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Thoughts on just about everything from rock-n-roll, sports, kids, to geek speak -- by John Bullock About John Subscribe to this blog  |
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Tuesday, January 31, 2006 |
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Bike Shops (Mountain Bikes Part 2) | |
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Yesterday I went rambling on about how I'm going to buy a new mountain bike and the first criteria I used to narrow my search down. Basically I said I wanted a full suspension mountain bike with about four to five inches of travel. This criteria alone would have left me with thousands of bikes so I also picked about fifteen manufacturers. Over time, I have eliminated all but 6 companies for various reasons including stories about poor customer service and product quality including manufacturing methods (hand built vs. automated) and technologies used (e.g. suspension type). The companies that are left all hand build their frames and have excellent customer service reputations. All of them also use some type of four-bar or virtual pivot point design which seems to be the route to go for best performance. The last six companies (again in alphabetical order) that I am considering are: When I first began my search, I compiled a list of all the bike shops along the front range (from Colorado Springs to Boulder) and started eliminating shops that either didn't carry any of the brands that I am interested in or that I do not like for one reason or another (such as lack of knowledge, poor customer service, or poor mechanics). As I had 15 brands that I was interested in, I ended up with 25 bike shops. One innocent Friday night on my way home from work I spontaneously decided to go by the bike shop near my work, Foothills Ski and Bike, as they carried one of the brands I am interested in not to mention they have excellent mechanics and customer service. It has been all downhill (or as my wife would say it is snowballing) since then. I have visited several other bike shops to find out about brands, suspension, demo programs, customer service, attitudes and fit programs. I finally narrowed my search down to six different bike shops.
Before I let you know who I have chosen, I would have to say that I believe I would have been happy using any of them assuming they had the bike I want. Although it is not final, I am 95% certain that I will be using Sports Garage for a couple of reasons. The first is they have all but one of the brands (Maverick) that I am considering. I really like Singletrack Factory but they do not carry Santa Cruz which is one of the main manufacturers that I am interested in (have been for four years). They were very friendly, helpful, and low pressure when I spent time with them. The sales person talked to me for over an hour trying to educate me on the different bikes and types of suspension. None of the other shops even came close to carrying all of the brands that I am interested in. As good as the Singletrack Factory was, Sports Garage was equally good. In addition to to the Singletrack Factory, the Sports Garage also have an excellent demo program. This means that for a $100 fee, applicable towards the purchase of a new bike within a year, I get to take the bike out for 24 hours and ride to my hearts content. This means that I can take the bikes my favorite trails and get a good comparison. Some of the bike shops only let you ride around in their immediate neighborhood. Another reason I selected Sports Garage is because they built up a bike for me ride within 24 hours of me mentioning that I would like to ride one. If that isn't customer service, I don't know what is. Finally, they also offer some better fit services than some of the other shops. Sports Garage also let me test ride as many of the bikes in the alley as I wanted to help me narrow down the list. The next step is going to setup the demo program. I have to find free time and good weather to bang on a bike though so it isn't going any time soon. Stay tuned tomorrow when I talk about the bikes that are left on my list (it is still not a short list)... |
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Bikepaper | |
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So this is the wall paper that I have created because I have been bitten by the new bike bug. I have this up on my home and work machines.
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Monday, January 30, 2006 |
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Mountain Bikes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I have decided that I'm going to buy a new mountain bike. My current bike is a 1998 GT Zaskar that is 8 years old and has been showing it's age for a while. As I ride it so much I do keep it running well though. There is only one original part, that is not scheduled for regular replacement like tires and grips, which was the seat post that I have replaced. I added a Cane Creek Thudbuster a few years ago so my butt wouldn't get so damn sore on the longer rides. However, over the past several years, the advances in mountain bike suspension have made the technology reliable, affordable, and performs to expectations now more than ever before. Full suspension bikes have reached a point where good design and setup makes a full suspension a better climber than a hard tail. This has been the knock on full suspension for quite a while, that it just did work well enough to justify the switch. I've been researching companies, bike shops and models for bikes for a couple of months now. I'm beginning to narrow in on the type of bike and some specific models that interest me. I think I have also decided which bike shop that I am going to use. I have also ridden a couple of friends bikes as well as some alley rides on bike shop models which should help me narrow my selection. When I first started thinking about purchasing a new bike I had to decide what kind of bike I wanted. Of course it has to be a mountain bike and full suspension is now a must. However, using just this criteria and you will be looking at a pool of several thousand bikes to choose from. The next area that I decide to attack was the manufacturers. I figured that if I could pick a handful of those, then my bike options would be dramatically reduced! I put several manufactures on my list based upon my past experience, friends experiences, or brand reputation. After the dust settled, I was left with a list of about 15 manufacturers. I will added and remove a couple throughout the process but here are all of them that were on my list at some point. They are as follows in alphabetical order:
I don't want this post to get too long so I'm stopping here for now. However, over the upcoming weeks I will do more posts on my search. Next, I will write about how I came up with my list of shops and my list of bikes. Then some stories about the individual bikes and my experiences with them and the retailers. However, if you have experience riding a full suspension bike by any of these companies, drop me a comment as I want to know what good or bad stuff you know about them! FYI, yes, I do know about Mountain Bike Review dot Com and have spent way too many hours reading product reviews there! |
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Pearls Before Swine | |
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Wednesday, January 25, 2006 |
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Anniversary | |
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I guess I've really kicked the habit as one of my personal milestones has come and gone without me even remembering. It has now been two years since I have had any (chewing) tobacco.
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XM 1 - FM 0 | |
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Well, chalk up another score for XM Radio. This morning after I just got onto the highway (C-470) The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys by Traffic came on one of the XM stations. In case you are not familiar with this song, it is just about 12 minutes long. There is no way in hell that I could hear a twelve minutes song, must less 12 minutes of music, on a Denver FM radio station during the morning commute. Not that it really matters, but right after that was a Neil Young song which lasted just about the remainder of my commute. | |
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Monday, January 23, 2006 |
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Marinade or Stew? | |
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"We're going to have to marinate on this one for a while," safety Nick Ferguson said, "and then we'll have to move on." I found this quote in one of the articles about the Broncos meltdown in the AFC Championship game on Sunday. Personally, I think I will be stewing until February when Spring Training gets going and I turn my thoughts to building up for more October madness. Let's go Avs!!! |
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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 |
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Denver Broncos License Plates | |
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Fill out their form and show your support to get Denver Broncos license plates. I'm all over it!!! | |
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Thursday, January 12, 2006 |
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The Plant Did It | |
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The dog and I will both be happy to have somebody else to blame our odors on. Next time somebody starts looking at you funny, just wave your arms and shout, "God damn plant. Farting all the time!". | |
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