HARO BIKES

With a trip to Laggan Wolftrax lined up for the day, I phoned Mike to take him up on his offer of a shot of his Merida 96 mountain bike.  I did hesitate about taking a carbon-fibre bike out to play in a rocky environment, but not for long. They do say they will stand up to knocks and crashes pretty well, but I had no falls so didn't put the impact-resistance of the frame to the test.  Phew! 

 My own mountain bike is an old-fashioned hard tail Scott cross country race bike, with a "head down, bum in the air" riding position.  This machine certainly felt more comfortable going downhill, with higher and wider handlebars, more travel (???mm) on the forks and, wonder of wonders, rear suspension.  I used both suspension lockouts to make the bike nice and stiff for the climb up the wide track, then freed them off for the descents. It seemed to climb very well and, once I got the hang of the bar width, descended the two red runs really comfortably, taking the jumps (okay, roll-overs when I ride them!) on the upper red run, the Little Red slab, Air's Rock and the rocky bumps of the Rib Rattler crazy paving all very smoothly. I found the sharp bends in the trees noticeably easier than I remembered them on my own bike - no foot dabbing on that awkward uphill hairpin.  I must admit, there was still that healthy bit of apprehension as I approached Air's Rock!   I certainly found it easy to pedal through the really bumpy flat or uphill bits like the Rib Rattler on the Merida.  On my own bike you are being kicked around by the back wheel too much to do any pedalling on these sections. Ouch! 

The Merida is at the XC racer end of full-suspension designs, not really aimed at leaping off drops or rattling through hard rocky sections, but it seemed to cope with the Laggan trails just fine. 

Now, I wonder if there are any XC races coming up so I could have a good excuse for another shot ...

In other news, a full report on the Cairngorm Cycling Club "social" 10 mile TT can be found on the club's website but it probably won't do justice to the amount of effort expended by Mike and Jenny in powering the MTB tandem round the trail for a respectable mid-field placing. It is part of the hire fleet at Mike's Bikes and can be set up for use by people of Jenny's height and people of Mike's height, as well as normal people.

To celebrate the first gig of my summer season at Mike's Bikes, I decided to make the trip up to Aviemore in my new (to me!) 2.7 litre V6 sports coupe (bike fits in the back without removing wheels). At the end of the week I was able to deliver the new Merida Time Warp TT bike to a Glasgow customer in pusuit of a new PB. There was a certain amount of trepidation when I realised that the bike, without pedals,  had cost £200 more than my car (I can fill the tank four times for the price of the pedals!) For pictures of the bike in action, visit the Mike's Bikes facebook page.

Notable new products in the shop this month include products from rock+run, designed and manufactured in Aviemore. Check out the gender specific bumbags made from ultra light sail cloth!