The Genius is Fun, light, responsive, good technical climber/descender, has a low Bottom bracket and good angles. The Genius has crazy hydroformed tubes and a DT swiss triple chamber pull shock which works very well considering it is totally going away from the norm of MTB shocks. The Equalizer 2 has got that nice plush progressive feel and with 150mm of travel it can feel quite bottomless. There is also an option to use the 'tracloc' lever which gives three different shock positions, full lockout, 30% lockout or fully open, I chose not to install the lever at all so run it fully open, permanently. Now if you where an XC racer or used your Genius on the road or did a lot of fireroad climbing it would probably be worth using this, however I don't and I like running things fully active, also there is not a lot of pedal bob from the bike so I feel it doesn't really need it. ANYWAY... the rest of the spec is Fox 32 talas RLC Qr15, DT swiss EX1750's, Shimano SLX/XT drivetrain, Raceface bars, cranks, grips, Gravity stem, Magura Marta brakes, Maxxis Ardents 2.25. I must say everything is excellent, Shimano, Raceface, Fox and Magura all totally faultless after a continuos 8 months of solid BC XC riding. And the Genius and Equalizer 2 are exceeding the expectations I had for them.
The Genius will handle anything you should be riding on a trail bike, its not a DH bike and is not designed to be sent off big drops and jumps, but on the small stuff it is balanced and does both extremely well. Drop the forks down to 110 or 130 travel and it climbs on the technical stuff superbly, it grips and digs in when needed on all the hard technical climbing maneuvers. Having the fork set at either 130 or 150 travel mode the back ends squats down a little just to add more aggressiveness, its low bottom bracket, well thought out head angle and Qr15 keeps it in check from the fast open trails to the steep, rocky, rooty, rough stuff, this bike loves to descend.
We parked at the foot of Mt. Seymour at around 7.20pm Tuesday evening and there was talks of extending the ride but we decided to stick to the original plan, Severed D!ck was the mission. We began the climb on road but soon got on to the East section of the Baden Powell trail which is generally regarded as a blue/green trail and in many places is made of pea-gravel but don't let this fool you especially if you include the pace at which we climbed it. Thats right, flat out! This traversed West and soon we hit the main road to Mt. Seymour a quick scurry across the road and back onto the Baden Powell. Here we met a thick ground frost and a river flowing down the more beaten up baby head sections of the climb this was quite difficult in the dark, shadows always play some cruel tricks when night riding, more so when riding unfamiliar trails. You might see a big rock a little late and try avoid it or pop over it to land on another rock which pings your front wheel somewhere else and you end up having to rescue yourself from a game of pin ball by night before you know it.
Night riding itself has its own rules, take note of the bright lights in the group because if there's one behind you your own shadow will block your view. You only have a very small field of vision so your senses play tricks on you, everything around is dark except for that circular spread of trail goodness out in front and nothing else can be seen. It always feels like you are traveling at wrap speed even though you are definitely slower and a good test of this is night riding something you know very well it becomes a totally different experience. The trail is not only full of things you have never noticed before but also possesses a new kind of eerie stillness. The dark forest is no longer a safe haven and getaway from the hustle bustle of everyday life instead you become the prey and get that feeling that everything in the forest has its eyes on you.
When we reached the trailhead of 'Severed' we saw the dark icy forest floor stretch out below us and decided, as none of us where entirely sure of what was coming up, that we would stop and regroup at the bottom of each gnarly section. 'Severed' is a typical North shore trail with wooden bridges, log drops, steep rocky sections, big roots and a few very short, techy flat sections just to keep you thinking and pedaling. We had a four man crew and it took us a few minutes to settle into the craziness of 'Severed' by night but when we got warm, the riding got tight, whooping and hollering became mandatory and laughing essential. The trail is different by night so much becomes blind you begin to doubt yourself and if your following you learn from others mistakes so fast that soon you are leading and soon you become the doubter! This trail is so fast that features just keep popping up and the back end breaks loose through the fast corners then suddenly you'll come off the next greasy log bridge or someone disappears over the next drop shouting HUCK and a muffled "to flat" at which point you've already realized this and land flat bottom with your limbs fully absorbing the impact. The message gets passed back along the train the same way, it's like playing chinese whispers with a group of masochists. 'Severed' gives you great descending for the climbing and its a pretty old school fall line trail but you seem very rewarded by the time you reach the end or maybe its the feeling that you survived is the rewarding part.
Well said dude!!! I want a rematch with that mountain some time very soon!
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