Bonjour bonjour.
so today I went to Swinley forest at the crack of dawn. There were a small hand full of riders who'd risked the early morning and had been rewarded with that rare sight; the sun. First things first I reduced the fork psi to 120 hoping for some faster downward corners but shortly after I set off,  Boom! Over the bars, face chest and legs slammed in the rootie mud. It hurt but worst of all it totally knocked my confidence. So slowly slowly catchie monkey I went. The bike withstood the slam well with not so much as a twisted grip or out of line bar. Any ways I rode on. The Pinnacle Ramin 3 was great Swinley however was not. Lots of trail sections closed for no reason I could see (so I went down one or two just to see). As my confidence grew I started to speed up and take some more risks. I lost it in a few corners but on the whole the Continental X King tires did much better than I thought.  I did think they would be my first upgrade but in the deep mud they plodded on and on the hard pack trails they gripped well but still had some slide in them when trying to hang the back end out; of course I still overshot one or two turns but remained upright.
I did think the big wheels would be horrid in the tight single track but I was very easily keeping up with the full sus 26ers in front, I would even say that due the the easy rolling on the roots up hill I was faster.
I was having some hand cramps but the brakes are very adjustable so a couple of stops and some tweeks I got a real nice feel on the bars.
Those who've ridden Swinley know the end is the best best with shallow fast sweeping jumps and burns. On the full sus I could get some nice air here. I just say I did have to force the jumps more but after sessioning it a few time I was once again in the air, albeit not quite as high and far.
all in all I'm still really liking the hard tail. The easy climbs leave me with more puff on the fun bits. Some of the fast berns I have noticed are slower than the full sus; I would say its because on the full sus the bike really hunkers down in to the corner but I think its mostly my confidence. If I go in hard and fast I think the bike will try and stand me up as a posed to low side me on my ass.
the day was good I came away with more energy and still covered in mud. I'm enjoying the hard tail and still think it was a smart buy.
I do think the peddles could do with being upgraded very very soon