In today’s send I’m going to talk about the benefits and drawbacks of wrapping your frame. I will also cover more of my favorite destination, and why I like them so much.

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Should you wrap it?

You might be wondering what it bike wrap, and why would I want to use it? In it’s most basic form, bike wrap is a protective layer applied to your bike frame. You can also wrap your fork too. It can help prevent the frame or fork from getting scratched or scuffed in the case of a wreck or even the bike falling over. I will be focusing on Ride Wrap since I have the most experience with their products.

Ride Wrap is a self healing film that is applied to your frame and fork. RW sells their kits in four different versions. Essential: this is the most basic of the offerings, but it’s the easiest to apply. Creator: this is similar to Essential in it’s coverage, but it has designs to add some customization to your bike. Covered: this covers the high risk areas of the bike. Some of these kit’s are bike specific. Tailored: this covers 99% of your frame. Each kit is specific to a model and size. You plug in the year, model and size into their site to get the correct one. They have gloss and matte finishes to match your bike’s finish. I have wrapped two frames in the tailored kit, and one in a model specific covered kit.

Wrapping the bike sounds like a no brainer, but there are a few factors to consider when making this decision. The kits cost between $35 to $125 depending on which kits you choose. If the bike isn’t brand new, plan on spending a lot of time cleaning the frame. You will need to remove the wheels, cranks, and any manufacturer supplied protection. Having a clean well lit area to work is essential. Any specs of dust, lint etc. will show up under the wrap. You will also need to plan on dedicating a lot of time to getting it done right. You are wrapping a 3D object with a 2D sheet. There is some trial and error involved. Some of the larger pieces took me 4-6 tries to get on correctly. You use a soap solution whey applying them, so you can peal them off and re-apply if they are off. Tailored kits are 25-30 individual pieces, and they include everything you need to apply them short of a spray bottle. If you mess one up so badly that it can’t be used they do sell all the kits individual pieces separately. Getting them prefect is really hard. Thankfully with material is fairly forgiving in that heat helps most of the bubbles disappear. Both of my tailored wraps looked better after a few summer months of being in the sun. A heat gun can also be used.

Is it worth it? My answer here is maybe. It’s costly, time consuming, and pain in the butt to apply, but it does exactly what it is advertised to do. My Slash has seen about 40 days of lift service downhill and countless miles of rocky trails, and the frame is still in great shape. I didn’t wrap my Megatower, and it was very scuffed up when I sold it which made resale more difficult. If you ride in an area that has lots of rocks, wrapping it is a good idea. I opted to not wrap my Epic EVO because most of the places I ride it don’t have many rocks. How you ride is also a factor. I tend to ride on the aggressive side, so I crash occasionally. If you don’t find yourself on the ground very ofter it might not be worth it unless you are the type of person who is bothered by blemishes on your bike.

LIke most everything else in the world of bikes, you can pay someone else to do it. Some of the people who wrap vehicles will also wrap bikes. Some bike shops will also do it. The shop where I work won’t do it. We can’t come up with a price that makes sense for us and our customers. People who do this type of thing every day can do a better job for less money.

Bike I’m Eyeing: Contra Bikes BR200

A few more of my favorite destinations.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to ride a lot of different locations from coast to coast and even Mexico. Below is a list of a few more of my favorite locations. I couldn’t cover them all last week!

St. George UT 

Over the last number of years I have had the opportunity to spend a fair amount of time in St. George for work and vacation. It has become one of my favorite places for so many reasons.

It’s pretty easy to get there. It’s about a two hour drive from Las Vegas or about four hours from Salt Lake City. Flight into Vegas are plentiful and reasonably priced. The drive from Vegas is a little boring until you get into the little corner of Arizona that you go through. From that point on you feel like you are on a different planet. The clear blue sky with red rocks as far as you can see is amazing. My pictures just don’t do it justice.

St. George itself has lots of options for lodging from hotels, spas, or Air B&B rentals. There are also lots of food options from quick and easy to high end. There is something for everyone. It’s very close to Santa Clara, Hurricane and Virgin which are all great places to ride.

There are also lots of bike rental options in St. George and the surrounding areas. Over the Edge in Hurricane is amazing. They went above and beyond for my rental when I was there. I wanted to ride a Revel Rascal which I was able to rent on their site. A few days later they emailed to say it wouldn’t be built yet. I was bummed because I wanted to ride CBF suspension platform in a carbon bike, and they replied back to let my know they would move some stuff around to have that bike ready for me. I was blown away by that. They have a large collection of rental bikes for almost every type of riding you might be interested in. They also offer shuttles and guided trips on the local trails They are a stones throw from some of the best trails in the area.

There are so many trails in the area. There is no way I can list them all. MTB Project has a pretty solid list. Zen and Gooseberry Mesa(pictured below) were two of my favorites. It was too early in the year ride Whole Guacamole. It will be in my list next time I can go there. Some of the loops are shorter, so you can ride more than one on a day. There is also Snake Hollow Bike Park right in town. It’s a collection of flow trails, and dirt jumps. The city does an amazing job of providing amenities for residents and visitors.

If for some unknown reason you don’t want to ride every day there are plenty of things to fill the time. The 4 wheeler tours of Sand Hollow State Park are awesome. There are lots of sight seeing and hiking opportunities in Snow Canyon State Park and the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area.

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