First proper rocky ride last night. Climbing traction (up from Watendlath on the Borrowdale Bash) was great, steering and power the limiters. On the descent I flatted the front (tubed Pananracer) – a slow pinch I think. Later on similar rocky ‘cheeky trails’ I pinch flatted the rear and dinged the Easton rim hitting stone pitched climb a bit enthusiastically. 🙁
Noticed some ‘undamped bouncey rebound’ from the back, which will take some getting used to. Was fun though and a few PRs on descents. Must reign in hooligan tendencies or use higher pressure (don’t ask, I don’t have a gauge). I got the set-up for longer bikepacking/journey type riding rather than mate racing trail stuff.

Rover, I have a 110mm Reba on the Solaris, hope that it will be perfect.

My forks are at 140mm, cos I’m too lazy to change it – could explain the steering issues on steep climbs…… 😳

Interesting comments, thanks. I was wondering if rocky trails with lots of steps etc might be the Achilles heel for this setup (too much bounce), but haven’t had the chance to try any yet.

Got another (night) ride in last night and noticed a couple of things:

First, I set a PR on a climb, which was a bit surprising. OK, it was only a 2 minute fire-road climb and it was only by 7 seconds. But still, that’s around 5% and was the best of 24 attempts, many of which were set on warm sunny days (not cold, damp night rides).

On the downside, the braking traction with the Trailblazer tyres isn’t great. Cornering traction is very good (so I guess the answer is not to brake!) but I locked the back end up a few times on descents that I’ve never had that problem on before. That may be partly down to carrying a bit more speed into corners and braking a bit later, but in general I don’t think these tyres like braking in a straught line that much.

What pressure are you running in the rear?

I think it’s 18 psi. Well my track pump thinks it’s 18 psi and who am I to argue !

You really should try a rigid fork & a 29+ front on these Chubaris’s... 😉

Fair enough, thats the same as me (11st). I’d found the rear wtb plenty grippy, but then again I have been using an ardent race of late..

Hmmm, maybe it was just something specific to Thursday’s (night) ride (wrong tyre pressures, or just very wet trails maybe). I did a ride today that included some fairly steep tracks with loose corners. I deliberately did a bit more braking than strictly necessary and it seemed to grip just fine.

I also smashed my previous record on a sustained (18 minute) climb (by a whole minute), which was very surprising. It’s a bit sandy and loose in places, so maybe the extra float and traction compensated for the weight or something, but it was a bit of a surprise. Not that the climbing is the main thing. It’s going down where you really notice the extra tyre volume, but I expected to pay a price for that on the climbs so it’s surprising that isn’t happening (yet).

I found my trailblazers a handful on wet grass FWIW. Great elsewhere though.