Frankentandem

The bike came out of the shop today and we took it for it's first test spin.

I spent the first 30mins playing with the new toys, adjusting the levers, tweaking the shocks and admiring the new height in the bars. Wow, comfortable riding at long last! The new bar height (for me) puts the centre of gravity in a more comfortable and stable position, so handling should improve.

I was initially cautious about how the suspension would feel as we cornered on the road. Turned out, it handled sweet. The new Fox Talas 36 forks have adjustable rebound, so can still absorb the bumps without bouncing us around the corners.

So, into the saddle and we hit the road, the kerb, the grass, the hillocks, the bumps and lumps of the surrounding streets and were happy with the feel. We headed to our shortcut road to the river as its several k's of corrugated gravel road which on our last visit was rutted and knee deep in loose gravel. A perfect test.

Shox set to 100mm and full bounce and we were off. Crikey! We now roll over the rocks, ruts and gravel nice and smooth. As we headed down the road I tried out various rough surfaces and gravel pools, and the tandem went through them with ease. And it was so much easier to steer too.

At the riverbank, I cranked the puppies up to 160mm and we hit as many rough and deadly surfaces as we could on the way back. All of it was handled perfectly. Deep gravel slowed us down, but we no longer plowed through it, we roll over it. Corrugation that almost shook my helmet off my head was now just some minor bumps easily ridden over. The large mounds of gravel were crested simply, the rocks were bounced over, the ruts ridden out of, all of it was so much less stressful. I'm 10x more confident on this bike now, so look out!

As well as the new shox, we have hydraulic disk brakes. While they are not perfectly adjusted yet, they are leaps and bounds ahead of the old v-brakes! They will be a great asset on the downhill tracks and high speed descents we're planning on. Big disks means big stopping power, especially with these Saints, so I'm looking forward to practising some mad skidz in the near future.

Also, new gears and chain rings, so shifting gears is now reliable, quiet and quick. And I don't think we're gonna be able to bend these chainrings, they look like they can withstand the awesome power of the both of us with ease. They are a little 'grabby' still, but a few hundred k's under the wheels and they will relax a bit I'm sure.

Wheels, oh yea, big buggers on there now. Kevlar tyres, thornproof tubes, 20mm axles, 36hole DMR hubs & Mavic rims, these puppies are more like 4x4 wheels than bike wheels. Big, beefy, slow, but nothing is going to stop them.

Last major change is to the pedals. We're now out of sync. This feels the same on the flats, but I noticed it on the tiny hill we did. Weird man! We'll do more hills and see if it's a good idea for climbing. (good idea = easier for me!) Logan's stroke is 1/6th ahead of mine, so hopefully he'll have to work harder and I can concentrate on the steering.

Ride #1 is complete, ride #2 on Thursday. I'll get some photos of this build before we manage to coat the entire bike in mud, sand, pine needles, gravel, tar, grass, sheep poo, bugs and other wonders of the world out there in the trails. It's just over 7 weeks till 'the rage' so we have some practice to get in!