Today was the first ride on my new Giant Anthem2. I had the shop install SRAM X0 twist shifting with an X9 derailleur. Other then the SRAM stuff and Crankbrother smarty pedals the bike is stock.
The smarty pedals came from my old bike and are just about trashed. I still can't believe how crappy the smarties are. Overall I like the crankbrothers design and will replace them with the Egg beater SL version.
I did 32 miles with the Thursday night group and felt good.
The shifting on the bike was awesome. I am very glad that I upgraded to the SRAM stuff and love the way twisting works vs. my old bike's Rapid Fire LX shifters.
The fork felt very bouncy so this weekend I will play with suspension tuning. The rear shock was not as big a difference as I had expected. The bike road well and the shock clearly helped but I did not notice any downside and often the shock was not noticeable at all.
The stock saddle is too narrow for my but so it will be replaced. The bars felt wide and I caught a bar end on a tree a couple of times (and it caused one minor crash). I am thinking of cutting about 10mm from each side of the bars.
I am also looking to put a longer stem on the bike since it felt sorta crunched up.
Overall I am glad I got the bike and I think it is was a good deal for price/performance.
Unrelated to MTB riding I had a Physical Therapy Appt . today and we looked into the problems I have had with my hip/IT band area. The evaluation confirmed that while the IT band is involved it is not a typical case of IT band friction syndrome. We found that my IT band flexibility is good and decided that rather then focus on the standard IT stretching as I have been doing for the past several months it would be better to work more on my hamstring stretching and do some strength training for my hip muscles.
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