issue, it's a rider issue. Despite some lush looking lawns and trees, Sedona is essentially in a desert. Lots of red-rock/shale, small dry shrubs, smallish trees and a lot of cactus are standard issue along the trails. The first ride of the day was an out and back along relatively flat (no significant elevation gain or loss) terrain. There were a lot of small ups and downs which had the heart rate up and the sweat flowing. The guys riding the new lineup of Durin forks had a good opportunity on this xc ride to do some testing. My Wotan was a bit overkill, and the Hugin rear shock performed well but has been around for a few years now. I was more interested in testing the new Louise, and luckily our last ride before lunch provided a chance to do so.
Our turn-around location on the first ride. A nice bit of shade was a welcome place to take a breather
Hot hot hot Arizona sun in the dessert
The biggest changes in the new 2009 Louise include a wider blade with a carbon option and a new blade and piston assembly that is engineered as a single unit. The entire assembly pops in and out of the main body for maintenance, helps keep out debris and provides a more responsive snappy feeling blade. The easy bleed system is also standard on the Louise. Mid-ride I wanted to pull the blades in a bit closer to my grips. My Louise had the BAT option which provides an instant and easy way to adjust the bite distance. A quick allen-key adjustment pulled the whole assembly closer to my grip. The Louise had great stopping power and great modulation. I didn't experience any fade on the trails we rode, despite the +40c dry weather.
The wider Louise blade with red BAT adjuster. Note how the blade doesn't end at the pivot location, but rather is one piece integrated with the piston inside
Our riding day ended with a late-lunch at a small cafe that served up American sized sandwiches with a New York Deli twist. A few of us opted for one more quick post-lunch ride down a "downhill" trail that was actually 95% downhill. Amazing! The rest of the day was spent trying to cool down around the pool with some bevies while waiting for our catered dinner to arrive. This was an opportunity to take a closer look at the new Marta and Durin lineups.
Post-ride taste tasting: the tall-necked bottle on the right is a $100 bottle of Tequila.. smoooooooth!
A Louise caliper and rotor with the unpublicized Venti-Rotor (the red part of the rotor with fan blades to help reduce heat build up in the area)
I liked Louise, but Marta is just plain sexy. There are 2 other versions of the Marta aside from the namesake: Marta SL and Marta SL Magnesium. All three systems have switched to use the same sized organic pads as the Louise (an increase in pad surface area over the old Marta) which required a complete redesign of the brake. The Marta and the Marta SL have calipers both crafted from aluminum. To get the SL designation, the aluminum blades of the Marta were replaced with carbon fibre, thus shaving off an additional 5g in weight. All in (brake, fully bled hose, disc and mounting hardware), the Marta weighs in at 340g and the SL version at 335g. Using magnesium for the master cylinder and the caliper, and switching to titanium hardware for mounting, the Marta SL Magnesium sheds an additional 35 grams from the SL version. All in, the magnesium version weighs 299g and is easily recognizable by a classy red and white paint scheme. The Marta family also gets the new blade/piston single assembly as well as the easy bleed system. Suggested retail for the 3 versions are $275, $319 and $369USD. You may be able to get your hands on a few this summer, but don't expect full availability until the fall.
The Marta SL sitting beside a new grip from German component company Syntace
The Marta SL Magnesium, the only model available in this paint scheme
Mmm... delcious magnesium caliper in matching red & white paint
For the super weight-conscious geeks out there, check out the changes to Magura's fork lineup. The Durin SL is a new super light xc unit that comes in 80mm (1350g) and 100mm (1380g) sizes. The Dual Arch Design is used again for extra stiffness, and a preset Albert SL damper. This compression damper has been redesigned from the 2008 Durin to shed 30g and a lighter steerer tube brings the total weight savings down 100g from last year. Retail is suspected to be around $939USD. The Durin Marathon has 120mm of travel and has the same castings as the SL model, but with longer stanchions and steerer tubes. Albert Select is onboard for manual or remote lockout and platform adjustment. Flight Control Remote is an option and will allow the rider to drop the fork down to 80mm. Depending on your setup (with or without FCR), the Marathon will weigh between 1555g and 1585g and have a MSRP of $899 and $1069.
