QR15 impressions

What with the atrocious conditions lately, and the flu, and generally being lazy in the cold weather, I had only ridden the Yeti about 50k's in a month. What with El Rancho's warm up ride next weekend and a few days of warm (relatively) weather, it was an ideal opportunity to get some miles under the wheels.

Planning to do at least two gates of Cascades, we rode the road from Forestville to St Ives showground, and in to Cascades at the middle of Ridge Top track. The track was fairly firm, but the section near the drainage pond and old tip, was chewed up by trucks so a bit slow. The rest down to Quarry gate was firm and fast, and there wasn't any standing water or significant boggy sections, except just after the creeks.

Heading down Quarry, we passed heaps of walkers training for Oxfam.... and even going slow, and calling out directions, they managed to get in the way every time.

I was expecting the descent to be fast, and to easily crest the water bars, but either I've got the fork set up too soft, or my technique needs work. Each bar, I felt like the front wouldn't loft, and the back end was trying to pogo me? I had the fork fully extended, with compression damping about 1/2 way. Rebound was set at 10 clicks from full slow, so I shouldn't have been jacking the front end down or anything like that. The fork doesn't seem to dive under brakes too much, and when hopping both ends seem fairly balanced. I'll have to experiment with a little more Pressure in the fork. Maybe my pump reads high? Note to self, check this with a good gauge at work.

What really stood out though, was how planted thebike felt through the sweeping curves along Bare Creek track. I could hit each corner faster and more confidently than ever before. Correcting direction was much easier, and I wasn't having to wrench the bike around as much as I am used to. I put the difference down to the QR15. Even with the good wheels on the old bike, I can move the wheel about an inch or so at the rim while holding the bars tight. The QR15 is probably less than half an inch at the most, and using a good deal more force.

I ended up not having the energy to do any of the long climbs, what with coughing up a lung, and a bit of wine flu from the wedding I went to on Saturday night, so just rode out at Stone Pde. I did try out the travel adjust to see what difference it made to keeping the nose planted. What an improvement. My only concern is the time taken for the fork to extend once the TALAS is wound out again. I figure it takes 10 seconds or more to extend fully when riding, but in the garage it is almost instantaneous.

Cleaning the bike did show one problem with wide tyres, sandy trails, water and carbon seat stays. The rear triangle on the 575 has a carbon cross piece in front of the tyre, and this has a protector patch to stop abrasive damage, BUT the stays themselves dont have any protection. When I was cleaning the bike today, I noticed that the trail muck had marked the tyre side of the seat stays, and the insides of the bottom forging on the chain stays. I reckon this would lead to a non warranty failure pretty quickly if you rode in muddy conditions around here too often. I got busy with the scissors and some self adhesive PVC and made a handful of protector patches. Hopefully they'll stop me worrying. Also did the same to the cranks, which I intended to do from day one... wouldn't believe it I managed to scuff both arms today BEFORE making the patch..... never put off until tomorrow and all that jazz.

Still loving that new bike feeling!