Been taking it places. Thought it was time to get it dirty.
On Thursday I took it on the same ride as the other day so I could check it again on the climb. Went up much easier. The rub is sorted although still minimal clearance.
On the way back I thought it was time for some rough stuff and diverted offroad into the woods.
Trouble was I kept losing the track, too many leaves. Did manage to find assorted potholes hidden under them though. Didn't fall off despite some comedy corrections, so bike must handle ok.
Yesterday I thought I'd try a bit harder, so went out avoiding all that horrible black stuff they put on top of what could be perfectly good dirt roads.
Just up from my house is a castle and it has an ancient track running from it all the way to Fodderty. It was a bit tricky because under that carpet of leaves is a rocky track and it was slick from the leaves. Even more interesting were the huge piles of dung from horses and cattle.
Seeing as I had no mudguards I took it canny. There was the odd sideways slip from the rear wheel, but nothing concerning, the handling remained predictable.
The track becomes a green lane later on, and unfortunately the horse traffic has churned it up a bit. This was tricky to ride on slicks, the wheel would sink in and then spin as I tried to keep going. I would have walked if I wasn't wearing my sandals - I don't mind getting my feet wet, but this was shite filled mud.
Once I crossed the railway line, things improved.
Then it was out on the road for the stretch to StrathPeffer, but I got bored and decided it was time to do some proper rough stuff, after all that what the bike is for.
There are the remains of an old track up to saddle of the hill at Cnoc Farrel. The first half is reasonable short grass because the sheep keep it down, but the track is heavily eroded. It's very steep though, 400 feet climb in just over half a mile.
Not much of it was rideable, but a good excuse to try out some hike a bike. It balanced well on my shoulder (that's an advantage of pre-compact frame geometry IMO) but I started to wish it was lighter.
The views improve as you get up though.
However from that point on it was through thick dying bracken.
Some of it was rideable (barely), ie on the bike, off the bike, carry the bike, push the bike. This portion took about 3 times longer than the first part of the climb.
This is where single speed pays off, there's nothing to drag or catch in the undergrowth except the pedals.
But a climb always has its reward.
Problem was daylight was disappearing fast, and I had a bit of a sprint to get to the way down, a 600 foot descent into Dingwall. The bike handled the hurtle down ok - nothing technical, just a rocky track morphing into a tarmac road about halfway.
It was a good opportunity to properly check the brakes though. I'm impressed with the Tektro 720 cantis, they never felt lacking in braking power - although I grimaced at the grating sound on the mud scraping the rims.
Then it was boring tarmac all the way home. Unfortunately I have a somewhat steep hill for the last bit, about 150 feet climb, and my SS gearing is a bit high for it, so I arrived home gasping.
Conclusions so far:
I like the way the long chainstays make make rear wheel side slips handle predictably.
General handling is good, although I think a bit less offset on the fork would add some more trail to slow down the front end on mud.
The bike needs mudguards for the dung tracks.
The rear wheel clearance could be better. I'll attend to this over winter. Either dimple the stays or use narrower tyres.
I dislike the grinding sound of alloy rims with rim brakes. I might try build a set of steel rimmed wheels - it's how I solved that problem when I was a lad. Did anyone make stainless steel 26" rims?
Edit: Oh, gearing. I think I need to dingle speed it. Lower gear for offroad, and a slightly higher for onroad.
There's two more tests it needs now. A lap of the StrathPuffer track is a good way to find flaws in a bike. The other is a proper long haul on a gravel track.
In short, so far, so good.
