I thought I’d post some of my impressions of riding my new UDC Max
Traction 26x3. Living in northern Finland, I have easy access to
woods, little gravel roads, single track and so on. I picked a place
that I knew would have nice little roads in a pine forest (perhaps similar
to US fire roads, can anyone define these?), packed my gear and drove
there. The road was mainly sand, with lots of stones and roots. Three
nice lakes were nearby.
I wrote earlier that I had trouble freemounting with the new bigger
wheel, and Mikefule posted some suggestions. I tried his technique and
it was certainly an improvement. I could freemount successfully at
least half of the time using his method, a lot better than my previous
experiments with a rollback mount. Thanks Mike! I still couldn’t mount
going uphill, and every now and then I would misplace my other
foot. But I think this is normal and will get better over time. I
noticed that I could fairly consistently start riding with a poor foot
placement and adjust it while riding.
Couple of days before I had done the air conversion to the Miyata
saddle, using a 12-1/2 x 2-1/4 inner tube. The conversion went
smoothly, except that I inadvertently squashed two clips when putting
the seat post back in place. This didn’t seem to cause problems,
however, and I didn’t bother taking it apart again. We’ll see how it
holds up. The air seat is so much more comfortable. It also adds a
feeling of suspension, together with the 3" Gazz, so that it is a pure
pleasure to bounce over roots and stones.
I had a blast riding the sand road. I didn’t have many UPD’s, and I
always landed on my feet. My turning is still erratic. If I can
plan it ahead, and the surface isn’t too difficult, I can usually
negotiate even pretty tight corners. But if I have to turn suddenly,
or the surface has bumps or inclines, I tend to lose it. I’ll
definitely have to work on my turning in different conditions.
I noticed that either my aerobic fitness is miserable or I somehow
wear myself out being too tense. In any case, after riding half a
kilometer I was huffing and puffing like a locomotive. I suppose that
will improve with practice. After an hour of riding I was sweating
like a p… err, like an animal with lots of sweat glands. So I
decided to take a swim in the nice clear little lake nearby. After
that, some nice English pipe tobacco in a nice Italian pipe. It
doesn’t much better than that.
Janne
Most of the girls, as they walked along, seemed % shem@erasethis.iki.fi
to be absorbed in silent prayer; but he supposed, %
on second thoughts, it was only gum they were %
thus incessantly ruminating. Gum, not God.
