For the first time this year after a summer riding the roadie. And you know what? It was awesome, really enjoyed every minute of it, great bit of singletrack, some good climbs and a good bacon sarny at the top of the hill.
A few observations though:
The handling on a 140m. Hardtail is so different to my roadie, slower turning and this took quite some getting used to.
Wide straight bars a quite odd after riding 42mm drops for a year, I think I need some bars with more sweep. I do accept this may have affected the first point
Wow the brakes are good, I have "good" rim brakes on the road bike but by gosh 185mm disks are wonderful in comparison.
2.35" tyres are a not much fun on the road(I had 1 mile to ride to get to the trails) but they are also not as bad as I thought they would be.
Finally, it was nice not concentrating on going fast but just on bring out in the countryside, a more sedate pace was quite nice actually.
Anyway, I'm sure this is little or no interest to anyone else but it was quite a big deal for me!
<cheers smilie>
I like posts like this, know what you mean and it's great that we all share that enjoyment of riding bikes.
Wow the brakes are good, I have "good" rim brakes on the road bike but by gosh 185mm disks are wonderful in comparison.
This always catches me out. Get to the end of the road, go to gently slow down, look an idiot as the front wheel stops dead.....
All you need to do now is razz a mtb round Birmingham city centre, like oooo I don't know the urban ride coming up soon and you'll definitely be a mountain biker again!
Actually where is that thread, could do with a bump i reckon.....
Matt, all over another urban ride. Just give me a date and I'll be there.