Yes indeed; this time it wasn’t just me, it was me and Leo White getting odd looks from people on the hill.
The rain held off enough for it to not be a washout; while it occasionally threw a few spots down the weather was good; not to hot, and plenty of mud to blast through.
It would have been difficult with my usual 20"; it’s carp in mud, even if it is quite good for going up really steep slopes. However I wasn’t riding that…
It was the first time I’d ridden a uni other than my own; the 24" was absolutely brilliant. Little bumps that would throw me off my 20" could be completely ignored; slippery bits where I’d be all over the place could be ridden straight through.
It had a handle which made a great difference; before I’d grip the front of the saddle; good enough but generally only for the really tough bits because it’s uncomfortable and generally awkward. A proper handle though was something you could just hold on to anyway, and it was all the better for it; much better control over tricky bits.
But the airseat! Oh, the airseat! I thought my little conversion was quite good, but that miyata conversion I would sacrifice my first born to have. With my seat it’s okay for a while but you can really feel it after an hour or two; but today even after going up the hill and back I could do it again (as far as the seat was concerned; the knees however…). I have got to get myself one of those miyata conversions. The limiting factor on the length of the ride was no longer how long the seat could be tolerated; it was the knees instead… those crazy downhill bits were tough on them!
Leo is quite scary. Generally we stuck to the paths I’ve been on before; nothing too hideously steep. But on the way down on several occasions he’d just look at some smaller path that appeared to lead right over the edge of a cliff, and go down it. I think he actually made it; I got half way down before literally launching myself into a patch of long grass and rolling several metres down the hill… paths that were difficult enough to walk down, let alone ride a uni.
The wet grass wouldn’t have helped… although this was another thing I noticed, in that the Gazz tyre at no point lost traction. My normal 2" thing would have been sliding all the way, but even on short, smooth wet grass (you know the sort…) it held its own. Impressive.
And now I’ve got my new wheel rim sat opposite me as I type, taunting me because it knows I can’t ride it yet. Aargh!!!
In short (too late…) if I wasn’t obsessed enough already, I sure as hell am now…
Phil, just me