Oh yeah, and while I'm bragging (heh):
XT components, with an XTR rear derailleur. Titanium clipless pedals by Ritchey, a titanium replacement spring on the Helix Pro, brand-new titanium springs in the Marzocchi, a complete rebuild of the marzocchi about a year ago with a brand new recent-style Marzocchi oil damper, carbon fiber spokes in both the front and rear wheels, nice top-shelf reinforced rims just short of DH-type heavyweight to stand up to really rough enduro use in the White Mountains of NH with tons of brutal granite just waiting for a flat tire to pretzel your rim like a wet noodle.....I think that about covers it
But while I'm out riding her, I'm sure I'll think of something else. There's just something special about having shoes that are wide enough for my extremely -- almost freakishly -- wide feet, a handlebar that is featherweight yet provides the best connection to the steering I've ever had from even the heaviest steel DH handlebars, and is the perfect height at 1.5 inches of rise to climb almost as well as a flat bar yet still descend as well as a 2-inch DH riser bar. And still be all those things while also allowing for a 26 (28? All I remember is that it's two inches wider than any other bar I could find anywhere near this quality) inch width to accomodate my -- almost freakishly, for someone my size -- wide shoulders. The whole bike is dialed in just so, like that.
It's worth a boatload more than my car. It's worth as much as every car that my wife and I have ever owned, put together. But it finally achieves everything I ever dreamed of when I was in my teens, racing downhill and dual slalom and cross-country and any other off-road event that they would put together that I could conceivably get my sponsors to pay my way to.
These days, it's all about finding time to ride at all, while raising a baby son, buying a new home, coping with severe chronic pain for the fourth year in a row, on top of all the usual pressures of life and then some....speaking of which, I better get my ass out the door now and enjoy this damn thing.
Before I go though, I would heartily recommend any of today's GT i-Drive models. They are now adopting many of the things that I had to customize my bike to get, into their standard lineup which has diversified greatly.
The i-Drive 5 is somewhat similar to my bike, and the Ruckus version of the i-Drive 7 is a really great choice if you want to get uber-suspension although I doubt any stock shock can compare with the Helix Pro. Few stock forks can compare to the Marzocchi Z1 but a lot of progress has been made in this area. The basic design and many of the component choices by GT are excellent, the value is there, and few suspension designs can compete with the i-Drive.
Go get one if you can!
XT components, with an XTR rear derailleur. Titanium clipless pedals by Ritchey, a titanium replacement spring on the Helix Pro, brand-new titanium springs in the Marzocchi, a complete rebuild of the marzocchi about a year ago with a brand new recent-style Marzocchi oil damper, carbon fiber spokes in both the front and rear wheels, nice top-shelf reinforced rims just short of DH-type heavyweight to stand up to really rough enduro use in the White Mountains of NH with tons of brutal granite just waiting for a flat tire to pretzel your rim like a wet noodle.....I think that about covers it
But while I'm out riding her, I'm sure I'll think of something else. There's just something special about having shoes that are wide enough for my extremely -- almost freakishly -- wide feet, a handlebar that is featherweight yet provides the best connection to the steering I've ever had from even the heaviest steel DH handlebars, and is the perfect height at 1.5 inches of rise to climb almost as well as a flat bar yet still descend as well as a 2-inch DH riser bar. And still be all those things while also allowing for a 26 (28? All I remember is that it's two inches wider than any other bar I could find anywhere near this quality) inch width to accomodate my -- almost freakishly, for someone my size -- wide shoulders. The whole bike is dialed in just so, like that.
It's worth a boatload more than my car. It's worth as much as every car that my wife and I have ever owned, put together. But it finally achieves everything I ever dreamed of when I was in my teens, racing downhill and dual slalom and cross-country and any other off-road event that they would put together that I could conceivably get my sponsors to pay my way to.
These days, it's all about finding time to ride at all, while raising a baby son, buying a new home, coping with severe chronic pain for the fourth year in a row, on top of all the usual pressures of life and then some....speaking of which, I better get my ass out the door now and enjoy this damn thing.
Before I go though, I would heartily recommend any of today's GT i-Drive models. They are now adopting many of the things that I had to customize my bike to get, into their standard lineup which has diversified greatly.
The i-Drive 5 is somewhat similar to my bike, and the Ruckus version of the i-Drive 7 is a really great choice if you want to get uber-suspension although I doubt any stock shock can compare with the Helix Pro. Few stock forks can compare to the Marzocchi Z1 but a lot of progress has been made in this area. The basic design and many of the component choices by GT are excellent, the value is there, and few suspension designs can compete with the i-Drive.
Go get one if you can!
