New Mountain Bike

If you have been reading any of my posts lately or stumbled across any in the past year, then you would know that I have been looking for a mountain bike. I had one many years ago and did not really have the interest that I thought I would. Mostly because my friends were either on dirt bikes, at the lake in boats or jet skis or something completely different.

Makes it hard to have a good time up in the dirt when everyone you know is out doing something else. At this point in my life I don't really care as much and there is something to be said for being out on a single track path or going down a nice mountain trail by yourself and sort of clearing your head of all the bad mojo from work and life in general.

Pulled The Trigger

So as I mentioned in yesterday's entry I was planning to head out to a bike shop on the far north-side of town to take a look at the Santa Cruz bikes they carry. I have been a big fan of the brand and styling ever since they came out to be perfectly honest but they sorta fell off of my radar for some reason unknown to me. Probably because they come at a bit of a premium and people would rather buy what is easy, I don't know.

So let me back up just for a second. While searching for a local bike shop that carried Red Line bikes I was surprised that I found a couple that did say they were a dealer but every time I arrived at the store they had only the brands that I find at pretty much every store under the sun - Trek and Cannondale. Don't misunderstand, there is absolutely nothing wrong with either of those bikes, but I wanted a little more variety in my choices.

The shops that said they had other brands usually meant "they could get" other brands. Well that does me no good at all. I want to be able to see them, sit on them, pedal them around a little bit and check them out. I don't want to buy something from a picture on a website and a salesman's advice that it's a great purchase. Especially hen it comes to something of this type and cost.

Anyway, when I looked up Black Rock Bikes, I found that they had Redline but it appeared to be only the BMX bike line-up from what I could tell. That was totally ok with me, they were honest on the website and I did not need to waste a trip out there. But wait, whats this? They have Santa Cruz bikes!! Are you freaking kidding me ? I need to take a closer look at this I thought - so I did. The website had tons of bikes, tons information, and everything in between.

They had their prices listed as well which is something that is a big pet peeve of mine when companies do not do that. I mean what is the big secret? The only thing that does for me is tells me you only carry the brands/models that I can't afford or that you want to play a numbers game to try and make me pay as much as you can like a bloodsucking used car salesman leech.

It's like you get there and there are no price tags at the store either and then it's almost like "how much is this bike"? And they reply with some number they just pulled out of the hat thinking we can get it out of you unless you haggle them down a little bit. Or sometimes they come back with "well what is your budget?".

For me, the problem with that question is that I could easily be put into something I don't need based entirely off of the budget that I provide. Sorry, I am probably not a customer for you because I am not into that game. Put the price on the inventory and make a little profit for your self and let's be on our way doing something productive.

Simply putting the bike at the manufactures suggested price like many of the shops do and then leaving it there versus coming up with your own price I think shoots many of the local shops in the foot. For example, as I was mentioning yesterday that there was a Trek bike at the local bike shop where the guys were really cool and for that reason I would have loved to have supported them as well. The issue came up when I checked the big box bike shop and the bike was almost $400 more out the door and the local shop. So that, compared to the big-box store price is just not worth it.

So after a ton of research both on their website and looking around the internet getting information on the bikes I was planning to look at while there, that-is if they had them on hand I went ahead and made the journey out to Black Rock Bicycles yesterday around noon. First things first, the shop itself was just as great as the website. The guys were super cool and knowledgeable and did not make you feel like an idiot for asking a bunch of total new to the sport questions. I was able to test ride bikes to determine exactly what fits me, feels the best and of course is within my budget.

So yeah the trigger was finally pulled on a 2014 Santa Cruz Heckler 27.5 with a medium size frame and black in color. This is not one of the 29'r bikes like I have been looking at up to this point, but it's one of the new 27.5" bikes. The main reason I did not look at the 27.5" or the 26" bikes with many of the other manufacturers is because they were always out of my price range. Personally I think Santa Cruz has the right idea and is not making a killing off of the new gold rush of enthusiast wanting the 26 or 27.5 bikes, instead they are just making and selling bikes consumers want.

Normally they run about $1500-$2000+ more once you add have it built like that. I configured mine with a Rock Shox suspension front and rear instead of the Fox suspension because over the past year to year and half the Rock Shox have improved their suspension technology and quite possibly surpassed Fox suspension for the time being. A lot of the guys are now switching back to them because they feel they are a superior ride to the current Fox shocks. Plus I get an additional 2.5 mm of travel with the Rock Shox if I remember correctly.

The price tag was another reason behind going with Rock Shox. The Fox suspension was around $500-$800 more of an upgrade. For what I will be doing with the bike it's not worth the additional cost even if at that level those particular suspension components by Fox are superior. Anyway enough about that - the bike is awesome and has a great suspension from what I can tell on my long test rides. So yea it has all this as well as a ton other upgrades and cool stuff.

The guys were extremely helpful in every way from helping me to pick out the bike to suggesting some of the things that I will eventually need once I have the bike. Everything was completely 110% zero pressure and stress free. That is the way that I like it in a shop. So now I have the bike ordered it should be here in about 5 to 10 days then they will build it for me. I had them add this really awesome seat-post that they showed me and that was on the demo bike. It's a really cool feature and design. I have heard of them but did not really understand what they were.

With this particular seat-post you have a button mounted on your handlebars so you can raise and lower the seat with a push of said button, how freaking cool is that? Then I also ordered some of these awesome pedals that they showed me that are coming in around the same time that my bike will be in. I can't wait to get the bike!

Once I go into pick up the bike the guy that was helping me wrote down everything else that him and I had talked about so I don't have the excitement of picking up the bike and end up forgetting everything that I wanted / need to get along with it when I pick it up.

Some of the things that I plan to get are mountain bike pedal shoes because I dont want to use the clip-in style shoe, this really bad-ass, perfect fitting Troy Lee Designs helmet, a small toolkit, and a Camelback that holds both tools and water. I have a Camelback from when I used to ride motorcycles but it only holds water.

I of course have a ton of tools as well but this kit is nice because you can take it with you and it's very compact with every tool on it that you could possibly need for a quick repair or adjustment. Oh also with regards to the Camelback it's one that has a special bladder in it so it keeps the water lower around your waist and does not put extra pressure on your back. This helps people that have back annoyances like I do.

Anyway, all-in-all I am super stoked with my purchase and cannot wait to get the bike. I need to now look at some of the bike racks that go on the roof of the car and see if I can find something that will work. I don't want to have to try to fit the thing in the back of the car every time I want to go somewhere with it - huge pain in the ass.

The only bad thing is, I like to switch cars out every 3 years and do not want to have to buy a new rack every 3 years when I get a new car. I did find one rack that looks as though you can switch out the bars and not have to buy an entirely new rack every time. Although it's a little more expensive, at around $500, that is every penny worth it if I can do exactly what I want to with it.

More Later

With that I will end this post for today. More on all of this later I am certain. I have some awesome news about our lawn care professionals from Vital n' Green coming out today that I will hit upon tomorrow. Let's just say that they are an AMAZING company and I am so happy that we are able to have them work in our yard - they do some amazing work, fast and on time!

Photo: Here is a photo from the manufactures website of my new bike. I think it's pretty dam cool and it rides really sweet as well. I cant wait for it to arrive at the bike shop, be built and ready for me to start learning how to have a blast on it!