I actually have taken the 1x9 out on trails with some climbing now. The bigger problem, it turns out is that my seatpost isn't long enough to extend to full height... oops. It's a shorter one, and I just grabbed it because it was cheap. I've since found a shim so I can use the long Thomson I have on the SS, so that should be worked out for Moab this weekend.
So anyway- this will be multiple ride reports in one post. I took the Syren out in Moab. The first day we rode Porcupine and the second we rode Amasa Back to Rockstacker. So in general, climbing on it is good, considering I can't get my legs as extended as I like. But it's got good power transmission and it's surprisingly good when I need to stand and power over obstacles. Obviously, it's not designed to be an excellent climber in general, but it's pretty good at climbing for what it is. I don't think the gearing is much of a problem. There were a few spots I was wishing for an easier gear, but not many.
Descending took me a couple minutes to adjust to. The wheelbase is much shorter than I'm used to and at first, it was a little odd. I felt more forward than I typically am, and that made me nervous. But within a few minutes I had worked out my new balance point and was feeling pretty good. Not quite as stable when bombing down the rough stuff, but good. And then I got to the techy stuff - WOW! I cruised right on through several obstacles that I tend to get hung up on. Sooooooo easy! Who knew? And cornering... Cornering! Aaaaahhhhahahahaha... I'm in love. So fun. (The price you pay for that is a lower BB and a mildly increased tendency to smack a pedal into a rock, but it hasn't bothered me much.)
Anyway - that's the ride report from Moab last week. This past weekend I went to Sea Otter. My first ever race in the women's pro class for DH. (SCARY!) I was fairly nervous even for practice, but the course was fun and I was with my two teammates who are a blast to ride with and once we got on the course I was having a lot of fun and at least mostly quit worrying about everything. The Sea Otter course isn't very similar to most DH courses - lots of rhythm sections, a few brake bumped high speed sections, and a few uphill pedally sections. Like a large percentage of the racers, I actually raced my trail bike (the Syren), not my DH bike on it. I'm so impressed with how well my Lyrik Solo Air handled the high speed bumpy stuff - I really had no idea an air fork would ever feel that good, or that I'd feel comfortable really letting go of the brakes through rough terrain on something other than a full on DH bike. And now I just got a new Boxxer WC to put on the DH bike, and I absolutely cannot wait to see how incredible that will be!
Back to the course... The "rock garden" was more like "the one rock that you can jump or go around". But the bermed turns and such were just a blast. I was initially a little concerned with the step-down at the end, and one of my teammates showed me how to wall ride it instead of gapping it and that turned into one of the most fun sections of the course. Even though I'm not really into hitting big doubles and such, the course was so much fun, we just kept wanting to ride it over and over and over again.
Anyway - my race run yesterday didn't go as well as it could have. I got to the first uphill pedally section and was really trying to push and sprint through it and smacked a pedal into one of the ruts (maybe I should get shorter cranks... though it was a wierd rutted thing that was just plain hard to pedal in...), my left foot came unclipped and I bobbled off the side of the course and lost almost all of my momentum. Ugh. And I hesitated on one corner and another rough section where I know I can take it faster, but overall I felt... well at least relaxed enough to have fun racing, which is always a plus! I ended up being last, by about a second, but I guess for my first race after upgrading, and first race of the season, where all of our local DH stuff is still under snow, I can live with that. I know I can be faster, and feel like I have a better grip on what I need to work on.
So overall - I had an absolutely fabulous time meeting all my new Velo Bella teammates (I can't even explain how incredible it is to have such a wonderful and supportive group of people around you at a race - I've spent years stressing out at races and instead I enjoyed every minute and can't wait for my next race!), and had so much fun riding everything all weekend that I am just electrified, I'm so pumped to ride my bike. And at the end of each day, I realized my face actually was sore because I had spent the whole day smiling - and that pretty much sums it up!
ANYWAY.... back to the main point - they Syren is AMAZING! I'm totally in love with this bike. After a few days of riding it now - the stuff I was worried about before - the high speed brake bumped runouts... I felt as good as I would on a DH bike. It just is a matter of letting off of the brakes, letting the bike move around under you and I feel so incredibly confident on it. Love, love, love, love this bike.
). I guess you have your SS, but that Syren would be super fun on some technical trails.
Gotta hand it to her for being so tough and coming back over and over again and still killing it.
