New Bike Day!

I rode it.....alot.

The cracks just appeared a few days before noticed them. I hadn’t done anything different.

I had more than enough seatpost installed.

Just one of those things.

What have you done to your bike(s) recently?

 

Signs point to yes.

Air guitar always good, though. Or air bass. Or air rifle. Or whatever that guy's doing... Yea, we need help, Andy.

 

Andy got a new bike. And I bet it's green!

 

I got blueballs over my own bike and you guys are not helping at all.

 

England Revenue... Hmmmm. Too early for a tax refund....

 

Oh C'mon man!!!

 

I think we need some action in this thread... J A S O N Don't make me go first, bro.

 

I'm waiting to see the new GG HT.

 

Beef delivery tomorrow.

 

Yesterday was new bike day......

I scrambled to get it done last night so that I could bring it along to play out here in St. George.

After selling the Tallboy last month on a whim, I knew I would be replacing it with something....I can't be a one bike guy. Since I had just replaced the Highball with the Chameleon, the replacement bike was gonna have to compliment that.

Talked to a few of the peeps here to get some opinions.

Saw @AKAKTM post of the Tallboy frame for sale. Tempting.....very very tempting. I even priced out a build kit to see what I would be looking at.

In the end I decided that the Tallboy 3 would be a little too close to the Chameleon, so I settled on the next best thing.

I figured that I wanted something I could play around on. Something that still climbed well. Not something I would use for all day epics.....at the end of the day, I'm still a SS'er.

So that led me to the Hightower.

Contacted #fullertonbikes They helped out when Suz got her Tallboy, so I went to them first.

Ordered up a L Hightower C 29 S Kit.....in white, er....grey. Shipping took a while. I was really hoping to have it to bring to St. George this weekend to play around on after True Grit. Well, it was looking like it wasn't going to arrive until we were already on the road. Got a call Thursday afternoon that they got it. 20 mins later, I was there. 30 mins. later, I was building it.

Had to swap out a few parts.....the boat anchor stock Al bar had to go. Replaced with a RaceFace SixC 10mm rise 800mm bar. The bike came with Eagle GX 12 spd....including a 30t ring. I ordered up a Wolftooth 34t No Drop Ring. The gear ratio was still easier than the 1x10 I had on my old Tallboy. Also gone were the SC Grips, ESI Chunky's......and some XT pedals.

Went together well.....only hick-up was the dropper post. the hose was about 8' too long. So trimmed it down, and had to bleed it. Now I have bled the Reverb before, but this one has the new 1x lever, and bleeding procedure was a bit different. It works as intended....but the hose is still too long. I'm gonna run with the Guide brakes for now.....but we will see.

The other pleasant surprise was the lack of Novatec Hubs....Yippee!!!!!! Bike came spec'd with DT 370 hubs. Not great, but still better than the Neverwork hubs.

So long....so slack.

With the 29er i get 135mm rear and 140mm up front.

Not sure how long the Minion's will last, DHF and DHRII.....both in 2.3

The Fox 36 is a beefy fork.

Rode it this afternoon on Zen Trail....BB is definitely low, as I banged the crank arms on the first 3 rocks I encountered. I'll admit that it felt like cheating going up, and I felt none of the big hit going down.

Time will tell.

 

So nobody told you the orange ones were faster?...

 

Wasn't sure I could handle riding around on an Orange Tic-Tac.

 

Yeah but I ride with @Mikie like every weekend so I had to be at least a little different.

 

I just put different downtube decals on:

https://shop.santacruzbicycles.com/accessories/stickers/santa-cruz-custom-downtube-decal-1792.html

 

Killer!!! Great to see you drifting back toward your trail roots, pal. Enjoy the bliss!

 

You have my support for orange bikes.

 

@mtnbikej, I am mentally prepared to see the first Hightower SS ever...

 

@mtnbikej with a Fox 36 scares me to death. With rear boingyness too? Yikes. I'll bet he will find that it out descends his Bullits from days gone by.

My world has just been rocked.

 

What would really interest me is to hear reports of J catching considerable air.

 

Are you familiar with his past?

 

No, but that was then and this is now. Will he revert?

 

When you set up a Hightower properly they don't really catch much air but they sure do smack the pedals on the ground. I mean this in the best possible way.

 

Too much chain growth due to the VPP suspension. Can't happen.

 

Yeah....not really a bike designed for jumping......plowing, sure.

 

Lesson learned

 

Yep @Mikie and I have talked many times about how if you mange to fall off a Hightower while descending you probably deserved it.

 

(Photos later!)