I finally got a text from a fellow worker at Sportchek that my new bike was in, so I immediately headed over to the shop to build it up. With a little struggling with the dropper post, which I still haven’t perfected, I finally got it all together. Yesterday was the first day I got to ride it on Fromme. Here are my first impressions.
Climbing:
On the slower, less steep climbs, I didn’t feel like I had just as much power as I did on other bikes. This may have been because the Force X was long and had slacker geometry. This wasn’t a big deal to me and it wasn’t enough to make the 40 minute climb to get to 7th Secret even the least bit unbearable. I am surprised to say that on the steep technical climbs, I found myself staying on the bike way more as opposed to getting off and pushing. I was really impressed that I was able to climb through slippery rocks and roots much better than I have on previous bikes, even with the Fox Float X CTD in Descend mode.
Descending:
I generally ride all of my bikes like they’re downhill race bikes while descending, so this one was no different. Because it was so long, I thought It would be even better for going really fast downhill. I did have some trouble pushing this bike on the trails though, mostly because of the tires. It may have been because the bike is new and that I’m not used to it, but there were a few things that I didn’t like.
My first Impression of the Continental Mountain King tires is that they didn’t grip that well at all on the wet rocks and roots compared to the Schwalbe Hans Damf which I had been using on my dads all mountain bike. New tires generally don’t grip that well, so I’ll have to wear them in a bit to see if the grip improves.
Another thing that bothered me while descending was that the bike was so loud. The chain was constantly hitting the carbon chainstays on the bigger hits and it really felt like I was breaking the bike. That is an easy fix, however, there really should have been chainstay protectors already on the bike.
I will have to ride this bike a lot more to break in the suspension and the tires to really tell what it actually rides like, but from my impression, despite a few minor issues, it is a great bike!
