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Has the Dam smoothed out recently?
Hi All
I had my first ride in a couple of months today which was also the first ride on my new dually (Superlight 26") frame coming from a hardtail. Even though I am out of form the bike was great and smoothed out a lot of things.
My question is: have a lot of parts of the dam smoothed out recently (apart from the obvious bits where the guys have been doing works)? I swear that a lot of the track was a lot more groomed but I'm having difficulty telling if it was just the dually making life easier. The descent at the backend is definately less hairy than it has been for the last year, a bit more like it used to be now
cheers
dan
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for sure after all the rain we had in the earlier part of the year it was seriously roughed up.
Riding lines changed & have probably been compressed since we've had great riding weather in the last few months so it is definitely smoother than it was.
Heartbreak Hill has a more defined line, the pinch climb after Manly Vale public at the end of Water Reserve Road has one too, but I reckon the descent from Allambie is much rougher, particularly the bit after the "fire trail", the section that ends at Nyrang Road. Some of the braking bumps on the fast line down the fire trail to Curl Curl Ck are getting nasty.
Now that I've got some rebound damping dialed back into my shock, the log drops on the approach to 19th Hole aren't as bad as I thought they were.
The track at Manly Dam gets smoother and smoother every week:
But you really should also allow that a full suspension bike is going to ride noticeably smoother than a hardtail
Tell us about the Superlight.... how was the pedaling etc???
first impressions are very good but I've not had enough time to really judge it, nor to I have much dually experience to compare it to.
I'd chosen the superlight because I wanted something that was not too much of a couch and the single pivot design of the SL means it stiffens up when you get on the power. It was also a very cheap upgrade (frame was $350 including a push tuned RP23) so I just used all of my existing running gear. Overall it weighs 1 kg more than the donor hardtail which was 10.5kg so I'm retty happy with the outcome for the money.
Ridewise at no point did it seem inefficient, the telling sign was the turning propedal on or off didn't seem to have any major effect on pedalling, just on ability to absorb big bumps. You can really tell the difference in climbing traction compared to a hardtail, it just rides up rocky hills or pinches without drama or thought which is nice although I will need to reprogram myself to sit down more on climbs. I certainly wasnt on a hot lap and my fitness is well off the mark at the moment but I got three Strava PR's (sprint to the hill, lanterne rouge and john's vomit hill) so the gut feeling seems to be backed up by the stats. I run a 1x9 on it but because my new XT cranks use a funny sized torx screw I've still got the standard 38t big ring on it, even in my unfit state that didn't cause an issue although up heartbreak hill I was in my lowest gear so there's no safety margin there. When I find time I'll put a 36t back on it and also switch to the gripshifters Kyle gifted me (thanks buddy)
Downhill it was definately better than a hardtail (derr!), a managed a 2nd best time down to curl curl creek of 1:39 with a lot in reserve and a lot more control than I used to have. The run into the 19th hole was just easy including the big log jump which felt like riding off a curb. Now I need to up my skills to take advantage of it
Overall I'm happy with the reborn toy, now I just need to get some more time on it to learn how it works. I'll post a pic later when I get the chance
Pic here: http://nobmob.com/node/39551
I'm considering one of those for a 29er, although I've been riding single pivots for the last 5 years and it's probably time I tried something else. The VPP of the Tallboy looks good. If I can, I'll try both before making a call.