Back in Black!

I'll be honest. Christie Clark has never been my favorite Premier. She's a conservative parading around under the liberal banner, asleep at the wheel on so many issues that WILL affect us down the road, especially housing . On February 16th, she rolled out a new budget with an exemption on the property transfer tax for new builds. I guess I should thank her for saving me almost 11,000.

But I'm not going to. 

I should also thank Brody Development for being 7 months late in delivering me my Town home, without which I surely would have had to pay the aforementioned PPT. And thank them I will, but not for my new bike.

Mainly I'd like to thank my wife for letting me spend a big chunk of the money we'd saved on a new Knolly Warden.

She said yes to crazy. I said yes to cool.

And then there's Bryan. Before any budgets got released he said he could help me get the inside track on this purchase. He's a ride buddy from what seems like an era gone by. He owes me nothing. But he really helped the numbers make sense. 

That and he spent 5 hours of his Friday night helping me build it. (He did most of it actually.) 

Since 2006 and I have been buying all my bikes at Cove. I have gone through more than my fair share of their frame catalogue. Stiffee (x2), STD and Hustler(bought almost on the same day), Gspot #1 (after my Hustler frame cracked its seat post after 13 months),  2013Shocker (which is great but I should have kept the STD) and Gspot #2 (after the first Gspot cracked its seat post as well). I am a big guy and beat the shit out of my bikes. The Gspot, while having a new frame, had all sorts of dying parts on it. With the drive train and wheel set on life support, I decided to start anew.

And while the new Cove Hustler is definitely an option, I wanted something completely different. And different it seems is what I got.

I know that few people these days would be impressed with a bike that is 29lbs. But this if the first bike I've ever had that is sub 30lbs. I could have waited for carbon and saved an additional .75 lbs. But there is no denying that this alloy frame is far more sightly than its carbon counterpart.

One day I will own a plastic bike. Hopefully they know how to recycle them by then. This pic, against my blue (future man cave) wall doesn't do it justice. The bike is all caked in mud now and this may well be the best ever image I have of it.

Nic took a few pictures of me not looking quite so dorky but I felt this best conveyed the mood. 

Blurry Ted is blurry

Hi Tracy, welcome to my blog post.

Entrance of 7th.

2 rides in. Pangor on Saturday and what felt like an epic on 7th and Crinkum Crankum today.

I'm still playing with the suspension and trying to get the reactions I want. I realize it's early for a review but I'll post my early impressions anyway.

For context, this is the build kit on my Knolly Warden. (Mostly)


I'll start with the bad. I say bad but really these are just things I haven't gotten used to yet.

1. The back tire is a Maxis Minion SS.

Not a part of the normal build kit but a replacement for something they were short on. Defiantly not a shore tire, it has some major grip issues on wet rock faces. While I like a certain amount of sketchiness in my back tire, I found a few occasions where a dismount was required due to lack of confidence in my situation. I'll likely run this tire through the summer but it will have to go in September.

Note: the Other build kit substitution is the Carbon Bar. Instead they gave me the 760ml bar from the Endorphin kit. I would not say this has affected my riding so far.

2. A bit more pedal shwack than on the G-spot. The Warden follows the trend of long and low all mountain bikes. I found myself carefully learning how to pedal it on technical terrain.

3. An average non-technical climber. So far. I would say this bike climbs about as well as the old Gspot on the Fromme FSR and Old Buck.  Having demoed the SC Nomad and RM Altitude, I'd say both those bikes leave a bit more gas in the tank at the end of the climb.

And now the good, or at least the immediately noticeable benefits ..

1. Fit. The bike just fits me better than any bike I have owned so far. The climbing position is very good. On the descents  I am more raked out and more forward. I found myself attacking the trails. Again another learning curve but one I am sure will benefit my riding when I have it figured out.

2. Cornering. I haven't mastered it yet but I will be able rail my turns like never before.

3. Rolling. The bike picks up speed quickly and maintains it. The brakes, SRAM Guide rsc are good and capable of stopping me, but not as powerful as my Codes.

4. The suspension. The Fox 36 Float paired with the Cane Creek DB Air CS is a formidable pairing. On day one I was a little under-gunned.  I aded 10 lbs pressure in each and felt over jacked. I haven't even played with either LSC HSC or rebound yet but am running pressure well below what is recommended for my weight class on both. Maybe the suspension needs to work itself in a bit for now I am really enjoying the big bike feel.  (I'd almost say it out-big-bikes my big bike.)

5. Its a VERY different bike. The personality is its own.



 I found it interesting how tired I was after this ride. In part I point to the new 650b wheel spec. But also it was a bike I didn't want to stop riding. On the downs I just wanted to keep going and on the techy climbs I wanted to find the limits. By no means did I climb over everything today, but I suspect when I have logged a few more hours on it my feet with have little reason to touch the ground.

Happy Ted is Happy.