It can't be a short post because it's about bikes, more specifically, it's about a bike, more specifically than that, it's about my bike. One of them. The newest one, codename "The Ninja." It's a 2011 Rocky Mountain Altitude 29 SE frame that I built up with custom components and it's totally wicked. I want to take a shot at writing about it because I want to let all of you know why I went the route I did with my latest choice, why the frame, why the components, what the process was like, the whole bit. And then I want to talk about the ride. Because building a bike is awesome, no question about it, but riding it... well, that's the whole point, right? A new bike, when done correctly, is a beautiful thing, but for all that beauty it's also flawed in its perfection. It simply won't look right until there's a layer of dust on the paint and a few scratches from tumbles and close calls.
Then, and only then, is it mine.
The Idea
For me, 2010 was a year of "coming back." I came back to Colorado Springs, came back to my core group of friends, came back to riding bikes. Riding again, with purpose, was a fine thing. I even tried a few multi-hour races on for size, the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde and the 24 Hours in the Sage at Gunnison, CO. I competed with my friends on 4 person teams, and though we weren't out there to win anything, both races were excellent tests of fitness and will. It's difficult to go out for a lap at 5 in the morning after you've been racing and cheering your teammates on for 17 hours. But that's the whole point, you go out because you're on a team. No way you can let them down. So what does all this have to do with Project Ninja? Glad you asked.
What I came to realize during these races was that I wanted (I can never say "need" even I won't blur that distinction in this case) a bike that would crunch the long miles for me, ride after ride and race after race. It had to have enough travel to smooth out the continuous, rocky hits that are an inescapable feature of Colorado endurance racing, light enough that I didn't feel like I was dragging a grand piano around all day, and versatile enough to handle non-racing days on a variety of different trails throughout the state, which would be where the bike would get its lion's share of the work anyway. Let's face it, no one is kicking down my door for me to teach them how to be an elite level bike racer. No delusions of grandeur here, heck, I'd settle for delusions of adequacy. Racing is simply nothing but fun for me. Riding is fun. The bike had to maximize the amount of fun I could have on the trail, with a number plate fixed to the handlebars or without.
Demo Days
This project was never going to be done on the cheap. Knowing that, I wanted as much data on each of my possible options as I could gather before laying down my hard-earned cash. I was fortunate enough to be out at one of my then-local riding haunts in Cheyenne, WY in June when Specialized came through with their 2010 models for the riding public to try out, or "demo." I spent the day riding some of the Big Red S's best cross country offerings, but the one that stood out to me was the 29" wheeled version of their full suspension XC racer, the Epic. I think the thing that most shocked me was how much faster I was on it than my current bike, a 2007 Rocky Mountain ETS-X Team, "Red." Red was no slouch at the XC end of trail riding, and I had used it in every mountain bike race I had ridden in. But out on a loop that I had dialled in, I was constantly over-shooting braking points as I found myself carrying more speed with the bigger-wheeled Epic 29. Of all the laps I did that day on all the different Specialized bikes, I set my fastest lap on my last lap, with that Epic. It wasn't my first time on a "29er," but they weren't old hat to me either. It was faster in the technical sections than the 26" wheeled Epic, cornered better, and climbed better in everything but perfectly smooth trail conditions. And for anyone who has ridden CO singletrack, "perfectly smooth" doesn't happen often. I had found my bike. The Epic 29 was going to be my next XC weapon.
Except it wasn't.
I know, I know, you're reading this right now asking yourself why I didn't go with the Specialized. I obviously thought very highly of it. I just said it was the fastest around a course even though it was a platform I wasn't familiar with. And hey, the 2010 29er Epic looked pretty sweet, too. So what gives? Excellent question, but I'm afraid it's getting late. I can feel my ability to convey my thoughts in a semi-intelligent manner ebbing away from me as my eyes stay shut a little longer with each blink I take. Anyway, got to have something to write about next time, yeah?
~Scotty Mac
"They are the gatekeepers. They are guarding all the doors and they are holding all the keys." ~Morpheus, The Matrix
