The TE300 has been away the past few weeks for an engine rebuild, so the xTrainer got a chance to take over as king of the garage for a while.
There were two spins in the past two weeks. First up, a journey to the sweet flowing rocky trails of the Burren.. and then second, to the rocky hardship of Co.Cork for a proper enduro style workout.
She handled really well in the Burren, she felt light and nimble, very very flickable, a little bit twitchy here and there, but planted and fun for the most part.
The ‘enduro’ spin started out well. She was light and agile and climbed really really well. Blew my mind how well she climbed. It was a physically arduous course, with lots of ruts and roots and more than enough sharp rocks hidden in the singletrack, and for this reason I was running with 15psi in the tyres.
While I’ve been here many times before, this was the first time on the xTrainer, and I was actually surprised at how well she was getting through the hardest parts of it. Effortless stuff.
After about 25km of tough hard going the arms were feeling the pressure and by the time we hit 50km I was just doing well to keep up. Unfortunately, one of the other bikes developed a tech issue and we had to call it a day after 55km, and I wasn’t secretly glad of that at all. Pure wrecked.
The spin in general was only amazing. The bike performed flawlessly and gave no issues. Have to say that with the Husky away for maintenance, I’m riding the xTrainer more and realising that she’s more than capable of taking on anything the Husky can. Perhaps not taking it as silky smooth as the TE, but she’s certainly plush and planted and well able for it.