Its no secret to my starva followers that I have been training round Hadleigh since its public opening and I have been putting some decent endurance rides as well as a few faster laps.
Its combination of technical difficulty and continuous climbing or descending punctuated by scary rocks (b lines are available.) makes it an awesome training ground and the loop while short compared to other trail centres provides much for you to think about. Im really pleased that its on our doorstep here in Essex.
Those who don’t think Essex is hilly go and ride 14 full laps as I did the other day my garmin registered 8000ft of climbing.
This course however is not the place for Laufs TR29 fork by there own admission the fork is aimed at the endurance and marathon rider looking to save weight over a telescopic but gain comfort over a rigid.
Well I have ridden both at Hadleigh now and the results are well inconclusive and have left me a little lost. the Laufs performed much better than I had anticipated the rock gardens being their least favourite domain but they were by no means terrible. There is just nothing at Hadleigh for the Laufs its groomed trail interspersed with big hits virtually no small to med stuff for them to get into their thing. So I then rode again with telescopics the additional confidence to blast over the rocks was immediately evident but the extra weight on the bike is noticeable to.
I have to say my ‘normal’ forks are nothing special and do weigh a bit more than most so my test has actually turned up more questions than answers for me, partially as the baseline of my riding is changing and my hours at Hadleigh have improved my technique so I am much more attacking of technical areas now. This suits the normal fork. Would a modern SID be better still probably but until sram/rockshox offer me a gift I won’t be able to tell you.
But thats not the end of it there is another option altogether and worth serious consideration rigid forks with a twist.
Mike Travers has some truly lovely carbon 29er forks (called ‘Prong 29’) they have a thru axle and will take a 29er + tyre(think half way to a fat bike). So there is the option of running these and a 3″ tyre up front to make a hybrid 29+ /29 an interesting proposition as further weight will be lost from the fork more grip/cushioning added by the increased volume of the tyre but additional rotating mass.
If your head hasn’t exploded with has this guy had too much sun, I can see merit in that option too.
Much to ponder.
All that said I had a 2 hour off road session pencilled in yesterday which turned into nearly 3, I haven’t forgotten its about just getting out and enjoying the sun sometimes… Did I miss the laufs on the bobbly tow paths, Yes. Did I prefer the telescopics on the heaver sections, Yes. Would I mind being stuck with either … No
Summers is here the next MSG looms and its all good.. All of it.
Happy trails
RW
Russ Welch 