General Bike Thread (Desiderata, Questions, Pics)

[mhip]

Jeezus.
OK, now I really don't believe you!

If The Badger brained one poor French socialiste miner with a single fist, while prancing around in road cleats on le Col de l'Ange, just imagine what he would have done with an entire limo at his disposal, and you out there slipping around on a rain-drenched road to boot! Come on, man....

You wouldn't even be singing "Crawling From the Wreckage" to your mamma...let alone telling tall tales about cussing out cycling's baddest bad-ass ever, on StyFoVeLo.

The word "mercy" doesn't exist in The Badger's lexicon, not in any language.

Bah....
He was drinking mimosas in the back.
If he was driving, I might have been screwed.

 

[venessian]

Let's go back one more generation for nicknames. The Cannibal.

Then, even better, his rival and my favorite rider ever, my greatest hero: Il Fenice (The Phoenix), Felix de Mondi, Nuvola Rossa!

 

[venessian]

Bah....
He was drinking mimosas in the back.
If he was driving, I might have been screwed.

So, then, in fact you were not really, actually, in truth, "Dude...
One time I got to ride with Bernard Hinault."...

 

[mhip]

So, then, in fact you were not really, actually, in truth, "Dude...
One time I got to ride with Bernard Hinault."...

He was riding with me, but in a car instead of the bike like he was supposed to.
If he was on his bike, I wouldn't have been on his handlebars.
So I slightly fudged it, but it would hold up in court...

 

[sugarbutch]

I'm not so old I'm the only one that remembers the Lion King, am I? @sugarbutch?

You are not the only one, but you are definitely so old...

 

[Piobaire]

I liked the days of Big Mig and Super Mario...probably because I was young and fit with a full head of hair.

 

[sugarbutch]

We were young and innocent...

 

[Fueco]

We were young and innocent...

True, we weren’t doing coke and EPO, or at least I wasn’t.

 

[sugarbutch]

True, we weren’t doing coke and EPO, or at least I wasn’t.

Wasn't, haven't, no plans to. But who knows?

 

[otc]

So I took the CX bike out to some MTB trails. Never been there before so I didn't really know which trail was which--some were OK, but others were clearly beyond the capabilities of the bike's gearing and 35mm tires. I soldiered on and had fun, but caught a pinch flat on one of my final descents. Had a spare tube, but was right by the car so no big deal.

So that's pushed me deeper into the MTB shopping. I'm kind of on a big range here, the lack of inventory might be a deciding factor. 2021 inventory is starting to show up though which might help.

Some options. 2021 Commencal Meta HT AM Essential. This is a kind of crazy aggressive hardtail, but it comes with a nice build ($700 fork which is crazy at this pricepoint). People love them, but I'm not sure the trails around me are extreme enough to warrant it. Also, they were in stock yesterday, but are now gone and they are sayin more in october or november

2021 Diamondback Sync'r lower end build and fork, but the price is right if you get the IMBA pro deal. Supposedly pro deal inventory has been showing up and includes a significant discount, so I paid the $5 to get access. Probably a good geometry for what I would ride, but I might want to step up the parts a little (and get some internal cable routing).

Vitus Sentier VRS (27.5 or 29) - these are constantly out of stock, but maybe I'll get lucky. Very nice parts list and better fork than the Sync'r. People seem to love them, but there's some risk if I have to warranty it since they don't directly have US presence.

Framed Marquette Carbon - Weird small D2C brand. Very little info but reviews are positive and I can get another 12-16% off what they are quoting for the Rock Shox fork build. Not sure if they are in the process of going out of business or something...geometry is more old school trail bike, close to XC--but that might be totally fine for my riding.

Some others that are tempting are Specialized Fuse, Salsa Timberjack, rocky mountain Growler...but inventory is scarce and deals are not to be had.

The Meta is crazy, but unless something changes, the november delivery date is a killer. Also just not sure such aggressive geometry with a 160mm fork would suit me. If I move to MT and end up wanting a more aggressive bike, I can either rent or invest in full suspension, so then I'd rather have a hardtail well suited to climbing and flowy singletrack.

 

[otc]

#YOLO

I joined the IMBA to get access to pro deals through ExpertVoice and put in an order for a Sync'r. Came to $1100 + tax/shipping which isn't as good as their deal used to be, but still not bad...and they had it in stock and in my size so...as long as they can actually fulfill the order, this will be mine:

Ultimately I would have paid more for the Vitus, but who knows when they will ever be in stock again (or if the next version to be in stock is the 2021 and will have either a price bump or parts downgrade)...

And besides, if I move and get real into this, I'm going to be wanting a more aggressive full suspension bike anyways...no sense spending a bunch more on mostly marginal upgrades.

 

[otc]

Fedex lost my package for a couple of days, but its here, it is built up, and I've already put new parts on it (pedals).

I'm a mountain biker now

 

[Piobaire]

The Santa Cruz Stigmata has come onto my radar and now investigating gravel bikes. That said, I plan to make my first foray into bike store in the next week or three. The store carries Cannondale and Giant and it's the Synapse Imma start nosing around. I'm thinking get a year of road cycling under my belt then maybe a MTB. I just found out a 1.5 mile ride from my front door gives me two different 10 mile or so single track loops, both fairly flowie so fit for an old man to dawdle along and annoy the kinder.

 

[Piobaire]

So, all 2020 Cannondale stock is accounted for and the 2021 Synapse carbon Ultegra SE won't hit the stores until September. 2021.

****.

 

[otc]

That doesn't seem right. Everybody releases their 2021 models in fall 2020.

They have already started to trickle in on websites and even stores.