First Ride On The New Jones!

Firstly, they still haven't kicked me off the radio, which means I'll be on WBAI here in New York City once again this morning at 10am.

You can also listen online via their website.  Or listen to it later on their archives.  Or not listen at all for all I care.

Secondly, despite my myriad familial responsibilities, I did manage to get some quality time with the Jones LWB Complete this past weekend:


As I mentioned last week, the LWB is the longer-wheelbase, 29-plus-wheeled, ready-to-ride-right-out-of-the-box version of the SWB I've been riding and loving for the past year.  By the way, while I've put many miles on that bike, I also freely acknowledge I have not come even remotely close to realizing its full potential, mainly because I'm a homebody and my idea of bikepacking is stuffing a windbreaker in my handlebar bag in case it gets chilly.  In light of that, I recommend you read this extremely thorough review of the SWB from someone who actually puts all those attachment points to good use:


Still, I'd argue that even I can appreciate the sheer versatility of the Jones, inasmuch as I'm (mostly) a ride-to-the-ride person as opposed to a spend-20-minutes-futzing-with-an-air-compressor-next-to-my-pickup-truck-before-heading-into-the-park-for-a-45-minute-"session" person.  See, for me this is the real beauty of the Jones: not only do you enjoy it on the singletrack, but you also enjoy it on the 10 or 15 miles of road you need to ride in order to get there and back.  The SWB has been a revelation to me in that department, and I was eager to see how the LWB compared.

My first outing on the LWB was into the wilds of Yonkers this past Friday with my elder son, and all signs pointed to "promising:"


My appetite for fat-tire riding having been whetted, I was eager to undertake a longer adult-sized excursion over the weekend.  However, owing to my wife's demanding career I was parenting solo.  So how to meet the bike-testing requirements of my own not-at-all-demanding "career?"  Well, I popped the Jones LWB on the trusty Saris SuperClamp EX (which accommodated the substantial dimensions of the bicycle with nary a complaint):


Then we headed to my mother's place in Queens where the kids disembarked, and from there I hopped on the Jones and rode to to Cunningham Park, undoubtedly the finest mountain bike trail system within New York City limits.  It's a good 10 miles or so from where my mother lives straight through the heart of the city's largest borough, and the ride takes you past storied landmarks such as the Unisphere:


...and, well, that's pretty much the only storied landmark, unless you count the LIE.

Anyway, Queens is a brilliant patchwork of cultures, and undoubtedly one of the most interesting places in the United States if not the entire world.  At the same time...well, let's just say it's not exactly the first place you'd choose for a long ride.  I mention this because a trans-Queens ride on a hot day (on a bike with 3-inch wide knobby tires no less) has all the makings of a slog, but in this case it didn't feel like a slog at all, and I credit the Jones for this.  This is largely due to the comfortable upright position and the multiple hand positions afforded by the bars, but I also wonder if maybe the bigger wheels and longer wheelbase made it feel a bit more "cruisy" and gave it better road manners.  Granted, it could have just been new bike excitement, but either way I arrived at Cunningham feeling much fresher than I should have given the high temperatures and the roughly 450,000 traffic lights between the start of my ride and the trailhead:


So how was the Jones on the trail?  Well, awhile back one commenter postulated that "I'd imagine the turning radius is ridiculous, making that bike unsuitable for silly-tight singletrack."

Well, it doesn't get more silly-tight than six miles of trail crammed into a park in Queens:


And I'm here to tell you that the LWB carved it up like a tofurkey on a vegan Thanksgiving.  Having only ridden Cunningham once on the SWB I'm loath to make any sweeping pronouncements about the differences between the two bikes, but the LBW sidled through even the tightest turns, and it went over those logpiles as gracefully as Fred Astaire.  (Fred Astaire was an avid mountain biker, by the way, everyone knows that.)  It does feel "bigger" than the SWB of course, but in a good way--it's smooth and stable, whereas the SWB is nimble in a way that makes you want to throw it around despite its substantial heft.  Still, to really know the differences between the two bikes I need to take the LWB on my usual SWB routes.  Also, my only complaint about the SWB as a full-on mountain bike has been the fact that it's somewhat prone to pedal strike, and I'm very eager to see if the LWB does better in that regard.  (Pedal strike certainly wasn't an issue on my Cunningham outing, but it's not particularly rocky there compared to the trails north of the city.)

Regardless, after 35 miles on a hot day in Queens I still love the bike, and that's saying something.