After some generally positive comments on here, I took one out for a demo round the red at Glentress yesterday. Initial thoughts were that it was lighter than I expected; I didn’t have my scales with me, but it felt around the same weight as my small Meta 5 with coil Lyriks. The pale blue colour is truly foul, but maybe that’s to stop anyone wanting to steal the demo bike.
The head angle is almost comically slack, which isn’t ideal for climbing. If ever there was a bike that needs an adjustable fork, this is it. Saying that, once you got your weight in the right position it became a relatively painless exercise. When I tried an Orange 5 a while back I reckoned it was a bit of a chore uphill as I didn’t get on with the geometry and I found it bobbed excessively, but with the Blood there was hardly any movement from the suspension and I didn’t have to touch the propedal the whole day. I’d go as far as to say that with an adjustable fork it would climb better than my Meta 5. Even as it was I was climbing a couple of gears harder than usual. When you point it downhill, it’s a total blast. That slack head angle makes it feel confident on even the steepest descents and it practically jumps itself (which is good, given my utter lack of ability). It picks up speed very quickly and I didn’t miss the extra rear travel at all.
All in all it’s a really fun bike and with something like u-turn Lyriks it would make a great all day ride. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did, but I reckon it’s got to be pretty close to the top of my list when I replace the Meta.
