Bloggin'......

Spring Happenings

Why, oh why, am I never content. You know its springtime when I pull out my mountain bike. When I built up my red bike last fall, I gave it my 2001 Manitou Mars Elite 80mm suspension fork and put a new 2003 Manitou Black Super 100/120mm on my "real" bike. However, after riding with the Black fork for the past couple of months, I realized I didn't like the new setup as much as I had hoped. It change the head angle too much, that the steering didn't feel neutral, and actually made it feel like the bike would cause the steering to lead, or "walk", to one side. I'm sure the extra travel would be the perfect freeride setup, but I wanted to maintain a cross country setup. Add to the fact I think the oil seals are shot, I had to change out the fork.

Luckily, I had a new "spare" 2004 Manitou Skareb Super 80mm air fork. =) I spent a few hours Friday night to make a few other upgrades I had been planning, as well. I busted the headset the last time I took the fork off, so I got a new Cane Creek S2 headset, I changed the wheelset a while back and also got a new Shimano XT cogset, so I also got a new Shimano XTR chain this time. So, I had a pretty busy friday night. That was all because I had a bigger test in the morning.

Yesterday, I broke it all in, in what turned out to be my ride of death up Mt. Hamilton in San Jose. Thirty six miles, two major valleys, almost 2500ft in elevation gain, and one flat tire. It's definitely spring time.