Today I rode with Mary on the trails for the first time. I should begin by writing that my impressions of how Mary handled off road may be shaded by the fact that this was also my first time riding my new bike (a KHS solo-one, rigid fork) off road. I am not familiar with how the bike handled before Mary. All my previous experiences are on an old Scott frame with Scott AT-2 bars, and a born again Trek 930 frame with a 100 mm fork and a specialized low-rise bar.
The review.
Smooth Climb:
My first trail ride today with Mary began with a half mile climb including 1/3 mile of gravel road. As a climbing bar on smooth roads, the Mary is great. I liked them more than the bar end position on the Scott AT-2 bars and a lot more than the riser bar. The position is a little different than your typical bar ends because you do not shift your hands forward to grip the bars as they do with bar ends.
Rocky Descent:
Right after the climb is a fairly steep, very rocky descent. On this trail there are bowling ball sized rocks interspersed among wheelbarrow sized rocks. This is where my impression of the bars may have been shaded a bit by being on a new bike, and also by being off the trails since January. My skills were a bit rusty, but when the going got rough (once it was downright frightening), I did not really notice that I was on the funky bar (this is a good thing). Possible advantages of the Mary: It is much easier to get off the back of the bike. It also felt very natural to let the bike roll under me while going up and down some of the rougher lines on the trail. I think riding these bars a bit more will give me a better impression of how specifically they handle the rougher spots.
Double Track:
The bike ripped on the double track. For those of you from the northeast, this section of trail is like a logging road. The bars gave lots of leverage for powering over the rises and for laying down some speed on the flatter spots. There are several areas where there are logs across the trails, and I found the bike easier to manual over the logs than the past bikes I have ridden. Even though motorized vehicles are prohibited from these trails, a Jeep or some other large 4X4 had ripped up part of the trail. The Mary bars allowed me to leverage out of the ruts easily. The smoother section of the trail that marks the final descent before turning around to head back has some water bars stretching across the trail. Once again manualing and bunny-hopping the bars were no problem with the Mary.
Rocky climb:
This particular ride was a sprint from work to my house, and back. On the way back the trail is pretty much the same as on the way out with one big exception; the rocky descent becomes a rocky climb. The Mary mars were great for getting the leverage you need to bump and power over the medium sized boulders. There was one point where my rear tire spun out and I lurched forward. My knee whacked the hell out of something up by the bars, but I am not sure what it was. It could have been the bar or the stem, but it happened too quickly to know for sure. My single speeding legs definitely need some conditioning after the winter months.
Conclusions:
I want to ride these more.
There is one particular trail with 3-4 foot drops that are ridable (I am not a hucker), and I am dying to get out on those. There is another trail that is your typical root infested New England single track.
I am very happy I got these bars. I never had problems with the risers I was running, but the Mary’s are very comfortable and natural to hold. They are definitely not any worse than risers, and I have noticed some definite advantages, particularly on climbs and steep descents. Yesterday where they shined the most were the rapid transitions from descending to climbing, or log/rock crossing to uphill climb. I know I was thinking about them too much from time to time, but when the trail got technical, and I got forgot to think about how they felt they just plain worked.
I will post my other experiences as I have them (Today I will be tackling the trail with the drops).
I ride in Lebanon, NH most frequently. There are great trails right behind my work, so I can go out get muddy and stinky, and offend my coworkers after lunch. I can also commute on those trails. I also ride in Norwich VT, a little bit down by Ascutney, and the occasional trip to Kingdom trails.
It sounds like you guys have your own network of rides and riders in southern NH. There is a small group up here. I belong to the UVMBA, but I usually ride with one other guy. The UVMBA guys are great, but our schedules do not usually match up. I am planning on getting out with them more this year. We are setting up group rides for the third Thursday of every month (the first one is the 19th). All of the UVMBA guys have their favorite trails and many of them I have not ridden, so I hope to learn some more trails in the area. If you or anyone wants to check out some upper valley trails. I can add you to my ride e-mail list.
To accomodate our families we frequently ride in the morning and at nap times on the weekends. Weekdays we usually ride around 3:30, and I have not done it yet, but I am itching to try some night riding.
I keep meaning to take a picture. I'm one of those forum surfers that gets frustrated when there is talk about set up with no pics, and now I am guilty of it. I have one of those older clunky cameras that uses 3.5 disks, and The disks are full of kid pics right now, but I will try to click some pics tonight.
Please do drop me a line. What do you do at Dartmouth? I am a grad student there.
Yeah. I used to work in Vail/Remsen. Now I work in Rubin at the hospital (its a new building right next to borwell). The nice trails are up behind the hospital.
On a bicycle note:
I just finished a second ride on the Mary bars. They were great. I was riding with someone, so I was thinking less about how the bars feel and I was just riding.
Rocky Descent part deux:
My impressions are the same on the rocky descents. I should say I am running Oury grips, and I like them a lot. I think they help with the rigid fork on the rough stuff.
Cross Fall line ridges and wheel grabbers:
I rode some trails with off camber roots and cross fall line ridges and rocks. I found it pretty easy to loft the front end to get on a different line on the opposite side of a root, etc.
Roller drops:
The ledges I rode today vary from 3 to 5 feet tall. They are huckable, but I prefer to roll them by forcing hte front wheel down the hill and getting off the back. I have written it before, but the Mary bar definitely facilitates off the back efforts. This is probably the single most noticable difference for me with this bar.
Rooty descent:
On a rooty descent the steering was precise and quick. This was particularly important for this descent, because there are some very tight spots that you need to thread. If you get off line, it involves some serious braking and a glancing blow off a couple of red pines.
Conclusion:
I am still happy with the bars. I am sure they have a limitation or drawbacks, but I have not hit them yet. Well maybe once. On one particularly heroic off the front dismount the grip came around (to be more accurate I came around) and whacked my thigh pretty hard. I have a pretty good rubber burn from the end of the oury grip.
Mary and Single
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