Tiger Mountain on The Trance

Shortly before losing my front fender on Tiger in early April.

I’m getting this post up a little late, but it’s going up! Or so help me. Now that Tiger is open year round (with a few exceptions) and with all the crazy weather we’ve had this year, we were able to ride Tiger in mid-February. 

Dry and green at 3,000' in mid-February

Just finishing the "Fully Rigid" section of the trail in February.

And when we rode in February, the sun shone and the trails were dry. Last Saturday, April 25th, I decided to ride Tiger again. I had some "churchy opportunities" to attend to in the mid-a.m. hours. So I wound up hitting the trail around noon only to be greeted by torrential hail and snow. I plowed my steed through the slippery, snotty mess from the Peak to the parking lot at the pass. And in the process, the bike and my gear absorbed several pounds of mud in the descent. Clean up took a while. Some of my bike gear will carry Tiger Mt. detritus indefinitely.

This was not actually taken the day of the subject ride.
But conditions were identical on April 25th. 

Coming off a '06 Stumpjumper and an '07 Giant Anthem 0 (both of which rode on 26's), I will say that I was a little concerned that the Trance was just too much bike: too heavy and too much travel. I don't wonder that any longer. The Trance handles so well on the mountain. It took me a few corners to get familiar with the stretched length of the bike (as compared to my older full-suspension bikes and my two 29ers - which are hardtails and so a little shorter). But now, I appreciate the increased stability at speed, the longer suspension, the relaxed geometry and wider handlebars. 

On a side note, I have not been pleased with the brakes—of the Shimano Deore variety—on the new Giant. Very spotty performance: lots of brake drag, noticeable brake fade, and periods of no pressure. While pumping the fading lever usually does the trick, you never want to grab an fistful of emptiness when you reach for the skids while descending Tiger at speed. So the question now is: Will a brake bleed correct all the bad behavior? I think probably not. Having ridden Avid's from the beginning of the disc brake revolution, I had assumed that the Shimano brakes performed better. 

In any event, the weather has been very different this year. So far the warm weather has baked and dried our usually sloppy, west-side trails to August levels in May. I can't imagine that we're not going to pay for it in some way this summer, but happy trails until then.