I’ve been trying to get my mate Zi out for a trail ride for ages now (yes spreading the good word of the mountain bike of-course!). He finally had a day off in his busy schedule and he happened to choose one of the hottest days of the year so far to do it. HEAT WAVE!
I met Zi at the workshop as he was getting work done to his MX-5 (see below), we had some lunch, then we headed to Loftus Oval.
I brought Suga’s Talon and the Scale and got to ride both of them during the 20km ride. It’s black and white, clear as day how different both these hardtails are. The Talon’s a fun bike to ride both up, down and in technical sections. The Scale however is so unrelentless. It’s too light, the fork is too stiff and you just get bounced around everywhere. Technical downhill stuff feels sketchy, fast downhill stuff is just as bad but climbing is fantastic. It basically feels like riding a road bike off road. The bars are not wide enough and they were also way too low. I raised the stem up on the steerer mid ride and it was a little better, but it could even do with a low riser bar. The Selle SLR saddle is a world of pain. It looks hot but it’s got to go.
Agreed the Scale is a race bike, it’s not made to be comfortable on a trail, but I’ve ridden it at Manly Dam, Lady Carrington and now Loftus and I didn’t have fun on it at either trail. Letting it go is on the cards.
Zi’s NA MX-5.
Weekend racer!
Zi on the Scale – he was in so much pain. Jelly legs and his ass was fucked hard by the Selle saddle lol.