What to do when a good day presents itself, and you realise that your bike is in bits and your rear brake is kaput? You go get a hire bike for the day!
To be honest i was expecting Biketreks in Ambleside to have something a bit better in, but this is the off-season, so all they had was a couple of boggo £400+ hardails to choose from.
So ladies and gentlemen, I give you; the Scott Aspect 40!
You know what? It was ok! Evidently the hire buisness is a bit slack off season, so this was brand new. The spec, er, "highlights" included cable disks, 3x8 speed shimano basic Acera transmission, and round wheels...
Strangely, the disks were riveted on to the hubs, first time I've ever seen that:
So I set off on the classic Loughrigg and Iron Keld loop from Ambleside, Chris I and Amanda will know it well . The weather brightened up, and the bike was going well. Very well infact. One of the only "problems" during the day was that walkers just did not hear me coming up behind them. Despite the apparently basic transmission, the bike was virtually silent! No cable banging, no clicking transmission, nothing. Good job it came with a bell!
Halfway point refreshment
Out on the trail, I certainly didn't feel like I was slumming it for the day, the modern graphics (with added anti-rub tape) and co-ordinated forks look the part, even if the Suntour forks are very basic, and effectively make the bike into a fully rigid with a couple of centimetres of bump adsorption at the front. In fact, loose the straight-outta-school reflectors and I doubt any average joe wouldn't belive you didn't payed twice as much for it.
Sure, the tires were more on-road zip than cross country grip, and the head angle is a bit steeper than what I'm used to, but that's good, as it stops you taking liberties that could get you into trouble.
With the addition of my clipless pedals to give it (and me) some much needed climbing ability I had a great laugh, and spent a beautiful day in the hills with some good weather. All for paying £20 hire and some diesel. Priceless is the term I think.
Just goes to show how much things have moved on in mountain biking in the last 10 years, this Scott would wee over anything I had at that time. It really hammered home that you don't need to spend 5 grand on a bike to have fun. Just get out and ride.
If anyone wanted to get a bike for their kid, or were starting out, I would definitely recommend it. upgrade it later with some decent second hand forks and better tyres and you'd be sorted.