Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Mountain Bike Monday - a tad bit late...

Sorry to be reporting on our weekend ride a day late! With the weather being so lovely and it staying light outside much longer, we've been taking advantage and doing some things in the yard, so I've not gotten to blogging on time.
On Sunday we set out for our ride mid-day, with the plan of me beginning the ride with Dynamo and then leaving him to finish the rest of his training ride. He was planning a total of 5 hours riding, but not me. I decided to ride for a couple of hours on the front end of his ride and then head to the grocery store and home to cut the grass!

It was my first ride on my new Spot. Yes, I got another Spot bike. It was somewhat accidental that this happened. But, to make it a quick explanation... When we were working on fixing my original Spot's issues, we happened to ask is they had another frame with paragon dropouts in my size. Well, they did.

He is not really a Rocker, and not a Longboard (that's my other one), because he was a custom frame. It was a frame made for some guy who changed his mind. It had all of the cable guides we needed and happened to be my size, so we took advantage of the great opportunity to purchase him from the company. We set this bike up as a 1 x 9. This means 1 gear in the front and 9 in the back. The plan was that this would be my alternate bike to my single speed Spot. Since the first Spot fit me so well, it just made sense to get another one. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Remember...it can be really hard to find a 29er that fits someone with my height/measurements.

The best thing about this Spot is that he's Made in the USA. Right in Colorado! He's steel like the other one, but he was made here. That's awesome!

So, here he is...
Sorry I didn't get a picture of me riding him, but we were so distracted by the beautiful weather. It just slipped our minds!

He's a beautiful addition to the family. His color is officially Italian Vespa Scooter Blue, and he is so pretty! I think it's the best blue ever! I was hoping for pink, but this turned out to be fabulous!

He got a couple of rides on our gravel road over the past week before hitting the trails. We took lots of parts, well...most all of the parts off of the other Spot to build this guy up. So, let's just say that my original Spot is stripped down waiting for us to put him back together. In time we'll get him put back together. I know he feels neglected. I know I've been cheating on him. But, let me tell you...this new guy flies!!!!

So, on his true inaugural ride we did 20 miles of mostly fire road and a little single track at Poco. He did great! I think the simplicity of the 1 x 9 setup is going to work well for me. I think the gearing is setup well for my skill level and I can't wait to try him out some more. Spot bikes rock!

I have to give many thank yous to Dynamo for ALL of his research and hard work to build this guy up for me. It took lots of effort on his part. I've learned a lot throughout this process.

It was a great ride on a beautiful day!!!



2 comments:

Jamie Oliver (@va_grown) said...

That blue really is lovely! So what's his name going to be?

Jim Rosen said...

First. I love the new layout and graphics of your blog.

Sounds like you are ready to tackle just about anything in the Richmond area. I told Jeff we should go downtown and introduce you to the trails down there. I know you can do them. Especially now that you have that new bike that fits you so well but also has a few gears to help you over the technical and steeper climbs.

Looking forward to getting out onto the trails with you sometime. When is the question.