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| Troll's first taste of dirt |
I wanted to know how it feels to ride the Surly Troll offroad, as it was meant to be. As a multi-purpose machine, I have ridden it for short rides to the market, around Seremban, and a long ride. Never before offroad.
I transfered parts from XTC to Troll after Fajr. It took me about 1½ hours to complete the transfer, some tuning and clearing some snags.
Drivetrain is 9-speed SLX with LX crankset as it has been on the Troll. I decided not to use the rigid fork; I used the Epicon instead. Unless I have a bigger front tire (2.3 at least) and tubeless, I'd try out the rigid fork.
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| riders at Pylon |
At 8:00-ish, I cycled to TBS for the offroad ride with fellow Perpatih gang. With Remy, Kak Wan, Saiful and Abang Lias, we went into TBS offroad via Kacang. Then we ascended up to Pylon before resting at Leman Dawi with many helpings of its free refill Cendol. I cycled back home soon after we reached our morning rendez-vous point i.e. Petronas station at TBS.
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| me and my Troll |
My Surly Troll is fun and I could feel the difference compared to the XTC. Troll is a bit heavier than XTC due to the frame material. I do feel a bit relaxed when descending. The other thing that I really felt was that the Troll's handling is snappy. It just kind of do what I intended to do without delay. Turns are crisp, and much more focused. More impressions after few more rides perhaps.
More photos in here.