Having used that ride to check out any niggles in setup on the Kona and to start to get used to it again, satisfying myself that it's still an awesome machine and should serve me well for the future,i was ready to head to the ride that I always envisaged riding in this type of new bike. The next morning was sunny and cool, perfect for a ride by anyone's judgement and I got going early to get to Cwm Carn.
I was glad I did as the centre was filling up even at half past nine when I arrived and headed outon the classic Cwm Carn Twrch Trail. This was a real testing ground for the new bike as it's one of my favourite solid known rides. A technical and challenging climb, some playtime on top of the hill, an then a helter-skelter race to the bottom again.
Traditional knowledge suggests that full suspension bikes climb less well than hardtails die to the energy expended in the bounce of the rear shock, so I expected to put in a ride that would be slower up the hill and then definitely faster back down than I've done before. As ever I logged the ride in Sports Tracker and then uploaded into Strava to test this. The climb was solid and I actually found the suspension, bigger wheels gearing and whole setup allowed me to climb through technical sections that I've struggled on before. Admittedly conditions were ideal with the ground dried out enough to be grippy, but I felt like I was climbing well on the slightly heavier bike. The stats would, perhaps surprisingly, bear this out as Strava awarded me a number of personal bests on climbing sections, including over the climb taken as a whole, beating times I'd put down over the years on a hardtail.
At the top the bike came into its own even more, with the climb getting me used to the lockouts on the suspension, I opened it all up and dropped the saddle on the dropper-post to sweep into the open jumps section. Once again the bike willed me on to get it in the air and I seemed to glide smoothly through all of the jumps and berms to land me onto the start of the rolling, but broadly downhill back section. These were dealt with superbly by the bike, with the dropper post giving me the flexibility to climb and descend confidently and gearing matching the terrain perfectly. Cthe culmination of the ride drops off the end of the ridge and down to the carpark, on a track rutted by heavy breaking and tough on a hardtail. Again the Kona was a revelation as it let rail lines and brake confidently on the bumps dropping me into the carpark with one slight sketchy moment as I let the front drop off a lip a little far.
A very respectable time under an hour and a quarter, even with a couple of brief stops to adjust the front axle cam and refuel myself with lucozade, and I was back at the car.
Cwm Carn has just added a new trail to the centre, probably doubling the riding there and I was feeling so good (if tired) from the first run that I elected to head out and see what it's like. I necked the last of one bottle of lucozade, threw another that was only two-thirds full into the bag and set straight off. The new trail has a different feel from the older one and essentially climbs solidly for half the length. Zig-zagging relentlessly up the valley it offers little chance to recover as your body takes a real sustained pressure and power input as the bike needs dragging round very tight hairpins. Having eaten nothing since breakfast I began to suffer as I climbed I was still overtaking people but becoming well aware that the tank was emptying fast. One guy blitzed past me and I upped my effort to keep him in sight for a while until the wall I was hitting got too big. Spinning low gears I ground on upwards, and still seemed to be passing other groups but cursing myself for not eating between loops. Just as I began to think through my escape options I seemed to reach a top, a check on the Tracker app showed I'd ridden just 8KM in an hour, but I figured it had to be downhill from that point. Surely. I was with it enough to do the calculations that I was halfway and that the suggested time of an hour and a half indicated the second half must be quicker, and also to realise I was around on-pace if I had been passing people.
Luckily I was almost right and it was certainly the end of the solid climbing. The suspension opened up and the seat went down as I dropped into downhill sections, aware my concentration was needing my attention to hold the lines and not hit any trees or falloff the edge. After electing against the downhill run that required a full-face helmet and body armour I stuck to the main tail and swore out loud as the track kicked up again. I dug in and rode it, passing some people pushing (to my tired satisfaction) with a couple of rises the trail started to drop down more and more with some rocky and rooty bits that made me appreciate all the bike could do. Now I was only passing groups with broken bikes but still felt I wasn't shaming myself on the hill. The lower sections were a delight even in the broken state I was riding, and would be more rewarding with more food inside me. A road crossing followed by what looked like a climb almost had me slumped over the bars crying, but it turned out to be broadly flat and I could see the end coming so emptied the last of my energy into the trail, passing two middle-aged walkers climbing the final section and attempting a look that conveyed disappointment, concern, anger and many other things at them being on the mountain bike trail, but probably just looked shattered.
The car was a welcome relief as was discovering a box of Ritz crackers in the boot as well as a full bottle of Lucozade. Both were inhaled as I started to feel the sweet relief form food when you desperately need to eat. Despite the pain I was smiling at the bike and the ride in perfect conditions and packed up satisfied to drive to Tescos to refuel myself and the car properly.
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