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Make me a demo list.

Mike Thomas

Mike Thomas

Whiteroom
Industry Insider
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Nov 12, 2015
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1,195
I'm glad you guys made it out. I was hoping you'd get some time on a Pivot, but cool that you found something you liked enough to want.
 
Monique

Monique

bounceswoosh
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
10,561
Location
Colorado
epic said:
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.
Click to expand...

Indeed.

I was riding uphill this morning on a popular, crowded out and back. It has a lot of blind turns. A lot. Several times on my way up, some dude (it's never been a woman) nearly crashed into me coming around a corner. One said, "Oh, sorry - it's a blind corner!" I said "There are a lot on this trail." Tone left to the imagination of the reader.

On the way down, I saw someone riding uphill on the far side and knew they'd be coming around another blind corner and pop out just below me. I stopped. Three riders came up behind me, and I pointed out there would be a guy popping out below us shortly. They kept riding. So, yeah, they encountered him about 100 feet later and had to stop abruptly at a spot that really isn't ideal for pulling over, making it hard on everyone.

Meh. People.

Plus side, they were actually riding a smidge faster than me, so at least I didn't have to try and pass them.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Erik Timmerman

Erik Timmerman

So much better than a pro
Instructor
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Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,357
Well, I have pulled the trigger. Evil Uprising, frame is in the shop, waiting on some parts. I'm hoping to have her running middle of next week.

Fox 36 160mm travel
Mavic XA Carbon wheels
Mavic tires 2.5 and 2.3
150mm Reverb Stealth
XTR drive and brakes
 
Monique

Monique

bounceswoosh
Skier
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Nov 12, 2015
Posts
10,561
Location
Colorado
I count four new mountain bikes so far this season - @AmyPJ , @Ron , me, @epic - anyone else?

That's a Trek, an Evil, and two Yetis.
 
Ron

Ron

Seeking the next best ski
SkiTalk Tester
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Nov 8, 2015
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9,282
Location
Steamboat Springs, Co
@epic congrats! I never got the notices of anyone's posts. Very cool though. So, did they have Yeti's? I would have loved to hear your thoughts on that 5.5! Can you send me a link to that bike? I can't find it listed on the site. I thought an Uprising was a 26'r? Insurgent??
 
Monique

Monique

bounceswoosh
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
10,561
Location
Colorado
Monique

Monique

bounceswoosh
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
10,561
Location
Colorado
Monique

Monique

bounceswoosh
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
10,561
Location
Colorado
epic said:
Well I like Intense and the way VPP rides. 6' travel and 29er were both on my list of "wants".
Click to expand...

Six feet? That's a lot of travel! ;-)
 
Thread Starter
TS
Erik Timmerman

Erik Timmerman

So much better than a pro
Instructor
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,357
So I picked up the Insurgent on Thursday evening. Still don't have my Mavic XA Carbon rear wheel, so I was running a borrowed I9 (the budget model) 24.5 internal Al rim.

Took her out for the first ride at Burke, just a quickie one hour ride as I've been recovering from some issues related to doing too much trail riding on a teeny-tiny dirt jump bike. I set the fork (Fox 36 Fit4) at 90 psi, and the rear Rock Shox Monarch at 215 psi. That seemed like it had the sag more or less in the ball park, plus the pump was getting hard to push at that pressure, so I gave up. Aired up the front tire to 20 psi and the rear to 25. I normally run 29 front and rear, but wider rims, right? The ride starts with probably a mile or two of paved road climbing. The bike felt pretty bobby, more than I remember at the demo at first I wasn't sure if it was because of riding a hardtail for a month or if it was the bike. I played with the shock's climb switch and also, just got used to it. Eventually though, I pulled over and added air with my portable shock pump. The gauge on it is tiny so I'm not sure, but I think I brought it up to 230 psi. It definitely seemed to pedal better with more air. We made the top and started riding down Moose Alley where the bike really came alive. In the first good turn I felt the rear tire starting to roll off the rim though. I took it pretty chill the rest of the way down because I didn't want to wreck the borrowed rim or to crash myself either. In fact for a little while I heard a hissing and thought I had a slow leak. I didn't, it was the weird sound of the I9 freehub. Really sounded like a flat, or like I was dragging a piece of cardboard along with me. Even though I was taking it easy, the bike demanded that I jump everything in sight. I'm not a jumper, but it made it easy. I could float over stuff I otherwise would have plowed through, and it was really easy to flick the bike around. Back at the car, looking at the o-rings on the fork and shock, I had about two inches of travel left up front and maybe 7mm left on the shock. by the end of the ride I had the rear shocks rebound damping almost all the way on, and I had the fork at 8 clicks out. I added a bunch of low-speed to the fork because it felt more divey than I want it to.

Sunday, I took a pack of kids to Highland to ride lift-served trails. I decided to leave the DH bike at home and just ride the Evil. We were mostly riding machine built trails with all of their jumps and drops. I will admit that I was a bit nervous about hitting the bigger ones on this bike and went around a few on the first run or two, but in the end it really gave up nothing to my DH bike on drops up to 5' which is about where I max out anyway. Really good on the park trails, probably better in some ways though I need to dial the suspension more as it certainly wasn't giving me the confidence to push myself. I felt nose heavy on jumps that had bigger lips and I'm not sure how to correct for that, I had added a lot of low-speed to the damper but it didn't seem to be helping. Well, it turns out that with the Fit4 damper (not what I had asked them to order!) the low-speed adjuster only works in trail mode and I had been using Open the whole time so my adjustment was for naught. For the last run of the day, we did one of the DH race trails. I rode everything I would have riden on my DH bike, but I do have to say that through the steepest rockiest bits it felt like "wrong bike rodeo" and I knew that if I touched the brakes I'd go out the front door. Also I was a little concerned about smashing the wheels, so may have held back bit through the rocks. Speaking of wheels, rear tire back up to 28 psi and it was fine all day. I ran the front at 24 just to be safe with a carbon rim at a bike park! At the end of the day the Fox's O-ring was slammed up on the crown and the shock's was just hanging on by a thread, so I think I have the spring rate right.

Monday was a couple hours cruise on muddy Stowe singletrack. As far as setup goes, I left all the pressures the same, put the fork in Trail mode, and also moved the seat forward on the rails to compensate for the very slack seat tube. Despite the energy sapping muddiness of the trail conditions, I thought the bike was at least equal to my Intense and probably a more efficient climber. I had the rear shock in climb mode and even then, traction was good on slippery rocky switchback turns. I made record time up to the cabin, and once the rest of the group caught up , we set off back to where we started. Descending is just great on this bike, the trail was too easy for me to say if Trail mode on the fork was better or not, but the bike is a riot to descend on.

Looking forward to more riding. Waiting for a wheel. Considering a damper cartridge change up front (RC2) to get separate high-speed and low-speed adjusters.
 
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