30 days of riding day 28 - demo day

So Sundays for me also include a game of soccer most weekends and this weekend was no different.  The downside to that was after having ridden for 40+ miles the day before and then putting in 90 minutes on the soccer field, my legs were in rough shape.  Not wanting to give in however I had noticed that one of my local bike shops Green Lizard Cycling was hosting a demo day for both Scott and Cannondale.

I decided to go across and see what was going however as you can see for my dress I didn't really think things through all that much and wasn't in my best cycling gear.  I started off at the Scott stand and the super friendly guys there set me up with Scott Solace 10:

Frame: SCOTT SOLACE HMF Carbon
Fork: Solace HMF, 1 1/8" Carbon steerer, Alloy Dropout

Group set: Shimano Dura-Ace
Brakes: Shimano Dura-Ace
Parts: Syncros
Wheels: Syncros RP2.0

The bike was incredibly light weighing around 16lb and it being my first ride on a carbon road bike I have to say the ride quality was great.  If it wasn't my tired legs I'd have zipped along no problem.

Scott Solace 10

Scott Solace 10

After visiting the Scott stand it was off to see Cannondale, they had a range of road and mountain bikes lined up however there was one in particular that took my eye and I instantly gravitated towards it.  As with the carbon road bike, I'd never ridden a lefty fork before (an afternoon of firsts!).  So I had a quick chat with the guys and got them to let me loose on the Trigger 29 Carbon 1!  Specced with SRAM X0 components Cannondale describes the trigger as follows:

Thanks to its OverMountain dual-travel DNA, the Trigger 29 gives you the most out of each pedal stroke on nasty climbs with 80mm of travel, yet doesn’t compromise when descents get rowdy with 130mm of seemingly bottomless confidence. Imagine being able to pick any line, up or down, and charge it at full speed - that is what the Trigger 29 is all about.

Catalogue pose

All in all it was a fun way to pass an hour or so and my wife was a willing participant as she could just sit on a bench and take in the sunshine while I went and got involved.  The pricing on those bikes makes them out of reach for now, but something to aspire to.