So I finally hit up my regular spots for a better test of the Torque.
Last week went to Youies and Red Hill, and did Buxton again today.
Youies - First of all the climb up the fire road was noticeably easier. Gypsy tears must've blessed this bike or there's a battery I'm unaware of.
Started off with Lactic for a warmup and it carried speed very well through all of it.
Next started to do a few laps of Cressy to slowly push it a bit more each time. As expected, it soaked up the rock gardens quite well. Where I noticed the most difference was it popping me over jumps more and clearing easier. On the Enduro I had trouble clearing the step-up, but I also attribute this to my average jumping skills. Very "Confidence Inspiring" ha.
On a side note, my first Youies attempt resulted in a brand new VP Harrier sliding off the axle. I tried to gap that bit at Cressy where it transitions down just before the jumps section at the end and there's those damn rocks in the middle that I always bang my rear wheel on. Landed a bit sideways and pedal decided to unsubscribe from my riding.
Red Hill - Started off with the climb up the fire road next to Fall Line ... walked most of it. Screw that hill. Gypsy tears wore off and it was just tears of my own. Finally hit the middle and started will Fall Line. (note this is pretty fresh after the Red Hill Trail Team did more work on it and made the berms a tad bigger ... and smoothened out some sections? Big props to the team). Anyway, this trail was the perfect test for how hard I could push it over numerous ruts and see how well it sticked to the ground. The initial stroke of both ends smoothened out the small bumps and the midstroke just made it stick. The faster I went, the stickier it (and myself) got
. Props also go to the DHR 2.4 WT on front and rear.
Next up Pins n Needles. Another ace trail. The bike tracked well over the off camber roots ... It rained the night before so I took it easy. Soft .. I know, but I've had a few spills here when trying to gun it. No ragrets. Keen to head back when I'm more used to the bike ... and a better rider
All in all, I couldn't be happier with the bike. Can't really fault it as it's exceeded expectations.
It climbs way better than you'd expect from looking at the numbers, and this is coming from someone who stinks at climbing. Few pedal strikes thanks to the low BB even with 165mm cranks but that mostly comes down to me timing strokes.
Descending it feels planted, no harsh bottom outs and gives you a bit of extra gas over jumps.
The bike feels very balanced between front and rear. I can pick up the bike just after the start of the top tube and it feels pretty much evenly weighted.
Other than the pedal mishap, a creak has developed when put some hard standing strokes in climbing.
I have a Hope BB off the old bike and some 170mm Carbon Descendant cranks that I picked up off FB sales to go on, so that may resolve it.
I plan on taking this to Bright one weekend soon and Maydena in December.
