Re:
In what me be the longest wait ever between the build and shakedown ride.... I finally took the Cats Wiskas out.
So, another windy day, another chance to ride an MTB and having cleaned and prepped the Cats yesterday, off we went. One thing I noticed when prepping was that the RC36's didn't appear to have much damping, but at the same time they didn't compress without resistance. I gave them a good few bounces and compared the feel to an identical set of forks I have on my Zaskar and the Zaskar forks definately have more of a damped feel, but I decided to ride them as they were.
The road ride to the woods, into a blasting headwind, showed up only that the big ring on the crank is wonky, so it made a scrape, scrape, scrape noise all the way. The middle and granny are fine so either the ring is bent or I have done something wrong when bolting the ring on.... I shall vestigate that later. The ride was good although the forks do that squish, squish, squish thing compressing and relaxing when pedalling standing up. Into the woods and onto the gravel path and almost immediately I can feel that the Cats turns in fast, so fast in fact that the back can get just a little unruly. The bike turns and corners fast, but is not quite as grounded as its older 531 brother, an interesting difference and one I recall from other Cats I have ridden. First steep climb and the forks are trying to lift, not badly but enough to be a bit sketchy. A couple of swooping drops with corners and we just SWISH through them, on rails (that's a clue, more later). The next steep climb is marred by dog walkers and the next by fat people... erm sorry, people taking their daily exercise (to the takeaway), another brutal climb and I have to bail, as the front is airborne enough for me to have to stop... and that was how it went. I did manage the switchback climbs, despite another rider coming the other way stopping in the perfect place to balk me, I wobbled round and managed to get going again.
The long rocky climb from Birnbeck to the snake tree was still stone dry and this time there was not a dog walker to be seen, so we made good progress all the way up. While whacking rocks and roots on the way I noticed that the forks were working pretty well. Despite not having much damping, rebound was perfectly controlled and there was no sign of any topping out. We made the top in quick time.
Next section is along the gallops and then sharp right up the little steep rocky, rooty climb. This went well with the bike taking the climb easily, although there were some hints of rear end unruliness. After that it was along to the really rocky, rooty single track, this is where I was able to try out the precision of the Cats steering.... it is scalpel like, but this is also where I discovered that the rear triangle has a nasty habit of springing back, hard, in fact hard enough to really bounce you off track if you don't watch it. I slowed down a little and was more careful picking my line and we remained in control.
I had an early 2000's Dave Yates made of 853 a few years ago that had the same trait, only worse, it is one of those things we have to live with (or not) because we take on frames made for someone else. In the case of the 853 Yates, it spat me off once too often and went to an RB'er not too far from Windsor... I don't know if it was ever built up again, shame if it wasn't.
With the end of the rocky single track it is a right turn onto a wider but equally rocky trail after that there is a short blast past the snake tree again and down the twisty single track they call the Jedi Run... no idea why. After and initial dive down onto the track and after navigating around two lads wandering along chatting I was able to let the Cats loose... and here we get to the crux of the bike, it likes to go fast, as fast as you dare and faster... faster faster..... I got a hint of this back on the last 200 yards of the rocky path, where I really gave it sum beenz to see what happened... it all got a bit easier to ride is what. The back end still needs to be watched and I actually was not as fast through the whole run as on 531 Bro, but some of the sections were blistering.
Next is the second long rocky climb... easy peasy, just pick your route carefully so that the rear end runs through any gaps, or that you allow for it to ping very slightly. Next section is a long rooty run out of the woods and onto the road, and then round the back of the golf course and.... more rocks. You really have to take them standing, fast or slow it doesn't matter but standing keeps you in perfect control.
More razor sharp steering and the faster you go the more the back ends tendency to slightly break away calms down, this bike makes perfect sense when going fast... anywhere. At the end of the loop is a very rocky climb that I forgot about and hit while still in the middle ring...the Cats will stomp and it will happily pop a front wheel when asked.
Last section is just a series of gravel, rock and rooty single track with a really technical little climb at the end. I had really settled in by now and everything was taken with ease..well not ease that is the wrong word for a Cats Wiskas, they don't really do ease... more edge. Anyway, I was careful with gears and line up the tech climb and it was great, so it was back to the golf club and onto the fast road downhill, left and left again and a short climb back home.
This is my third Cats and they all share a characteristic, they like fast. The really are racing frames, as most Dave Lloyd bike are, goodness I have enough of them to know that by now, but I need to remind myself whenever I go offroad. The Cats is not as easy to ride as 531 Bro, I am sorry to say I never got my Beez Neez built up, so I can't compare the three, but where as the 531 ATB is a nippy little all day ride, I think a lap or two of Mountain Mayhem would be enough for one session on the Cats, you just have to really be in control the whole time, it is, in that respect very different to my DOGS BOLX which you can almost ride on auto pilot, but really that is comparing eggs with a sideboard, although built in 1994 against the DOGS 1993 build, this Cats was clearly updated to suit the RC36 geometry, you only have to look at it to see that, and it shows in the ride.
This bike is every inch a Dave Lloyd, ride it hard and it rewards you, slow down a little and the steering will go wherever you point it, in fact change direction by wrenching the bars and the bike kinda likes it, I have other bikes that would stall dead and throw you over the handlebars, the Cats just shrugs it off and carries on unruffled, just watch that lively back end, it won't bin you, but it can knock you off track, fine in the woods, not so good on a single track up a mountain in Wales.
