 When I announced earlier this year that I'd be riding and racing with Factor, by far the most common question that I got was, what mountain bike are you going to be on? Because at the time, Factor didn't have a mountain bike, but that has changed. Factor has just entered the mountain bike market with the Lando, which comes in both a full suspension and hardtail version. I've been riding and racing the Lando for the last couple months, and in this video, I'm going to break down how exactly I set this bike up for racing, and to continue with the marginal gains theme that I've had going for the last couple videos, I'll get into some of the marginal gains that I employ on this bike to gain a little bit of an edge, including which chain wax and method that I use, ceramic bearing upgrades, tire selection, and more. Though I would probably consider myself a gravel racer at this point, my roots are very much in mountain biking, specifically ultra endurance mountain biking, and I still include mountain bike races on my schedule here and there. Also, this year my big goal is the Lifetime Grand Prix, which includes three gravel races and three mountain bike races, so having a fast mountain bike and continuing to work on my mountain bike skills is obviously still important to me. This is the bike that I used at the first lifetime GP race at Sea Otter, and I also recently took my first win of the season on it at the Kohata 100. And I have to say, so far I'm thoroughly impressed. Factor has embraced the direction that modern XC bikes are going, with slacker angles and more travel, which I know may sound like nails on a chalkboard to my road audience, but the mountain bikers watching know exactly what I'm talking about. Belando has a 67 degree head tube angle and is designed to work with a 120 millimeter travel fork, and also has 115 millimeters of travel in the rear. The bike also has a relatively long top tube, which is intended to be paired with a shorter stem. Obviously, this improves the descending and handling ability of the bike, but the weight of the bike has not been compromised either. The weight of the frame with the shock comes in at 2100 grams, and the weight of the bike as seen here comes in at 22.9 pounds, or 10.4 kilograms. And yes, that includes pedals, bottle cages, and the dropper post. In other words, the weight of the bike when you're actually riding it. Amateur hour over here. Watch, next he's going to say that he uses the weight that he actually waves when he rides on Zwift. But perhaps the most important question when it comes to cross country full suspension mountain bikes these days, does it have two water bottle cage mounts? The answer to that is yes. The first one is in its normal spot on the downtube, and the second one tucks under the top tube, and this two bottle system actually works very well. But the top tube cage does need a lot of grip force, since it's a downward facing cage. I run a silka titanium bottle cage on the downtube, but on the top tube, I opt for the super secure Dawn to dust captive 10, named because of its 10 pounds of grip force, essentially meaning that this bottle isn't going anywhere, even on rough terrain. Before we move on from the frame, we have to talk about this paint job. This is of course subjective, but I think this may be one of the coolest looking paint jobs that you can get on a stock bike. There's a subtle gloss green coating that still allows you to see the carbon and changes depending on how the light hits it, and then this scale looking pattern near the cranks is actually made using small factor logos, easily one of the most bling looking mountain bikes I've ever owned. Let's move on to the wheels, which are factors sister company Black Ink 27s, which are aptly named because they have a nice wide internal rim width of 27 millimeters. Just another way that factor Black Ink has embraced current trends with XC racers going for wider and wider tires, which obviously require wider and wider rims. The tires that I use for racing are highly course dependent. I actually refuse to get a tire sponsor because it's something that I like experimenting with, and I don't want to be beholden to one brand. Yeah, dude, me too. I'm turning down sponsors left and right. I mean, it just won't leave me alone. It's really hard to keep your integrity these days. For example, some of the companies that make the best mountain bike tires on the market don't make the best gravel tires and vice versa. Max is sorry about that. Right now I have the Continental Race King 2.2s mounted on this bike, and these are the tires that I used for Seater and Kohata. I'll admit that these are not the best tires on the market in terms of grip. If I'm doing a race where grip is really important, then I'll probably opt for something else, like the Maxis Aspen. But these tires do perform extremely well in independent rolling resistance tests. In fact, the Race Kings are the fastest mountain bike tires with any significant knobs or puncture protection, according to bicyclerollingresistance.com. This means that at least in a straight line, these are a very fast tire, and a lot of times in ultra endurance mountain bike racing, perfect handling is less important than in XC racing because there's a lot more open gravel and you're operating at a lower relative intensity. If you're a regular viewer of my channel, then you know that I'm a big fan of tire inserts for the gravel bike, and yes, I also use tire inserts on the mountain bike, depending on the course and how high the risk of puncturing is. Big square edge hits where you can easily bottom out the tire are where the inserts come in handy, and I use the Tubolite EVO SL insert because it's the lightest mountain bike insert on the market at just 58 grams, and I pair that with Silke's new ultimate tire sealant, which I've yet to get a puncture with. Inserts will also allow you to run lower tire pressure, which is an advantage not only because it increases comfort and grip, but also because it can decrease rolling resistance on rough terrain. What does a fast mountain bike tire pressure look like? Depending on the course and what