The Discomfort Zone route was put together by friends at Love Machine Cycling with Scott, who is both a strong road & gravel rider as well as talented mountain biker. The confluence of these skills can be found in this route: it’s difficult in many respects.
I chose to ride it on my Stooge Speedbomb, which had only seen a couple rides at this point. This report doubles as a review of the Stooge.
While published as a “gravel-ish” route, I knew the trails it used are actually pretty challenging mtb trails rated black. I also opted to extend the second half to climb up to a fall-line loamer trail on Fromme that I was eager to try on the Stooge.
The route started with about 15km of pavement from home before I reached the first trail. The Stooge felt a bit unwieldy but also quite efficient; my natural speed wasn’t far below what it would be on my slick tire’d Rivendell.
When the trail did start, it was a rather relentless and lung-busting climb that traversed up from the quiet Indian River Drive up to the Seymour mountain parkway and beyond. While the Stooge frameset is not remotely lightweight, nor the build, it still feels efficient and comfortable on the climb, tracking well and the dual Kessel tires having no problem handling bursts of power to get up and over roots and rocks.
The descent started with Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, a classic shore trail that has seen some recent work since the last time I had rode it. The Speedbomb feels composed in every situation; while there is no suspension to bail you out if you choose too high of speed, the geometry is able to ensure that even the steepest line choices are possible.
I found myself starting to adapt to how the bike needed to be ridden, keeping my weight further back in the higher speed sections to account for a lack of front suspension, but trusting the front wheel in low speed maneuvers. The bike gets non-stop attention on the trail, and folks are generally of the mind I’m insane or very tough to be riding such a bike on the shore – but they are misled! There is nothing particularly difficult about riding this bike on the same terrain that I feel challenged by on a full suspension rig. I just need to be mindful of my speed and line choice.
I then traversed across a network of trails and side streets to climb a second mountain, Fromme, where several hundred meters of elevation were gained via gravel service road to ride a steep loam trail followed by a mixture of flow and technical rocky features on Dreamweaver. The pedal home was on worn legs, but the Stooge felt great the whole time.
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