State of the Fleet 2019

Its been a time since the last update. New house, new bikes arrived, old bikes have left. Ankles have been broken, and healed. Time Passes.

The Focus is gone, traded to my neighbor for yard work assistance. Not a bad deal, as the bike was hurting my back every time I got on it.

The Ridley Fenix disk is now the main road bike. Parts moved from the FM166, carbon wheels and all. Solid and prettier than the Chinese fantastic.

Niner Carbon RDO is SOLD, the frame at least, its parts moved to a Santa Cruz Hightower Carbon C frameset. The Hightower is proving almost too much bike, lots of pedal strikes, but capable of warp-speeds when pointed downhill. Hello Downieville! (see Sept)

That FM166 - a frameset for a while, stripped for the Fenix upgrade after a tangle with CJ, is now a fast commuter with Shimano Saint flat pedals. I rebuilt this rig from spare parts, mostly from the Scott 29er cast offs. I traded Jiro a 26er front wheel for a saddle, and bought a Deity seat clamp, otherwise all recycled. Running old 28's that barely clear the front fork.

Oh, the Scott 29er is still here, and will remain as long as the Hightower is in the house. The contrast is necessary, no required, with a big slow MTB. The Scott has a dropper, a 34.9 Rockshox Reverb, the only native size to fit. The bike is still my "original 29er" rig, still fast, solid and my favorite bike park rig.

The CX, "Old Blue", Raleigh RCX Pro, finally got gears. The Genevalle shifter mod for the TRP Disc brakes finally showed up, allowing me to install a 10 Speed Shimano XT rear derailler on the DT Swiss hubs from the Scott 29er. The WTB Cross Boss 35mm tires have been a nightmare between brief moments of awesome - leaky, crooked, leaky again, they do not like to hold air. 3 has been enough, the WTB guy promised to send me a replacement that never showed. Trying some Schwalbe X-Ones at the moment, but have not tried to make them tubeless yet.

A Nukeproof Scout 290 is the most pleasant surprise - a slacker hardtail built for my son's use, it is a hoot to ride, just defines the word "rowdy". Every ride has been a revelation, the joy it brought inspired the equally slack Hightower. The Big 170mm One-Up dropper is awesome, the seat just goes away.

I am back to The Fleet in order to document and advise, to see if its something I want to re-focus and invest more time in. Part of this will be trying to sign up as an Amazon Affiliate, to highlight the myriad of products I use and so you can easily order, review or debate me on.