It’s been a slightly expensive (for me at least!) journey to get to this point but it rode so so well yesterday. It was christened doing 30 odd miles criss-crossing the South Downs following a gentleman who was on a mission to show me the best descents in the area. Wet, muddy and very slippery in some places, dry and fast in others. Gnarlier and rockier than I thought we had round here (clearly I spend too much time playing in the woods). And with the descents came those damned climbs back up but despite the long fork the weak link was definitely me – straight post and saddle well forward on rails stops unwanted wheelies. Totally love the slacker geometry, still plenty quick enough but I noticed I was riding more in the middle of the bike instead of being a bit too far back for fear of going over the bars.
Also switched at the same time as the wheels was the cassette – from a cheap 11-32 to a middle of the range 11-34. A small but worthwhile improvement for my riding. 22t granny now only needed for the very long or steep climbs or when my legs have had it. The Hope freewheel is nowhere near as loud I was expecting – satisfyingly clicky rather than annoying. I think the Flows must be as light as the skinny rims I had before, not noticing any unwanted inertia there – and the big tyres I like fit much better. All in all the bike really feels like it goes where I point it (all of me, not just the bits holding the bars) so if I don’t point it the right way there’s no-one but me to blame!
P.S. For anyone doing the tubeless thing I can state that the Bontrager XR4 2.2 and Flows (with tape) went straight up first time with a track pump and nothing else (no soapy water, sealant, etc). Added the sealant the next day once I was sure they were seated properly. A good pairing if you like reasonably fast rolling, rather knobbly and very high volume tubeless tyres that don’t weigh a ton and can stay on all year (you know, like the old days, before t’interweb).
