You see, 4 days of rain were winding down and I had to get out, so I hit some local stone roads and the like. Which gave me time to reflect a bit.
Flash back to 2006. I finally (finally!) got a new bike. I flat refused to ride the old Specialized Hard Rock anymore. Since then my hardnosed attitude towards the old Spesh has softened a bit, but that's another story...
But suffice it to say that by 2006 I was rusty. Like real rusty. Like don't bother with the WD-40, where's the Naval Jelly and does it come in gallon sizes. And bring some sandpaper. That rusty.
So the new bike seemed a little strange to me. In hindsight, well no crap... it's a big jump from a 1988 steel rigid 26er to a 2006 aluminum 29er with shocks fore and aft. The riding position was different and I was - admittedly - a tad, uh, cautious you might say.
To put my mind at ease, I made some changes to the bike. Those that know me are not surprised. "He never leaves well enough alone" is probably what my detractors would say. I say change is good. Or is it?
I remember one of my earliest ride impressions on the new bike. Holy crap, I felt like I was about to go over the bars at a moment's notice. So I reached out to Easton and picked up a riser bar so I wouldn't feel so "leaning forward". Today, I chuckle at that bar swap. Since then - after about 4 seasons of riding - that riser bar is collecting dust, having been replaced by a flat bar. Moreover, I'm considering flipping the stem to drop the bar even more. You see, my new rigid 29er has a much lower bar height and I've really taken a shine to that position. I've learned that lower is often better, and lower can mean fewer endos, not more, as my center of gravity is lower.
I also remember thinking I needed more travel on the front fork. It's a Reba Race, and they typically come set at 80mm travel but can be revamped for 100mm of travel. So I bought shock fluid, printed out instructions, and got all set to do the surgery... only to find out the fork was already set at 100mm! But my lack of planning isn't the moral of this part of the story - it's that I thought more travel would be good, and more travel would elevate my riding position (remember the prior paragraph?). Now I'm actually thinking that knocking the fork down to 80mm travel would be a good thing. Heck, most of the Sugar 293s came that way, and now I can understand why.
And then there's the subject of tires. Being a Gary Fisher, the 293 came with Bontrager tires - ACX models specifically. They seemed awfully simple, so as tire makers began rolling out one new 29" tire after another, I was snatching them up. I was part of that "wider must be better" wave. Most of the new wider tires were so wide they rubbed the chain stays. And then I started to reconsider. My first "hmmmm..." moment was watching my friend spin up a steep icey slope with his ACXs biting in every revolution, then when it was my turn my new-fangled fat tires just spun out. Hmmmm... maybe there's more to this. Fast forward a few years. My go-to tire is (drum roll please): a Bontrager ACX. Yep, I've come to appreciate two things about these tires. One, they are simple but they work. And two, they are light for their size. Why not an ACX? Why not, indeed.
Wheels. Yep, one of the big ticket items on a bike. Mine came with some rather uncomplicated Bontrager Race Disc 29er rims. No fancy hubs, only 28 spokes, sorta narrow. Knowing how my small brain works, you know I had to be thinking there was better stuff out there. A few big bills later and I had some wider rims sporting 32 spokes on fancy hubs. And now that I've had them for a couple years, I've really grown to appreciate the stock wheelset. The new rims creak and the old ones don't. The new wheels needed to have the spokes re-tensioned, but the old ones were fine. The new rims make tire swaps a trying experience, but you can change tires with your eyes closed on the old rims. And, the old rims are lighter. Once again I was reminded why the bike came with that particular wheelset - they just plain made sense. Still do, as I use those wheels on the new rigid.
So after a few seasons under my belt, I've come full circle in a lot of my bike-related thinking. Higher isn't aways better, bigger isn't always better. Then again, maybe it's the bike that's come full circle. I now have a better understanding of why the folks at Gary Fisher put those parts on that bike. I also now know why rusty 40-somethings don't willy-nilly dictate what parts belong on a bike. I've come to respect the careful thought that goes into specing these bikes, thought that only comes from decades of experience. I still won't leave well enough alone, but I must admit I'll be giving some extra consideration to the stock parts on a bike and why they're there.
