Project 29er: New Arrivals

Today we'll be shooting in black and white because that is how I feel. Why? 15" of snow followed immediately by torrential rain (which is still going on as I write this).

The one bright spot was the arrival of some new parts today (plus some "recycled" parts from old bikes).

A holdover from my old Specialized FSR, Salsa's timeless QR seatpost clamp.

I like wide tires: Schwalbe 2.4" Racing Ralphs. At a claimed 640g they seem worth taking a chance on.

Most blingtacular item in today's shipment: Race Face NEXT Carbon Cranks.

I passed on the moderately lighter and more pricey NEXT SL cranks as they are astoundingly fugly. The NEXTs look like a part from a Terminator, the SLs look like something C-3PO would use to wash his back, what with the yellow swoosh graphics and the gold granny ring. I'm down on the whole colored ring thing. If I am ever spotted riding a bike with color-coordinated TruVativ Noir cranks, please, shoot me, because clearly I will have been taken over by aliens.

Another holdover, but this time from the Turner: A Thomson setback seatpost. It's a 27.2 and most of the frames I am looking at are 30.9s...Problem Solver shims to the resuce.

Also from the Turner, a WTB Rocket V SLT, this one is barely used.

XTR 12,14,16,18,20,23,26,30,34

The only shifters for me. SRAM's may be better for all I know, but the way these are hardwired in my brain, I just don't think about it.

Project 29er: Snow Delay

Sigh. Today's crazy storm delayed a scheduled shipment of bike bling. FedEx calls it a "delivery exception" caused by a "local weather delay". I call it being a Sally.

Project 29er: And so it begins

Bling-a-ding-a-ding-dong.

There are many simple pleasures in life. Time with family and friends. A good meal. A day in the mountains. Helping the less fortunate.

For me there is also this: Getting new bike bling in the mail. This is even better if said bling is not simply an upgrade for an existing bike, but is rather the precious building block of an entirely new bike.

I am currently in the joyful state that is the latter. I've decided to take the plunge into wagon wheels and get a 29" wheeled mountain bike (a.k.a. a 29er).

I've yet to decided on that particular bike I want, but I've narrowed it down to either a Santa Cruz Tallboy or a Niner RIP 9. "Narrowed it down" might be an exaggeration, since on any given day I also hear the siren call of the Niner Jet 9, the Titus Rockstar 29, the Gary Fisher Superfly 100, the Specialized Epic Marathon 29, etc., but I think it will probably be the Tallboy or the RIP 9.

Anyway, there are a few things I know I want for the new bike, regardless of what the frame ends up being. One of those is a wide flat bar with a lot of sweep. I currently run an old (non-rise) Titec Hellbent on my Turner Burner and I love it (barring the occasional tight squeeze between trees).

Titec currently sells the similar bar, the Flat Tracker, but at 375g it's a bit of a boat anchor and not nearly bling-tastic enough.

Scouring the interwebs I found the solution, Ritchey's SuperLogic Mountain Flat bar. With a 10 degree backsweep and at 620 mm wide it is quite similar to my old HellBent. It also sweeps forward and then back, a fairly unusual design that helps keep stem length under control (a concern for me because with my super-freak long arms I always seem to be running an absurd stem length).

Best of all is the weight, a feathery 130g (claimed).

It's not a complete bike yet, but it's a start :-)

Sweep the bar.
Do you have a problem with that?
No, Sensei.