Inagural Ride

Dan got his Slopestyle built up early this morning while I took the dog to the vet so we were both able to have our first rides on the new bikes. Dan built his up with a single chainring up front with a 38 tooth, I noticed him struggling a little but he still climbed everthing no problem. All in all, he loves the new bike. He said at high speed the bike handles really smooth which is great.



The 6.6 rode awesome as well. It handled the climb up Belcher better than my 5.5 since I can drop the front fork down and in maximum pro pedal mode, the bike was smooth without out sucking up my energy. I was very impressed and was able to climb up Belcher without stopping...well, my tire slipped out on some loose rocks once but I never had to stop because I was dying.

We rode up Belcher to Mustang and the bike handled the technical sections on Mustang like butter. We then headed back up Belcher to Maverick and rode that to Long Horn, Long Horn has some technical rock sections and some steep rocky climbs and I had no problems with them. I even launched off some rocks only to land in other rocks but the bike soaked it all up.

To sum it up, for a 30lb freeride bike it climbs like a champ, not what you would expect from a bike that that and it takes the hits like my big bike...a girl couldn't ask for anything more! What I really love is being able to drop the front fork down for climbing as well as being able to easily swith it to max pro pedal on the fly. Dan later told me that the shock that I have isn't even available yet, it's a '09 pre-production Fox DH5 Air with 2 position pro pedal settings....all I know is I like it! Guess it's time to take the Demo Bike stickers off :)

The only pic I took today was of our friend Chuck who was recovering from being sicker than a dog all week, he was a trooper for coming out with us.


Tomorrow I'm headed out to Buffalo Creek with Cynthia and one of her friends for a 30-40 mile day. This will be a good test to see how the 6.6 handles a long ride with lots of long climbs.

-Kim