First ride last night, so a few impressions.
I took it to Stanmer Park (wooded singletrack) and a bit on the South Downs.
Gosh it’s light – certainly the lightest geared bike I’ve owned.
The front end is so light it’s easy to lift up over stuff. You do have to be careful with timing – there’s no ‘cush’ to forgive if you don’t quite get it right and clip the obstacle or drop off a log or something a bit hard.
I’m amazed how little technical stuff it stopped me riding. I’ve never done ‘proper’ off road with out suspension and whilst it’s easier (and a bit quicker ont he bumpy bits) with some movement in the forks it’s not quite the black/white I thought it would be.
On a downhill with repeated ‘hits’ you do tend to worry for your fillings but, generally, as long as you keep your arms ‘loose’ it’s not too bad.
traction when braking seems to be the biggest issue – if there’s any sort of roots etc in the braking zone it makes it far harder as the front wheel’s bouncing off the groudn and trying to lock out.
It’s been about a month since I’ve riden with gears and, tbh, it took me as long to get used to those as the fork – I ended up pushign a stupidly big gear uphill and spinning along the flat a few times.
It doesn’t half fly when you get it in the big ring on a good surface 🙂
My first hardstail aluminium frame for about 10 years – very impressed. I’m sure the Ti post helped but I really didn’t feel I was getting beaten up by it.
All the above was on pretty much dry surfaces. I fully expect to be landing on my face the first time I hit a wet root at speed but until then I’m really liking this bike 🙂
