Finally, finally got out on the new Specialized (2019 Chisel Com X1). It's been ridden in my backyard, the street, off a few curbs, but the local conditions for mt. biking have so bad, so no chance to ride it on dirt.
Today at Bethpage for a lap on the frozen. Conditions decent, still some frozen ruts from numbnuts riding in cold mud, but today and tomorrow will be OK as things continue to dry out.
First time on a 29'er. Didn't feel as big as I expected, was a good ride. The larger wheel are like everybody says, they roll over roots, stumps and logs much easier than a 26" wheel. That lets you not worry as much as to what line you take thru stuff. Aluminum HT also accelerates really well, but I was actually surprised at well it climbed the short stuff we deal with. X1 shifting as well had gearing that works, I was using pretty much the entire range of the cassette, excepting the 2 small and 2 large gears. Handlebars are huge at 750mm, which I got used to and there were no tree's on the BP loop that seemed too tight. I may cut down to 700 eventually, wil ride a few more times. Reach to bars seems a bit tight, may end up with a slightly longer stem.
All good though, this was my test ride on tight and twisty ST and it handled really well. Nobby Nic tires were seemingly pretty good, but with less than perfect conditions due to ruts, hard to tell when the speed goes up. That's for another day.
So a fun but cold day, 23 deg. in the park and nobody out. And thanks to oldnslw2 and kaos I'm remembering to take a picture !.
