Well it is Monday morning and I am a very sore camper. The dual sport ride was awesome. Weather was about 80 some degrees overcast most of the day and humidity was sorta high. The ride that was laid out was about 105 miles give or take a few, with too many road sections but almost all of the trail was from average to great. Ride time was 4.5 hours.

I have two sections the bad, and the good. I figured I would get to the bad because the list is very short.

THE BAD
The panogram. Worked great to keep mileage and speed for the first 24 miles and then hit a very LARGW water/mud hole water was very deep, lowest part of the gas tank below the seat. Water went everywhere. Panogram went bezerk after that. Kept reseting, would only get some numbers showing, etc. Now one of the buttons is stuck completely down. I removed the panogram and clean the contacts, did not work. I might need some help getting contact information on who to contact in regards to this issue. If Cannondale expects people to use this for enduro’s and it quits after the first mud/water hole, which could happen from mile 0.5 to mile ????, how are you supposed to make time ?? Sorry, just frustrated.

THE GOOD/GREAT
Now the good/great stuff. I have to brag now, because as I pulled into the club grounds of the Dual Sport, I got a lot of looks. Then before I got out of my truck, people started walking up. Then the questions started as I unloaded the bike. I let a few sit on the bike, one guy mentioned to his buddy, not to spooge on the bike. I mentioned that I had brought a roll of paper towels.

O.K. now to the ride. Started out of the gate at 10:00 a.m. or so. The bike was awesome. This thing can do anything you want. If any of you are familiar with Southeastern Ohio (Chillicothe area) then you know about all of the slate rocks, HILLS !!!!, ruts, mud, holes, tight trails, and HILLS !!!. This bike grabbed traction everywhere but on the slickest of surfaces. I went down once at about 24 mph on a slick clay/mud surface, no traction, like ice. Bike O.K., me O.K.

The trails themselves when you were on them were great, hit several g-outs when crossing from creek bed/road/trail, then crossed over another creek (g-out area), to get back onto the creek bed/road/trail several times. Did I mention that there were g-outs? I did not feel them hardly at all. Suspension keeps getting better. Hills, I could say what hills, but unfortunately due to operator error, I messed up one. Go figure that the picture guy was taking picture of ME ! when it happened. But I do have to say I was trying to pass someone elso who decided to stop in the middle of the hill on the GOOD line and stand around and look at everyone else. So I picked a line that was not good but one that I knew I could make until I got cross rutted in the rocks. Fell down, got up and finished going up the hill. After that it was smmmmmooootttthhhh sailing up all the hills, and down hills. Now when I say hills, these are LONG, ROCKY, SINGLE, DOUBLE TRACK UP and DOWN hills. Most all of the hills are covered with slate rock just under loose dirt. Just when you think you are done going up, or down, you see then next trail that keeps going up, or down. Great power out of the bike. The only thing that I might change would be when you are in 3rd or 4th gear tapped and you need to wheelie across a gap, there is not a hit to speak of in the “E” map, the hit that lifts the front end. But then again, I am learning to ride a new bike, so it just might be rider error.

The bike did not overheat at all, and there were some sections where I was crawling at about 2,3,4,5 mph through tight trails, tight creek bed where the walls of the creek bed were 4 feet high on each side. Good Stuff.

Handling: All I can say it nimble. This thing rode like it was on rails in the woods. Other than the really slick stuff where no one could get traction, this thing is nimble. I could have picked up a little more traction if I had dropped my air pressure in the tires a little. I was running about 10-12 in the front, and 10 in the rear. I normally run about 10 in the front, and 8 in the rear. Other than that the ‘Dale is on Rails.

Power: One word. Awesome. I think I described it above fairly well.

Gas Mileage: I got 60 miles out of (1) tank of gas, averaging 24 mpg. !!! Good Stuff.

So, as you have all said before, the more that you ride the bike the better it gets. I just can not describe how much I enjoyed riding this bike. Now that I have done a dual sport for my long ride reliability test for myself. It is on to a (2) hour Hare Scramble full go, race pace test. One coming up soon. Will let you all know how it goes after that.

Later,

Traves