Have bike, will ride
Finally got it finished on Friday afternoon. Been busy as all hell with work all week, and some bits I ordered on Monday only showed up on Friday morning, so I dropped the whole thing in to Hedgehogs to fit the new shift cables and tune the derailleurs. Then I got it home and fitted an adaptor and 180mm rotor on the front, then packed the car and drove for 3 hours.
Felt nice and mild, and remarkably warm when Murray and I arrived in National park late on Friday night, with bright stars all over the sky and no clouds. The next morning it looked awesome too. 8am start on the shuttle bus, and out to the trailhead at 8.30am. 14 of us, in varying fitness and ability, headed off into the 48kms of awesomeness known as the 42 Traverse.
The first 6kms or so were just doubletrack gravel road, undulating slightly, with a couple of sweeping downish bits, with some corrugated corners. My first impression of the new rig were just how planted the wheels felt on the ground, compared to riding a hardtail. I found myself actually hunting out the potholes and roughies just to see how it all went. And it went sweet. By the time we stopped there to regroup, I was already feeling slightly embarressed that it had taken me so long to get onto this full suspension caper.
I had set up the rear shock, and the front forks, on the softer end of the range for my weight, and set the rebound fairly fast, just 2 clicks off fully fast. And it all seemed to be doing its thang nicely. I tried the shock on the Propedal setting on a couple of the short climbs, but couldnt feel any noticeable difference from the Open setting.
About 18kms in, the ride heads down, a long unimpeded downhill run that is the major redeeming feature of this ride. After a short kodak stop at the the top, I headed off in the lead, and just opened the taps up wide. This bike had me in an uber-confident mood, to the point I was actually riding too quickly to make accurate line assessments of the oncoming trail, not that it seemed to matter much, this bad boy just soaked up everything I threw at it (including one moment off a drop into some horrible clay and boulder ridden ruts, that had me thinking "woops Im falling off now", but no it wasn't to be), the bike just ploughed through completely untroubled, and at this stage was clearly a lot better than I was.
We regrouped at the river crossing at the bottom to have a bit to eat and recount each others tales of the downhill section, and it is there that there is a nice loose, rocky, technical downhill feature about 10 metres long to play on. So I played, I rode it 3 times, looking for a nastier line each time, and the bike handled it with ease. At this point I have to give props to the Shwalbe Racing Ralph tyres I was rocking, brand new, and not something I have ever run before. I had them in 2.25" and tubeless, wide enough to be considered All Mountain, but light enough to roll and climb well too. Good consistent grip no matter how hard I leaned it over.
The balance of the climb features a plethora of long hot climbs, split by some fast descents on gravel road, with the odd bermed corner, stream crossing, and muddy bits. I have to say that while my fitness was slightly lacking, the bike just made me want to keep riding. So, I wasnt the fastest, but I was loving every part of the ride, and learning about how to ride the beast and get the most out of it.
Before I knew it, we were heading up the final 3km climb to the Owhango Hotel, and a cold jug of Speights. What a bloody great ride.
Sunday, and we left National Park headed to Taupo. A few of the crew were feeling it in the legs and only wanted a comparitively easy ride, so we met at Craters of the Moon and split into 2 groups. This suited me, I was dead keen to hit up some trails I knew fairly well, and compare how the GT Force rode on some sweet singletrack.
And I wasnt disappointed. To cut a long story short, I was unable to find any negative points about this bike so far. My understanding is that they can be quite heavy on maintenance in the I-Drive system, but if that is the case, then so be it.
The next day was Monday, and work. But that was only to fill in time until the Summerhill Monday Night club racing that I had organised for 7pm. A small but hardy crew showed up, and we had the course set up for as many laps of the GT trail as we could do in an hour, down to the bottom, and all the way back up. I got three laps in and finished 2nd. The downs were Ok, but showed me that I still have some learning to do, to get the most out of this rambunctious philly. And the ups were ok too, actually it seemed to get easier with each successive lap, but I dont know what to put that down to.
God damn I love this bike.
