I'm back home from my work-related voyages. But there's a thing which prevents me from devoting more time to art... Yes, that thing up there.

I've had eye out for full suspension bikes since quite some time. While I don't have genuine mountains in my accessible range and the terrain seems mostly flat if you stick to the roads - the situation changes quite a bit in the local huge forests, and changes more the deeper you go. I've found some places with genuine steep ups and downs, pretty far off the main lanes. And to get there, one needs to traverse some really uneven roads, alternatively with swathes of sand. My old (like, *really old*) bike was struggling there for real. But this one? No biggie. Swooshes over uneven terrain like it's nothing and is not stopped even by thick sand.

Technically, it's a refurb. Pretty well kept one, considering how old it must be. Also all brand parts, and the ridiculously low weight suggests it may have seen some actual sports competitions in its prime days. It's not much past that prime even: literally the only thing which doesn't work in an entirely satisfactory way is the front damper, being somewhat stiffer than I'd like it to be. And even that may turn out no big deal, I received a suspension pump only today and might have to dial the pressure even lower than I did (the damper came pumped to the full permitted pressure and almost completely stiff because of that).

I've already solved two annoying issues. One was noises from the drivetrain, as if the chain was skipping. It was enough to tighten the rear derailleur cable a little and the problem went away altogether. The other thing was the front brake generating constant friction and noise. The simplest YT tutorial on centering hydraulic brakes helped to elliminate the issue almost completely, there's only occasional little squeaking. Further adjustments would have to be more involved and currently there's no need to go that far.

Other than that, the gears switch perfectly (someone must have devoted a while for fine-tuning this), the brakes are incredibly strong from my perspective of never having used the hydraulic ones before, the rear suspension system works perfectly. Despite being more decisively all-terrain than my old bike, this one is actually faster on the roads too. Also the front and back suspension can be adjusted for stiffness on the fly, to the point of almost completely locking it. There's less accessible rebound adjust as well. Oh, and the wheels have bladed spokes. Bladed. Spokes. Never seen such a thing with my own eyes before.

Just don't mind my ghetto water bottle, I had to spare on *something...*