I finally took it out for a ride today.
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Keep in mind I'm coming off of a 1988 Rock Hopper Comp to this, so there's a bit of a difference to what I'm used to.
First of all, the bike is complete overkill for my skill/fitness level. But I knew that going in.
I rode this trail a few years ago on my 1988 Rockhopper Comp. So my baseline is a 30+ year old bike I've ridden "off road" one time in the past 25 years.
And since i'm not a pro blogger or anything I'll just toss out some misc thoughts on it.
I like disk brakes. A lot. That said, these do feel a little squishy to me but my comparison there are numerous Ducatis with top of the line Brembos, so I'm probably not being realistic on what bicycle brakes can feel like. I wish they had less travel before biting and a firmer feel once they do. I had zero issues with the function of them, it was just the feel that wasn't optimum. I'm not complaining so much as commenting, they're fine. I don't see a need to upgrade them any time soon. THAT said... I did already buy a floating front rotor. ZERO reason I need it. I just wanted it. It's a motorcycle thing.
The seat. I ordered a new one last weekend before I had even ridden the bike, a WTB Speed I found on clearance for around $20. About three miles into the ride today I was thinking the stock seat needed an adjustment maybe, but it wasn't bad. Maybe I didn't need the new seat? At six miles in I was thinking yeah, this thing needs to be adjusted. Angle the front down further? Maybe it's a skoosh too high? At seven miles I was thinking get me off this fooking thing it's horrible. Needs to be adjusted for sure and even then I'll try the new seat as soon as it shows up. Issue wasn't pressure on my sit bones or whatever they're called, it was pressure further forward from that.
The suspension. My first bike with suspension. FLASHBACK - I rode motocross bikes as a kid back in the early 70s. Then I didn't ride them for about 20 years. Then I bought one and went riding. Bopping through the woods there was a little ditch we had to cross. I stood up and expected a shock. Hit the ditch. Felt nothing. What the??? Holy cow, modern suspensions work. Flash forward to today. I'm cruising down a hill, got more speed than I was expecting, got a little more air off a bump than I was expecting. I was expecting a bit of a jolt on the landing. Felt nothing. It was like I had been softly set back down on the trail. No bounce, no bottoming, just a little whomp and on with the show, nothing to see here. Tee hee hee... I guess the suspensions on these things are for real. When I got back to my Jeep I noticed I hadn't come anywhere near bottoming out either end, so I might try backing off the air pressure but no complaints about how either end felt. Yes, I'm a complete newb to suspensions on bicycles so take that with a grain of salt but still.
Tires. I've never ridden on tires like that before. I had the pressures set at 25 ft/27rr and liked the feel of them in slow climbs and going over rocks and roots. Lots of grip. I'm running stock tubes and see no reason to go tubeless given my lack of skill and the terrain around here.
Gearing/shifting. Ok, the shifting isn't world class. There are likely adjustaments that can be made but going down the cassette isn't as positive as it could be. Moving it up into lower gears while climbing was fine so no complaints there. None of it was bad enough I'd consider upgrading anything but I can see room for improvement there. And I did fumble with the shifter a few times. I'm not used to this dual trigger stuff, I'm old school.
I'm 5' 10" with shortish legs (Size 30 inseam on my Levis). The reach of the bike felt fine, I don't think I'd want it any shorter, but the dropper post may be too tall? It's down pretty much as low as it will go and if the new seat is taller than the stock one, that might not be low enough. I lowered it a bit with the dropper towards the end of my ride and may be looking for a way to reduce the dropper's travel at somepoint to get the seat just a tad lower. All of that said I'd be curious to ride a medium size frame to confirm my thoughts on the reach.
Pedals - old habits die hard. I found myself feeling for toe clips. When I put my feet on the pedals I would slide them on from the back, and slide them backwards when I was getting off. I was wearing some Etnies Jameson BMX shoes and they stuck to the Chesters pretty well. By the end of the ride I was wondering if the soles could be a little stiffer though. Or maybe it was just me being worn out.
That's about it for the bike. I want to find a small bag to go under the top tube so I can cary some things. For today I put a bag under the seat but if I'm gogin to be using the dropper that's not a great place for one.
Only other thing I can think of is the Bryton Rider 450 I bought for it. Like I mentioned earlier, the mounts it came with are worthless for this bike so I 3D printed something that replaces the cap on the stem. That worked fine so no more efforts will go into that. Other than that, it did what I expected it to do - recorded the ride. Turns out I should have set it up to do some navigation for me too, but that's another post... Spoiler alert - My ride included about 4 miles of "more difficult" terrain because apparently I can't read signs, and the bike didn't even flinch at a few things that would have upset my beloved Rockhopper.
