I got a chance to ride Walter's Cannondale F29er this weekend, so I took it to Round Valley on Saturday morning. I would love to be able to say that I wanted to test it out under in one of the most vertical parks in the state. But the reality is that it was the only park close which was not wet. Plus, you really get to test the edges of everything there.
So with any reasonable experiment let me start with the knowns. I had been sick all week. My daughter was also sick all week which meant I got no more than 7 hours of sleep any night, some nights as little as 5. Thus, I was really tired Saturday morning. I didn't set the bike up to my saddle height, etc. I just got on and rode it. I have Shimano shifters, so the SRAM shifters caused me to mistakenly shift at least 15 times. This bike is a harttail, my normal ride is a FS, 26" bike. I started in the Cushetunk lot.
Objective observations:
* The rock garden in Cushetunk tossed me OTB 5 minutes and 30 seconds into the ride
* There are (were) 4 climbs in Round Valley proper (ie, not the Cushetunk monster hill) that I had never cleaned. On Saturday I cleaned 3 of these for the first time ever. All of these were from the trail closed sign back to the park entrance (the rock bridge going up, the long steep climb shirtly after that, and the back side of Puke Hill).
* I cleaned Puke Hill on the way back. I have cleaned it once before on the FS bike, which was right after race season. The last time I was on that hill with the FS I had to unclip 3 times. Saturday I cleaned it further into the ride than ever.
* Overall average speed on the day was no better than with the FS bike, but I also had no "easy" miles like I normally would if I parked outside the park.
Subjective observations:
* The bike seems more stable on the climbs. When I really start to drop in speed, the bike seemed easier to handle. The 26" FS bike seems much more twitchy and a lot more energy goes into keeping it upright. This bike seemed to not have that problem.
* Going down the steep hill back into Cushetunk was more stable than the FS bike, by far.
* Going down Puke Hill was harsh, as the fork packed up and I'm just not used to the HT yet.
* The phenomenon of the bike just rolling over anything didn't seem to be there at 5:30 into the ride, but I was going slow and the bike is still very new to me from a handling perspective.
* This ride seemed much less "jarring" than 2 weeks ago when I rode my 26" HT at Lewis Morris.
* I like low-pressure UST tires. This bike does not have UST tires.
Overall, nothing Saturday leads me to believe that the 29er isn't going to be better. To my surprise, it climbs better. Of course this could be the 6 pound lighter bike. Or it may be me being in better shape. But I felt much more stable on the bike. I hope to bring it to Lewis Morris this weekend to ride the race loop and see just how well it compares there.
To be continued, I'm sure.
So with any reasonable experiment let me start with the knowns. I had been sick all week. My daughter was also sick all week which meant I got no more than 7 hours of sleep any night, some nights as little as 5. Thus, I was really tired Saturday morning. I didn't set the bike up to my saddle height, etc. I just got on and rode it. I have Shimano shifters, so the SRAM shifters caused me to mistakenly shift at least 15 times. This bike is a harttail, my normal ride is a FS, 26" bike. I started in the Cushetunk lot.
Objective observations:
* The rock garden in Cushetunk tossed me OTB 5 minutes and 30 seconds into the ride
* There are (were) 4 climbs in Round Valley proper (ie, not the Cushetunk monster hill) that I had never cleaned. On Saturday I cleaned 3 of these for the first time ever. All of these were from the trail closed sign back to the park entrance (the rock bridge going up, the long steep climb shirtly after that, and the back side of Puke Hill).
* I cleaned Puke Hill on the way back. I have cleaned it once before on the FS bike, which was right after race season. The last time I was on that hill with the FS I had to unclip 3 times. Saturday I cleaned it further into the ride than ever.
* Overall average speed on the day was no better than with the FS bike, but I also had no "easy" miles like I normally would if I parked outside the park.
Subjective observations:
* The bike seems more stable on the climbs. When I really start to drop in speed, the bike seemed easier to handle. The 26" FS bike seems much more twitchy and a lot more energy goes into keeping it upright. This bike seemed to not have that problem.
* Going down the steep hill back into Cushetunk was more stable than the FS bike, by far.
* Going down Puke Hill was harsh, as the fork packed up and I'm just not used to the HT yet.
* The phenomenon of the bike just rolling over anything didn't seem to be there at 5:30 into the ride, but I was going slow and the bike is still very new to me from a handling perspective.
* This ride seemed much less "jarring" than 2 weeks ago when I rode my 26" HT at Lewis Morris.
* I like low-pressure UST tires. This bike does not have UST tires.
Overall, nothing Saturday leads me to believe that the 29er isn't going to be better. To my surprise, it climbs better. Of course this could be the 6 pound lighter bike. Or it may be me being in better shape. But I felt much more stable on the bike. I hope to bring it to Lewis Morris this weekend to ride the race loop and see just how well it compares there.
To be continued, I'm sure.