ecwecw

so damn good. and as good a time as ever to revisit his part in Gamble, which I still hold responsible for making Boney M.'s "Rasputin" pop into my head on the trail at inopportune moments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD4BXvq2dT0

@slayersxc17: I have a V2 and totally love it, and mine is set up more on the trail end, rather than mini-enduro. (I've got a Lyrik, somewhat lighter wheels, etc.) As to your question: other than overall weight being not the lightest, I find the pedaling firm and fast on gravel roads. Plus the rear has such good traction that I get away with running a fast-rolling rear pretty much all the time. It's got superb grip with just a Forekaster, even on off-camber sections, plus I've found the bike syncs well with a tire that you can let drift if you want to. (The long rear end gives loads of security when letting it step out, feels like it is ready to catch your slide whenever you want it to.) It does ride differently than any other bike I've been on, but it also feels totally natural to me, and did from a first demo ride. It jumps really well, the weight balance makes the front end hook up easily, and the speed and glide through chunk and chatter is pretty uncanny. Biggest con I've found is tire clearance, if you do want to run something chunkier in the rear. It's tight.

Awesome edit, George - and thanks for all your work on the trails!

@mikekazimer: yeah, I can appreciate that, and I like the addition of the Trailforks loops in recent reviews. (And I know it's an impossible task for any publication to represent where all its readers ride). With regards to the NE, part of what makes our riding unique - even when compared to similar terrain elsewhere that I've ridden - is just how much slow-speed jank we have, as well as really narrow trees. So a trail bike that borders on what Matt called twitchy and that puts a premium on generating speed and responding to body movements wherever you can goes a long ways to making all that more fun. It's probably a big part of why the Rascal feels great around here (though at least for how I ride, I've found its suspension a lot better at soaking up chatter and at climbing traction than it sounds like he did.)

I like Matt's reviews and have zero doubt that he's forgotten more about riding bikes than I'll ever know. But having been on a Rascal for a couple years now and finding it basically perfect for tight techy relentlessly rooty but often rolling East Coast singletrack, I'm reminded again of how bikes that feel spot on in one place just don't fit well elsewhere and vice versa. Would love to see Pinkbike source reviews from more regions more often, to get a different perspective on how bikes ride in a lot of the places we do that aren't Squamish/Whistler etc. (If I recall, the review for the OG Rascal was in Pisgah, and it captured what's so good about that bike for this kind of terrain.)

Still one of my all-time favorite riders to watch rip a track, no matter what kind. Looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Sam and hoping a new team steps up soon and gives him all the support he obviously deserves.

Bikey McBikeface

Most of the recent Nukeproof frames (post-2021 Giga etc) do have UDH

My TLD D4 never creaks whatsoever. Smith Mainline sounds like I've got birds nesting in it unless I add some smooth tape under the liner to hush it.