Digital Hippie

With the KH 29″ Freeride ready to ride and a beautiful Autumn afternoon calling I headed out to a challenging stretch of single track in the Wombat Forest. This particular track has always felt a little beyond the combination of my skill and the standard 29’er, and is also too far from home to ride out to on the 24″ which would probably better suit sections of the trail. It seemed like an ideal place to road test the Freeride 29’er.

I took my GoPro HERO Wide camera along and captured some funky ‘on uni’ footage of cruising single track on the 29’er before the batteries went flat… DOH!

After experimenting with tire pressures – starting high and gradually letting air out – the feel of the Freeride was terrific, wide, stable and plush, eating bumps – overall a significant improvement off road over the standard 29’er. I had an absolute blast, riding the single track for several hours.

After a hoot of an afternoon I’m considering taking off the ‘hybrid’ 137mm cranks and putting 150mm cranks back on the 29’er and tackling more challenging trails with it. The Racing Ralph worked well too, though it’s hard to judge atm without having ridden other tires on the Freeride rim.

With the Freeride rim finally the 29’er feels like a dedicated off road machine, a big brother of the KH24 rather than a hybrid road/off road uni. AMEN!