JET 9, First Flight

Thanks to planetary alignment, good planning or just plain dumb luck, I was able to take flight on my Jet 9 tonight. My regular test loop is dry and riding very well right now. I ride every single one of my bikes on this loop, and I know it like the back of my hand. This is what makes it the best proving ground.

The Jet, well, this is some sort of awesome.


My initial impressions are that this bike delivers. It is quick!

I put a lot of new components on this bike. The brand new brakes aren't yet up to the task of slowing my 230lb carcass down fresh from the box, which made for some exciting cornering. Nonetheless, the bike was able to go where pointed despite my subconscious efforts to attempt low earth orbit.

I forgot about "taking it easy" many times, and often pushed it way over the line. When you are having fun, you just have to run with it. I made some tricky sections my first attempt tonight that often take me weeks to work up the gumption to even try.

This is the first bike I've built in a long time where the bars have been lower than the seat. It threw me at first, but this bike was originally marketed to be a "race" bike. I sort of have it built up as one, with the exception of the wheels. I built identical wheels to my RIP, knowing that I was going to wail the crap out of this bike right out of the gate.

My Fox fork was riding extremely saggy tonight, but that was entirely my fault. Over the winter I had the fork Push'd, totally re-valved and dialed in just for me and my ham fisted riding style. Tonight I felt the need to let some air out of it Fortunately, I remember it's Push'd settings, so I'll be fixing that IMMEDIATELY.

There are a lot of NEW (for me) parts on the bike; Ergon grips, narrow EC90 SL bars, and the rubber, Continental's Mountain King 2.4. What a weird tire! More on this in an upcoming post. I really like this tire, but not in a way that I can easily talk about at the moment.

It's very hard for me to be precise about my initial thoughts on this bike. It's not often that I am stymied when trying to find fault in something. Sure there are things that I wish may have been different with this bike, but wow, it I like it! It's impressive to be able to throw down on a brand new bike, the same way one might on a bike they may have had for years.

bling!