Rabbit Valley Rules. Dry fast flowy rim goodness

RV - Epic19.2 miles of everything. 3.5 hours. Great flow rim, huge vista and plenty of climbing. Bucksaw absolutely perfect. Future of biking on this the of trial. Straight up and pillow float down on the roughest rock downhill. Great ride on a DRY trial. Highlight of trip and worth the drive. Woo. Homebound!!!

In GJ. Lunch Loop more mud and crud

Had to leave Denver for GJ. Lunch looping in afternoon - 3:30 hours of up and down. Started great on Pek-N-Eees and into Andys loop but then we started going backwards. Uphill. Urughhh.

North Table Mud Walk Out

Drizzle and mud at the end but good time for first test on the Salsa Bucksaw. Love it!

Not much at Harsens - until I left...

12m and surfboard got an hour sadly but more was sadness of John Z. RIP friend.

It all good Fat! Could this be the full 4 season bike?

Quick review here on my FatBoy at Pontiac. I know this place on my 29 but I loved it even more Fat (with solid fork)! Super fun and even better with a slight mud covering on about 15% of trail. Seriously getting close to wanting this bike year round with Bluto upgrade.

Pros:
-Contact patch matters 1! Climbs like nothing I have ever ridden. Shocking ease even pointing purposely straight up on mud/sand/rocks = grips and rips-up. I say the climbing difference of going 29 skinny to Fat is as dramatic of going 26 to 29. 9psi in rear tire like a Indy car grip on singletrack.
-Contact patch matters 2! Go anywhere on or off trail and nothing to even worry about. Sand is nothing - no float feels same as solid ground. Mud is nothing - never sideslip or spin out. Confidence.
-Fun: don't know what it is but these bikes that are so much different in terms of the fun factor - there's just something about cranking on a giant tired bike I can't get past loving.

Cons:
-Slow Downhill.... Feels that way at least. Don't know if I need to increase the tire pressure (need to try upping but at expense of grip...) or if the smaller wheel (but not overall OD?) itself just makes it feel like it's going slower but it's definitely losing that rush feeling of bombing on the two Niner. This was only part of the ride I didn't get buzz off. Missed the downhill and gliding speeds being faster.
-Fork. It was fine to initially test the solid carbon fork on the trail I've written probably 100 times but here you definitely need to have at least 100MM upfront of suspension. Numb hands and bounced core. Caution on drops too. $500 for Bluto switch out would remedy.
-Turning: turning definitely seemed to be slower and less reactive with the big long handlebars and the big front wheel. Maybe it's just getting more time on the bike but I definitely felt like the turning was wider and much slower.

That's it. Highland is in my sights for test next. I can see this as my ride all the time with Bluto upgrade. No kidding. Sell 29 and don't look back. Bucksaw demo next week in CO could seal it.

Solid day @ Harsens

18-30 WSW. Got an hour on surfboard and 3 on Mako. Lit up and overpowered most of time. Lots out on 9's but it was still tons of fun. Tried the new spreader slider and liked it. Got to figure it out with jibes though where it gets stuck on wrong side.... Great day and worthy of the drive vs. the holey mess there was at Metro. More please.

Riding out the MTB ride Bloomer - all afternoon..

Long haul for 22.1 miles. Bloomer was actually 90% dry even following full night of rain. Nice shoulder hit too 5 minutes in - trees are still very hard and don't give much. Fun but paying the price for missing last week. Beer and Alleve script at the ready.