Easy!
:)
So i went for a spin on the 'new' mountain bike,(a 3rd hand 2007 genisis IO) after Mike flan brought it down, the bike has a Ti color paint job and i think the tubing and detailing are beautiful,giving a bespoke look. At first glance it gives the impression of ' this bike looks expensive'. I changed the stem,bars (it made an unbelievable difference, immediately, as i thought it would) and the brakes to the ones i know and love which i have been riding for 2 years now (yeah, no riding in over 6 months) and the brakes which i have since spring 2007, they have had countless bleeds and both hoses have been changed along with a lot of pads worn out, i still love my mini mono's though. Also i had a crossmax st front wheel on borrowed from mike, cause i could not change out the 180 mm disc to the mono 160 due to some funky bolts, i just need more time to figure that out. I was happy with the set up, but the 2.35 UST tyre on the back did bug me a bit cause its over kill and would drag like hell on the climbs, i did run it at 20psi which no doubt helped on the slippy tricky descents. I also swapped out the fire flamed saddle as i had one lieing around that did not look so naff!
The trails were sloppy from the incessant rain we have had for a month now! And straight away i could feel the rust of having not ridden in mud since the spring! last wet ride! however after only 20 mins riding i felt the bike and i were at one, which is amazing as usually i would expect it to take a min of 10 hours riding to figure out the subtle t's of a new bike.
We rode down a couple of our local very testing 'XC' trails, (all mountain with bits of DH) and i had only one tiny dab, the bike made me just go for it, i did err on the side of caution and rode slower than i might normally but over all i was expecting to be bucked off a few times, in what were about as testing conditions you will get up there, but i stayed right side up and absolutely had a ball, whooping and hollering on parts. Jeez , what a sport!
The frame fit is as good as the xtc carbon was. It did help of course that i knew the trails but that did not stop me from feeling nervous thinking about them as we rode up, i guess my mental attitude was spot on, just go for it, without being mental. It worked. The gears on my bike were ok, i think they just need a little tinkering or possibly a new cable, the hub is working fine just the cable is probably old and stretched/dirty. The silent shifting is a bit weird and i don't have a full grasp of the ratio's yet but that is just time to get used of them. Also the weight seemed ok, noticable on the climbs but then again i had a tractor tyre on the back wheel, which is getting the road asap. When i put on a 2.1 and run it at 30 psi i will then be able to say what the weight of the hub feels like, but i am guessing it will be grand, better than i expected actually and with the bangladesh type climate we have at the mo' i think it will more than compensate for its weight with consistent, trouble free shifting in the mud.
Overall, great buy, (for the money, amazing actually) but more importantly great to be back mountain biking :)
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