Just a ride niblet.

Not much good riding lately. I came off of vacation and got a little bit of a bug, so I have not been all fired up to work real hard. Still, there is a new bike and all, so I need to spend some time out there. I am getting tuned to the Lenz. I climbed up to an overlook above the lake on a trail that used to be an old road, and for all intents and purposes, is almost completely overgrown. So, I battled up through the weeds and the dried grass, all the while thinking how much summer riding stinks in So Cal...hot, dry, dusty, hot and dry. And this year's good rains really created a plant growth explosion that is making a lot of local stuff sucky in late spring. The county bulldozers have been out doing their yearly fire prevention work or whatever it is, so many roads and doubletracks are nearly unrideable if not completely un-fun. Sigh. Come on, Fall!

Well, at the top I did get a nice view.



The descent is kinda fun, a doubletrack downhill with lots of smoothed out rain ruts and abrupt lane changes.



The Lenz really shined here, and was definitely more relaxed (and so was I) than the KM was through here. I was not that much faster, but I was not anywhere near the limit of my pucker meter like I was on the hardtail Monkey. Some of that is FS, but a lot of it is the longer wheelbase and slacker HT angle.

The bike is very efficient over the dirt and pedals well as long as the ProPedal is on. Otherwise, it still goes Ok, but bobs like a drunken sailor. Fortunately, I actually prefer to run in ProPedal with the Reba just off full open. I like a firmer ride most of the time and I can open it up as needed. We typically have long climbs followed by a long DH so reaching down to flip it all over is not too bad. I do think that I would love the new Pivot 429 as it stays firm under pedaling until you get bumpy-ness happening. However, I like the cost of the used Lenz muuuuch better than the Pivot price tag.

I need to get out and cover some country on the bike and really get dialed to it, not that I am feeling distant, but we have not really danced yet. This weekend I hope to spend 3-4 hours exploring some higher elevation singletrack, so that ought to help. Beyond that, I was thinking I need to get out on a long ride again, but June and July are filled with vacations and such. Well, we shall see.