Stefan highlighting the specs of the new all mountain Thor
New in the fork lineup for 2009 is the 140mm Thor. It comes with the Rock Shox Maxle 360 thru-axle or Magura's own "60less" 20mm thru-axle that isn't quite as user friendly as the Maxle (requires a 5mm allen key to remove a single pinch bolt) but makes up for this by weighing 60g less than a Maxle. FCR will drop the fork down to 100mm and uses Albert Select damping with threshold and rebound adjustments. The Thor also has a special post mount for the caliper for a 180mm rotor without requiring an adapter. Another clever weight-watchers trick from the German engineers. The Thor weighs in at 1785g and should list for $975USD.
Adjustable travel on the Wotan: 160mm down to 120mm
The 2009 Wotan remains unchanged from the 2008 model. It's got 160mm of travel (6.3"), the Double Arch Design (DAD) with a Maxle thru-axle that keeps the fork nice and stiff when cornering over the rough stuff, remote-enabled Albert Select platform compression selection and a remote-enabled travel adjustment from 160mm down to 120mm. Both remote-controlled systems worked well once I felt comfortable using them mid-ride, but I don't feel I had enough exposure to the Albert Select in the two days of riding to really get a feel for it. A post-mount for the brake caliper is set for an 8" rotor. New paint & decals are in store for the 2009 model. I'd like to play with this beefy single crown fork on my home turf to get a better feel for it. Current retail is suggested at $1099USD.
Remote controlled platform adjustment on my Wotan
Magura is releasing a new rear shock this year - the MX. This is a unique unit that uses a hard-rubber bellows that wraps around a plastic cone. Air pressure inside of the bellows pushes away from the plastic cone. When force is applied to compress the shock, the bellows wraps around the plastic cone as the cone enters the airspace within the bellows. The unit is 100% maintenance free because none of the usual seals required to keep out debris are needed and the rubber compound will essentially last forever. Internally there is a single seal for the air piston which doesn't require maintenance either because the only substance moving through the system is air. With the removal of the seals and oil, the shock becomes much more sensitive to small bumps. Rebound and compression damping are the only adjustments available (besides air pressure). That means there is no platform adjustment to deal with pedal bob. I didn't get a chance to ride with the MX so we'll have to wait and see what the community thinks of it once it's available.
A photo is worth a thousands words: the MX in action
Day two started with setting up a different bike. Some guys switched it up and others stuck with their steeds from the previous day. My new ride was a bright red Intense 5.5 FRO with another Wotan and a Fox Float in the back. Stopping power came from a pair of Marta SL's. Our guide John took us on a decent uphill climb to a new and relatively hard to find trail aptly named Hang Over. It involved traversing up some slick-rock switch backs that required a granny gear and lots of will power, but rewarded the rider with some spectacular views on either side of a flat slick-rock ridge. The descent had 3 major sections: a few technical slick-rock sections with lines marked by stacks of rocks, a long and straight single track section that teetered along a narrow strip of greenery with a lot of exposure (don't look down!), more slick-rock and then a nice and flowy downhill section that brought us back to the road we had climbed.
Look closely: riders making their way to the upper section of Hangover
Heading up to the ridge along the top of Hangover
The trail is impressive and if I had to guess, I'd classify it as a black-diamond relative to the other trails. Was it a good trail to test new brakes and suspension? For some of us - no. The Marta's performed well - maybe too well. Perhaps if I had less effective brakes I wouldn't have stopped so many times to dab a foot or get off and push through a section I lost all of my flow in, or physically couldn't pass under or around the overhanging rocks. This happened to me way too many times and the ride became rather frustrating. Some guys loved the trail, and some clearly didn't. Luckily the downhill section at the bottom allowed me to get a better feel for the fork and the brakes in riding conditions that I am accustomed. Both components performed very well.
Heading down the backside on some very invisible lines to the newcomer
One of the numerous locations I found myself walking instead of riding
At some point during that morning ride I clipped my pedal on some rock. The effects of this collision didn't show up until after lunch when we embarked on the second ride. I managed to strip the pedal threads in my XT crank arm and eventually lost my pedal somewhere in the Arizona dessert. A 2 hour journey that was mostly walking in the mid-day sun back to The House with the help of John left me just enough time to have a quick shower, pack, and get on the road back to Phoenix to catch my flight. When it was all said and done, it was a good trip, but could have been better as far as testing was concerned.The new gear from Magura is going to please a lot of different style of rider in the mountain bike world. Llike all fine German engineering, Magura's attention to detail and engineering will speak for itself. We'll get some product from them to test up here on the Shore and let you know how it goes. Here's hoping for another date with Marta.
My ride on day 2 - an Intense 5.5 FRO with Marta SL and another Wotan
Are you a Magura fan? Anything you'd like to try here or have tried already? Spreken ze Magura?
