In an try to deal with a vexing drivetrain problem with the most recent testcycle from Basic Cycle, I not too long ago put in a “new” (outdated) chainring, which didn’t remedy the issue, adopted by a “new” (outdated) chain, which appeared like possibly it might need solved the issue:
However a trip across the neighborhood is one factor; a “actual” trip within the suburban wilderness is one thing else. So yesterday I headed to the forbidding Trails Behind The Mall to search out out:
The so-called “Trails Behind The Mall” are actually in a Westchester County park known as Sprain Ridge Park. To my information, the identify Sprain is just not derived from the damage of the identical identify, although a few of the trails are certainly fairly difficult and one may actually handle to incur no less than a sprain if not worse in making an attempt to traverse a few of the rockier sections:
I normally trip to and from The Trails Behind The Mall, which lie roughly eight (8) miles from my residence. Nonetheless, on this explicit event I drove THE CAR THAT I OWN. Not solely was my time restricted, however it was additionally like 20-something American Freedom Levels that morning, which is like minus three in Euro Levels–or possibly extra like minus 30 now with the tariffs! (Wait, are there nonetheless tariffs…?) And whereas ordinarily I wouldn’t thoughts the chilly, in April that’s simply bullshit.
Additionally, driving to the trip appeared in line with the entire full-suspension ethos:
[Ready? LET’S BRO!]
Talking of transporting bicycles by motorcar, there was as soon as a time after I used to recurrently drive to rides. That was after I raced cyclocross, and lived in a spot the place using to the closest mountain bike path concerned no less than two hours of knobby tires on pavement and 1,500 visitors lights in every path. However now I drive-to-ride so hardly ever that I don’t even hassle protecting a motorcycle rack on my automotive, although what I’ve discovered with the AMP is that it’s each gentle and compact sufficient to toss simply into mentioned automotive simply so long as I put the rear seats down. (Again after I used to drive to rides I couldn’t put the seats down since there could be different folks within the automotive with me, however I not have any mates. So whereas there’s not anybody to share the fuel bills with me, I’m additionally getting higher mileage by protecting the bike within the automotive, so all of it evens out in the long run.)
After all that is solely a short lived answer till I get my MTB Camper:
It’s a good way to “get off the grid:”
As a result of nothing says self-sufficiency and independence like a motorcycle trailer that prices over $50,000:
Hey, you want someplace to cost your hydration system, proper?
Hitting the path, I used to be happy to search out that the chain-jumping downside was certainly gone and I may crank easily and reliably in all gears:
So thanks for all of your ideas and strategies within the feedback, however all of them have been mistaken.
The opposite factor I discovered was that I saved attempting to match the bike with the Jones, which is a mistake:
The Jones is a greater “suspension” bike than the AMP; it’s extra comfy, it’s extra sure-footed, and regardless of being each bigger and heavier it’s additionally extra maneuverable, because of the aforementioned sure-footedness. Nonetheless, it’s a mistake to impose our fashionable beliefs upon the previous. Slavery, human sacrifice, full-suspension mountain bikes with tiny wheels and a saddle-to-bar drop that might make Cipollini blush… We perceive all of these items to be abhorrent now, however on the time carving a baby’s coronary heart out to appease the gods or making a mountain bike match and deal with like a street racing bike all made excellent sense.
All of that is to say that on a motorcycle just like the AMP one should take a bit extra care on tough terrain lest one go Over The Bars (“OTB”), as they are saying, whereas on the Jones (or most likely any mountain bike nowadays) to take action could be so troublesome as to be, for all sensible functions, inconceivable.
This was not the one limitation to which I needed to reconcile myself, both; there have been additionally my very own limitations, which more and more shut in round me, rising ever tighter and extra boa constrictor-like as I age. Even after I was youthful and fitter and doing the entire trip with out placing my foot down was tremendously essential to me for some motive I used to be by no means one to take undue dangers when on the mountain bike trails. Now, something even in the identical hemisphere as “threat” is unacceptable to me. There’s sufficient in life to maintain you off the bike as it’s: work, household, climate, sickness… However whereas I’m more than pleased to skip a trip as a result of my child goes to be in a present or one thing, and whereas I’m in a position to settle for (begrudgingly) that there’s not a lot I can do about awful climate or getting sick, I refuse to overlook days, weeks, and even months of using just because I mentioned to myself, “I guess I may trip over that rock,” and wound up being mistaken.
So between the bike’s “limitations” and my very own (largely my very own, the bike’s really fairly succesful) I discovered myself strolling sections I used to trip over on my singlespeed with out even excited about, lest I clip a pedal and go tumbling over the facet of the path:
However the extra I rode the extra I relaxed, and the extra used to the bike I acquired. I don’t adore it for the kind of massive, pointy rocks the tires on the Jones can swallow proper up, however it’s nice for climbing up and over terrain like this:
I haven’t made any changes to the suspension or something like that…
…however thus far it feels good to me as it’s. It’s easy, it doesn’t really feel such as you’re sitting on a waterbed when pedaling, and based on the guide “no common upkeep is required:”
As a awful mechanic that’s maybe my favourite phrase within the English language.
So how does it examine to a contemporary full-suspension bike? I dunno. Right here’s my whole full-suspension resume:
2021
2018
2014
2002 Possibly…?
[Pic from here]
I borrowed a demo full-suspension bike from the store and introduced it to Hartshorne Woods, NJ. It was a Specialised Epic with a Mind shock as I recall, although I could also be getting that mistaken, but when not it will need to have been 2002 as a result of apparently that was the primary yr Specialised supplied the Mind shock and it was imagined to be a giant deal.
So in 20 years I’ve ridden 4 full-suspension bikes for a grand whole of one thing like 10 hours, which doesn’t precisely make me an knowledgeable. Come to consider it, it doesn’t precisely put me able to declare bike suspension to be evil, both. However hey, no matter, it’s the Web, proper?
Anyway, like evaluating the AMP to the Jones, evaluating the AMP to fashionable full-suspension bikes isn’t honest. The higher comparability could be certainly one of its contemporaries, just like the undamped Softride:
It’s undoubtedly higher than the Softride. That stem was horrible, like attaching your bars to a packing tape dispenser.
Anyway, who even wants comparisons? The trip was quite a lot of enjoyable, and the extra I rode the bike the higher it felt and the extra I appreciated it. And I wasn’t the one turkey on the market, both:
See?
Birds of a feather flock collectively.
