I’ve been running my Gus as my primary mountain bike for about six months now and it does everything I want it to do and goes anywhere I want to go. Some background: mountain biking has been my primary form of biking since my teen years in the late 80s. I started on rigid bikes, moved to front suspension by the mid-nineties, but didn’t make the jump to full squish for another ten years. I recently sold off my last full suspension bike (Salsa Horsethief) and used the proceeds to finance the Gus. I turned 50 this year and have realized that at this point in life that I don’t ride hard enough to warrant the big suspension beasts. I like to meander more than charge these days and am happy to leave the in-air antics to the fitter and/or younger.
On the Gus: I can ride it on any trail I rode on my FS bikes. No problem. It’s a bit slower downhill, but even better on climbs. I run a large knobby 2.6 up front and a 2.5 in the back, tubeless. The squish of the big tires makes all the difference and prevents too much bone and teeth rattling. I love the stability. Love the handling, though it does have a bit of front wheel flop that took some getting used to. It climbs like a beast and I love the comments from the hardcore riders out on the trails. I regularly ride it on the nasty, rocky, rutted trails at Upper Bidwell Park in Chico, CA, often intermingling with the full-squish set on climbs but politely letting them go first on downhills. The Paul Motolites work perfectly and I don’t miss discs at all. I have figured out how to set up these brakes to get the perfect stopping power and modulation and have never had any problems with controlling my bike. The ONLY thing I wish were different: I want a 27.2 seatpost clamp so I can run a dropper. I’m with Jason on this one. I would like the option to move the seat down for more technical descents where I need to lower my mass toward the back wheel so I don’t go over the front. Without a dropper, there are some really steep, technical descents on my regular rides that I walk as I can’t quite get the positioning I want. Will posted some photos of my bike a while back: https://www.rivbike.com/blogs/news/eriks-large-gus It’s possible I’ll pick up another mountain bike at some point, perhaps one with just front suspension, but that’s more about my problem with buying bikes then it is about needing it for riding my local trails. :-) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/12b736ee-a575-43e9-a0e6-7761ac17be2bn%40googlegroups.com.
