So as it turns out, the bike I ordered over 3 months ago was in fact shipped this month and apparently it was discovered the frames were 'built wrong' (whatever the fuck that means) and were whisked back to the factory. I was told that I could either wait until July when they would be ready to ship with a 50 dollar refund, or they'd give me a 50 dollar credit on a bike of equal or greater value (in addition to the obvious full refund). So, after some thought, I decided instead of this, I plunked down an additional 700 bucks and have this en route (if UPS tracking numbers mean anything):
That there is a Kestral Talon, which is a much much more advanced frame (all carbon, hence the title of the post). Instead of Dura Ace components, it's Ultegra, but as Meg (longtime SMG newsgroupie) said: "For what you do Ultegra is great. Dura Ace would be important if you were doing the Tour De France, and that 100grams meant some serious savings." ...yeah pretty much.
So that bad boy should be arriving on Friday or Saturday, and I'm excited. This has been a bike I've been trying to add to the fleet since January so needless to say, it's about damn fucking time. Fair warning...anybody who thinks plans with me won't revolve around the arrival of this bike is woefully mistaken. All bets are off. I have to assemble some of it, so whether or not it goes to the bike shop for this remains to be seen (what does 90% assembled mean anyway?). I've crated my road (soon to become tour) bike a few times so I have the hang of it. We'll see how it looks. All the cables are routed inside the frame on this so I'm not about to go fucking around with that shit.
I do need to go stock up on supplies before the weekend. Water bottle cages, a computer (prolly go with that Trek Cobra I got on the roadbike..if it ain't broke right?) and pedals. I'm also going to go ahead and upgrade shoes too because my mountain bike ones are sorry lookin now and fuck sandals for races.
In other good news...turns out my normal computer should be back in order on Thursday and James already has it up and running. Thank fucking fuckity fuck (this work thing is like typing on a Boss).
Soooooo what does a boy do when he has one bike coming in and it's spring? He orders another fucking one! I decided that 400HT I was all stoked about is in fact, a cool frame with complete shit components. Nope...after trudging through the mud these past few weeks, the Deore XT stuff is where it's at. And therein is where I found myself gazing with wonder and awe at this fellow
I've never heard of Windsor before, but the components all look pretty good for my needs (fuck full suspension, ridin in the saddle in the shit is for pussies anyway..it's Illinois not Utah). I'm going to keep the Gary Fisher around for friends to use (put regular pedals on it for 'em). It just needs a good wipe down and it's in ship shape. But this should greatly improve my stopping ability (this is good, as I almost fused myself with a tree more than once on Sunday). Plus with the bike we got my dad, coupled with the fact that for a guy in his upper 50's, he's one aggro motherfucker, tree dodging is most certainly in my immediate future.
Oh yeah, and before Danny Elfman made millions off of making soundtracks you can spot 5 miles away, his band was the absolute shiznit