Rider: Ruth O’Brien
Resides: Gordon, ACT, Australia
Nearby trail system and her favorite trails:
Stomlo Forest Park and National Arboretum Australia.
My favourite trail at Stromlo would have to be Trebuchet, a blue trail with a good variety of berms, tables and drops 1.87km of fast flowing descent. The climb to the top via the trunk trail is a lovely green trail with a bit of everything but is basically an XC loop to get you to the top of the mountain.
What do you ride (type of terrain)? What's the intended use for your new bike?
I like to ride a lot of different terrain, but I enjoy the descents and I'm starting to get better at more technical (rocky) descents. It honestly depends on the day on what I feel like doing. We have a lot of choice around Canberra and are within 3 hours of some other fantastic bike parks and places to ride. Most of my riding requires pedaling to the top to earn the descent, so I need a bike that pedals well.
My new Endorphin (named Sarah) replaces my Warden Carbon (named Wally) that has seen me through approximately 9,500km. The riding variety includes long steep technical descents at Maydena in Tasmania, long fast flowing descents of Derby, Tasmania to long 100km plus adventures around Canberra on the Centenary trail and everything in between.
What model and colour?
Knolly Endorphin, Small MX Seafoam
How tall are you? What size frame did you get? How does it fit you?
I am 161cm. I went with the small frame coming from a small Warden Carbon. The fit of the Endorphin is perfect with a 40mm stem, 35mm rise bars cut to 750mm, and I love having a 175mm dropper post.
What's your bike spec? Did you do anything custom?
Fox Factory 34 fork and Factory Float X rear shock.
Full Spank cockpit.
Magura MT5 brakes 203mm front / 180mm rear
A full SRAM drivetrain with AXS X01 Eagle derailleur, but with an XX1 cassette (mainly for the colours), Eagle GX cranks mounted with Spank Ozzy flat pedals.
Spank 359 wheels front and rear for the strength and fast hubs.
Pirelli Scorpion Race tyres in an Enduro M front and Enduro T rear for great traction.
175mm Fox Factory Transfer dropper seatpost to match in with the rest of the Fox Factory suspension.
A pop of pink with the Muc-Off valves and RideWrap protection to finish it all off.
What do you love about your new bike?
By going with the mullet setup, I have found I haven't been stalling on features that I previously did on my Carbon Warden. Having the bigger front wheel has given me more confidence to ride on trails that I was nervous on before. I'm owning it like a boss (as my Hubby said).
