I decided this Thanksgiving to take my G line out on a true mountain bike ride. It's been a very long time (8 years) since I’ve been out on any single track, and riding on Thanksgiving morning is something I have always enjoyed.
I went to my favorite spot in MA where I used to ride all of the time. I hit a combination of fast double track and single track. I did aggressive rock / root, bridge trails with some very hard climbs but steered clear of the most gnarly technical trails and cabbage patch fields. The trails were covered in leaves but dry. I swapped the pedals out with egg beaters and clipped in.
Here is what I found:
The gearing is perfect. It’s literally all you need even on the most aggressive climbs. Are you left wanting for more gear? Sure, but that’s always true. Do you need more gear? No, no you do not.
Stunningly grippy, I really expected the leaf covered rocks and roots to cause slips on the climbs. This thing climbs like an absolute goat. I got to the top on nearly every climb, and was really impressed with its climbing ability.
The Brompton nimbleness and fun which is gone on the roads with the G line, reappears offroad. You are able to dodge and weave and the Brompton magic is back. You can’t do this on a 29’er.
I didn’t make it up every climb though; it’s hard to rotate, and the fact that it’s got small wheels and is a rigid bike means you aren’t rolling a darn thing. And like all rigid bikes; once you bounce it your climb is over. That happens more often when you approach large roots or rocks on a climb because the wheels are so small.
So is hitting singletrack something I’d recommend on a G line? Absolutely not. While you can air it way down and ride gravel / double track for extended periods, it’s just so incredibly harsh on trails that I was joking that I got CTE as we ate our Turkey. It was a lot of fun, I mean a real lot. But oh baby, it will shake you to the core.
So what exactly is the G line for? A lot of people ask this. I think it’s just an awesome, very very foldable bike that is good for just about everything, but not great at anything. And that actually is what it’s great at. While I left the trail feeling like I just got out of a paint shaker I’m sure I’ll try it again. And at the end of the day it still folds up nice and small and I can stick it in my closet.
by Cash4Gold1886