With a week off for Easter, tonight was only the second week night ride of 2012, and they're now in everyone's diaries for the rest of the year. Mixed weather in the last fortnight, snow and lots of rain so Jon, Tony and I didn't know what to expect...
Well Charity Lane was quite messed up and with patches of snow at the top, but it was very quick, if you could see through the spray in the wet bits! Bottom of the Oven was insanely quick, the damp conditions hold the sand and stones together so it just doesn't move around the same. We did the whole loop, and coming down the old push up track was mint as well, a little slippery but a big smile on our faces.
And what of the Orange this week? Well, I've topped up air pressure in the RP23 and set sag without pro-pedal one (school boy mistake last time out). I slowed it down a touch on rebound and only ran it in '3' for the climbs, and fully off '0' on the descents. The front forks were also tweaked a touch on rebound and BOY OH BOY what a transformation. It's a machine, so quick! Great fun. The whole bike eats up the terrain at terrific speed, accelerates pretty well, and in the corners, my word, I'm lost for them...
Way back when I remember comparing FiveTen trainers to the change from old fashioned Tioga DH tyres to Maxxis 42a sticky rubber. I'm going to compare the Orange as going from a 1.1 Peugeot 106 to the Citroen Saxo 1.6 VTR - My first car, the 106 handled really nicely, reasonably stable, enough grip to put a smile on your face but the suspension tweaks on the Saxo VTR (basically the same chassis, god it was incredible. I started really driving that VTR hard back in the day... Anyway, that's what the Five felt like tonight, absolutely on rails...
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