Boxing day ride on the Carbon Beargrease

Today was my first proper ride on the new Carbon Beargrease and it was an ideal winters morning with a hard overnight frost and plenty ice. When i left it was -2degrees but by the time i reached Sunderland it was +5degress. Due to the ground conditions from icy roads, frozen mud on the open singletracks, semi frozen mud in the woods and proper sloppy mud in the dense wooded areas there was plenty to test the bike. The XX1 model has quite a few modern technologies that i have not ridden before - single ring up front 28t, 11 speed 10-42 on the rear, bolt through axles & press fit bb. At first it was alittle weird not having to shift the front, my thumb kept looking for the trigger ! the 11speed on the back was very smooth with no massive jumps between the gear ratios. It was that smooth sometimes i could not tell if it had changed gear. I managed the muddy singletrack climb out of Finchale no probs in bottom gear but found it spun out a couple of times on some inter linking road sections. I have used Sram on road bikes - red & force with no problems but not on mtb's. I have always used Shimano over the past 30+ years and has proved to be very reliable. Angus has been using X9 on his old mukluk for nearly a year and loves it, he prefers it to shimano. First impressions over the alu beargrease are good. I cannot notice the lighter weight difference when riding it but over a longer ride it might make a difference or when i race on it. The biggest difference is how stiff the bike is, the bolt through fork and rear dropouts make a huge difference when you are out of the saddle honking up hill, i found that i had to change down a gear as i was spinning out on the climbs. It dosent feel so stiff thats its uncomfortable to ride, you can just cruise along on it. The 45NRTH Dillanger 120tpi ultralight folding tyres were perfect for todays ride but if it was anymore muddy then i would prefer my Nate up front. Im going to keep them on and see how they perform over the winter months then swap back onto my Husker Du's for the drier summer months. Below are some photos from todays 26miler. Enjoy  

 

First time on for the Wolvhammer's as well. New winter sock test coming soon