First Ride

Well, actually the second I guess, since it's already done over 60 km.
I took the new Remedy on it's first real ride on Sunday. I rode up to Mount Tzouhalem. It was hot and sunny, and I don't know if I'm a vampire or something, but direct sunlight kills me. I couldn't wait to get in the shade of the trees. I headed up the singletrack at the far end of the parking lot, and expected to come out on Blue Balls, cross the fire road and climb Tea Cup, but I took a right somewhere that I should have gone left, and ended up on the Providence Farm trail.
Hating the bike. I couldn't steer properly, and also kept chickening out when climbing over roots and steep bits. I wasn't happy. The bike wouldn't go where I wanted. I couldn't move it around, and felt like I had no control. I wasn't riding things that I normally think nothing of. On the fire roads it was great though - better than my hard tail - no loss of "power transfer" or "pedalling efficiency" and didn't feel heavier when climbing like those weight weenies would have us believe.
Great. Just Great. (insert sarcasm smiley here) Just what I wanted - a bike that was much better on fire roads. Great.
I carried on up the usual singletrack. I went over the bars trying to get over a log pile - in a good way though. With my old bike, riding up a log pile would kill all my speed, and I'd have to kick the pedals to get my back wheel over, and lunge forward to get my bashguard over, but this time I rolled straight up the pile before I realized it, lunged forward and my back wheel came up, and the bars went sideways and I followed them. I was quite happy about that though - getting over stuff would be easier, and it was obvious I had more clearance for logs and rocks.
But I still couldn't steer. Maybe it would just take time? I'd have to learn how to ride this bike? Maybe I just needed to make some adjustments?
I rode up the fire road to the steepish hill before the entrance to Field of dreams, and I fell off sideways on the hill, as I seemed so far away from the ground and couldn't get my foot down and landed on my knee and slid down the hill a bit. That hurt.
So I lowered my seat about 3 cm and rode Field of Dreams. I could steer, and move around. The seat was lower than I'd ride with on my old bike, and not best for pedalling, but the bike felt completely different. Field of Dreams was great. The rocky bit that, although I clear it 80% of the time, I have to fight with and be in exactly the right gear and pick a line precisely, I floated over with no problems. I headed up the fire road towards the top in a much better mood. I dropped the travel on the fork to 115mm, and the bike felt like my hard tail, and I climbed the steep rocky bits. I was climbing the second-to-last hill before the top, pondering whether to take Chicken Run down, or maybe Little Dipper, or even Danelizer, when I heard a cling. The chain had snapped. No matter - I have two multi tools - on I keep in the pouch on my road bike, and the other in my mountain bike pack with a QuickLink. But I'd taken my big backpack down to Victoria the day before, and left the multi tool in there. I tried to mess around with it for a bit, but it was clear I wasn't going to be able to fix it without a tool, so I shoved it in my bag and hopped back on to ride home. It was pretty much all down hill, right. Firstly, clipping into my pedal was not easy, because it just spun away from my foot whenever I touched it.
There was a lot more uphill than I realized - a lot of walking.
I took showtime, as it as mostly floopy downhill, and hooked into CR3 and came out on the old ML, which I though was all downhill, but apparently not, and made a sharp left onto the Providence Farm trail.
At least three times I found myself shinning my legs and shifting up before I realized it wasn't going to get me anywhere. I fell of once when I stood on the pedals and leaned over the bars for a hill, but there was no resistance on the pedals, and I lost my balance. Once I fell off and I wasn't even pedalling - I stood on the left pedal to go round a right corner.
Although I took it easy down the mountain because the lack of chain obviously made more difference than I'd thought, the bike just floated over all the loose and rocky stuff. On my other bike I'd have to concentrate, and pick a line, but this bike felt great right down the middle. I found myself "cruising" along a sketchy bit with only one hand on the bar, and came up to a corner realizing I was going way faster than I thought and had to grab the brakes pretty sharpish. I though the 8 inch front rotor would be overkill, but the XT brakes seem great. Way more modulation and great lever feel - not squishy or spongy, very smooth. I'm going to have to do some re-arranging on the bars though. With the SRAM on my other bike I could mount the shifters closest to the grips, and the brake levers further towards the stem so my index finger can hook the ends of the levers, but I'm not sure if that's going to work with the Shimano kit.
I want the bars lower too, and I'll either trim the bars narrower or switch the bars for the Race Face ones on my other bike (narrower and less rise).
The very last part of the trail is up hill, as is the first third of the road home. There was only one slight downhill. I'd thought from 7eleven to my place was downhill, but it seems it's exactly level, so I'd get on my bike, and just sit there like a lemon (but less likely to roll away than a lemon). It was a long walk home. I got in about 6:30 (I'd left the house at 2), which is probably the same time as I would have if I rode singletrack down, rode back up and rode some more single track, like I usually do.
Quite disappointing, but at with the seat dropped an inch the bike felt great.
I'm probably not going to get to ride again until Saturday - a whole week!