Ever had one of those days after you have made a bunch of changes to your bike, and it finally hits that level of "perfect?" I finally got there today with my ASR-5.
When I got the bike, I bought the cheapest one I could beginning of last season as I was still kind of broke from the divorce. After about 3 weeks I destroyed the rear wheel. But thankfully I had a set of Chris King/Fun Bolts/15mm/819 wheels laying around, so that was step one. One pink hub, one orange. It works with my color
I never liked any of the SRAM cranks. Just have never done it for me. But then on eBay for $45 I found a NOS set of Shimano Saint cranks in 170mm. That was step two. Since I was on ebay, I also decided I needed a bright pink
One of my friends was getting out of biking all together, just too many injuries, so he was getting rid of a bunch of Thomson stuff. New stem, new seat post. While I was on that tangent, I found an old Ti Terry saddle with magical Hawaiian print. Step three complete.
I noticed with the new stem and not recutting the tube on my fork, I really had to crank down the bolts on the headset to get it to keep from slipping. This just wasn't working for me. Now as a large man who tends to torque pretty good on his bars, I knew the answer was a King headset with the tensioner that I had on my DH bike. Problem solved. Long as I was there, I needed some red handle bars and some blue grips.
Finally, as I was coming down Somo one day, I realized that stopping is something I should have more control over. I kind of felt like Chevy Chase in Fletch 2 when he was driving the pink Caddy with no brakes. So I found some old Saint 800s, another fine ebay find. But I can't have those stock levers, they just don't work for me as a person. Thankfully Straitline makes excellent levers, so those went on. And some 180mm rotors. Fat makes heat on a downhill, trust me.
Took it out today. Got in about 12 miles just putting along on a pretty easy single track here in Phoenix. Not too challenging, but 10 minutes from my house down one street.
And I had a blast. The bike was alive finally. Bouncing, jumping, sliding as I wanted it to. Life was good again when it came to my ASR.
I have no idea why I shared this. But I am sitting here with a very happy grin. Now maybe a beer.
When I got the bike, I bought the cheapest one I could beginning of last season as I was still kind of broke from the divorce. After about 3 weeks I destroyed the rear wheel. But thankfully I had a set of Chris King/Fun Bolts/15mm/819 wheels laying around, so that was step one. One pink hub, one orange. It works with my color
I never liked any of the SRAM cranks. Just have never done it for me. But then on eBay for $45 I found a NOS set of Shimano Saint cranks in 170mm. That was step two. Since I was on ebay, I also decided I needed a bright pink
One of my friends was getting out of biking all together, just too many injuries, so he was getting rid of a bunch of Thomson stuff. New stem, new seat post. While I was on that tangent, I found an old Ti Terry saddle with magical Hawaiian print. Step three complete.
I noticed with the new stem and not recutting the tube on my fork, I really had to crank down the bolts on the headset to get it to keep from slipping. This just wasn't working for me. Now as a large man who tends to torque pretty good on his bars, I knew the answer was a King headset with the tensioner that I had on my DH bike. Problem solved. Long as I was there, I needed some red handle bars and some blue grips.
Finally, as I was coming down Somo one day, I realized that stopping is something I should have more control over. I kind of felt like Chevy Chase in Fletch 2 when he was driving the pink Caddy with no brakes. So I found some old Saint 800s, another fine ebay find. But I can't have those stock levers, they just don't work for me as a person. Thankfully Straitline makes excellent levers, so those went on. And some 180mm rotors. Fat makes heat on a downhill, trust me.
Took it out today. Got in about 12 miles just putting along on a pretty easy single track here in Phoenix. Not too challenging, but 10 minutes from my house down one street.
And I had a blast. The bike was alive finally. Bouncing, jumping, sliding as I wanted it to. Life was good again when it came to my ASR.
I have no idea why I shared this. But I am sitting here with a very happy grin. Now maybe a beer.
