The Good, the Bad, and the Meh

One and what some might call a "half" rides on the new Stumpjumper FSR EVO29'er is not enough to pass some kind of judgement.

That will not stop me from doing so.

Let's start with the good.

The XX1 was flawless.  No dropped chains, no noise, and no mis-shifts.  It clunked around all day as it should.  The Grip Shift can be actuated without taking my finger off the brake or giving up my grip on the bars by moving my thumb.  An earnest flick of the wrist is all it takes to move up or down one gear.  Having the ability to dump a shit ton of gear at the top of a climb and attack when needed?  Very nice.

The XTR brakes are bomber.  I knew that already.  I did have to adjust the reach back a bit further when I got home, but that's it.  Better with the Shimano Ice Tech rotors?  Time will tell.

The FOX34 140mm FLOAT is cheating.  I really, really, really liked it.  Stiff, plush, massive travel gobbling shit up... soooo sweet.

The frame?   Hrrmmm...  It's stiff as expected, I love having a water bottle again, and look at this convenient carrying handle for portages:

The squishy bits?  That comes later.
Of course it was the maiden voyage of my Industry Nine Torch Trail 24 wheelset.

Stiff, light, pink, fast engaging... what I've come to expect.  I'll be interested to know how the improvements made in an effort to prolong bearing life and reduce maintenance work out.  Time will tell.

The bad?

I loved having a drooper post, but that said, I think I'm eating my words on the whole "multi-positions would be better than infinite positions" thing.  The top position is perfect for 95% of the fast descending I would normally do, but the slammed position I can only see being helpful in the shit-my-pants steep stuff.  Getting it down in a panic as I'm already shitting my pants is no easy task.  I'm holding on for dear life, and the idea of removing my opposable thumb from under the bars to over and then slamming my ass down past the point of slammation to release the lever and get the saddle back up to proper position?  Not really gonna happen unless I stop altogether, thus defeating the purpose of the drooper.  I woulda just wanted a position slightly above the second and above the last the whole time.  I'm being picky.  It's what I do.

The chainstay length.  My Dickstickel Meatplow V.6 has skewed my reality.  I love short stays, like 16" and change stays.  The Stumpjumper is a hair shy of 18" and rides like it.  The bike just plain smashes through shit like a hero, but when it comes time to shake and dance, it just keeps smashing.

When I used the Auto-Sag feature on the rear shock, electric blue goo shot out of the valve.  The manual did not say that was a normal part of the operation, so it caused me some concern.  I would say that Auto-Sag did put me in the right ballpark though.

The meh?

The whole way-too-long set up of the Grip Shift side did affect my hand placement a bit.  Fortunately, someone named Joe reached out to me on MTBR, and now I haz my blanking ring.

That can and will be fixed whenever I get around to it.

The other meh?

So much of what's going on here.  While the gears were nice for adding speed on the descents, they bugged the shit outta me all day.  If I was standing and climbing like I was on a single speed, I was in the 32 X 14, 16, or 18.  Not ideal.  If I was sitting and spinning, I felt just as tired but found myself moving way slower.

When I was flying down the trail, it was like driving a trophy truck.  When I tried to make a quick move at slow speed, it was like I was driving a bread truck.  Chainstay length, 130mm of travel, big wheels, poor skill-set... so many variables to look at.

As I drove home alone from the mountains, I looked at the bike in the rear view mirror trying to think of the purpose for this machine.  It's to early too feel awash with regret and buyer's remorse.  This thing will act as my road bike, the thing I ride to take a break from "mountain biking"... without all the cars and whatnot.

I'm not gonna say that I haven't looked at a few all-mountain, SS'able hard tails since Saturday.  Since the fjork gives me a huge bike boner, the wheels are adaptable to SS and other axle configurations,  and the gears only leave me feeling just a few degrees above lukewarm, I know I can salvage the good parts and continue to cleave things away until I find happiness... relatively speaking.

For all that, the new bike gets my...

SEAL OF SEMI-APPROVAL

It's alright.  I realize I am a jaded, morose, unappreciative, predictable, spoiled asshole, but I gotta try new things once and awhile.  My first single speed ride was a nightmare, and I didn't revisit the concept for three more years after that miserable experience.  I don't want to live in a bubble, but I must say, it's very nice in here.