Lookout Hill
My first two rides with the new bike were on Lookout Mountain, in Spearfish SD. This network has a bit of everything: overland through high desert steppe, dark scrub oak forests that made it seem like the Appalachia, super technical steep ups & downs, speedy swooping curves, roads, it was a great testing area for a new bike. Riding a fatbike is fun. That's the first thing you notice. Those big stupid tires, the sound they make, the way people grin and point at you like you're on a clown bike, you feel like a kid with a new motorcycle.
Then I noticed the pleasant surprise of feeling a rigid bike again; I've been riding full suspension bikes since 1996. To be back on a hardtail, a super nice aluminum one at that, it's really fun to feel the responsiveness when pedaling, when tinkering around like with bunny hops and trials hops, track stands, long hard pedaling, paved roads, there are so many situations where a rigid bike is a huge step up over suspension. I was worried with the tires, I'd be isolated from that, but the bike is actually really peppy and connected to the ground.
Next surprise: handling the steeps. Whether going up or down, the steeper it gets, the more this bike feels in its element. On my very first ride, I was going up steeps I'd have washed out on with any other bike, and down stuff so crazy I'd never even thought of it before. On a related note: low speed handling. It never occurred to me, which is silly, but the low speed handling is off the charts. Picking your way through crazy lines, changing lines at the last moment, these sort of maneuvers are really stable, predictable, and easy.
Like 29ers, the bike excels at building and keeping momentum. Long gradual downs, downhills in general, flats, this bike likes to roll once you get it rolling. On the flipside, this makes it harder to spin up to speed in the first place, but I've found that to be somewhat mitigated by the springiness and pedaling platform of the stiff frame.
Back Home
My first ride back home was a long slog up county roads. This bike rocks!! On the downhills, it's like a Mack truck barreling down a Colorado pass. Awesome.  |
| Deer are like pigeons out here. |
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| Kip approves of this access point to state land. |
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| It's been a stormy spring on the Beartooth Front. |