Working for myself, and from home is paying off big time this year. I’m starting to not feel so guilty for ducking out for a part of the day to go riding (I’m even starting to rub it in a bit to the full timers hehe).
Today Charlie and I hit up the Dam. I decided to take the Scott Scale of-course.
The Scale was fast from the outset. Manly Dam has a nasty little heart starter of a road climb before the trail even starts (carpark to the school) and it was evident right there that the Scale was fast. It feels very much like a road bike! Soon after the school there’s a sneaky pinch of a hill which I’ve never gotten up, usually because I’m not warmed up yet, or I usually couldn’t be bothered so early on the trail, but today I got out of the saddle and mashed it, the Scale exploded up the hill no problems. Ridiculous really.
The single trail section of the dam was so fast on the Scale, there’s a bit of rock work here and there which really bucks the bike around but I found that dropping a bit of speed for the rocks wasn’t a problem because a few revolutions of the crank and the Scale just accelerates back up to speed so effortlessly.
The downhill section though was definitely where the rigid frame (or is it the geometry or both?) showed it’s weaknesses. I was nowhere near any sort of comfort zone and instead of mashing it down I was instead coasting, having to pick smoother lines and when I found myself off a smooth line I was just holding on and riding light.
All in all the bike is amazing in tight flat single trail, amazing up hills (heartbreak hill was way too easy and I have to mention that Charlie did it without a granny gear on his STP, what a man!) but on rough stuff it’s just super harsh and far from confidence inspiring. The bike doesn’t like jumping, even hucking it off the steps wasn’t easy (after a while I just didn’t bother and rolled down steps instead). I also feel the tires are way too thin as I had troubles tracking on rockier surfaces.
At the end of the lap we had a little race back up to the school just to burn off the bit of energy we had left and the Scale, once again, just rocketed up the road. It’s almost better on road than it is off road!!! All in all I’m happy, little whippet did great. I feel much more relaxed and less tired than I usually would feel if I rode the Reign. Is that a good thing?
Charlieeeeeeee.
Charlie taking a fall at the end of the downhill section.
The Scale just doesn’t like to jump, or huck for that matter.
I was happy to just relax and cruise home behind this bus.
Little whippet did good today.