On a whim decided to bring back from it's retirement home the DRC X Monitor. A old school non GPS timing device.
Back in the Spring of 2012 while reading an issue of Dirt Mountain Bike Magazine from the UK. There was a piece written about the gear one of the editors either Mike Rose or Steve Jones but can't recall exactly who. They wrote a piece on gear he picked and used at a European MTB Enduro event and one that caught my eye was the X Monitor he used.
Caught my eye and thought it was cool as till then had used old Timex watches strapped to the bar as GPS units at the time weren't exactly cheap. Ordered and got it. Big bonus was at the time was running a Chromag Ranger stem in 70mm and with a cable tie was easu to mount on the Stylus and was of to the trails.
And in April 2013 got my hands on a Chromag Samurai frame it was installed when I swapped the parts over. And raced with it as the on bike timing system. Simple and effective. Yet despite it being so simple found it was close to finish times race timing by Substance Projects during the East Cup Series gave as final results. It even survived the 2013 Paul's Dirty Enduro where conditions ate gear. It still kept on running well with only a battery change. Only other change was about 2015 with a stem change had to hack together a mount to work without the Ranger Stem.
However in 2017 scored a GPS bar mount unit so the X Monitor got put to the side for the intervening years. And while saw it many times sitting in it's spot of rest. Didn't feel the need to bring it out of it's rest home. But that changed this year2021. Maybe it was a comment made months ago by Barry that got some thoughts stirring over the last few months. But it was called out from it's rest home. New batteries installed and a new mount was hacked together to work with the classic retro Chromag Cut Block stem,
And a few days ago took it to the Fuel Leak trails for an first run in 4 years. Even though I took the GPS and used that as well it was stuck in the mesh outer pocket on my Wingnut pack. There would be no viewing of speed or mileage. All would see is what you see in the photo's. The running clock and nothing else. Bare bones old school method.
And it was as I remembered. With less distraction of speed and distance being able to immediately see as with a GPS unit on the bars. And actually enjoyed this level of simplicity as well as one could say retro Enduro style that I guess makes one a wee bit of a retro grouch. Well a more up to date retro grouch.
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