Did about 2500' of climbing/descending yesterday at La Costa and DP for those that know the area in SD. The trails that I was riding tend to be pretty rough and choppy. I wasn't feeling great yesterday, but pushed through some nagging sinus issues. Definitely wasn't on my game.
In general I am more impressed with this bike the more I ride it. On most other bikes I am hyper sensitive to setup. I run the Sram digital tire pressure monitors, check shock pressures before every ride, etc. On this bike I am happy to hop on and go and don't notice any of the little things that usually bother me. As an example I normally run 19/24 psi F and R for tire pressures and am almost obsessive about setting them. When they are too high, it drives me nuts and I get weird sensations where the bike feels like it doesn't want to initiate turns or there is a lot of harshness coming through the bars.
I rode the first climb and descent without remembering to set my pressures. When I check they were at 24/28 psi which on other bikes would throw me off. Here I didn't feel any harshness coming through the rear end and the bike still felt incredibly supple.
One thing I do notice during descending is the higher Stack. I am used to having a lot of pressure on my hands with a lower bar position, but on the Mega I feel like I am in a better and more central position on the bike. The only downside, if you can call it that, is I have to be a little more focused on my body position. My natural position is a little farther back which isn't keeping enough weight on the front wheel and it feels a little loose in some corner.
As for climbing, the bike feels good. I am still working on the balance during technical section, but after yesterday no complaints. Did a lot of pavement climbs and the bike was very well behaved. I came off in a few technical climbs, but that is just more of learning the nuances of the bike.
C64453AB-8B3A-4964-8B4A-E28A390AECF4_1_105_c by
Sales Punk, on Flickr