P7 - First ride, impressions and pics!

The Northern Monkey

Managed to source some bolts this morning for the rear brake (too long though so I had to cut them) and got the P7 ready to go.

Took it up to Whinlatter and did both loops...... It was bleeding awesome.

It took me a while to get used to the sram gears at 1st, i'm used to the dual action shimano ones (where you can push/pull the trigger) so I had a bit of trouble on the 1st climb.

I'm also going to have to get used to such a light front end too! i'm used to the weight of the domains, so I had to stop yanking the front end up over obsticals... caught me by surprise a few times!

Anyways, +ve's...

Frame: wow. all the "its a lot of money for a not so special frame" has been completely overruled. The shock absorbance on the rear stays is superb, I hardly felt any trail buzz through my legs/butt.
You could also feel a tad bit of flex, but it just felt like the frame was adapting to the trail.

Forks: best forks i've ever used by a country mile. They are...... I can't even describe. Absouloutely bloody brilliant. Combined with the monkeylight CNT bars, I had almost no vibration/buzz through my arms... is the 1st time i've never had arm pump at the bottom of a long downwards section!

Edit - XT Brakes: I really don't understand the hate for XT brakes. They were faultless all day, bloody brilliant stoppers!

Overall the bike is light, nimble and very capable on the downs.... couldn't ask for more!

I'm grinning from cheek to cheek, its been a great day!

just a few snaps from the day

blister pus

Good egg, glad you weren't disappointed. I was very intrigued what you'd make of the backend wishbone design.

The Northern Monkey

Its definately different... but in a good way. Its hard to describe really, you can sort of feel the frame twist around, but it just feels very natural. Definately didn't hinder me in any way so its gotta be good

cat_with_no_tail

Cool beans!

Glad it's all worked out for you.

Looking forward to seeing it "in the flesh" as it were.

We'll see whos is faster next week :twisted:

The Northern Monkey

Haha... i'll be interested to compare weights

I think that my fitness would be the limiting factor tbh!

cat_with_no_tail

I'd say the P7 will probably be a couple of lbs lighter than the 456. Lighter frame and air forks with the XT kit.

i know that the 456 is almost exactly 30lbs.

I'm heading out in the morning to get some practice in

The Northern Monkey

hehe we'll see :P

Well thats my 1st ride in probably 4 weeks, still need to get used to the bike.. was a bit unsure at 1st but I got used to it by the end

Never got any air though as i'm not confident enough with it yet!

and oh yeah, the only scratch was to my bloody car
i didnt have enough foam but thought I'd got it all covered, but the QR on my for had rubber a nice deep hole right to the metal

Gotta go halfords and get some paint tomorrow + get some more foam!

supersonic

The new P7 frame is 6lbs now to meet the CEN requirements, but the WMB testers said it still retained the feel. In fact it is heavier than a Summer Season!

The Northern Monkey

supersonic wrote:

The new P7 frame is 6lbs now to meet the CEN requirements, but the WMB testers said it still retained the feel. In fact it is heavier than a Summer Season!

But WMB haddn't been riding around on a 33lb single ring HT.....

Tolk

Looks amazing mate! Looks like you had good weather for it too!

jay12

bigbenj_08 wrote:

supersonic wrote:

The new P7 frame is 6lbs now to meet the CEN requirements, but the WMB testers said it still retained the feel. In fact it is heavier than a Summer Season!

But WMB haddn't been riding around on a 33lb single ring HT.....

very true. my kinesis might not be the lightest but coming back from a nearly 40lb crappy full suss it's a totally different bike

The Northern Monkey

Tolk
cheers fella It was too bloody hot! had my baselayer on and was sweating buckets!

jay12
Aye... it might be a relatively heavy frame, but being a big bloke its nice to have the confidence/feel of a beefier frame! Plus, I didn't notice the extra weight