Eugene and I hit Loftus this morning. He was on his trusty 26″ 2011 Giant Trance and I brought the Torrent out. I swapped some parts out with parts I had in the parts bin. Namely some pedals, 760mm Renthal 40mm risers, some Ergon GA2 grips and an Ergon saddle. I tried to convert the tyres to tubeless last night but failed. I managed to get the rear tyre bead to seat with a floor pump but then I had a leak in the valve. Feeling defeated I cried, chucked tubes in and went to bed.
Today’s ride was awesome fun (and exhausting, but in a good way) though! Initially I’d forgotten how to pedal up tech as I’ve been so spoilt with the Amflow, but it didn’t take long before I was clearing everything which really surprised me. Eugene and I swapped bikes a few times and we both were pretty in awe at how well the Torrent climbs up techy stuff. The Schwalbe Hans Dampf tyres were surprisingly fast rolling and grippy too. Makes me think the Assegai was the reason why my first Torrent felt sluggish. The brakes suck, modulation is AOK, just no bite. The Suntour fork works… kinda? I’m 65kg’s and doubt the coil suits my weight. I reduced the coil spring preload to the lowest setting and even then I’m still only using half of the fork travel.
I had my feet almost come off the pedals a few times. Pins on these pedals are not the long nasty sharp shin destroyer type though. Tempted to go clipless, but I want to better my wheelies so maybe later. Clipped a tree and lost a Ergon GA2 bar end plug. I googled to see if there were replacements and found that pretty much everyone has lost theirs lol, so I bung on some roadie bar end plugs in there, easy fix.
Anyways, very happy with the bike! I re-did the rim tape on both wheels earlier this afternoon and have both set up tubeless now. Forgot to mention, the cables do not have any internal housing dampening foam and they’re literally rattling around like mad in there so I’ll probably address this ASAP. She’s heavy at 14.80kg’s but the bike doesn’t at all feel heavy out on the trails. As much as I’m tempted to whack on the carbon cranks and wheelset I have in the parts bin I’ve decided to hold off for now (and also to hold off buying anything until I at least ride it some more).