width of tire I'm running, I'll typically go for between 16 and 19 psi. If that sounds way too low for you, then I've got a recent video that I think you should check out linked in the description. Moving on to the cockpit, I'm running Black Inc's new mountain bike bar stem with an effective 70 millimeter stem and 760 millimeter bars. More and more, both mountain bikes and road bikes are coming with integrated bar stem combos, and to me it just makes sense and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the norm in a couple of years. For suspension, I'm running Fox. The fork is Fox's new lightweight XC Steppcast 34 with 120 millimeters of travel. Coming from a 100 millimeter Fox 32, the 120 34 is noticeably stiffer and more capable, and the weight penalty is only about 100 grams. That being said, this bike also does take a 100 millimeter fork, so I may experiment with the 32 if I'm really trying to shave some weight for a certain race. I run a drop or sea post almost exclusively for mountain bike racing, and I'm very excited to be on the new Fox Transfer SL. Rather than being air sprung, the Transfer SL uses a mechanical spring, and this actually makes the post much lighter because the post doesn't need to be as robust. It's also a much simpler design with just two positions, all the way up or all the way down, and while some may see this as a drawback, personally, I don't find myself looking for any position in between those two when I'm racing. The SL is just 350 grams, and for reference, most rigid posts are around 200 grams, so you're only sacrificing around 150 grams for greatly improved descending and handling. In my opinion, it's a no-brainer. Oh, totally a no-brainer, dude. I'd give my left nut before I added 150 grams to my bike. All right, let's talk about this drivetrain because there's a lot of cool stuff going on here. I'm running a SRAM Eagle Axis Group, and the oil slick cassette just happens to match the bike beautifully, but on top of that, it also performs great. That being said, there's some key changes that I make to improve the drivetrain's efficiency. SRAM drivetrains are actually on the less efficient side, and this goes for their mountain bike lines and their road lines. Most of that has to do with SRAM chains, which for whatever reason seem to test a bit slower than other chains on the market, often giving up a couple watts to their competition. This is why for racing, I use a YBN chain, which tests significantly faster than SRAM, but is still compatible with a SRAM drivetrain. And for my race chains, I'll also go all in and use hot melt wax to get the chain as efficient as possible. And generally, hot melt wax usually lasts longer as well, which is critical for the length of races that I generally do. My go-to is the Silka Secret Chain Blend, which again tests very fast. This method does require the use of a Crock-Pot or an Instant Pot, but I've found that it tends to last longer than a lot of the wax drip loops on the market. Finally, to eke out every bit of efficiency I can, I've got ceramic speed oversize pulley wheels, a ceramic speed bottom bracket, and ceramic speed bearings in the wheels to save another handful of watts. To some, this may seem like overkill, but I'd like to use the Seater Classic mountain bike race, which I just participated in, as an example of why this may make a difference. When looking at the cluster of riders that I was racing with, racing for a top 20 finish, just one minute was the difference between eight places over the course of a three hour race. When dealing with these kinds of small time gaps, even a small advantage could be a place or two, and every place matters in the fight for this overall series. I like that they're big and gold. For a power meter, I run a Quark SRAM Eagle crankset. I continue to be a huge fan of Quark, and it's the brand that I use on every one of my bikes. The power meter on this bike is actually one that I've had for five years now, and it's still going strong. Collecting that data is a Wahoo head unit. I'll often go with the Element Roam for training, but for racing, I'll opt for the lighter and more aerodynamic Element Bolt. Holding the Wahoo is Silica's new 3D printed titanium mount, which integrates with the black ink cockpit. Outfront mounts are less common on the mountain bike, but the reason for going with it, in my opinion, is for reduced cross-sectional area and improved aerodynamics, which I know is something that you don't hear mountain bikers talk about often, but it's something that I actually think about a lot, often going for Rule 28 Aero Sox and Aero Gloves, Starlight's TT suit, and CASC's Utopia Aero helmet. Again, at sea otter, the average speed was 17 miles per hour or 27 kilometers per hour, which means there's a significant portion of that race where we're going faster than that. And aerodynamics absolutely makes a difference, not as much of a difference as when you're riding on the road or gravel, but a difference nonetheless. For pedals, I'll run Crankbrothers Eggbeater 11's simply because they're light, no other reason than that, but I do still use the 3-hole to 2-hole Crankbrothers cleat adapter so that I can run road shoes. Why run road shoes for mountain bike racing? Well, road shoes are lighter and more aerodynamic, so if you don't have to get off your bike and hike, then it makes sense, which is the case for most of the races that I do. I will even run road pedals for mountain bike racing occasionally, but I have to be sure that there's going to be no walking because getting the road cleats gunked up with mud is a recipe for disaster when you get back on the bike and have to clip in again. If I opt for road pedals, then I usually go for Shimano Dura Ace. Thanks for watching. If you want to stay up to date on my racing and what bikes I'm racing on, then check me out on Instagram. Those who follow me there have already seen this bike as well as my gravel race bike and my road bike from Factor as well. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to give it a like, subscribe, and share this video with your cycling friends. I'll see you in the next one.