Wednesday - Rest Day
Thursday - Still struggling to recover from a heavy month and a long, very stressful workday I wasn't really wanting to head out for ladies ride. Got home with just enough time to run the dog, get bikey kit on and head out in the torrential rain. Got to the Brewers busstop and sat watching the rivers of water streaming down the road whilst thinking "cor, hope no-one turns up, I'm so tired and cold"
Sarah turned up.....and we both agreed that neither of us would've come if we hadn't said we were going to. BUT, we also both decided to get on with it and head out anyway, and how glad am I that we did? It was a brilliant ride, sploshing through puddles, chatting, climbing out of colwall, heading back through the cloud enveloped ridge.
Friday - Test Ride on an Orange Diva
Finally, finally I got to test ride a wee short orange Diva 5
http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/bikes/five-diva_So I finally got a test ride on the short Diva and it was a real mixed bag, but overall I did indeed fall in love with it and am gonna get one....when I have decided on spec. Input welcome!
The short is a perfect size when out of the saddle. Sitting and spinning it was small, but fine with the saddle back on the rails.
Some things were componentry issues that would be easy to remedy (wider bars, get rid of triple set up, run SRAM, put on some proper pedals as the flats the bike shop put on were the worse I have ever ridden). ADvantage tyres performed much better than I was expecting. Loved the X2 brakes - I've always run M4's and was surprised at how good the X2's are.
Was crackingly accurate with the 140 mm on the front, like, the front wheel went where I put it (a novelty for me). Went round bermed corners like (for want of a less cliche saying) it was on rails.
Wasn't as great at climbing or on the flat as I was expecting (but then I'm not great at climbing so I suspect I was expecting miracles and it still hurt!). Pedalling over rough stuff wasn't great, but I suspect that may have been a lot to do with the awful pedals.
Absolutely came to life on the descents, more than I imagined it would, but the air can on the back was poor. The bike shop set it up and said I might need to let a bit more air out, I ended up putting an extra 20 PSI in and was still blowing through the travel, even on the relatively tame verderers. The air fork performed better than I expected, although I did have to run it hard to stop it diving.
Felt a little undergunned with the 140 mm up front on more DH orientated trails, took it down the DTV race track for Sunday and it struggled on the steeper bits. Ski run is hardly full-on DH either...but saying that it was fine for 90% of it.
Best thing of all - felt awesome to jump on. Well balanced and responsive.
So, I'm gonna get one but have NO IDEA how to spec it.
160 mm up front or stick with the 140 mm?
Go with coil forks even though I promised myself what I needed was a nice light 140 mm trail bike?
The CCDB doesn't fit so I'm likely to keep an air can, but maybe get it pushed.
And then the hardest decision of all......what colour scheme to go with?!!
Saturday - Race Practice
Hmm, interesting day.
Good things - got a difficult fresh top section sorted-as-best-as-I-can, felt quick (but out of control) on some stuff, trail is rapidly drying out, got some nice pics with my bargain £20 compact camera
Bad stuff - wasn't 'on it', failing to look ahead, a bit intimidated by the standard of ladies (much higher than I have ridden against so far), barely staying on the bike, unable to hold the quickest lines, feeling rather sub-standard, can't believe I take better piccies with a cheap camera than the posh one I got from crimbo
This is a cool pic - this guy is pre-jumping to completely cut out a double berm and take a rapid-but-loose line to the road gap.
