Well, Mini-Me and I got to NEMBA this morning and got out demo on. First of all, OMG! There are so MANY people there. The parking lot was unbelievable. The trails were annoyingly crowded. I'd slow down to be courteous to the people in front of me only to hear "on your left" every time and have people passing me. Then we'd all be stopped because we are two wide and there is oncoming traffic. WTF guys? It's cool that it was a family event, but little kids on Strider bikes a mile from the expo area were a bit annoying. People would be backed up 30 deep behind them. Anyway.... some bikes were demoed.
We went first to Evil. I really wanted to start the day on the Wreckoning, a long travel 29er... but they were all out. In fact, all of the larges were out. We started setting up Mini-Me on a Calling (130mm 650B) and luckily by the time it was ready, a large Insurgent had come in. Not my first choice, but on the list. 151mm travel 650B. The bike had definitely seen some use, and the previous rider said the shifting was out f whack, but I took it. The rep did his best with the barrel adjusters, and set up the shocks and off we went. We followed the crowd out to the trails and after letting a gap build in front of us went down Tap and Die. The bike is fun, it's a wheelie and manual machine. Maybe a little tail happy, or maybe that was last nights rain. The 2.3" WTB Vigilantes were pretty worn to, not a sharp knob anywhere. There are roots, but not rocks. Th trail isn't quite flow, but neither is it tech or gnar. I wish it had some rocks. The rear of the bike felt great, but I still feel that the Pike's mid-stroke leaves something on the table. It just makes the bike feel pitchy instead of stable. We rode across the sandy flats of West Branch and then up Burrington Bench which is a pretty long climb with a slightly more than moderate grade and a series of switchbacks. Ron, I'd think you'd like how this motors around switchbacks. Climbing was certainly better than average, but as Mini-Me said, you wish you had some timing and a control bike instead of just guessing about feel. As for the Calling, she didn't love it. It made her hands hurt, and she felt that the rear shock was too firm. As for climbing, she thought the bike took too much effort climbing, felt like she was getting dropped the whole time. I think that in fact, the shock was under-sprung for her and her hands were hurting because it kept bottoming and the shock was moving too much. This is where I think shock tuning can get hard for a smaller rider. Sag was correct, but it seems that something else needed to be changed. Could be shock volume, could be compression was too soft, or maybe rebound was too hard "packing". At any rate, she did not dig it.
When we returned a swarm of bikes had returned and we both trapped Wreckonings 161mm travel 29ers. I think these also had 2.3" Vigilantes which looked fresher. The bikes in general were fresher. After setting up, we pedaled away. As we rode across the flat to the top of Tap and Die I was mostly thinking about how very high the front end of the bike was, the bars were way up there even though there were hardly any spacers under the stem. On closer inspection, there were two 2.5mm spacers, not much room to play with. I also noticed that at lower speeds, the bike switched over from "carve mode" to "steer" mode. Sorta reminded me of the Hightower in that regard. OK, so the bars were huge and wide and really high off the ground, and if the bike wasn't moving fast enough, it felt steer. I wasn't sure how much I'd like it on Tap and Die. As soon as I laid it into the first turn, I knew it was going to rip the downs, and rip it did. Mini-me's take on the downhill was "YES!". Again, I wish we'd had rougher terrain, but we didn't so you just sort of have to guess. I guess that it would excel on rocky terrain. Climbing up Burrington Bench, I'd say it was great. I used the climb switch for the second half ( never touched it on The Insurgent) and that did tighten it up and make the pedals feel more responsive. Once again, you wonder how fast you are really going, but I was passing people and not being passed. Ron, it was not as good as the Insurgent on climbing switchbacks. This is where I was most concerned about the bike being able to perform, and it did. Mini-me agreed although she felt that her 26" Intense Tracer2 climbs better.
After dropping these bikes off,we decided to skip the Following and move on to other brands. We went to Yeti and after standing there for about a half hour, we gave up and figured we'd come back later. They had tons of bikes, but not many people to set them up and a huge line. We went to Santa Cruz, and they had about three bikes. YT was pretty thin and I have already ridden those. Intense was not present though they were on the list of vendors. The big Red S was not present. Pivot had no 5.5s or 29er Switchblades and I didn't want to roll a fatty. Checked on Yeti again, line was huge.
Mini-Me wanted to ride a Trek because Rachel Atherton. Se we went over and tried. They had Fuel EXs, but had no Remedys or Slashes. So we both rode the Fuel. Her first question was "what is this thing next to the dropper". That is called a front shifter.... As we rolled away, I was thinking about how well the XR3 tires rolled or at least they sounded like it. The bike is so well built, but also very wide at least in part because of the boost spacing. The tire clearance would be good for some large tires, but the rocker was rubbing both of my calves unless I purposely rode bow-legged. From behind I hear Mini-Me say "this bike seems so practical". Practical? Hmm, is that praise or something else? I agree though, the bike is the bike that you should have. It was competent but not exciting on the downhill. The frame is amazingly well thought out, a grown-up bike, engineered. Mini-me thought it was kind of a lame climber. I didn't think it climbed as well as the Wreckoning, but I did go ahead and push it up the hill. I let that little man inside me shovel coal into the boiler as fast as he could and powered it up the hill. Yeah, it practical, but I didn't think there was much spark. It was like the K2 ski that you'd recommend to someone else, but wouldn't be too excited to ski yourself. We tried for Yeti again and then decided it was lunchtime. Went to the East Burke market for a sandwich and then bailed.
I don't know how many people are at NMBAfest right now, but it felt like it could have been as many as 10,000 to me. Maybe I'm way off, I don't know, but the demo guys could go bigger next year.
I think on Monday I am going to order the Insurgent. As much as I liked the Wreckoning, I had some question marks I could not answer. It was great downhill, and performed very well on a grind of a climb, but I wonder how it would be on a steeper trail in a smaller gear. When I am on the limit will it handle well enough to let me make it over the tech spots that I need to get over or will the steering wander? How would it ride with the spacers out of the headset? Maybe even with flat bars?
Mini-me loved the Wreckoning, but says she'd still rather be on her Intense. Thank God.
As of right now, my thinking is large Insurgent, BOS Deville fork, Mavic XA Carbon wheel set (26mm ID!) and mostly XTR, maybe some Hope brakes.
Still family owned. Their CEO also has a pretty responsible view of business and "paying their fair share" so to speak. You can google the guy and find out lots of stuff. I don't want to derail this to a political "chat". Anyway, I did some research on the company which made me feel pretty good about buying another of their bikes.
