I've had a 2011 5 Spot for a couple of months now. And I'm really happy with it. It is pretty much better than my 2002 Specialized FSR XC Pro. I expected the 5 Spot to be a better descender, and for the pedaling to be more efficient given the DW Link. But even taking those things into consideration I'm often quite surprised at how well this bike works when climbing.
So I got to wondering if its the geometry, the length of the chainstays or what. When climbing fairly sane stuff the 5 Spot is better mostly because of the more efficient DW link. That isn't so surprising. However when thing get really steep, to so steep I'm not always sure my legs are gonna last and I might fall over and roll back down the hill then there's something about the 5 Spot that is much better than my old bike but I can't put my finger on it.
Two things I've noticed are than when seated and really pushing hard on the pedals, the front wheel is not so quick to lift off of the ground. The other thing is that on the really insanely steep stuff where I have to get way up on the front of the bike it just works so much better than my previous experience with mountain bikes. I kind of get into a position where instead of sitting on the nose of the saddle with my chest low above the stem, I now kinda float my bottom just barely above and to the front of the nose of the saddle and it works so much better. It's kinda difficult to describe the position, but it sorta feels like I'm standing up, and crouched down low at the same time. And that my body is almost perfectly positioned between the stem and saddle to get more of my energy into the rear wheel, while keeping the front wheel on the ground and not spinning the rear wheel.
Can anyone explain what they've done to make the bike work so well?
Some people will think I'm now just another Homer that's swilling the Koolade, but that's ok w/me.
Derek
So I got to wondering if its the geometry, the length of the chainstays or what. When climbing fairly sane stuff the 5 Spot is better mostly because of the more efficient DW link. That isn't so surprising. However when thing get really steep, to so steep I'm not always sure my legs are gonna last and I might fall over and roll back down the hill then there's something about the 5 Spot that is much better than my old bike but I can't put my finger on it.
Two things I've noticed are than when seated and really pushing hard on the pedals, the front wheel is not so quick to lift off of the ground. The other thing is that on the really insanely steep stuff where I have to get way up on the front of the bike it just works so much better than my previous experience with mountain bikes. I kind of get into a position where instead of sitting on the nose of the saddle with my chest low above the stem, I now kinda float my bottom just barely above and to the front of the nose of the saddle and it works so much better. It's kinda difficult to describe the position, but it sorta feels like I'm standing up, and crouched down low at the same time. And that my body is almost perfectly positioned between the stem and saddle to get more of my energy into the rear wheel, while keeping the front wheel on the ground and not spinning the rear wheel.
Can anyone explain what they've done to make the bike work so well?
Some people will think I'm now just another Homer that's swilling the Koolade, but that's ok w/me.
Derek
its magic !:thumbsup:
