RUST magazine: Rust#3

It’s apparently much improved on the old seat, and it
certainly feels nice and firm - especially appreciated off-road
- but I have to admit I did get a little uncomfortable after
about the 100 mile mark (despite stops). That said I get
uncomfortable on most bikes at that distance, maybe I’m
just getting a bit soft in my old age.
And Off-Road
Now this test didn’t afford much in the way of pure off-road
testing. But there was some at least (in fact still more than
a lot of adventure launches allow). So at one point we took
off down a lane and ended up on a beach. The first section
was all rocks, boulders and pebbles (wet of course) and
despite first reservations, the XT rode them sweetly enough,
all feet-up, very much like any trail bike.
Then we hit firm sand and we could play at skids. Again it
was pleasing stuff, you could get your weight plenty forward
enough and the bars were high and sufficiently wide for a
regular off-road standing position to be adopted so you
could steer from the front in a traditional way, then apply
power to steer with the rear. The gearing was road-high
though, and I noticed I was doing most of my playing in
first gear. Second gear called for more commitment in
terms of speed and technique and you could tell that
greater damage would result if you made a mistake.
We crossed a very shallow stream at one point, no real
issue there, but if you’re used to wheelying off banks and
popping the front up for the far bank (enduro style) well
that’s not so easy to do with a bike like the XT. Like most
bigger adventure bikes there’s just too much weight (on the