"You may remember me from the August 2024 newsletter, where I talked about my Emonda ALR. I’m back talking about my mountain bike, the Santa Cruz Blur TR!

I have had several mountain bikes throughout my riding career, from entry-level to nearly top-of-the line. The Blur TR is my favorite mountain bike that I’ve owned, and I’m not the only person here who feels this way. Chris Palmer has a Blur TR, and Ryann has a Wilder (the Juliana version of the Blur TR, which was featured in the very first edition of our newsletter), and we are all in love with them. It is super light, very fast, and very confidence-inspiring. It absolutely rips around and makes me look like a much better rider than I actually am!

I haven’t really raced cross country mountain bikes since high school, but I will be doing so again in 2025 in the Raceday XC series. It is a race series that spans all of New England and will have 9 races from April through October. I was already looking for a new mountain bike when I first heard about this race series, but it definitely influenced my decision on what bike to get and how to spec it.

Like every bike of mine, I have extensively personalized this bike to make it fit my exact needs. I made the choice to just buy a frame and purchase all of the components separately, saving me from swapping out parts in the future. For the drivetrain, I went with the new Sram XX Transmission groupset. I chose this groupset as Transmission shifts extremely well under load, and the XX level is pretty light, which I care about on a cross-country bike. For the brakes, I went with the new Sram Code Ultimate Stealth brakes. I considered going with the Sram Level Ultimate 4 piston brakes, but went with the Codes as they are much more powerful and have more adjustment, with only a slight weight penalty. I went with a very light wheel and tire combo for this bike: Bontrager Kovee Pro wheels wrapped in Pirelli XC RC tires. This setup rolls very well, accelerates very well, and hooks up well enough through the corners. The seatpost that I went with is the OneUp V3 dropper. It is lighter than the Fox Transfer SL, which is regarded as the premier lightweight dropper post on the market, and is infinitely adjustable. For the suspension, I went with Fox Factory. The bike has a Fox Factory Float rear shock, and the new Fox Factory 34 Step-Cast fork. The 2025 34 Step-Cast has their new Grip SL damper, which shaves about 65 grams compared to the old Grip damper. This helps offset some of the weight gained by choosing heavier brakes. Fully built, with pedals, bottle cages, a computer mount, and a bell, my Blur TR weighs 25.5 pounds.

One often overlooked part on any bike is the chain. The chain has to take all of the load from your legs and transfer it into forward movement. People tend to keep using the same chain lube they have always used, even if it isn’t the best for efficiency or drivetrain longevity. I was in this camp until fall of 2023.  That’s when I started looking into the best way to lubricate a chain for maximum efficiency. I race my bikes and love to find marginal gains, so I didn’t particularly care about drivetrain longevity if it was faster. What I found is that waxing the chain is by far the best way to both save watts and save dollars, as the wax is both more efficient than and prevents drivetrain wear better than any oil-based chain lube. It is also much cleaner than an oil-based lube. You can run your hand along your chain and it will be perfectly clean. It also doesn’t attract dirt the way an oil-based lube does. The black sludge that can be found on many chains simply doesn’t happen on a waxed chain, as there is no oil to mix with dirt and grime to form said sludge. Since I started waxing my chains, all I have done to clean my drivetrain is hose it off. There may be some wax stuck on my chainrings or cassette, but there is no dirt. When I got my Blur TR, there was no other chain lube that was considered. I waxed the chain straight out of the box and haven’t looked back. In the roughly 500 miles I’ve put on my bike, I’ve applied drip wax lube 3 times and hot waxed the chain twice. That’s a bit overkill for a waxed chain, but I’d rather overdo it than not do it enough. Throughout all of the riding I’ve done, my waxed chain has been running smoothly and quietly.

If you haven’t seen one of our waxed chains already, ask about it the next time you visit the shop. Most of us here at MCC now wax our chains, and we almost always have a bike with a waxed chain in the building. If a clean, quiet, more efficient, and longer-lasting drivetrain sounds appealing, we offer chain waxing for your bike. Everyone here who has tried it isn’t going back to traditional chain lubes."

- Michael