Today was the Giant/Liv demo out at Wilderness Park, its been awhile since Giant has been to Lincoln so I was pretty excited to ride some of their bikes. Unfortunately for me, I had been suffering from a fall cold the week before. While I was starting to feel better near the end of the week I was still a bit drained and on top of that the voice had gotten really raspy and gravely, so if you really want to make the reading of this blog more accurate you'll have to use the froggy voice from the Little Rascals. That is pretty much what I sounded like, when I was able to talk at all.
It was an absolutely beautiful day for riding, just wished I would have felt better but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I've owned a Giant Anthem before, Michaela has sort of inherited it, so I knew what they rode like... yes they are not 27.5 and not 29 but I felt that they were close enough that I wasn't all that interested in those. The bike I came for was their new XTC Advanced + in 27.5+ .
They only had one medium however and it was already out, not wanting to just stand around on such a gorgeous day I opted to take the Farley out with Gary, Janelle and Ed while they tried out a few of the Giant and Liv bikes.
Even on the Farley it was a great ride through the park and the rest of the gang looked like they were thoroughly enjoying the bikes that they had taken out.
Ed had taken out the large XTC and it seemed to really hold the corners well and zip right along, I tried to get a good picture of the two tire sizes together but that's more difficult while moving than I anticipated. While they were wide, they were on the smaller plus size at 2.8" on the back and 3" on the front so there was still room for larger tires if you wanted to go that route.
We got back just in time to see the medium XTC take off for another ride through the park.
Not wanting to miss it again, I put my name on the list and decided to have a little snack. New to the shop are these Bully jerky snacks made by the Sweetwood Jerky Company. They are a hickory smoked beef bar blended with black pepper, cherries and blueberries, not only are they really tasty but they are softer than other jerky snacks making them easier to eat on the bike and they are compact enough you can stuff them in a frame bag or pack without any trouble. Don't let the cherry and blueberry throw you off either, neither was over powering and really complemented the saltiness of the jerky well.
They do make you a bit thirsty though and I would have washed it down with this Vanilla Bean Buffalo Sweat that someone had left on the table at the demo but because alcoholic beverages are not allowed in Lincoln parks, I decided the best course of action was to dump it out and place the can in the trash. Obviously there were some hooligans out in Wilderness today.
Probably the same hooligan that leaned his bicycle on the tire of the new shop van, that is very much a no-no and Rick spotted it right away and promptly had the offending party remove it... then they appeared to be looking for their beverage but I had already disposed of it properly for them. It was not a good day to be up to no good in the Park.
I finally did get to ride the XTC Advance and it was well worth the wait, those plus tires are almost the best of both worlds. They grip almost as well as fat bike tires but with less rolling resistance and weight they are a bit more quick on the acceleration and take a little less effort to keep spinning. If I had unlimited funds I might see what one was like long term but since I don't I probably wouldn't give up one of the fat bike for the plus but that's just me. While another bike isn't in the cards most likely, it did have me thinking about the possibility of setting up a 27.5+ wheel set somewhere down the road to use with one of the fat bikes that I do own, letting me have a more long term go on the wheel size without the financial investment of a complete bike. That also probably will be later rather than sooner but it is intriguing to think about. By the time I rode the XTC we were getting hungry and I was running on empty, as a side effect of being sick the energy goes super quick right now, so we said good bye to the awesome Giant and Liv folks and went in search of food and drink. Even in my weakened state I was able to make quick work of that, so there is a silver lining to the story. Hopefully I'll be back to normal in a day or two and be able to get out and really enjoy this unseasonably warm November we are having.
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