I can't believe I'm saying this, but I haven't ridden this bike more than a couple of times since last July. It's last long ride was Maah Daah Hey last July in North Dakota. I've just been riding other bikes, mainly my Salsa Big Mama.
Tonight was a bit of an eye opener for me. I've pretty much only ridden full suspension for the last 13 months. Seriously, I love suspension. The Dos felt hard and a few of my lines that I've trained myself to take on FS only brought pain and clunking to me and my Dos. That said, the Dos surprised me tonight. Besides a few product spec issues (an old fork), it went pretty darn well. I did crash after stacking a pedal on a root. But, by the end of lap two my mind remembered just how to ride this bike. Once my mind was there, the speeds picked up quite a bit. We ended up ripping out 30 miles of glorious single track. Awesome.
Thanks old friend.
2 comments:
gnat: I still dig my Dos Niner too, even with all of its quirks and short comings. I have been having a love/hate relationship with it, but that is mostly due to reoccuring creaks that I have to chase down from time to time.
Really though, I just believe in the soft tail concept. It is a great idea, and I have no doubt that someday Salsa will improve upon it. I will be eager to ride that bike if and when it happens.
Till then, the Dos is just so right for certain rides. Thanks for that! ;-)
I love the "first ride in a long time" feeling on one of the staples of the stable. I always start thinking about all the times I started thinking about selling a particular bike and being so glad that I don't have to kick myself for doing it, at least with the bike I'm on.
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