JMP on Alloy wheels
Swapped to DT1700 wheels off the Pivot. Immediately felt the difference.. even before leaving the parking lot. Immediate.
These wheels made the ride much softer. Bike feels wigglier during awkward uphill maneuvers. More so than the Wrecker. About on par with the much flexier framed Tyee, possibly due to the higher BB and lower anti-squat. Oh also it cold be the slack HTA and the floopy feel of the front.
I realized on this ride that the bike feels draggy. It’s sucking energy while pedaling. Not sure if it’s the lower anti-squat of the linkage, the lack of support from the rear shock, or the “transmission” drivetrain. It definitely is not as energetic feeling as either the Evil or the Propain.
Even with the draggy feel it climbs decently. The longer chainstay seems to help it stay pointed against the floppy front. Overall though I prefer more anti-squat at the sag point. This bike feels a little lethargic still. We’ll see how it feels with the air shock next time.
Downhill
Decided to ride Cinderella instead of Chaparral. Seemed safer.
Ended up feeling quite Normal. The wheels gave me the feel/traction I like and need. The brakes bed in and were great.
Shock settings remained at the neutral setting for both compression clickers. I ran two descents to test two rebound settings. I also toyed with a 1/3 turn of shock preload.
The bike feels long, and feels fast because of it. But it doesn’t rally with energy the way the Propain (my other long bike) does. It’s much more relaxed mid corner. The relaxed feel continues at corner exit too, with the initial pedal mash giving less acceleration than you’d get from either the Propain or the Evil. Not boring.. but not exciting either. Kind of Plain Jane.
Jumps were… you guessed it not exciting. Again it feels like it’s the low Anti-squat, or the shape of that curve…low energy from my feet. The rear of the bike still drags behind the front even when I reduced the rebound to feel much too fast everywhere else.(When I upped the HSC to position 4 of 5 for a short run on Skymiller trail it helped.. will have to try more trails with this setting if the air shock tests leave me wanting more…)
So, the bike is ridable now but I feel like there’s more to unlock. And also I need steeper faster trails to test it on.
Oh also.. I think I finally have a sense for Anti-rise in the linkage kinematics. This bike pitches forward when entering a corner in a way my other bikes do not. Its almost aggressive the way the rear extends. It’s possible that my riding positioning exaggerates rear lift but I think it’ll take some time to get used to. Not sure if I’lll be able to go between Evil and WR1 super quickly…
Clickers:
Reb: 9 in from full out
HSC and LSC at Centers
As Much Dirt As Possible 