LONG TERM RIDES
Our team bikes – ridden for a year
On paper, the Rallon is everything I’d normally avoid in a bike. Much to the annoyance of colleagues and friends who are firmly entrenched in the ‘longer, lower, slacker’ camp, I’ve always preferred a bike that puts fun before going fast. This is mostly because I haven’t entered a race in a very long time, and don’t intend on doing one this year either. I’ll happily ride a bit slower if it makes the trail more fun.
When I’ve ridden other big-travel 29ers, they’ve flicked the racer switch in me and I’ve found myself seeking out straight lines through the corners and putting in extra pedal strokes – which just isn’t needed, when there’s no race official waiting for you at the finish line. I’m intrigued by the Rallon, because I want to find out if I can make it ride like the fun, playful bike I want it to be, or if it’s going to change the way I ride instead.
The M10 is the entry-level model. Orbea let you customise some of the spec if you buy direct (and the frame and decal colours too), but I’ve stuck with the stock build. My size large bike weighs 14kg (30.9lb), but it doesn’t feel like it on the trail. Thanks in part to the 12-speed SRAM GX Eagle drivetrain and its 76-degree seat angle, the Rallon climbs with relative ease. I have struggled to get the 29er airborne, though. My first couple of rides have been on wet, loamy, technical tracks so I’ve been running my tyres on the softer side, which hasn’t filled me with confidence when loading the rear wheel on lips. I need to find the balance between the bike wanting to stay low and fast, and my head wanting to go high and sideways!
After a couple of pretty lacklustre runs at the Forest of Dean, I had a trailside fettle and found a good set-up. I upped the pressure in the Fox DPX2 shock to 200psi, left the low-speed compression damping fully open and set the rebound pretty fast. Up front, I set the Fox 36 fork halfway between open and firm. This instantly made the bike way more playful, and I was popping it over root gaps and pumping into corners like it was a massive jump bike.
Combined with switching to the lowest bottom bracket setting (336mm), that’s left me counting down the days until my next ride with more anticipation than a toddler at Christmas. It looks like the Rallon and I just might end up as friends, rather than fighting our way through the year. www.orbea.com