Today’s terrain was much more challenging (in both surface and elevation). For those of you that know the trails, I started at the Blue (Scrappy Mountain) trailhead and rode a counter-clockwise loop of the Blue, Orange (Bald Scrappy), Green (White River Bluff), Orange (again), and Blue (again).

It gave me an opportunity to get a real idea of what it’s like to ride a rigid bike on some pretty technical stuff. The verdict?

Nice. Very Nice.

A lot of people have asked for my thoughts on the rigid fork and how it compares to a suspension fork. Well, the best way I can describe it is to compare it to the difference between a surgeon’s scalpel and a chef’s knife. Both are sharp objects designed for precision cutting. If you want to carve your Christmas turkey, the knife cuts straight through the skin, grain of the meat, and joints. The scalpel, on the other hand, is not so good at “straight through” as it is at disecting the meat from the bones in a very precise manner (ok, so I know that’s an odd situation, but humor me here). In either case, the end product is the same- you get your turkey meat off of the bone.

Same with the rigid fork- rather than unweighting the front wheel and letting suspension absorb most of a bump from a rock or other solid object, the rigid fork is so light and fast handling that it skirts over/around the rock with very little effort. The result for me? After I figured this out (it took a good hour of riding on some tech-y stuff), I found that I was actually cleaning MORE of the tough sections of trail- including (near the end of the ride) the entire length of the Blue trail from the Stairway to Heaven (pictured in the gallery below) to the logging road (steep and rocky- I don’t think I’ve ever managed the entire thing before because of some tricky switchbacks and steep kickers with small rock ledges.

How much will I ride/race it? I’m honestly not sure yet. I’m definitely not as fast going downhill without suspension. However, I definitely climb better… which edges itself out in “importance” when racing. Then again, the trail chatter can get tiring to the upper body. I’ll likely switch depending on the situation.

The frame itself is still amazing. It’s so damn stiff- you get the sense that every ounce of effort that you’re putting into pedaling is being transferred directly into moving you forward. I’m in love.

So, here are some photos from the journey: