Road Biking
About road biking: firstly, it's awesome to be able to go fast, to cover a lot of ground. I've been stubborn & stupid, about the fattie and stuck it out for huge distances. But with a road bike, riding to Red Lodge, for example. is now easy; it's a 2, maybe 2.5 hour jaunt.The Pedals are awesome. Stiff soles and cleat to pedal power transfer make for a great direct connection, yet the pedals float a lot, so it's super comfy and loose at the same time. And, you get the added bonus of totally comical duck-like attempts at walking.
Brakes suck. The wide contact patch of a MTB tire lets the brakes really hook up. I can stop on a dime on pavement with the fatbike. The road bike, holy sheet, it's a different story. I almost had a full fledged incident in Red Lodge the first time I noticed it. The brakes have a lot of modulation, firstly, so it's tough to grab a handful like you can with MTB brakes. If you do manage to really lay down some power, the tires just let loose anyway.
It's an amazing workout. I never realized how many little breaks and breathers you get mountain biking. On a road bike, you can pedal upwards of 40mph, so the DHs are not an excuse to stop pedaling. And the main thing that slows you down is wind resistance, so you kind of just have to keep trucking. It's a different sort of endurance it builds up than MTB riding. It's more like a diesel engine.
The Diverge
Peter if an effing tank. He's a beast. He likes to keep on trucking, and holds his line. I got driven off the side of the highway between Red Lodge and Absarokee by a gravel truck, when I was going about 35mph, and he just tore through the off camber pavement chunks and gravelly hill before powering up the side of the highway and back on to the tarmac. He's got these inserts on the fork and the seat stays that soak up vibrations and big hits. They work. You can hear them. One of the reasons for the John name is Masterchief 117, John, the Spartan from Halo. His armor suit makes the same sort of hydraulic sounding thud or thunk.With a massive BB area, sculpted in neon yellow carbon, and stiff Praxis cranks. power transfer is amazing. The seatpost does seem to provide the claimed 20 mm of suspension; it's very comfy.
First real ride was right up Beartooth Pass, into an ear-searing wind. Awesome. I've since climbed it again with Peter John, all the way up and over, down to Beartooth Lake, and back. I'm in love. What a bike. He reminds me of the old school bikes, before the extreme categorization of bikes; he can do it all. Light ST duty, long road rides, gravel grinds, commutes, touring, road races, it's a bike I'm planning to turn to a lot of the time.