3/29/07

rebirth

YIKES! Alien Pods have landed.

Very interesting ride last night, just a qwik 2ish hour spin down in Meeshow. Man I'm lucky that I'm able to so easily bang out one hell of a fun loop, within 20-25minutes of my door. Start with about half an hour's worth of primitive deer pathish flow, another 30minutes of climbing fireroad with a singletrack finish and then ride a benchmark ridgline techy trail that dumps you onto a nice chunk of gnar gnarish downhill before spinning a 15minute cool down back to the car. How can I ever complain about where I'm livin'?

Dos at the top of the test track.

Wow, fun, neato. Is about all I can say about that. The couple of sessions tinkering with fit were worth it, duh, the bike felt much nicer thru the woods than it did on Sunday. Rode the way I expected it to, not exactly an earth shattering experience, but I was definitely feeling the big wheeled love once I found her groove. Biggest issue was the changing of two things at once, and figuring out which sensations were due to which change. Being able to coast was actually a big hurdle, not having to pedal thru & over everything was odd, not being able to smoothly roll on/into the power took some getting used to. Made for some odd timing and lots of goofy line adjustments, or at least more than usual. Cornering takes a slightly different approach to conserve the mo', the big wheels require a shift in the balance of steer vs lean equation, but so does not having to pedal thru every corner...... Still need to tinker with the fork, got it close, but feel it could be better. And I'm gonna throw some bigger meat on the front, the Little Albert just doesn't inspire 100% confidence. No real issues with the tire, it hooked up whenever I asked, it's mostly a mental thing, especially after staring down at a Tioga DH for the last 4 years. So, other than needing to relearn a bit of coasty technique, like back pedaling, and getting a feel for lofting the big wheels, I'm pretty damn smitten. Color me happy.

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