With the RIP down (still waiting on word from Niner on the next step), I used the Big Unit. I moved the Reverb dropper post over with a home made shim. That was always one of the shortcomings of the purple Unit, I really get used to that dropper and not having it puts me in an awkward position for doing the more technical stuff.
I did my normal Sunday AM ride today, we had a group of five hearty souls out there battling the heat and the slimy roots for almost 3 hours - it was a really good ride. Once again Case proved its worth with pretty much dry, rock hard trails even after rain yesterday and last night.
The Big Unit worked out pretty well - it was a lot of fun to ride, but you really have to work that thing (as with any hardtail), you have to find the line rather than just plowing through stuff. In the real technical stuff its a much more active riding style and my legs are just not used to it. I'll get there, but there's a lot less sitting and spinning on the hardtail and all that standing and absorbing takes extra effort. There are a couple of fit problems, the handlebars are too low and too short, I'm not sure if I'm going to try and fix that or just adjust for it.
In the high speed chattery stuff its really painful - you just have to let the bike do its thing underneath you but "its thing" is not necessarily 100% comfortable. During one of these chattery hills I skipped off the trail and plowed my shoulder into a tree - no harm done, but it was a good reminder of just how easy a FS bike is to ride in this stuff.
Even when its technical I found it really easy to pedal up stuff, I would presume that's due to the four of five pounds of weight savings between this and the RIP.
So all in all, a really good ride, I'm glad to have the Big Unit as a back up bike and its always good to get on a hardtail and remember what it used to be like to ride before the full suspension bike made me lazy.
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