I popped into the reviews section of MTBR to see what others are saying about the Maxxis Swampthing. There were 29 reviews with an overall rating of 4.90 out of 5. A couple of the comments I read were that they were a little heavy but not too bad.

The Official Product Description from JensonUSA
The Swampthing is a great downhill tire constructed from soft rubber that will hook on rocks and stumps to give you traction, but still tough enough that it won’t fold when stressed.  A cleated knob design allows you to corner, brake, and accelerate without slipping.

Not sure how long the Maxxis Swampthing Tires are gonna last at $20, but you can pick them up at JensonUSA.

If you’ve used these tires then post up some feedback of what you did or didn’t like about the Maxxis

This is my first real night riding light but while in the purchase process, I had the chance to try several lights on my light list before buying. In the end it ultimately came down to price. Being on a tight budget the Magicshine 900 Lumen MTB light provides more than enough light to see everything, even on the lowest setting.

I’ve yet to run the light on high for 3 straight hours to test its life, simply because all I usually need is a the low or middle settings for a little over a couple of hours. I did notice that I have a bad connector on my light.. it turns off periodically based on it’s position. To keep it from turning off I simply tape the connection to not allow movement.

All in all it’s a great light at a great price. If you need a light and money is tight, the magic shine is the way to go.

I do recommend you buy a helmet mount. I’ve found it easy to mount the magicshine  straight to my helmet using the vent wholes but all bike helmets are created differently.

I like this light so much I’m considering buying a second one.

Unfortunately my only color choice was black and being a warm night I figured for sure the material was going to bleed and turn my hands black from persperation.. to my surprise this wasn’t the case.

After riding with my new DAKINE Cross X Bike Gloves… I love them. They fit really well… I really like the extra padding on the outer palm. The index and second fingers have a great sticky coding on them which is nice.. no slippage on the brake levers.

These gloves are a bit on the heavier side so I can see them being great gloves to ride in during the cooler months as we enter in to fall.  I would definitely want a different glove for summer riding, something thinner.

All-in-all a great mountain biking glove at a reasonable price around $30 from your local bike shop or find DAKINE Cross X Bike Glove on Amazon for about $24.00 or less.

I started shopping around and fortunately for me I found a pretty good deal on Craigslist. This being a first for me.. disc brakes that is… I went to google for instructions on installing these bad boys and lucky me again a YouTube Video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Avid BB7 comes in several sizes. 160mm, 185mm and 203mm.  My DOD friends said for what we ride here a 160mm on the rear and 185mm on the front is good way to go.  The reasoning behind it from what I understand is the 185mm on front won’t heat up as fast.

As a closing note, consult your local bike shop on sizing because some frames and/or forks can’t fit all the sizes.

I went with 160mm on both the front and rear becuase that is what was available to me. So far things have been fine and I’m enjoying learning how to ride with my new Avid BB7 disc brakes.

I installed my own disc brakes simly because I like to wrench around on my bike but i’m no professional. Once I got the bb7’s installed and upgraded some other compenants.. I took her down to my local bike shop and had them tune everything up for me.

Tonight was the weekly Wednesday ride at Whypass outside of Lorrane, so this morning once my wife got back from her workout I decided I had to change my tires out. My single speed had my WTB Velociraptors. I’ve been riding on VelociRaptors for several years now and just love them. They’re great in the mud and they shed it well. Those other tires did not shed mud.. at all. So on tonights ride… what a difference. I had total confidence that my front mtb tire would stick.. where ever I put it.