The Winner: Large Black Anodized RIP 9After a lot of research I had narrowed my bike choices down to two: The Santa Cruz Tallboy and the Niner RIP 9. My local LBS is a Santa Cruz dealer, which is a big plus, but in the end the Tallboy's $644 premium over the RIP 9 and the inability to actually see one in person doomed it. Admittedly the Santa Cruz is a good deal lighter than the RIP 9, but that extra $644 goes some ways to making the Niner a bit lighter via component choice than it might otherwise be.
I ordered my RIP this weekend from Five Hills bike shop in Waterbury VT. The owner George Wisell talked me out of my original plan to build up my old Chris King hubs with some Stan's ZTR 355s, instead we opted for the slightly heavier, but more robust, ZTR Arch rims laced up with some 14/15g spokes. I'll wait till I have a picture of the wheels to reveal the colors, but it's going to be a change from basic black of my last several wheelsets.
In other news, a few more parts trickled in:
Jumping on the Ergon bandwagon and see if it is all that.
Some ho-hum stuff.
The weekly bling: Ritchey carbon fiber alloy matrix WCS 4-Axis stem. Claims to be be strong enough for mountain biking...I certainly hope so.
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