Tuesday 8 June 2010
Bike building...
Odd but positive week. One of naming things Earthsea style. Finding that I now own one 2010 Bontrager Race X-Lite rear road wheel and one 2007 Bontrager X-Lite front wheel. And a new bike.
It's one in, one out around here, so the 'vento got debuilt and its assorted gizzards, bits and pieces went off to the transplant bank. I love the process of building bikes. There's something lovely about starting off with a frame and a pile of assorted parts and watching them morph steadily into a living, breathing animal. The precision of bolting things together. Adjustments. Clicks. A blend of exactness and feel.
And then the first ride and that odd mix of novelty and familiarity. And, oh, blimey, it does that really well. Like the first time you sleep with someone. But probably best not to sleep with a bike.
What's it like? A steamroller downhill making implacable progress with a funny mix of roll-over lateral stiffness and roll-round flexibility. Slack and solid and muscular. And a steamroller uphill, tolerating appalling line choices to clean the bulk of Middle Moor in reverse - no, I didn't get up the steps, but I will - and beguilingly accurate as in 'I'll just ride this narrow rut ridge because I can' sort of way.
And on the flat, a stroppy, surly, uninterested teenager moping along with its hands in its pockets and whining quietly to anyone who'll listen.
Like it.
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Pigs rock.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to think they do, although it's amusingly pissed off on flatter terrain.
ReplyDeleteFlat terrain is more the province of the road bike (possibly CX). Pigs are capable uphill, brilliant downhill - the steeper and more technical, the better. I never got the whole "long travel hardtail" thing till I got mine
ReplyDeleteI liked my Rocky Ridge a lot. And the ti copy. But the angles on the Pig really do work. I guess you're suggesting a man-servant - person-servant - to pedal my Pig between steep bits while I ride a cross bike? I'm not sure that's going to work to be honest. Though it's a nice idea...
ReplyDeleteI think that's as good a description of the ride as I've seen anywhere :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Brant, though I have to fess up, the surly teenager bit is a variation on a Guy comment, so any credit on that front is his rather than mine. Great ride, really enjoying it :-)
ReplyDeleteA man-servant? no, just saying that flat is something you have to put up with. Pick your routes better if flat annoys you ;)
ReplyDeleteDoesn't annoy me, it's the bike that strops :-)
ReplyDeleteNot sure I completely agree with the flat thing, I have one and on the techy tight flat stuff you just have to give it some more welly to get the speed up!
ReplyDeleteI'm too fat, weak and slow for that sort of welly malarky...
ReplyDelete